# Games where you must continually eat food/drink water or die **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 30, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436 "2011-06-30T22:51:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/1 "2011-06-30T22:51:53Z")
I _know_ there are numerous PC and video games where you have to regularly eat and drink or you will starve to death; I’ve played at least one; but for the life of me I can’t remember which ones they are. Could you list examples of games that are like this? ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/2 "2011-06-30T22:52:52Z")
Nethack is famous for this, among other things. For example, if you wait too long to eat, the food rots, and you also die. ---
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/3 "2011-06-30T22:53:53Z")
Blue Wizard needs food… badly!!! (Gauntlet) ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/4 "2011-06-30T23:05:13Z")
Fallout: New Vegas’s Hardcore mode implements Water, Food, and Sleep meters. If you let any one of them get too high, you get hit with increasing stat penalties. You have to regularly attend to them in various ways (to reduce Sleep, you can either spend in-game time sleeping or guzzle caffeinated soda, which doesn’t cost you time but does raise your Water meter, which you then need to attend to with water or particularly juicy food like apples). ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/5 "2011-06-30T23:13:27Z")
OK, I remembered one (and one of my all time favorite games) - Metal Gear Solid 3 (Snake Eater). Hunting, trapping and eating animals is a major part of this game, which I really would love to see more of in games. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/6 "2011-06-30T23:21:34Z")
> [@markdash](#): > > Blue Wizard needs food… badly!!! > > (Gauntlet) Lies. Nobody ever played the wizard. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/7 "2011-06-30T23:22:47Z")
Ultima: Exodus had food. It wasn’t really too hard, once you got past the dirt-poor early stages of the game: Just buy every party member up to 999 food, and top it off occasionally. Until, of course, you’re in a dungeon and gremlins appear and steal all your food. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Know\_Nothing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f04885/32.png) [@I\_Know\_Nothing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Know_Nothing)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/8 "2011-06-30T23:41:14Z")
> [@Palooka](#): > > Lies. Nobody ever played the wizard. Not by themselves. Wizard needs appropriate partner. Gauntlet was my nomination, btw. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/9 "2011-06-30T23:44:01Z")
Super Adventure Island. ---
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/10 "2011-06-30T23:48:08Z")
> [@Palooka](#): > > Lies. Nobody ever played the wizard. I played the Wizard, so I heard that message a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/11 "2011-07-01T00:31:06Z")
Oregon Trail, but no drinking just hunting and presumed eating, and lots of uncontrolled defecation! ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/12 "2011-07-01T00:35:36Z")
Close one: EverQuest, for a MMORPG example - at least in the first year or two of release. If you had run out of food/drink/both, it would spam you with messages about how hungry/thirsty you were, and IIRC you would heal more slowly and so forth. I don’t know if you’d actually die, though. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/13 "2011-07-01T00:40:15Z")
The Sims. And I always play the Blue Wizard in Gauntlet actually. I dunno why but I do. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/14 "2011-07-01T00:56:01Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Close one: EverQuest, for a MMORPG example - at least in the first year or two of release. If you had run out of food/drink/both, it would spam you with messages about how hungry/thirsty you were, and IIRC you would heal more slowly and so forth. I don’t know if you’d actually die, though. Before Everquest, a lot of MUDs had food/drink stuff. Also at least some Infocom games (Infidel, for one). ---
**Author:** ![Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/15 "2011-07-01T01:16:40Z")
**Dragon Power** for the NES ---
**Author:** ![BunnyTVS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BunnyTVS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BunnyTVS)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/16 "2011-07-01T01:17:22Z")
An old C64 game “Legend of Blacksilver” had a hunger stat. You could buy provisions at towns, or butcher creatures you encountered. The problem with butchering was the chance of food poisoning afterwards :eek: ---
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/17 "2011-07-01T01:23:04Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > The Sims. > And I always play the Blue Wizard in Gauntlet actually. I dunno why but I do. Any of the Rogue-like games (including the aforementioned NetHack, but also ADOM and others…ooh, I have a PC again, I can load the latest ADOM build, heh.) I always played the Green Wizard in Gauntlet, but my BFF liked to play the Yellow Warrior. Still, when the phrase comes up? It’s always “Red Wizard needs food badly” for some reason… ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/18 "2011-07-01T01:25:31Z")
All games require this, actually. Plus restroom breaks. ---
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/19 "2011-07-01T01:38:27Z")
> [@pedescribe](#): > > Nethack is famous for this, among other things. For example, if you wait too long to eat, the food rots, and you also die. Nethack’s slightly less famous roguelike-siblings (Angband variants, ADOM, Dungeon Crawl etc) also have this, though in most of them it’s not quite such critical part of the game. ---
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436/20 "2011-07-01T01:42:59Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > All games require this, actually. Plus restroom breaks. Nominated for best post + user name combo. Also, I fell out laughing. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-where-you-must-continually-eat-food-drink-water-or-die/587436.md?page=2)