BurgerTime
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| BurgerTime | |
|---|---|
 European / 1st alternate North American arcade flyer of BurgerTime. |
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| Developer(s) | Data East |
| Publisher(s) | Data East Bally Midway |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Intellivision, Atari 2600 & 7800 as Beef Drop |
| Release date(s) | 1982 |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players, alternating turns |
| Input methods | 4-way joystick, 1 button |
| Cabinet | Upright, cocktail |
| Display | Raster, 19 monitor |
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 United States. 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 United States, Data East USA licensed BurgerTime for distribution by Bally Midway. The Data East and Midway versions can be distinguished by the manufacturer's name on the title screen and by the marquee and cabinet artworks.
According to Twin Galaxies, the world record high score on BurgerTime is 11,512,500 points, achieved 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]
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[edit] Gameplay
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 becomes more difficult, with the layout of later levels making it easier for Peter Pepper to be cornered and harder for him to reach ingredients.
[edit] Legacy
[edit] Sequels
An arcade spin-off Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory, and an arcade sequel Super BurgerTime (スーパーバーガータイム), 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. Another planned sequel, PizzaTime, was in development when the video game market crashed; the game was not released.
A console-only sequel, Diner, was created after the 1984 purchase of Intellivision from Mattel by INTV Corp. This game was programmed by Ray Kaestner, the programmer of the original BurgerTime.
[edit] BurgerTime Delight
The mobile game, BurgerTime Delight, was released by Namco in 2007. The enhanced version is similar, but includes "new graphics, characters and power-ups".[3] There are six "arcade levels" and eight enhanced mode levels with perils of falling ice and rising fire from the grill. Perils kill the player as well as enemies. Besides the pepper of the classic game, there is now a salt shaker, that when collected stuns all enemies on the screen. Finally, letters appear briefly at various places; when collected to create certain words, the player gets two extra lives and automatically completes the level.[4] BurgerTime Delight has an option to change the game to be slower or faster than the arcade version.
[edit] Ports and 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 (バーガータイムデラックス), which in this version, the protagonist was officially referred to as Frank N. Furter. It was also included in the Midway Arcade Greatest Hits Volume 2 for the PlayStation.
The 1984 ZX Spectrum game Mr. Wimpy takes the second half of its gameplay directly from BurgerTime.[citation needed]
BurgerTime in Bedrock is a remake of the game for the Game Boy Color that uses characters from The Flintstones.[citation needed] Data East wasn't involved in the development of this version, but was actually developed by Conspiracy Entertainment and was published in the United States by Electro Source and in Europe by Swing! Deutschland.
As of 2007, BurgerTime is available through the subscription online game service, GameTap.
[edit] In popular culture
- Mr. Egg makes an appearance in the Futurama episode "Anthology of Interest II".[citation needed]
- Burgertime parodies include a skit in Mega64: Version Two, a commercial for Adult Swim's Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and the video game Murder Time by Running With Scissors.[citation needed]
- Burgertime was briefly featured in the second season of Captain N: The Game Master. Upon warping into the game, Captain N, Mega Man, and Simon Belmont were turned into the food enemies.[citation needed]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Official Burger Time series website
- BurgerTime at the Killer List of Videogames
- BurgerTime at MobyGames
- Beef Drop at MobyGames
- BurgerTime guide at StrategyWiki
