History UnwinnableByDesign / Sierra

** If Larry forgets to take the condom off before putting his clothes back on, he will be arrested for indecent exposure right after leaving the bar.

** If you picked up the diamond pouch and trade it for a fishing pole, you've already lost the game without knowing it. In reality, you have to return the diamonds to its rightful owner first, who actually let you keep it, and then you can buy the fishing pole. Why? As a bonus, the owner will also give you a much needed lantern to navigate in a dark cave.

** The game is run on an internal timer. If you aren't in the right place when an event happens, then you're stuck and the game is unwinnable, and there aren't any warnings that there's a time limit for certain things, either.

* Not only is ''VideoGame/GabrielKnight'' devoid of any unwinnable scenarios, but almost every death is caused by the player taking too long rather than actually making a mistake. As such, the player is given enough time to save when they feel like they're about to die.

** Piss off the Healer by stealing from her. At the time, you are not warned that she'll know what you've done, but when you try to go back, she yells at you that she knows what you did and doesn't let you in the house. Even this doesn't necessarily seem all that bad, as you can buy healing, stamina and mana potions from the magic shop (at a higher price), but to finish the game, you ''must have'' the Undead Unguent, which only the Healer sells, ''and'' only the Healer can make the plot-critical Dispel Potion.

** Forget to write down the time code for SQXII at the start of the game? Well, too bad. In the floppy version (but, mercifully, not the CD remake), the code is randomized -- you can't even look it up. Plenty of plot-crucial items are also {{permanently missable|Content}}. And there are GuideDangIt puzzles again.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Space Quest II|Vohauls Revenge}}'', near the end of the game, walking into the wrong area releases a [[Film/Alien xenomorph]] with red lips who, if she catches you... kisses you. Deeply, with lots of tongue, and with a large red heart appearing behind you implying she's merely amorous and that this is just a joke scene. The ChestBurster will kill you about later, after you defeat the villain and make your escape, but just before you end the game. It ''is'' possible to finish the game before you get killed, but you have a ''very'' strict 15 minute timer, which means you can't screw around at all.

** Just like the King's Quest II example above, Kerona has a bridge that breaks if you cross it too many times.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Space Quest II|Vohauls Revenge}}'', near the end of the game, walking into the wrong area releases a xenomorph queen who, if she catches you... kisses you. Deeply, with lots of tongue, and with a large red heart appearing behind you implying she's merely amorous and that this is just a joke scene. The ChestBurster will kill you quite a bit later, after you defeat the villain and make your escape, but just before you end the game. It ''is'' possible to finish the game still, but you have a ''very'' strict 15 minute timer, which means you can't screw around at all.

*** In order to get the second offer you have to refuse his first offer and leave the screen. If you forget to take the key out of your hovercraft after you park it he steals your hovercraft when you enter the bar, making it impossible to continue.

** The game at one point gives you the chance to sell a hovercraft for money, which you will need. If you refuse, then the would-be buyer will come back and offer to throw in a jetpack as well. If you take his first (jetpack-less) offer then, a few hours of play later, you will find yourself in a situation where you need a jetpack, have no way to get one (or do much of anything besides float in space), [[GuideDangIt and have no idea where you missed the chance to pick one up]].
*** If you refuse his second offer, he steals your hovercraft when you enter the bar, making it impossible to continue.

** The worst part about the above is that there's only a few walkthroughs out there, and NONE of them are perfectly accurate - following any of them religiously will produce a game over.

* In ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryIII'', not saving the Meerbat from the Venomous Vine, or eating the Venomous Vine Fruit, will make the game unwinnable.

** Piss off the Healer by stealing from her. At the time, you are not warned that she'll know what you've done. Did we mention that one of the "hero" classes is the ''thief''?

* ''VideoGame/ConquestsOfCamelot'' has a bad one. If you failed to rescue any of the three knights, then Arthur has sin burdening him. It might not seem so bad; but once you get the Holy Grail, you'll receive some triumphant victory music... [[TakeThat and then you'll be suddenly shocked into dust because you didn't save Gawain, Lancelot, and Galahad and are therefore deemed unworthy]]. Notably, Galahad asks you to let him die; Gawain says he's beyond help; and Lancelot is, well, indisposed. And they're all saved or left to die in the first half of the game. You get the Grail at the end of the game. Do the math.

