Editing Game over (section)

==History==
The phrase was used as early as 1950 in devices such as [[electro-mechanical game|electro-mechanical]] [[pinball|pinball machines]], which would light up the phrase with a lamp (lightbulb).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US2643884A/en|title=Miniature bowling alley|website=google.com}}</ref> Before the advent of [[Video game console|home consoles]] and [[personal computing]], [[Arcade game|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 game]]s 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),<ref name="RG-3">{{cite magazine|author=Staff|title=Nishikado-San Speaks|url=https://archive.org/stream/retro_gamer/RetroGamer_003#page/34/mode/2up|magazine=[[Retro Gamer]]|publisher=Live Publishing|issue=3|date=15 April 2004|page=35}}</ref> with the player given a finite number of [[Life (video games)|lives]] before the game ends.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Records |first1=Guinness World |title=Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2015 Ebook |date=6 November 2014 |publisher=[[Guinness World Records]] |isbn=978-1-908843-71-5 |page=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8OUkBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA68}}</ref>

During the [[golden age of arcade video games]], players would usually be given a finite number of lives (or attempts) to progress through the game, the exhaustion of which would usually result in the display of the message "Game over" indicating that the game had ended. The phrase might also be followed by the message [[Continue (video gaming)|"Play Again?"]] and a prompt asking the player to insert additional tokens to prevent the game from terminating and instead allowing the player to continue their progress. The message can also be seen flashing on certain arcade games while in [[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.
[[File:Kamen no Ninja Akakage game over or continue.png|thumb|The screenshot from ''Kamen no Ninja Akakage'' when losing all lives]]
Certain games ask players with no more [[life (video games)|lives]] to [[continue (video gaming)|continue]] or to choose "game over" in a menu. ''[[Akakage#Video_game|Kamen no Ninja Akakage]]'' released in 1988 by Toei for the Famicom has "game over" on top of "continue" with a [[cursor (user interface)|cursor]] to be properly positioned to get the desired choice.  A number of [[free-to-play]] [[mobile game]]s, however, can and have profited from a continue mechanic to pressure players into investing some money into gathering resources or currency needed to buy a continue to prevent an effort to accomplish something important in the game (such as beating a high score or clearing a very difficult level) from being completely negated by a game over.{{citation_needed|date=February 2025}}

With the development of the aforementioned save function (complemented by the less popular password system, which is now seen as archaic),{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} the Game Over message has become less common as players are allowed to [[Spawning (video gaming)|respawn]] at a previous state of the game, which has been stored in memory either through a player deliberately [[Saved game|saving]] the game or reaching a [[Checkpoint (video gaming)|checkpoint]] (which causes the game to save automatically). Many modern games do not technically "end" until they are completed, and although "Game over" screens remain present in many of them in some form or another, it is uncommon for them to signify a forced return to the beginning of the game, and only marginally more common for them to signify a substantial loss of progress. [[Roguelike]]s are the most common exception to this rule; [[Permanent death|permadeath]] is often a staple of the genre.