An institution in
console gaming, the screen where you have to press reset was featured at the end of many a
NES-era game. As a
heroic character, you would fight your way to the fortress of the evil being whose defeat was your one and only goal, and you would finally defeat him. There might be some ending bit of dialogue, some animation, or they might just roll the credits. They might even just give you
a black screen with the word "Congratulations!" in lieu of an ending. In any case, after the end of the ending, you usually wouldn't be able to do anything with your controller. A, B, even Start would do nothing. You would either have to press reset on your
NES or shut off its power. Who knows why they did this - as a programming shortcut, to signify that that was it and the game was really over, or for some reason that makes less sense. All I know is that when I beat a newer game and it just sends me right back to the start, I miss that screen, that static, unresponsive call to shut off your console....
Unless, of course, there's some sort of
second quest - in which case I couldn't be happier to be back at the title screen.