What did you call an extra life back in the day?

[Phediuk]

I remember people calling them "free men" a lot. So when you did the 99-life trick where bounce on the turtle shells in Mario, we'd say you got "99 free men", while a 1-up mushroom was a "free man", and so on.

 

[DrEvil]

1-Up.

 

[Deleted member 3888]

1-up

 

[capitalCORN]

1ups?

 

[Deleted member 5491]

1-Up.

Click to shrink...

this

 

[Okabe]

7-Up

 

[brinstar]

I always used 1up, but I remember my parents saying "extra man" or "free man"

 

[Armite]

Just "a life"

 

[Randam]

We called them "Leben" in Germany. What means "life".

 

[Nanashrew]

1-UP

 

[nsilvias]

cheat codes

 

[Redcrayon]

An 'extra life'. But then I started out playing the Dizzy games rather than Mario so it was probably 'Eggstra lives' knowing them.

 

[unicornKnight]

Ζωή (zoe) in Greece, means "life"

 

[Rizific]

1up as far back as I can remember

 

[Incite]

A life

 

[BDS]

I always called them "extra lives" in everything except Mario, where they're obviously a 1-Up.

Anyone who calls it a "free man" is untrustworthy and should be banned from society.

 

[Pancakes R Us]

1up

 

[DFG]

Free men? I've never heard that before lol wtf

 

[PlanetSmasher]

1-up in Mario games, extra life everywhere else.

 

[Giga Man]

1-Up.

Click to shrink...

I still do. Use it for every game no matter the context.

 

[Stooge]

1up or extra life.

Free man is weird.

 

[broflap]

I always saw 1-up but never got why it was called 1-up. I called it an extra life lol

 

[Listai]

An extra life, occasionally a 1up.

That said I have friends that still say to this day "free guy". One of them also says "I've won that" when he means completing a game.

 

[Tokklyym]

Free Man

edit to say this was back in the day and I haven't called it that in a long time.

 

[Glimpse_Dog]

Extra life. Always consider 1up to be an americanism.

 

[Shan]

"Une vie"
"A life" but in French. Also called it a 1up too sometimes.

 

[OneThirtyEight]

Extraliv

 

[Menchi]

A life/Extra life.

 

[Monroe Kelly]

Free man is singular, extra lives for plural.

So when my uncle would do the turtle shell trick, he got free lives. When I got a 1-up, I got a free man.

 

[Greywaren]

"A life". I still do.

 

["D."]

a free man

 

[RecRoulette]

extra life

 

[Shpeshal Nick]

As a kid I called it a free/extra man

 

[Deleted member 887]

I called it lives, but many of my friends when we were younger called it a "free man'/"free men"

 

[dark_prinny]

Here in Spain, back in the day, they were those weird parasites at the arcades who always said: ¿Me dejas un muñeco? That'll roughly translate as : Can I have one...
Fuck this is pretty hard to translate muñeco is the masculine for doll but it doesn't make any sense. But what they wanted is to play 1up of your game.
Anyways apart of those people, I just called "a life"

 

[Pankratous]

Extra life

 

[ContraWars]

Free man.

 

[low-G]

Usually extra life, but one of my friends influenced me to call them 'man' / 'extra man' in the day (NES).

 

[dark_prinny]

Yeah, maybe extra man is the English equivalent for "muñeco" after all

lol

 

[TacoSupreme]

1ups and extra lives.

These days I say extra life for everything except Mario.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

A life/Extra life.

Click to shrink...

.

 

[Hanbei]

"Une vie"
"A life" but in French. Also called it a 1up too sometimes.

Click to shrink...

"Une nouvelle vie" for me.
"A new life"

 

[Gilver]

A retribution.

 

[PaulloDEC]

They were just lives for me. I played almost entirely on PC when I was a kid, I don't think the "1up" terminology was used there much.

 

[Rouk']

1-up is the only good answer, "A life" is acceptable too

 

[Lant_War]

An 'extra life'. But then I started out playing the Dizzy games rather than Mario so it was probably 'Eggstra lives' knowing them.

Click to shrink...

You started with Dizzy and still got into videogames? Wow

 

[eddiemunstr]

Free man/life, extra life.

 

[Duck Sauce]

Cheating.

I use to play hardcore. You die once you start all over again., lIke a real gamer.

 

[MonadL]

Extra man or extra guy

 

[djplaeskool]

1up.
My cousins used "free man" a lot, though, they also called levels/stages "boards" which never caught on with me.