Continue

A7Xpg gives the player the opportunity to continue after they’ve run out of lives. It’s a standard term in video games that lets players keep going after losing all their lives, instead of having to start over from the beginning. There might be a penalty for this, like a point reduction or being locked out of special stages.

In arcades, when players fail a level, they often see a “continue countdown” screen. Here, they have a short window (usually 10, 15, or 20 seconds) to add more coins and pick up where they left off; if they don’t, they see the game over screen.

The continue feature’s integration into arcade games in the mid-1980s came about as arcade operators sought to capitalize on players who’d play longer. The first arcade game to have a continue feature was Fantasy, and the first home game cartridge to offer it was Vanguard for the Atari 2600. This feature birthed games with stories and clear endings, but these titles were crafted so reaching the end without continuing was almost impossible. Salen and Zimmerman contend that the continue aspect in titles like Gauntlet was all about showy spending.

More recently, the continue feature has been prevalent in free-to-play games, especially on mobile. Players often have the option to pay real money to continue after a loss. A case in point is Temple Run 2, where the cost for a continue doubles after every loss. If necessary, players can make an in-app purchase of the game’s premium currency on the spot.