Some of the prior posts about older games reminded me of my worst game ending. It was an Atari 2600 game (yes, I'm that old). I can't recall the name (something with Blaster in the title), but all you had to do was shoot down alien space ships which came in from the top in waves of three. No real skill was required, only twitch reflexes. But here's the catch; If you could rack up a score of 1,000,000 points, take a picture of the screen, and send it in to the developer (Activision as I recall), they would send you a FREE Tee-Shirt!!! At the time, it seemed like a good deal. Some quick calculations indicated that it would take about 4 hours of constant repetitive play to get that score. So one Saturday afternoon, I got real comfortable, with my Polaroid camera by my side, and went for the record. I became a shooting, twitching robot. The game didn't have a single pause, so my brother would help me drink from a glass with a straw. Shoot, shoot, shoot, new wave, shoot, shoot, shoot, new wave, shoot, shoot, shoot, new wave.... on and on.
Yes, I did get the 1 million points. But I never got my tee-shirt. I was so happy when it was over that I tossed the joystick down onto the floor. This game allowed you to RESET and start over by pushing forward on the joystick, which is exactly what happened.
My worst game ending ever!