Editing Game over

{{Short description|Message which signals that the game has ended}}
{{About|the video game message}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{original research|date=September 2017}}
{{more citations needed|date=September 2017}}
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[[File:Torus Trooper - Game Over.jpg|thumb|"Game over" screen from the game ''[[Torus Trooper]]'']]
[[File:Mini Metro game over previs.webm|thumb|Gameplay footage of ''[[Mini Metro (video game)|Mini Metro]]'' where the player reaches a loss condition and the game ends]]

"'''Game over'''" is a message in [[video games]] which informs the player that their play session has ended, usually because the player has reached a [[loss condition]]. It also sometimes appears at the successful completion of a session, especially in games designed for [[Amusement arcade|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. However, since the turn of the century, it has largely fallen out of fashion in favor of unlimited lives and endless checkpoints with autosaves, although it very much remains the norm in arcades, as they require payment inserts.   

==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.

==Variations==

"Game over" has seen many variations. For instance in ''[[Little King's Story]]'', the message "LIFE OVER" appears upon the death of the player's character. ''[[Nights into Dreams...]]'' and ''[[Nights: Journey of Dreams]]'' use "NIGHT OVER". ''[[Antarctic Adventure]]'' and ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (1991 video game)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' use "TIME OVER". Screens that display at equivalent points are considered "Game over" screens, even if the message that is displayed is entirely different, such as "YOU ARE DEAD" used in ''[[Resident Evil]]'', ''[[God of War (franchise)|God of War]]'', and ''[[Left 4 Dead (series)|Left 4 Dead]]'', "YOU DIED" seen in ''[[Dark Souls]]'', ''[[Cuphead]]'', and ''[[Minecraft]]'' (though ''Minecraft'' uses "Game over" if one dies in hardcore mode), "GOOD NIGHT" seen in ''[[Klonoa]]'' and ''[[Luigi's Mansion]]''. The 2020 Nintendo 3DS game ''The Queen TV-Game 2'' uses [[Fuck|an expletive]] to parody player [[rage quit|frustration]]. The 1980 arcade game ''[[Missile Command]]'' uses "The End", a game over screen that is usually seen upon achieving victory. ''[[Red Dead Redemption|Red Dead Redemption]]'' and its prequel, ''[[Red Dead Redemption 2|Red Dead Redemption 2]]'', both simply use "DEAD" upon the player's death. Another variation includes "THE WITCH HUNTS ARE OVER" used in the ''[[Bayonetta]]'' series, "YOU WERE SLAIN" in ''[[Terraria]]'', "TOO BAD!" in [[Mario Sunshine]], and "DRIVER DOWN" in ''[[Hill Climb Racing]]''.  

Some games give specific loss condition messages, pattern, screen, and sequence exclusive to a level, mission, game mode, or situation. For example, one section in ''[[Grand Theft Auto V]]'' can end with a game over screen of "MISSION FAILED: The biker escaped."  Some other games with definite game over conditions may not show a particular game over message at all should one occur, and would instead take the player through a [[loading screen]] to immediately resume play from the last checkpoint, such as ''[[Tomb Raider Anniversary]]'' and ''[[Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy]]''.

==Outside video gaming==
[[File:Antifascist protest Washingtonplatz Berlin 2020-08-29 02.jpg|thumb|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 Africa]]n and [[Middle East]]ern countries used the slogan "Game over" on banners to express their [[Arab Spring|anti-government sentiments]].<ref>[http://silversprite.posterous.com/change-your-government-game-over 'Game Over' for your government?] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715105954/http://silversprite.posterous.com/change-your-government-game-over |date=July 15, 2011 }}</ref>

"Game over" is also sometimes used as a phrase to concede defeat, as for example in the movie ''[[Aliens (film)|Aliens]]'' where one of the protagonists, [[Hudson (Aliens)|Private William Hudson]] ([[Bill Paxton]]), shouts, "Game over, man. Game over!" after the dropship meant to rescue him and his expedition is destroyed.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090605/quotes |title=Aliens (1986) - Memorable quotes |publisher=IMDB |access-date=3 August 2011}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=December 2024|reason=WP:CITEIMDB|certain=y}} Paxton's use of the phrase was included in shortened form in the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|SNES]] [[Alien 3 (video game)|game adaptation]] of ''[[Alien 3]]'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_3pkxiM2Us |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211222/n_3pkxiM2Us |archive-date=2021-12-22 |url-status=live|title=Game Over: Alien 3|last=GameOverContinue|date=9 February 2009|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=December 2024|reason=WP:YT|certain=y}} 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''.<ref>{{cite video game|title=''[[Zen Pinball 2]]'' - ''Aliens vs. Pinball'' pack |developer=[[Zen Studios]]|date=April 26, 2016|platform= [[PlayStation 3]], [[PlayStation 4]], [[PlayStation Vita]], [[Wii U]]|level=Aliens - Game Over|quote='''Private William Hudson:''' "That's it man, game over, man, it's game over!"}}</ref> The "game over" line was not in the ''Aliens'' script, but was ad libbed by Paxton.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.avclub.com/article/bill-paxton-75626|title=Bill Paxton|first=Will|last=Harris|website=avclub.com|date=28 May 2012 }}</ref>

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

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

==See also==
{{wiktionary}}
{{commons category|Game over (text)}}
*[[Life (video games)#Extra lives|1-up]]
*[[Saved game]]
*[[Nonlinear gameplay#Branching storylines|Branching storylines in videogames]]
*[[Kill screen]]

==References==
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{{Video game gameplay}}
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[[Category:English phrases]]
[[Category:Video game terminology]]
[[Category:1950s neologisms]]
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[[Category:Villages in Ohio]]