Permanent death

platforms

Upon the protagonist's death, all game progress is lost and the player must start the game all over instead of loading a save or restarting at some checkpoint such as level start.

Notable people involved: John Nelson, Sam Ruby, Amos 'ToyTree' Roddy, Donald Brown and Robert Parker

Transcendence

WIN 2003-11

Beginners Cave

IIE 1980

Receiver

WIN 2012-06-18

Mean Streets: Eamon Adventure #192

IIE 1990-03

LIN 2011

5200 1984

LIN 1994

WIN 2012-04-05

XBOX 2002-11-19

WIN 2016-08-13

WIN 2014-09-29

OSX 2014-10-28

Contrast: permadeath, unlimited lives

Related:
* Quit save
* Single save
* No saves
* 1 life

Contrast:
* Deathless

Notes:
* Saves are deleted/invalidated if there were any.
* Player may have multiple lives/retries/etc. which need to be depleted before "actual" death occurs. This is the norm in arcade games.
* Likely uses suspend saves
* Does not affect player progression, as otherwise it's character progression rather than player.

Parent groups

Anti save scumming, Game saves, Hardcore elements

Games by year

The first Permanent death video game was released on July 1971.

NEUC and EAG published most of these games.

Platforms

Apple II E	230
Linux	119
Windows	82
Mac OS X	35
MS-DOS	21
BeOS	6
OS/2	5
Unix	4
custom	4
Mac OS Classic	3
NeXT	3
Solaris	3
Internet Only	3
Flash	3
PS Vita	2
GamePark 32	2
Xbox One	2
PS4	2
NES	2
GP2X	2
BSD	2
Android	2
Commander X16	2
WinCE	1
Amiga	1
Atari Falcon	1
Atari 5200	1
Chip 8	1
Atari 2600	1
Tandy Coco	1

Most common companies

NEUC	100
EAG	91

Permanent death

Video game concept

Popular tags

Parent groups

Games by year

Platforms

Most common companies