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Burger
time
BurgerTime (バーガータイム Bāgātaimu?) is a 1982
arcade game created by Data East for its DECO Cassette System. The game's
original title, Hamburger (ハンバーガー?), 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. 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.
When Data East went bankrupt in 2003, G-Mode bought most of Data East's
intellectual properties, including BurgerTime, BurgerTime Deluxe, Super
BurgerTime, and Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory.
Gameplay
The object of the game is to complete a number
of hamburgers while avoiding enemy foods.
When main protagonist, chef Peter Pepper, the player's character, 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 game
level is finished.
While making burgers, the player must avoid the antagonists, three types of
enemies: Mr. Hot Dog, Mr. Pickle, and Mr. Egg. Enemies can be dodged, stunned,
crushed with a falling ingredient, or dropped by luring them onto an ingredient
and then causing it to fall. In this last case, the piece will fall two extra
levels for every enemy caught on it. Enemies that have been crushed or dropped
return to the maze after a few seconds. Dropped enemies award larger point
values than crushed ones; therefore, to obtain a high score, the player must
attract more than one enemy onto an ingredient just before dropping 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.
There are six screens of increasing difficulty, with more burgers and enemies,
burgers that have more parts, and/or layouts that make it easier for Peter
Pepper to be cornered and harder for him to reach the ingredients. Completing
all six screens takes the player back to the first one.
Legacy
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 Intellivision version of BurgerTime. In Diner, Peter
Pepper must kick balls of food so that they roll off platforms and down ramps to
land on a large plate at the bottom of the screen, while avoiding or crushing
enemy food items that are trying to stop him.
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". 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. BurgerTime Delight has an
option to change the game to be slower or faster than the arcade version.
BurgerTime World Tour
A next-generation update of BurgerTime was announced by MonkeyPaw Games for the
WiiWare, Xbox Live Arcadeand PlayStation Network in late March 2011. Developed
by Frozen Codebase, the new game is fully updated to 3D, and was released on
November 2, 2011 on Xbox Live Arcade and November 15, 2011 on PlayStation
Network. It was also released on February 9, 2012 in North America and Europe on
WiiWare. As of year-end 2011, the Xbox Live Arcade version sold nearly 8,000
units. It was delisted from Xbox Live Arcade on April 30, 2014.
Ports
BurgerTime was very successful. The Intellivision port was reportedly Mattel's
most-popular game for the console. It was ported to several other home computers
and consoles: Apple II, Atari 2600, BBC Micro, ColecoVision, MS-DOS, Mattel
Aquarius, MSX, NES, and TI-99/4A.
More recently, it can be found on mobile phones, Pelican's VG Pocket Caplet and
the Wii Virtual Console. The game itself is also the last NES game released on
the Virtual Console service for Wii.
A "Deluxe" 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 this version was later added to the
3DS Virtual Console.
The arcade version was included in the Midway Arcade Greatest Hits Volume 2 for
the PlayStation, due to being published in North America by Midway Games.
An emulated version of the game was released in 2005 for PlayStation 2 in Japan
as part of the Oretachi Geasen Zoku Sono-series.
As of 2007, BurgerTime is available through the subscription online game
service, GameTap.
Clones
There are numerous clones for home systems: Mr. Wimpy, Burger Chase, Burger Time
(Interceptor Micros), BurgerSpace, Chip Factory, Burger Boy!, Basic Burger,
Barmy Burgers, Burger Builder
Other appearances
Peter Pepper appeared in Wreck-It Ralph. He is seen having a drink at Tapper's
and his caricature picture on the video game celebrity wall (alongside Mr. Egg,
Mr. Hot Dog, and Mr. Pickle). Peter Pepper was later sighted in Game Central
Station generously giving Q*bert, Coily, Ugg, Slick, and Sam a burger that the
characters can share.
Peter Pepper, alongside the common enemies, appeared in Pixels as enemies
attacking the city along with other 80's video game characters such as Joust,
Frogger, Dig Dug's Fygar, Paperboy, etc.
An obvious homage called "Burgerboss" was at the center of an episode of Bob's
Burgers.
Reception
BurgerTime received a Certificate of Merit in the category of "1984 Videogame of
the Year (Less than 16K ROM)" at the 5th annual Arkie Awards. :40 The Deseret
News called BurgerTime "one of the real surprises of 1983 for the Intellivision",
and gave the ColecoVision version three and one half stars.
Scores
In 1984, Billy Mitchell achieved a record score of 7,881,050. It was beaten on
September 5, 2005 by Bryan L. Wagner of Turbotville, Pennsylvania with a score
of 8,601,300 and improved to exactly 9,000,000 on June 2, 2006[13][14] According
to Twin Galaxies, he improved it further to 11,512,500 points on September 19,
2008 at the Challenge Arcade in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania.[15]Brian Wecht of Game
Grumps, Starbomb, and Ninja Sex Party holds the current world record of
13,567,000 | |
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