Wasn't Swat a Sierra game, and therefore famous for that sort of condition? Or am I thinking of Police Quest?

4 wasn't Sierra anymore I think, but the SWAT series did begin as a Police Quest spin-off. That said, I never played those first two Police Quest SWATs.

I have a great example for this topic, but I just can't remember the name of the game... I even think it's on GOG. Somebody will recognize it.

It's a point and click adventure game, and I think you are a Secret Agent. At one point you have to use your ID card to pass a checkpoint. The guard verifies your card and then returns it to you. Everything continues normally until, near the very end of the game, you need to pass another checkpoint. The guard checks your card, and tells you that it doesn't match you and you are arrested. Apparently the first guard made a mistake and game you back the wrong ID card. At this point it, I think you are on a submarine, and it's impossible to get your old card. The game is impossible to finish, forcing you to restart the game to see the ending.

A great life lesson, always check your ID card when it is handled by somebody else.

In Fahrenheit aka Indigo Prophecy there is a scene where protagonist is in his office and being interrogated by detective. Then QTE happens, one that triggers several times before during game. If player wins it in this single scene, detective gets suspicious and arrests protagonist, leading to game over.

I´m missing the point a bit, but it´s a funny story. In Severance: Blade of Darkness I drank a health potion in the exact moment an enemy beheaded me. The game didn´t register that I died, but it registered that I was at full health and let me finish the level without head. That was hilarious.

Yes, sometimes race conditions can have strange effects.

I remember seeing at least one game behave the opposite way; getting healed the moment you get killed leaving you with positive health, but the game still treating you as though you had died. Unfortunately, I don't remember which game it was.

My kids hockey team is pretty good at doing this.

A big classic in any kind of game is dying due to poison or wounds after surviving a tough encounter, or remaining without supplies to be prepared for the next fight.

That sounds like Codename: Iceman. It was designed by Jim Walls, who also did the Police Quest games, which are very strict on requiring the player to follow real life procedures like double-checking your ID.

That's exactly it! Thank you, andysheets1975! +1
In case anyone is interested it's right here on GOG. Not the best Sierra adventure game, but definitely a Sierra adventure game.

Just thought of another one, that happened in a speedrun of Ultima 3: Exodus on the NES (this doesn't happen in computer versions).

After you defeat Exodus, the castle will start to crumble, and you have to escape; after each step, a mountain will appear on a random square, making that square impassible. If you get unlucky with the mountain spawns, you can get trapped and unable to escape. Furthermore, you take damage with each step. So, if you get particularly unlucky, you could get through the entire castle, kill the final boss, and be unable to escape because the RNG decided to be cruel.

In other versions (other than, I assume, the MSX version which is based on the NES version), the game ends immediately after you defeat Exodus, so this problem can't occur. Of course, bad menuing could still cause you to lose the game at the last moment, but that's another story entirely.