History Main / WinToExit

* ''Series/{{Goosebumps}}'': In "The Haunted House Game" episode, two kids are sucked into a magical board game inside a creepy abandoned house. The only way to get out is to win the game while [[TheGamePlaysYou not getting killed]].

* The "VR in Deep Trouble" issue of ''[[ComicBook/SaturdayMorningAdventures Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures]]'' has the Turtles trapped in a virtual reality game designed by Donatello to train them during a rainstorm and lightning fries the emergency kill switch, so they have to capture the flag guarded by their RoguesGallery in order to leave before the game crashes. Ultimately, [[spoiler: Michelangelo wins the game by figuring out that he didn't ''need'' to fight the villains, so he outmaneuvers them and grabs the flag.]]

* The first issue of ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles: Saturday Morning Adventures'' has the Turtles trapped in a virtual reality game designed by Donatello to train them during a rainstorm and his failsafe doesn't work, so they have to capture the flag guarded by their RoguesGallery in order to leave before the game crashes. Ultimately, [[spoiler: Michelangelo wins the game by figuring out that he didn't ''need'' to fight the villains, so he outmaneuvers them and grabs the flag.]]

* In ''LightNovel/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'', the cast gets trapped in a DatingSim and Mahiro (cast as the PlayerCharacter) has to choose a girlfriend by the end of the school year.
* The basic plot of the first arc of ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'': everyone's minds are trapped in an MMORPG, and the equipment is set up so that dying in the game kills you in real life. However, if a player, ''any'' player, manages to beat the boss of Floor 100, then everyone goes free. [[spoiler:Ends up played with, when the protagonist manages to free everyone after floor 75 instead, by uncovering the identity of the game master and beating him in a duel.]]

* Although a board game and not a video game, the premise of ''Film/{{Jumanji}}'' is the same. Rolling the dice results in the heroes having to deal with [[EscapedAnimalRampage animals running amuck all over town,]] [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame a big game hunter interested in taking a human trophy,]] [[ManEatingPlant a fast growing plant with a humongous appetite]] that also shoots poison darts. Once a player gets the winning roll of the dice, everything goes back to normal as if nothing happened.

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', unless the final boss of SAO is defeated, players will remain trapped in the virtual world until they die one way or another.

* ''Series/RedDwarf'' had the episode Back to Reality, in which the crew think they've just been booted out of a game for dying, but have actually survived and are now suffering a hallucination which is designed to make them suicidal. Their hallucinating behaviour maps into real-world actions well enough that they almost kill themselves simultaneously in both worlds before the ship's computer pulls off a literal DeusExMachina.
* The ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "Avatar" features Teal'c having to fight his way out of a virtual combat scenario. His subconscious, unfortunately, keeps making his job harder. The game resets the scenario every time he loses, and adapts so that he can't rely on information gained from the previous run. It has a built-in safety exit (getting to the elevator ends the scenario), but since Teal'c considered giving up equivalent to losing, the game will not let him escape without winning. ''Also,'' because part of him believes the Goa'uld will never really be defeated, the game [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard keeps cheating]] every time he should have won. Cardiac arrest would have eventually killed him in reality. The only saving grace is that the simulation can't move beyond the "base attack" scenario, so after Teal'c takes out two otherwise-invincible [[SuperSoldier Kull Warriors]], two Goa'uld moles, ''and'' dismantles the self-destruct in time (with some help from Daniel after he joined the game), the game finally recognizes he won.

** In the episode "A Fistful Of Datas", the only way the holodeck would shut down is if Worf, Troi, and Alexander were able to win a wild west shootout. As the name suggests, it's a shootout against copies of Data, with all his android abilities to make them superior to any living opponent.

** This is subverted in the episode "Move Along Home." After being cheated by Quark, a group of aliens from the Gamma Quadrant decide to show him "an honest game" that involves four playing pieces trying to make it "home" down a tiered board. Meanwhile, Sisko, Dax, Kira, and Bashir find themselves in a maze-like series of rooms, with strange puzzles and scenarios in each room and a figure of one of the aliens telling them to "move along home." They (as well as Quark) quickly realize that the four crew members are trapped in the game and assume that this trope is in effect. After several narrow escapes, they reach the last room- a shaking, cliff-filled cave. As they cross [[spoiler: they fall and rematerialize in Quark's, where the aliens say that Quark has lost and laugh when they discover the "players' " terror- after all, it was only a game!]]
** Inverted with the episode "Our Man Bashir", in which several crew members, to save their lives after a TeleporterAccident, are turned into holodeck characters in a program Bashir is playing - Bashir has to keep them alive and specifically ''not'' win, as if the program ends, they will also die. At the last minute, when Bashir has reached the final scene and can't stall the program any more, he goes OffTheRails and deliberately ''loses,'' invoking a NonstandardGameOver that the program hadn't accounted for, confusing it long enough to save both himself and his friends. ([[spoiler:Specifically, he had his heroic protagonist pull a massive FaceHeelTurn and activate the villain's EarthShatteringKaboom device himself, something that the game's dev team obviously did not think of.]])
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' get into the act with "Worst Case Scenario," where it turns out that [[FaceHeelTurn Seska]] has [[HolodeckMalfunction reprogrammed one of Tuvok's programs]] to [[EverythingTryingToKillYou kill Tuvok and Tom Paris]]. Janeway helps out by playing DeusExMachina.

