Game over

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Torus Trooper
Gameplay footage of Mini Metro where the player reaches a fail state and the game ends

"Game over" is a message in

lives or failing a critical objective. It also sometimes appears at the successful completion of a session, usually in games designed for arcades
, after the player has exhausted the game's supply of new challenges. The phrase has since been turned into quasi-slang, usually describing an event that will cause significant harm, injury, bad luck, or even death to a person.

History

The phrase was used as early as 1950 in devices such as

personal computing, arcades were the predominant platform for playing games, which required users to deposit a token or coin into an arcade game machine to play. Most early arcade video games typically had the game end when a timer ran out, with shoot 'em up game Space Invaders (1978) later popularizing a game over triggered by the player getting killed by enemies (either by being shot or enemies reaching the player),[2] with the player given a finite number of lives before the game ends.[3]

During the

attract mode
, until a player inserts a credit; at this point the message would change to the number of credits inserted and "Press 1 or 2 player start", or some variation thereof.

As these games were ported to home consoles, the "Game over" screen and "Continue?" prompt remained, but often required only the press of a button to keep the game going; while the video game industry shifted away from being arcade-focused to being home gaming-focused, the inclusion of such a screen was no longer as critical since it offered no financial benefit. However, the concept of Game Over remained imbued in the medium thereafter as a way to add an element of risk: a player who is unsuccessful at carrying out the game's objective (possibly repeatedly) will be faced with such a screen and be forced to start over from either the beginning of the game or level, or to a previous, saved state.

The screenshot from Kamen no Ninja Akakage when losing all lives

Certain games ask players with no more

Kamen no Ninja Akakage released in 1988 by Toei for the Famicom has "game over" on top of "continue" with a cursor
to be properly positioned to get the desired choice.

With the development of the aforementioned save function (complemented by the less popular password system, which is now seen as archaic),[

permadeath
is often a staple of the genre.

Variations

"Game over" has seen many variations. For instance in

frustration. The 1980 arcade game Missile Command uses "The End", a game over screen that is usually seen upon achieving victory. Another variation includes "THE WITCH HUNTS ARE OVER" used in the Bayonetta
series.

Some games give specific failure state messages exclusive to a level or mission, or situation. For example, Grand Theft Auto V might give a game over screen saying "Mission Failed: One of the cars was damaged."

Outside video gaming

A "game over" banner at an anti-fascist protest in Berlin, 2020

The phrase is occasionally used to indicate the end of an argument or process in real life. In January 2011, protesters and rioters in several North African and Middle Eastern countries used the slogan "Game over" on banners to express their anti-government sentiments.[4]

"Game over" is also sometimes used as a phrase to concede defeat, as for example in the movie Aliens where one of the protagonists, Private William Hudson (Bill Paxton), shouts, "Game over, man. Game over!" after the dropship meant to rescue him and his expedition is destroyed.[5] Paxton's use of the phrase was included in shortened form in the SNES game adaptation of Alien 3,[6] although the Hudson character did not appear in the film. The "Game Over" quote is heard in full after the final ball is drained in Zen Studios' virtual pinball adaptation of Aliens.[7] The "game over" line was not in the Aliens script, but was ad libbed by Paxton.[8]

The phrase is also used various times in the Saw movie series, because of the antagonist's penchant for referring to the traps he creates as "games".

In the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, the character Scott strums the 'Game Over' tune from the classic video game Super Mario World.[9]

Some gamebooks utilize this phrase as well. Each book in the Nintendo Adventure Book series has only one good ending, with all of the bad ones saying "Game Over".

See also

References

  1. ^ "Miniature bowling alley". google.com.
  2. ^ Staff (15 April 2004). "Nishikado-San Speaks". Retro Gamer. No. 3. Live Publishing. p. 35.
  3. .
  4. ^ 'Game Over' for your government? Archived July 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ "Aliens (1986) - Memorable quotes". IMDB. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  6. ^ GameOverContinue (9 February 2009). "Game Over: Alien 3". Archived from the original on 2021-12-22 – via YouTube.
  7. ^ Zen Studios (April 26, 2016). Zen Pinball 2 - Aliens vs. Pinball pack (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U). Level/area: Aliens - Game Over. Private William Hudson: "That's it man, game over, man, it's game over!"
  8. ^ Harris, Will (28 May 2012). "Bill Paxton". avclub.com.
  9. ^ "In Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010), the song Scott plays on the guitar after "breaking up" with Knives is the Game Over tune from Super Mario World". 25 December 2018.