"Game over" is a message in video games which informs the player that their playing session has ended prematurely, due to misfortune such as losing all of one's lives or failing a critical objective. It also sometimes appears at the successful completion of a session, usually in games designed for 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.
"Game over" screen from the game Torus Trooper
A "game over" banner at an anti-fascist protest in Berlin, 2020
Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade video game, developed and released by Taito in Japan and licensed to Midway Manufacturing for overseas distribution. Commonly considered to be one of the most influential video games of all time, Space Invaders was the first fixed shooter and set the template for the genre. The goal is to defeat wave after wave of descending aliens with a horizontally moving laser cannon to earn as many points as possible.
Arcade flyer
Cocktail table arcade cabinet
Space Invaders arcade cabinet
In Japan, Epoch Co. released a Space Invaders clone in 1980 that could be played at home: the Epoch TV Vader.