I expect that if Dwarf Fortress players hadn’t invented that phrase first, eventually Space Alert players would have. :-)
On the other hand it sounds like Space Alert has an actual win condition, not just more and more dangerous ways to lose. The closest I’ve seen to someone ‘winning’ is when they went ahead and dug down to Hell itself and colonized it—building their residential areas in a location that is designed such that merely breaching it is supposed to spell inevitable doom. All to give their dwarves the chance to say “Tonight we dine in Hell!”—and proceed to do so for days on end.
On the other hand it sounds like Space Alert has an actual win condition, not just more and more dangerous ways to lose. The closest I’ve seen to someone ‘winning’ is when they went ahead and dug down to Hell itself and colonized it—building their residential areas in a location that is designed such that merely breaching it is supposed to spell inevitable doom. All to give their dwarves the chance to say “Tonight we dine in Hell!”—and proceed to do so for days on end.