Although it consistently was compared (often unfavorably) to games like Space Invaders and Galaga, the popular arcade and home console game GORF actually had five distinct levels and at least one major innovation: it introduced constant moments of regret for even the youngest of gamers.

In like shooter games, you fired your missile and it sailed up across the screen to hit whatever target it might encounter. Subsequent missiles you fired went on their merry way, too. In GORF, if you pressed your fire button again, the first missile would disappear, replaced with the new missile. This was fine if your initial firing was sailing into empty space. But more often than not, you ended up erasing a potentially deadly hit, only to watch your slow-ass missile sail up again.

Woe to the twitch gamer who wanted to go “Pew pew pew!” Instead, GORF demanded that you go, “Pew…. (long, long wait) … pew!” For the impatient or dense, GORF was an kind of torture experiment. How long until someone learned the cruel lesson of the swapped missile?

Some of us never learned, goddamit. Not that we’re bitter.