** The infamous mountain-climbing sequence, where the player must traverse a treacherous mountain. During the journey, Graham will get hungry, requiring the player to eat and letting the player choose between eating a pie (which can be gotten, and eaten, very early in the game) or a piece of meat (which the player could possibly not have gotten at all). There's also a starving eagle the player meets later on at the mountain, who you have to feed to survive later on in the game. What the game expects you to do is eat a piece of meat yourself, then feed the eagle the rest, and the game never specifies that the meat makes for two servings, as the pie is required later on. Eating the pie, feeding it to the bird or letting the bird starve all make the game unbeatable.
** The part where you have to save a rat from a cat. This requires a boot (though in a rare bit of mercy, the boot is exchangeable for the stick, but odds are, you've already used the stick), which is in the middle of the vast, trackless desert, making it ''very'' easy to miss. Much later in the game, you are tied up, unable to free yourself or do anything else. There is only one escape: if you saved the rat, then it will eat through the ropes. If you didn't save it, or if you didn't even know it was there... then there's no escape. And even if you did save it, you need another item to escape the room you are in. If you don't have it, the game [[HopeSpot lets you thrash around for about a minute]] before abruptly crushing your hopes with a GameOver.
** Don't even think about going into the dark forest without the bottle, the amulet, and the honeycomb. Not that you would ever know that you'll need those items... and only those items.

** You only have a few moments to retrieve both of the items you need from the temple in the desert, after which you can never go back in. The gold coin is very easy to miss, as it is right next to a larger, more conspicuous bottle. (You are, however, told that you need a gold coin much earlier in the game)

** Another Cruel bit near the end: a monster will appear at random and throw you into a dungeon, which you can escape from only once, and only if you remembered to give something to an NPC earlier on. The truly absurd bit is that before leaving, you must inexplicably stick a fishing hook into a hole in the wall and pull out a piece of moldy cheese, which you'll need for [[GuideDangIt another completely illogical task]] right before the final battle. Forgot to collect the fishing hook 20 minutes ago? Didn't think to fish for cheese in the wall? Too bad, you lose. But at least you can't eat the cheese by mistake. Probably.
*** What makes this especially evil is that [[FailureIstheOnlyOption you have to get captured in order to progress]]. Most players will keep restoring the game until they kill the monster, oblivious to the fact that the dungeon contains a required item!

** If you fail to save Cedric from the harpies, you can continue playing for almost the rest of the game, all the way through Mordack's lair. But Cedric will not be able to fly through the window and [[TakingTheBullet save you at the last second]].
* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVIHeirTodayGoneTomorrow'', you unlock the [[spoiler:secret fifth island, the Isle of the Mists]] after completing the labyrinth. You get precisely one chance to explore the island and if you screw up and don't [[spoiler:take the scythe with you]] before you leave, the next time you return to the island (which may be an hour later), some druids will be waiting for you and will promptly take you off to be executed and you will not have the items required for your escape.

** Screw up in making the Dispel Potion (with items like the Magic Acorn, which are {{permanently missable|Content}}), and the game is unwinnable.

* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIIIToHeirIsHuman'', the game is run on an internal timer. If you aren't in the right place when an event happens, then you're stuck and the game is unwinnable. Usually, there aren't any warnings that there's a time limit for certain things, either... A notable example: after you get the amber stone from the oracle, the pirate ship in the harbor will only be there for twenty more minutes. Then it will leave, forever, taking your only chance to get to Daventry with it. Although if you're desperate, you can always try the random teleporting stone and hope you get lucky and end up there...
** That said, you get plenty of time; and once you've finished the pirate ship segment (about two-thirds of the way through the game), the timer becomes irrelevant. (There is one more end-game sequence that's timed -- but that's a matter of seconds, not minutes.)
* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIVThePerilsOfRosella'', you can only use the shovel five times. Use it a sixth time will cause it to break. There's never any indication whatsoever in the game that the shovel can only be used for a limited number of times. If you messed up and overwritten your game, you might as well restart.