* The first issue of ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles: Saturday Morning Adventures'' sees the turtles trapped in a virtual reality game designed by Donatello to train them during a rainstorm and his failsafe doesn't work, so they have to capture the flag guarded by their RoguesGallery in order to leave before the game crashes. Ultimately, [[spoiler: Michelangelo wins the game by figuring out that he didn't ''need'' to fight the villains, so he outmaneuvers them and grabs the flag.]]

* In ''LightNovel/MagicalGirlRaisingProject Restart'', 16 magical girls are trapped in a VR game designed to test their aptitude as magical girls. They spend three days within the game ([[YearInsideHourOutside which is essentially nothing in the real world]]), then 3 days in the real world so as to not forget what they have. While they could just hang around in the safe starting area indefinitely, in order to permanently escape they must defeat the Evil King, so they set out to defeat monsters and clear the areas to make their way to the final dungeon. [[YourMindMakesItReal Of course, death in the game means death in real life]], and they're not allowed to contact others for help. [[spoiler:The win condition is a bit more complicated than beating a final boss however, as one of the players is the Evil King, and their goal is to kill the other 15 players, which is unknown to anyone else. Ultimately the Evil King is exposed and kills herself, but not before all but 3 other players die.]]

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "A Fistful Of Datas", the only way the holodeck would shut down is if Worf, Troi, and Alexander were able to win a wild west shootout. As the name suggests, it's a shootout against copies of Data, with all his android abilities to make them superior to any living opponent.

[[folder:Light Novels]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]

** Subverted with the episode "Our Man Bashir", in which several crew members, to save their lives after a TeleporterAccident, are turned into holodeck characters in a program Bashir is playing - Bashir has to keep them alive and specifically ''not'' win, as if the program ends, they will also die. At the last minute, when Bashir has reached the final scene and can't stall the program any more, he goes OffTheRails and deliberately ''loses,'' invoking a NonstandardGameOver that the program hadn't accounted for, confusing it long enough to save both himself and his friends. ([[spoiler:Specifically, he had his heroic protagonist pull a massive FaceHeelTurn and activate the villain's EarthShatteringKaboom device himself, something that the game's dev team obviously did not think of.]])

* During ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', the Arrandas visit a theme park and go to see something called "The Nightmare Machine", a sim purportedly using mind-scanning and HardLight technology to [[IKnowWhatYouFear bring visitors' fears to life]]. It would start with relatively minor things and progress to worse fears, and the visitor won if they could make it through their worst without bailing out. Of course, they get trapped in it, the FailsafeFailure doesn't work, and the kids finally realize they have to just [[FaceYourFears skip to their worst fear]] - [[spoiler: [[AdultFear one of them dying and leaving the other alone]]]]. It then ends and they're both able to walk out of it.

* On a general level, with access to easier publishing (such as Kindle Unlimited), a genre called LitRPG (for Literary Roleplaying Game) has sprung up. General premise is always a player or players who end up in the game, whether by choice or are trapped there.

* Due to HolodeckMalfunction, at least one of the 50 children in the Virtual Console "Cocoon" in the ''Manga/CaseClosed'' NonSerialMovie ''Phantom of Baker Street'' need to WinToExit, or else their brains will be literally fried.

* In the film ''Film/StayAlive'', a group of beta testers realize that they are slowly dying off one by one in the exact same fashion that their avatars in the game they are testing die. It is later revealed that playing this game summons the ghost of a sociopathic killer who delights in killing you in the most horrendous ways possible.

* Averted, horrifically, in the premise of the ''Roleplay/ReplayValueUniverse'' of ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}''. The Door Beyond The End, which is ''supposed'' to lead to [[spoiler: the universe the players created]], instead dumps them at the beginning of another session of Sburb, with a bunch of strangers. At the end of this session, the hapless player will find another Door Beyond The End, which dumps them at the beginning of another session of Sburb...

