"Rest"

[kitten]

You know when you're playing an old game, and then you see your lives displayed as "Rest?" Where did that term come from?

[muteKi]

Perhaps "remaining" was too many characters

[seethoven]

Perhaps "remaining" was too many characters

I didnt even get what rest meant until this. This sounds right to me though.

[Ryu the Grappler]

Yeah, it's probably a literal translation of zanki (残機), the Japanese term for video game lives, which means "remaining units". The term "rest" is probably used to distinguish it from a "life" (ライフ) gauge. The English loanword "life" is used almost exclusively in Japanese video game lingo for a health or energy gauge and very rarely for the number of chances a player gets to retry after a mistake.

[megatronbison]

I thought it might have been short for reserve stock or something- though I imagine Jonny2x4 is right here.

[Ryu the Grappler]

I've also seen the term "players" used in the same capacity as "rest" and "lives", which can be a bit confusing since the "number of players" can refer to the number of "lives" or "rest" you have, as well as the number of persons playing the game.

BTW, cut-scenes are also called "demo" in Japan.

[kitten]

Interesting. Thanks, jonny. I've been wondering about this one for a while, but never thought to ask until it came across me while Ike was playing Dragon Spirit over here.

[susanismyalias]

For some reason I had always assumed it was short for "Restore" or something.

[Feynman]

I never really thought about it all that much. In fact, it made perfect sense all my life, until you just now brought it up, and now all I can think about is how insane half the HUD text in classic games is!

[derboo]

Funny, that always seemed natural for me. Rest is actually the most common word for "remains" in German.

[Ryu the Grappler]

After replaying a few old games and reading a few manuals (including Virtual Console pages), I'm now pretty certain this is the reason why the term "REST" (残り数, nokori sū) was used instead of "lives". I've see many games label their health gauge as "life" (the other labels being "vitality" or "stamina"), but very rarely do they use that label on the number of units a player has left.

I'm curious to know where the terms "1UP" as a player indicator originated from. I read in Wikipedia that it's an abbreviation of "Player 1, your turn is up". It obviously predates the use of "1UP" as a bonus life from Super Mario Bros. (the term "Extend" is more common for bonus lives than "1UP"), since Pac-Man used it.

[derboo]

Well, doesn't it just mean that your REST gets UP by 1? I believe the "2UP" thing for the second player to be a misinterpretation of the former.

EDIT: Though it doesn't even remotely suffice as a backup for the Wikipedia entry, there is an interesting PDF quoted: "The Videogame Style Guide and Reference Manual."

[Ryu the Grappler]

I'm talking about using the term "1UP" as a substitute for "1P" (First Player), or rather the other way around. "1UP" was not used for extra lives until Super Mario. Many old Namco and Konami arcade games used "1UP" and "2UP" instead of "1P" and "2P".

[derboo]

The Wikipedia entry would contradict that notion with the pinball anecdote, though. I guess someone familiar with traditional pinball would be able to clear that up...

[Malroth]

Its always seemed strange to me as well. I just assumed it meant the "rest" of your extra lives.