* ''VideoGame/ConquestsOfTheLongbow'' was fairly merciful; you could screw up so much that you lost the treasure you were supposed to capture or let a major [=NPC=] die, and you would still just get a DownerEnding. However...
** On the second day, you're supposed to get a slipper from Marian, who's under attack by a Fens Monk. You can either kill the attacker, at which point she'll give you the slipper as a reward, or let her die and then take the slipper from her corpse. If she died, then you'll die the next day when you go to deliver the slipper.
** At one point you can disguise yourself as a jeweler to fleece the Sheriff out of some gold. If you were in the archery contest the day before, the Sheriff's wife will recognize Robin by his distinctive blonde beard. This will get you hanged; you can rub jeweler's rouge on Robin's beard to complete the disguise. If, however, you visit the castle before disguising your beard and then visit it again afterwards, the gate guard will wonder why your beard's changed colour and he'll have you arrested.

* ''VideoGame/ConquestsOfCamelot'' has a bad one. If you failed to rescue any of the three knights, then Arthur has sin burdening him. It might not seem so bad; but once you get the Holy Grail, you'll receive some triumphant victory music... [[TakeThat and then you'll be suddenly shocked into dust because you didn't save Gawain, Lancelot, and Galahad and are therefore deemed unworthy]]. Notably, Galahad asks you to let him die; Gawain says he's beyond help; and Lancelot is, well, indisposed. And they're all saved or left to die in the first half of the game. You get the Grail at the end of the game. Do the math.
** Additionally, you're never required to be generous, forthright and just in your interactions with other characters, and you can get through the entire game being a jerk to people, or just putting in the minimum amount of effort. While you can miss several optional quest objectives through the game, if you miss too many, you're ''still'' judged unworthy of the Grail and killed right at the end.

* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIIRomancingTheThrone'', there is a bridge you must cross (several times) over the chasm, and making just ''one'' extra trip across makes the game unwinnable: it will break before you can get the three magic doors opened. This is far from clear. Later Sierra games parody this.
* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIIIToHeirIsHuman'', the only way to defeat Manannan is to find the porridge and poison it with a spell that will turn him into a cat when he eats it. If, when he demands food, you give him the porridge without poisoning it first, the game becomes unwinnable.
* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIVThePerilsOfRosella'', you can fail to get certain items before night falls, or fail to get a certain item off an island that you can enter only once. If you didn't get them during the day, then you aren't going to get them during the night, and you're stuck as a result. (The magic fruit is the most obvious example, though that gives a BadEnding rather than an unwinnable situation.) And if you didn't get it off the island the first time, then you don't get a second chance.
** The one on the island is worth elaborating on. It's completely hidden; there's no visual cue on-screen to indicate its presence. The only way to find it is to stand in a certain spot and type a simple, but relatively non-intuitive command that has never been used before that point and will never be used again[[note]]"Look ground". Notably, "Look floor" doesn't work[[/note]]. It's also an object that one would never logically expect to find on a tiny, deserted island.
*** This particular example suffers from adventure game logic: you've had to go through a lot to get to this island, and the only ''visible'' item is something that will get you ''off'' the island safely. For no reason ''other than the fact that you're playing an adventure game'', there ''must'' be something else on the island. That is quite literally the only reason to search for the particular, hidden item.

* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIIRomancingTheThrone'', there is a bridge you must cross (several times) over the chasm, and making just ''one'' extra trip across makes the game unwinnable: it will break before you can get the three magic doors opened. This is far from clear.
** This gets parodied (and the trope subverted) in ''VideoGame/FreddyPharkasFrontierPharmacist''. There's a rickety bridge, and crossing it generates a message saying something like "Wow, that's pretty unstable. I probably only have three crossings left! I should use them carefully." But in fact, you have to cross it something like seven times, and if you want you can waltz across it all day long. Nothing will happen. (And yes, the warning message is generated every time, which is [[OverlyLongGag funny, then annoying, then funny again]], [[OverusedRunningGag and finally annoying]].)
** Also referenced in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVIHeirTodayGoneTomorrow'', which advertises "a bridge repair kit, for when you've crossed a bridge one too many times."