* In ''VideoGame/DiceyDungeons'', the contestants are put on an ImmoralGameShow hosted by LadyLuck herself, and must fight through a dungeon full of monsters and get to the end, where they must spin the wheel to win whatever their heart's greatest desire is. They just have to not land on [[LuckBasedMission the single whammy spot on it]]. This being a game ran by Lady Luck means the wheel lands on the whammy every time. [[spoiler:The intended way to win the game is for the contestants to reject the game and its prizes and rebel against Lady Luck using ThePowerOfFriendship.]]

* Due to HolodeckMalfunction, at least one of the 50 children in the Virtual Console "Cocoon" in the ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' NonSerialMovie ''Phantom of Baker Street'' need to WinToExit, or else their brains will be literally fried.

* The ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "Avatar" features Teal'c having to fight his way out of a virtual combat scenario. His subconscious, unfortunately, keeps making his job harder. The game resets the scenario every time he loses, and adapts so that he can't rely on information gained from the previous run. It has a built-in safety exit (getting to the elevator ends the scenario), but since Teal'c considered giving up equivalent to losing, the game will not let him escape without winning. ''Also,'' because part of him believes the Goa'uld will never really be defeated, the game [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard keeps cheating]] every time he should have won. Cardiac arrest would have eventually killed him in reality. The only saving grace is that the simulation can't move beyond the "base attack" scenario, so after Teal'c takes out two otherwise-invincible [[SuperSoldier Kull Warriors]], two Goa'uld moles, ''and'' dismantles the self-destruct in time (with some of Daniel's help after he joined the game), the game finally recognizes he won.

* The ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "Avatar" features Teal'c having to fight his way out of a virtual combat scenario. His subconscious, unfortunately, keeps making his job harder. The game resets the scenario every time he loses, and adapts so that he can't rely on information gained from the previous run. It has a built-in safety exit (getting to the elevator ends the scenario), but since Teal'c considered giving up equivalent to losing, the game will not let him escape without winning. ''Also,'' because part of him believes the Goa'uld will never really be defeated, the game [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard keeps cheating]] every time he should have won. Cardiac arrest would have eventually killed him in reality. The only saving grace is that the simulation can't move beyond the "base attack" scenario, so after Teal'c takes out two [[SuperSoldier Kull Warriors]], two Goa'uld moles, ''and'' dismantles the self-destruct in time (with some of Daniel's help after he joined the game), the game finally recognizes he won.

* The ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "Avatar" features Teal'c having to fight his way out of a virtual combat scenario. His subconscious, unfortunately, keeps making his job harder. The game resets the scenario every time he loses, and adapts so that he can't rely on information gained from the previous run. It has a built-in safety exit (getting to the elevator ends the scenario), but since Teal'c considered giving up equivalent to losing, the game will not let him escape without winning. ''Also,'' because part of him believes the Goa'uld will never really be defeated, the game [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard keeps cheating]] every time he should have won. Cardiac arrest would have eventually killed him in reality.

* In ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'''s AlternateContinuity manga ''Manga/NegimaNeo'', due to a mischievous fairy, Negi and friends are trapped in Chisame's video game.

* Averted, horrifically, in the premise of the ''RolePlay/ReplayValueUniverse'' of ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}''. The Door Beyond The End, which is ''supposed'' to lead to [[spoiler: the universe the players created]], instead dumps them at the beginning of another session of Sburb, with a bunch of strangers. At the end of this session, the hapless player will find another Door Beyond The End, which dumps them at the beginning of another session of Sburb...

* ''VideoGame/OneShot'' had its title for a reason. In its initial release, closing the game before it's finished would [[Main/PressXToDie result in Niko's death]]. The game would actually [[Main/TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou modify your computer]] so that it could only be finished once. [[spoiler:Averted as of version 1.003, in which the player is given a second chance if they do kill Niko this way. The updated re-release removed this death-by-closing mechanic, instead saving the player's progress. However, Niko still feels uneasy with each closure of the game.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''VideoGame/OneShot'' had its title for a reason. In its initial release, closing the game before it's finished would [[Main/PressXToDie result in Niko's death]]. The game would actually modify your computer so that it could only be finished once. [[spoiler:Averted as of version 1.003, in which the player is given a second chance if they do kill Niko this way. The updated re-release removed this death-by-closing mechanic, instead saving the player's progress. However, Niko still feels uneasy with each closure of the game.]]