History Main / BottomlessFuelTanks

* ''VideoGame/MafiaTheCityOfLostHeaven'' and ''VideoGame/MafiaII'' also used a fuel gauge for the sake of realism, though unlike ''Race Across America'' the games are far less punishing when it comes to fuel consumption, not counting the ''Gas Guzzling Trautenberg'' side quest in the first game. For the most part it is rare to end up running out of fuel during a normal playthrough, indeed making the fuel mechanic more for the sake of immersion than anything else.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[InsaneTrollLogic Simply tying the needle so it would stay at full]] just doesn't make it infinitely full. Or so we wished.]]

This is fairly common in most games, so only exceptions, inversions or non-standard examples may be listed. Compare AutomatonHorses for when the same basic principle is applied to animals instead of vehicles.

* The vehicles in the ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' series mostly play this straight, but their boost meters are another matter entirely. Once you've depleted... whatever resource the boost is using, you have to wait for it to recharge before you can use it again, in defiance of all known laws of physics.

** Vehicles in general have bottomless gas tanks, and only certain missions like "Dildo Dodo" in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' and "Supply Lines..." in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' have the player controlling aircraft with limited fuel supply. The original versions of ''GTA: San Andreas'' used the "leaky tank" fuel mechanic[[note]]fuel depletes at a certain rate while the plane is flying, but not when it's on the ground, whether or not it's moving[[/note]], but later editions changed this by having the fuel deplete on being used rather than over time, allowing players to use it sparingly and glide whenever possible. The mobile and remastered Xbox 360 ports had the fuel tank's capacity increased to make that mission easier.

* One important thing in ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'' to worry about is to not run out of fuel necessary for FTL jumps. If you do, you will have to wait for the opportunity to refuel while being a sitting duck for the [[AdvancingWallOfDoom ever-advancing rebel fleet]]. Fuel for sublight travel, however, is not an issue.

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} as re-envisaged by Creator/AAPessimal, the Ankh-Morporik City Air Watch is well aware of the limitations of their broomsticks and of what has been called The Lancre Limitation (see Literature, below). It is known that a Witch gets very little warning of when she's flying on empty tanks: everything cuts out suddenly and abruptly. The Air Watch has thousands of hours of flying experience and each Witch has an intuitive awareness of how far she can push any issued broomstick until the magic needs to be replenished. In ''FanFic/ThePriceOfFlight'', Sergeant Hanna von Strafenburg has the experience to know when to end an aerobatic display and recall her pilots to base for a recharge. Captain Olga Romanoff has learnt the hard way that there can also be thaumic engineering failures in the airframes: she had a critical broomstick failure when flying over Lancre. Even so, Olga is still looking for reliable and accurate instrumentation that might fit a sort of ''dashboard'' mounted in front of the pilot. Otherwise young novice pilots might easily fall into the trap of thinking the power is infinite and bottomless.