A type of
software crash,
crash and burn is a subset of
horrible death. A
program goes into
crash and burn mode when a
pointer error causes the program to start
overwriting video memory with
arbitrary data.
DOS and
Apple II games crashed and burned occasionally, as did some
Amiga programs.
Crash and burn is a rare if
entertaining error, sometimes the resulting screen
fireworks are more interesting than the games that crashed.
This is not the
authoritative definition from the
Jargon File, but
FWIW,
I have heard "crash and burn" used this way since about
1984.
Woundweavr's
writeup is much closer to the Jargon File definition.