Seriously... I just completed the spaceship sequence and I'm too mad to even react properly (per HN standards). I knew this was gonna happen and it did happen. Shame on me.
Really enjoyed the game the whole way through, but I agree with other people on this thread, the ending (or lack of) kinda ripped my heart out. Glad I took some screenshots before flying off into space.
I guess you could call it an adventure game? Yeah, the ending was a bit unexpected, but then again so was everything else :D I enjoyed it a lot, and it reminded me how with early games the imagination did most of the work.
Though I found the sudden restart pointless, and I think it took away from the ending a little. Unless the point of course was that you crash, and find yourself in a room with a fire that's nearly gone out... [kinda like that book of the guy who rhymes with Peevin' Ping haha]
It was a lot of things. "Stabbing-me-in-the-back" was one of them, but "unexpected" it was not.
The first time I saw that "You're not coming back disclaimer", I knew: "Oh boy, they're not gonna throw me a parade when I get in space, nor generate another level... I'm just gonna get back in a dark room and start again. All this for...this!?"
Thanks for this note - I just finished (after about 6-7 hours of playing, and, I was 95% certain I had managed to dodge everything - but it wasn't completely clear)
Happy to know the game ends in the way that you described and I didn't miss anything.