Why do most games say "Game Over" upon death. Lot's of games do this including Mario and a lot of the Nintendo Games. Where did the phrase come from and what is it's history?
The phrase "Game Over" first begin being used as early as the 1950's in pinball machines which would light up with the phrase Game Over with colored or original lamps.
The phrase has traditionally evolved from the arcade scene before the invention of home consoles and personal computing. In an arcade a user would put in a coin to play a turn at a gaming machine and if he lost his lives or the character in the game died he would be presented with a message titled "Game Over". Sometimes it would be followed by the message "Try Again".
Usually the user was given a finite amount of lives as this was a system designed to make the user spend as much money as possible while he was still standing there trying to progress further in an attempt to beat his last high score or the overall high score on the gaming system. High scores are with us even today. Getting achievements in modern games is similar to getting a high score. High scores are around in certain games that track the score and have evolved into the modern console and gaming scene.
Pac Man Atari 5200
After achieving a high score in the arcade game the user was then given the opportunity to enter his name into the high score catalog that was present in the arcade machine if he achieved in the range of one to ten high scores present in the system.
In today's age with the advent of home consoles the "Game Over" is less often seen in games today since the genre has evolved to include save states in games. These save states will usually offer the option to respawn the character at a previous check -poin or save state.
Game Over Super Mario Bros
In other games such as God of War and Resident Evil it says "You are Dead". Mario and Nintendo Games such as Luigi's Mansion will sometimes change the saying to something more unique.Risk of Rain is an Indie Roguelike game. It ends each run with a humorous saying such as :
Or:
This is a brief history of the "Game Over" from arcades in the past to modern consoles today.
The phrase "Game Over" first begin being used as early as the 1950's in pinball machines which would light up with the phrase Game Over with colored or original lamps.
The phrase has traditionally evolved from the arcade scene before the invention of home consoles and personal computing. In an arcade a user would put in a coin to play a turn at a gaming machine and if he lost his lives or the character in the game died he would be presented with a message titled "Game Over". Sometimes it would be followed by the message "Try Again".
Usually the user was given a finite amount of lives as this was a system designed to make the user spend as much money as possible while he was still standing there trying to progress further in an attempt to beat his last high score or the overall high score on the gaming system. High scores are with us even today. Getting achievements in modern games is similar to getting a high score. High scores are around in certain games that track the score and have evolved into the modern console and gaming scene.
Pac Man Atari 5200
After achieving a high score in the arcade game the user was then given the opportunity to enter his name into the high score catalog that was present in the arcade machine if he achieved in the range of one to ten high scores present in the system.
In today's age with the advent of home consoles the "Game Over" is less often seen in games today since the genre has evolved to include save states in games. These save states will usually offer the option to respawn the character at a previous check -poin or save state.
Game Over Super Mario Bros
In other games such as God of War and Resident Evil it says "You are Dead". Mario and Nintendo Games such as Luigi's Mansion will sometimes change the saying to something more unique.Risk of Rain is an Indie Roguelike game. It ends each run with a humorous saying such as :
Or:
This is a brief history of the "Game Over" from arcades in the past to modern consoles today.
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