Which games beat me, more or less, where I stopped playing it?
Not really any specific game titles, that I can remember, more so an individual game I stopped, where I won or completed the same game title at other times.
Rogue - ASCII game
I don't know if I really quit so much as needed to move on.
I played it way too many hours. And I never won the game (which is getting the Yonder Gobblet and going back up through the mine). It's very addictive. I played it a lot during college, and my dad noticed me playing and commented that maybe I was playing too much. He was right. So I had to leave it undefeated.
I wasn't even sure if it could be won. This was before google. Who knows what kind of copy you have. But I did get to see a successful run through on youtube not that long ago. Turns out I was very close.
Checkers - online
I remember playing best 2 of 3 against the site's AI. After I realised I had played it wrong as a kid (the real rules are you have to jump if you can) and that the AI was really good, I quit midway through the 2nd game, and watched some old men giving tips on youtube. I did go back and win some games.
Risk - online
I've quit a few games, sometimes when I was set with the 4th or 5th turn, but usually when the dice were just ridiculous against me. Just unbelievable. I enjoy challenge, but if the random dice roll won't let you win, there's no strategy to win.
Civ 3 - Big Map
Like, I think I quit a game of Civ 3 or 4 because the map was just too damn big. I was like, I'm digging this, but the big map is causing too much busy work. So I quit it and started a small map.
TripleA - Classic
I started playing an updated AI version of TripleA Classic (Axis and Allies open source). To test it, I did the classic Axis blitz of Russia. I really thought the game was giving Russia extra units. That is to say, I was losing the eastern front, and I decided to retire. I could check with the History mode, and didn't see a unit discrepancy, but I still wasn't sure. I asked the AI updater, just to confirm and more so to congratulate him. I played and beat it since then.
I'm certain it's possible to make an unbeatable AI for A&A, but hasn't happened yet.