When we first meet the protagonist of the 1983 film "WarGames", David Lightman (Matthew Broderick), he's playing the videogame "Galaga" at an eatery/amusement centre located across the street from his high school. Realising he's late for class, DL hands control over to a youngster who is stoked to receive a gratis game.
[Screen grab from the 14:38 mark on my DVD copy.]
This sort of thing was common in the glory days of the video arcade. Not just peeps having to bail on a session of "Galaga" or whatever, but also random kids hanging around, hoping they might be granted someone's last man, find a cabinet displaying an unused credit or - the holy grail - stumble onto a game stuck on free play.
It's probably hard for later generations to fully comprehend, but before videogames had multiple endings, achievement lists, New Game+ modes and all that jazz, score was EVERYTHING. So there were also times when a gun gamer, aware they weren't on track to beat their personal record, would give away a "useless" final life.
If you were the lucky recipient, this tended to mean that, even though it'd been a sub-par session for the arcade hotshot, they'd still be on a stage beyond where you could ever reach, and thus you'd get a brief, frantic, thrilling glimpse into a higher level of gameplay. And you could put your three initials to a whopping total.
Then you'd show your buddy.
Then your buddy would likely say, "You never got that. I saw Stu hand you his game."
But it was always worth a try :-)
