Burgertime is a 1982 arcade game designed by Data East and distributed in the U.S. by Bally Midway. The player assumes the part of a chef, "Peter Pepper." This game was very popular for several years, unlike its sequels.

Description

The game field consists of ladders and catwalks interspersed with oversized hamburger ingredients such as buns, cheese, patties, and lettuce. The ingredients are arranged vertically in such a manner as to construct four enormous burgers.

Object

The object is to make four hamburgers per level by running over ingredients. The player assumes the role of the chef, desperately trying to assemble the hamburgers by running over the ingredients. When the player has walked along the entire width of an ingredient, the ingredient falls down one level. If an ingredient falls atop another, the lower ingredient will also fall down by a level. The fastest way to assemble a burger, then, is to repeatedly traverse the top-most ingredient.

While assembling the burgers, the player must dodge animated "enemy" foods: Mr. Hot Dog, Mr. Pickle and Mr. Egg. Enemies may be temporarily killed by crushing them under falling fixings or luring them onto a partially-traversed ingredient and then causing the ingredient to fall. In this situation, the added weight of the enemy makes the ingredient drop farther down. Enemies destroyed in this manner regenerate and re-enter the playfield after a few moments.

The players's defense is limited to running and to spraying pepper. Enemy foods are briefly paralyzed by the pepper, making it possible to get away. The supply of pepper available to the player is limited. The player may obtain extra shots of pepper by obtaining bonus foods which occasionally appear, such as coffee, an ice cream cone or french fries.

Legacy

The ColecoVision version of Burgertime is very close to the original arcade version in look and feel.

Due to this game's success, it spawned two sequels: Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory and Super BurgerTime. Neither were widely released or very popular.

Ports

Due to this game's success, it was ported to several home computers and consoles: DOS, Apple II, NES, Atari 2600, Commodore 64, ColecoVision and Intellivision.

External links

• The KLOV entry on Burgertime (http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=B&game_id=7238)
• The MobyGames entry on Burgertime (http://www.mobygames.com/game/sheet/gameId,467/)