** Just like the King's Quest IV example above, Kerona has a bridge that breaks if you cross it too many times.

* In ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry 6'', Larry can die just like characters in older Sierra games (including the first three ''Larry'' games), but in 6 a player is given the option to "Try Again" which resets Larry to exactly where he was just before the player did whatever caused Larry's death.

** Alexander is thrown into a labyrinth and has to find his way out again. This requires certain inventory items, and it's possible to enter the labyrinth without them. If you do, then you can never escape. Better yet, there's no indication of ''which'' items you need until you've already entered the maze; anybody who didn't use a guide was banking on pure luck to avoid a restart there. The game ''is'' a bit merciful in this regard. If you don't have the required items when this particular point arrives, then you'll be given time "to prepare", at which point you head back, hopeful that you have everything. If you have everything you need, then you'll simply be taken directly to the labyrinth. But you only get ''one'' chance to prepare, and you are never told what preparations you need.

** In the long path, you speaks with the druids on the Isle of Mists. After, if you wait too long to pick the hot embers, they will cool off and you won't be able to proceed further into the game. At this point in the game, you've already gotten the spellbook and known that the hot embers are needed.
* ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards'' is just as easy to mess up in as its sequels, but the penalties aren't as strict and the unwinnable situations are a little easier to see coming. The most obvious one is having Larry do the deed with a prostitute. Doing this won't render the game unwinnable as Larry simply decides that he needs a woman that would make him feel more fulfilled. However, if Larry forgets to wear a condom during this, then he gets a sexually-transmitted disease which wreaks havoc on his [[UnusualEuphemism little Larry]] not a minute later. Time to restart!
** If Larry forgets to take the condom off before putting his clothes back on, he will be arrested for indecent exposure after leaving.

* ''VideoGame/{{Space Quest V|The Next Mutation}}'' had a particularly tough scenario. At the Genetix segment you are supposed to look to find an important item. If you leave without it, the game will let you know that '''in bold lettering''' just after you beam out. [[note]]''Space Quest V'' gives you maximum points for doing everything ''at the first moment that it can be done''; if you return for something later, then you can still win. You'll just get fewer points.[[/note]] If you don't pay attention, then much, ''much'' later, after having crawled through a complex and stressful series of mazes on the enemy battleship, you confront the BigBad and realize that you're missing that very item. The HaveANiceDeath message then ''once again'' tells you what you should have picked up.

** ''VideoGame/{{Space Quest I|The Sarien Encounter}}'' also has a bridge on Kerona that breaks if you cross it too many times.

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Space Quest|I The Sarien Encounter}}'' gave you the chance to sell a hovercraft for money, which you will need. If you refuse, then the would-be buyer will come back and offer to throw in a jetpack as well. If you take his first (jetpack-less) offer then, a few hours of play later, you will find yourself in a situation where you need a jetpack, have no way to get one (or do much of anything besides float in space), [[GuideDangIt and have no idea where you missed the chance to pick one up]].
** If you refuse his second offer, he steals your hovercraft when you enter the bar, making it impossible to continue.

* ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIVThePerilsOfRosella'':
** Did you waste your love arrows on random targets? Might as well restart the game 'cause they are needed [[spoiler:to charm the unicorn and kill Lolotte.]]
** You can only use the shovel five times. Use it a sixth time will cause it to break. There's never any indication whatsoever in the game that the shovel can only be used for a limited number of times. If you messed up and overwritten your game, you might as well restart.

* ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards'' is just as easy to mess up in as its sequels, but the penalties aren't as strict and the unwinnable situations are a little easier to see coming. The most obvious one is having Larry do the deed with a prostitute. Doing this won't render the game unwinnable as Larry simply decides that he needs a woman that would make him feel more fulfilled. However, if Larry forgets to wear a condom during this, then he gets a sexually-transmitted disease which wreaks havoc on his [[UnusualEuphemism little Larry]] not a minute later. Time to restart!
** If Larry forgets to take the condom off before putting his clothes back on, he will be arrested for indecent exposure.

* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIVThePerilsOfRosella'': Did you waste your love arrows on random targets? Might as well restart the game 'cause they are needed [[spoiler:to charm the unicorn and kill Lolotte.]]

* At one point in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVI'', Alexander is thrown into a labyrinth and has to find his way out again. This requires certain inventory items, and it's possible to enter the labyrinth without them. If you do, then you can never escape. Better yet, there's no indication of ''which'' items you need until you've already entered the maze; anybody who didn't use a guide was banking on pure luck to avoid a restart there.
** The game ''is'' a bit merciful in this regard. If you don't have the required items when this particular point arrives, then you'll be given time "to prepare", at which point you head back, hopeful that you have everything. If you have everything you need, then you'll simply be taken directly to the labyrinth. But you only get ''one'' chance to prepare, and you are never told what preparations you need.
** Another example from ''VI'': Alexander's gambit to rescue Cassima involves getting Jollo to switch Shamir's lamp with a fake. To do this, Alexander needs to visit a lamp trader in town and exchange an old lamp he finds in the labyrinth for the exact replica of Shamir's lamp. How do you tell which is the replica? By ''watching a cutscene''. And once you trade the lamps, the trader leaves the game permanently, so if you pick the wrong lamp, you won't be able to pull off the plan, and the game is no longer winnable. (Unless you have the mint leaf in your possession, in which case it's still possible to win, you're just locked out of the GoldenEnding.)
** In the long path, you speaks with the druids on the Isle of Mists. After, if you wait too long to pick the hot embers, they will cool off and you won't be able to proceed further into the game. Since you made it this far into the game, you must've already gotten the spellbook and known that the hot embers are needed.

* ''VideoGame/ConquestsOfTheLongbow'' was fairly merciful; you could screw up so much that you lost the treasure you were supposed to capture or let a major [=NPC=] die, and you would still just get a DownerEnding. But on the second day, you're supposed to get a slipper from Marian, who's under attack by a Fens Monk. You can either kill the attacker, at which point she'll give you the slipper as a reward, or let her die and then take the slipper from her corpse. If she died, then you'll die the next day when you go to deliver the slipper.
** Also, at one point you can disguise yourself as a jeweler to fleece the Sheriff out of some gold. If you were in the archery contest the day before, the Sheriff's wife will recognize Robin by his distinctive blonde beard. This will get you hanged; you can rub jeweler's rouge on Robin's beard to complete the disguise. If, however, you visit the castle before disguising your beard and then visit it again afterwards, the gate guard will wonder why your beard's changed colour and he'll have you arrested.

* ''VideoGame/ConquestsOfCamelot'' has a bad one. If you failed to rescue any of the three knights, then Arthur has sin burdening him. It might not seem so bad; but once you get the Holy Grail, you'll receive some triumphant victory music... [[TakeThat and then you'll be suddenly shocked into dust because you didn't save Gawain, Lancelot, and Galahad and are therefore deemed unworthy]].
** Notably, Galahad asks you to let him die; Gawain says he's beyond help; and Lancelot is, well, indisposed. And they're all saved or left to die in the first half of the game. You get the Grail at the end of the game. Do the math.

* ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVAbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder'' has the infamous mountain-climbing sequence, where the player must traverse a treacherous mountain. During the journey, Graham will get hungry, requiring the player to eat and letting the player choose between eating a pie (which can be gotten, and eaten, very early in the game) or a piece of meat (which the player could possibly not have gotten at all). There's also a starving eagle the player meets later on at the mountain, who you have to feed to survive later on in the game. What the game expects you to do is eat a piece of meat yourself, then feed the eagle the rest, and the game never specifies that the meat makes for two servings, as the pie is required later on. Eating the pie, feeding it to the bird or letting the bird starve all make the game unbeatable.
** Then there's the time you have to save a rat from a cat. This requires a boot (though in a rare bit of mercy, the boot is exchangeable for the stick, but odds are, you've already used the stick), which is in the middle of the vast, trackless desert, making it ''very'' easy to miss. Much later in the game, you are tied up, unable to free yourself or do anything else. There is only one escape: if you saved the rat, then it will eat through the ropes. If you didn't save it, or if you didn't even know it was there... then there's no escape. And even if you did save it, you need another item to escape the room you are in. If you don't have it, the game [[HopeSpot lets you thrash around for about a minute]] before abruptly crushing your hopes with a GameOver.

* Screw up in making the Dispel Potion in ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryI'' (with items like the Magic Acorn, which are {{permanently missable|Content}}), and the game is unwinnable.
** Or if you piss off the Healer by stealing from her. At the time, you are not warned that she'll know what you've done. Did we mention that one of the "hero" classes is the ''thief''?

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Space Quest|I The Sarien Encounter}}'' gave you the chance to sell a hovercraft for money, which you will need. If you refuse, then the would-be buyer will come back and offer to throw in a jetpack as well. If you take his first (jetpack-less) offer then, a few hours of play later, you will find yourself in a situation where you need a jetpack, have no way to get one (or do much of anything besides float in space), and have no idea where you missed the chance to pick one up, GuideDangIt...
** And if you refuse his second offer, he steals your hovercraft when you enter the bar, making it impossible to continue.

* ''Space Quest IV'': Unwinnable scenarios return with a vengeance in IV. Forget to write down the time code for SQXII at the start of the game? Well, too bad. In the floppy version (but, mercifully, not the CD remake), the code is randomized -- you can't even look it up. Plenty of plot-crucial items are also {{permanently missable|Content}}. And there are GuideDangIt puzzles again.

* In ''VideoGame/LauraBow 2'', if you've done everything you could to outrun the murderer in Act 5, but forgot to pick up the boot before or during the chase, you've officially ran yourself into a brick wall and might as well restart because later on you will be trapped in a furnace room unable to backtrack, and you need to give the boot to [[spoiler: Steve]] or else [[spoiler: he'll step on a piece of coal and be unable to help you to move the slab hiding a secret passage to go on]]. This is especially annoying as said boot appears after [[spoiler: Yvette dies, but only after you've examined her body]] and appears in a room you have no other reason to visit until the chase scene, in which case good luck not being freaked out enough to stop and grab it. It was so bad that some versions of the game fixed this by making the boot reappear in the furnace room beside the coal pile if you didn't grab it beforehand.

* Screw up in making the Dispel Potion in ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryI'' (with items like the Magic Acorn, which are {{permanently missable|Content}}), and the game is unwinnable.
** Or if you piss off the Healer by stealing from her. At the time, you are not warned that she'll know what you've done. Did we mention that one of the "hero" classes is the ''thief''?
** Destroying the spitting plants or attacking the white stag will result in the Dryad punishing you with a game-ending BalefulPolymorph, and it can theoretically be a long time between the two events.

* In ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVAbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder'', you're specifically told that you need a gold coin to see Madame Mushka. If you give the golden needle instead, you can still visit her and get the magic amulet. However, since you didn't get any puzzle points, it should be an evident hint that you did something wrong and the needle is needed elsewhere.

** The one on the island is worth elaborating on. It's completely hidden; there's no visual cue on-screen to indicate its presence. The only way to find it is to stand in a certain spot and type a simple, but relatively non-intuitive command that has never been used before that point and will never be used again. It's also an object that one would never logically expect to find on a tiny, deserted island.

** The same as Tough, only there's no sign. You will only find out what the button does upon pressing it and noticing that your inventory is now gone.

** The same as Nasty, only you just hear a humming noise when you push the button, and there are two buttons beside it that do other, plot-important things. Then, a while later, you need to solve a puzzle and check your inventory... "Hey, where's all my stuff?"