Inverted sprite
Inverted sprites, also known as scrambled sprites or reversed sprites, are a side effect of encountering certain glitch Pokémon or viewing their stat screen in the Generation I games.
In the games
Cause
In Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow, an address in the RAM determines whether the sprite of a Pokémon in battle is inverted or not. The address is 0xD0AA in Red and Blue, and 0xD0A9 in Yellow. The standard value is 0x00, which results in the sprite presenting in its intended orientation. When any value other than 0x00 is entered, it results in the sprite being inverted.
Viewing the Pokédex entry of a glitch pokémon with the Pokédex number 00 or a number above 151 results in the address's value being changed, causing the sprite to invert. Viewing the Pokédex entry or stats screen of a non-glitch Pokémon resets the value to 0x00 and makes the sprite present in its intended orientation, removing the effects of the glitch.
Effects
As the name implies, this glitch cause sprites to appear backwards or flipped. In normal gameplay, only front sprites are mirrored across the x-axis when viewing Pokémon in the stats screen. However, the effect displays sprites incorrectly when applied to the back sprites. In addition, while the front sprites of the opposing Pokémon flip properly initially, once the sprite is updated (during an attack), it breaks. The broken inversions are reversible, and do not cause permanent damage to the game or save file.
During the effects of the glitch, when the player first enters a battle, the Trainer sprite is distorted, as well as partially reversed from its normal state: 
After the battle commences, the player's Pokémon have distorted back sprites. Note that the foe Rattata also has its sprite reversed: 
Once the player's Pokémon uses an attack, the foe Pokémon's sprite will break as well.
Official Nintendo statement
Nintendo has an official description of MissingNo. listed in their Customer Service troubleshooting section, which includes a nonworking method of fixing the effect:
"MissingNO is a programming quirk, and not a real part of the game. When you get this, your game can perform strangely, and the graphics will often become scrambled. The MissingNO Pokémon is most often found after you perform the Fight Safari Zone Pokémon trick.
To fix the scrambled graphics, try releasing the MissingNo Pokémon. If the problem persists, the only solution is to re-start your game. This means erasing your current game and starting a brand new one." [1]
Nintendo's statement is incorrect on the method for fixing this behavior; releasing MissingNo. does not fix inverted sprites, and resetting the game's save file is not necessary to fix the glitch. Instead, opening the stats of a non-glitch Pokémon typically removes the effects of the glitch.
References
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This glitch Pokémon article is part of Project GlitchDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on glitches in the Pokémon games. |