Burgertime is an arcade game starring chef Peter Pepper as he tries to make hamburgers. BurgerTime (バーガータイム?) is a 1982 arcade game created by Data East Corporation for its DECO Cassette System. The game's original title, Hamburger, was changed to BurgerTime before its introduction to the US. The player is chef Peter Pepper, who must walk over hamburger ingredients located across a maze of platforms while avoiding pursuing characters. The game was popular in arcades. In the US, Data East USA licensed BurgerTime for distribution by Bally Midway. The Data East and Midway versions are distinguished by the manufacturer's name on the title screen and by the marquee and cabinet artworks.
According to Twin Galaxies, the record high score on BurgerTime is 11,512,500 points, by Bryan L. Wagner of Turbotville, Pennsylvania on September 19, 2008 at the Challenge Arcade in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania.[1]
After Data East became bankrupt and defunct since 2003, G-Mode currently owns the intellectual property to BurgerTime, BurgerTime Deluxe, Super BurgerTime, and Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory.[2]
Gameplay[]
Peter Pepper making burgers.
When Peter Pepper walks the length of an ingredient (bun, meat patty, tomato, etc.), it falls one level. If it lands atop another ingredient, the latter in turn falls one level. A burger is completed when all vertically aligned ingredients have been dropped out of the maze and onto a waiting plate. Once all burgers are completed, the level is finished.
While making burgers, Peter Pepper must deal with three enemies: Mr. Hot Dog, Mr. Pickle, and Mr. Egg. Enemies can be dodged, killed, or temporarily stunned. Killing occurs when an ingredient is dropped atop an enemy, or when support for an ingredient is completely removed and the enemy falls with the piece. In the latter case, the piece will fall much farther than normal, depending on how many enemies are on it. Scoring depends heavily on killing enemies. The more enemies killed with a single sequence of falling ingredients, the higher the score. Therefore, to obtain the best score the player must endanger Peter Pepper by allowing more than one enemy to move onto the ingredient the player is on, just before the player drops it.
Peter Pepper has pepper shots to shake on nearby enemies to stun and render them harmless for a few seconds. Extra shots are obtained by collecting bonus foods, such as coffee, an ice cream cone, or French Fries, which appear in the center of the maze when a certain number of ingredients have dropped.
Each level is more difficult, with the layout of later levels making it easier for Peter Pepper to be cornered and harder for him to reach ingredients.
Sequels[]
An arcade spin-off Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory, and an arcade sequel Super BurgerTime, were not widely released. Super BurgerTime stars Peter Pepper Jr. and allows two players to play at once and is fairly true to the original BurgerTime but with many added features and greatly improved graphics.
Remakes[]
Due to this game's success, it was ported to several home computers and consoles: Apple II, Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, Intellivision, Mattel Aquarius, MSX, NES, and TI-99/4A. More recently, it can be found on mobile phones and Pelican's VG Pocket Caplet. A version was also released for the original Nintendo Game Boy titled as BurgerTime Deluxe. This version adds to the original storyline and has a new human antagonist named Frank N. Furter. It was included in the Midway Arcade Greatest Hits Volume 2 for the PlayStation.