BurgerTime

aka: Arcade Archives: Burger Time, BurgerTime!, Burgertime, Hamburger
Moby ID: 467
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Description official descriptions

You play as Chef Pepper and your goal is to make giant hamburgers while evil eggs, sausages and pickles chase you around the game area.

To properly make a hamburger you must assemble all of the ingredients together, dropping them from higher up onto the burger area below. To actually do this you have to let Chef Pepper step over every burger ingredient. As soon as an ingredient (a piece of lettuce for instance) has been stepped on, it will fall to the level below. Falling food will squish any enemy following you and will also "bump" any other ingredient below it farther down. Also, as an emergency defense against the enemy food, you can collect pepper shakers which will allow you to puff out a small pepper cloud that will momentarily stun enemies, allowing you to walk past them.

Higher levels result in new level design, faster enemies and more ingredients to assemble.

Spellings

  • アーケードアーカイブス バーガータイム - Japanese PS4 / Switch spelling
  • ハンバーガー - Japanese spelling
  • バーガータイム - Japanese Famicom spelling
  • 汉堡时光 - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 버거 타임 - Korean spelling (Hangul)

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Intellivision version)

Program
Graphics
Music
Sound Effects

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 67% (based on 21 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 153 ratings with 10 reviews)

One of the true Mattel classics.

The Good
An excellent arcade game, Burger Time is a true classic. The charming, addictive gameplay shadows the simplistic graphics and sound effects. The gameplay is often intensive, often challenging and always fun!

The Bad
Silly graphics, but that's a plus... the only real minus I can think of is the overly simplistic sound effects.

The Bottom Line
A true classic!

PC Booter · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 1999

Do you want fries with that?

The Good
It's time for hamburgers, and your job is to make four of them. Just put on your bun, your lettuce, your beef patties, and top it off with another bun. You do this by running over them to make them fall down to the next level until they have reached the bottom level, and once they have reached that far, run them over again to place them on the bun, one filling after another. Once all burgers are completed, you proceed to the next level. The hamburgers will definitely be tasteless, as you won't be putting cheese, pickles, or ketchup on them.

The catch? You must also avoid egg yolks, pickles, and hot dogs who will do their best to stop you from making the burgers. They will chase you around and around until they are able to knock you out and lose a life. Fortunately for you, you have a limited supply of peppers, which you can sprinkle on them to stun them for a few seconds. If you run out of peppers, you must grab the sundae that can be found on the top level. Remember, it won't stay on the screen for very long, and it appears only once in a level, so you must grab it within ten seconds or avoid getting close to your enemies.

You can also squash enemies on a level below you by running over the fillings, and letting it fall on them. Doing this will award you 200 points. The squashed enemies will appear on the screen good as new. The number of the enemies increase as you progress from level to level.

One thing about Burger Time is the fact that the game is challenging that you probably become addicted to it, and want to play it again in the future. Graphics in the C64 version are excellent and are a little bit ahead of the arcade version. The sound effects are average.

The Bad
There is no music that you can listen to while making hamburgers. The only music in this game is that from the title screen.

The Bottom Line
This game is addictive, you'll keep coming back for more. ***

Commodore 64 · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2003

One of the best arcade ports

The Good
I loved the BurgerTime arcade game and was excited to play this conversion. Unlike many ported arcade games of the day, this one was well done with many of the engaging features of the original arcade game intact. The music is engaging just as in the arcade version and the artwork is colorful and attractive. The animation matches, if memory serves, exactly that of the arcade version. If you liked the arcade version of BurgerTime, you'll love this game!

The Bad
The only thing I don't like about this game is that there are no correspondingly good version for other home systems (such as the PC).

The Bottom Line
An engaging game, well worth a look. Fun and challenging even by today's standards.

ColecoVision · by Frecklefoot (188) · 2004

[ View all 10 player reviews ]

Trivia

Advertisement

In the television commercial for BurgerTime, two teenagers drive up to a burger stand in which the chef is being chased around the kitchen by giant hot dogs. One of the hot dogs (an actor in a foam-rubber costume with only his red-painted face showing) slams the drive-up window while sneering into the camera "We are CLOSED now!" These prophetic words were repeated many times by the programmers as they packed up their personal belongings a few months later when Mattel Electronics was shut down.

Development

BurgerTime was created by Data East Corporation for its DECO Cassette System.

Egg

Ever wondered why one of the evil guys is an egg? In Japan where the game was made, it is common to add a fried egg to your burger.

High score

According to the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard, the world record high-score on BurgerTime is 9,000,000 points, achieved by Bryan L. Wagner of Turbotville, PA on June 2, 2006 at the Funspot Family Fun Ctr. in Weirs Beach, NH. History's first documented Burger Time champion was Franz Lanzinger who scored 1,081,900 points at the Sunnyvale Golfland in Sunnyvale, California on November 1, 1982.

References to the game

An unofficial parody of the game was released in adult bookstores called Furrburger Time.

Unofficial DOS port

There is an unofficial DOS port of the game.

RGB versus Composite Monitor

The color card (CGA) for an IBM PC had two monitor outputs: RGB and composite video. The standard PC color monitor was RGB and displayed 8 colors. However, a composite monitor hooked up to the PC could display 16 colors. Few applications, though, used the additional available colors. Gene Smith, however, wrote completely separate graphic routines to take full advantage of each type of monitor. The results on a composite monitor were stunning - even visiting representatives from IBM were shocked. Information found on Intellivision Game Club

Additional Levels

The Apple II and IBM versions of BurgerTime have six additional levels not found in the arcade or Intellivision versions. Information found on Intellivision Game Club Information also contributed by Nélio, STiGMaTa_ch

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by emerging_lurker.

Mattel Aquarius added by Rola. TI-99/4A added by Corn Popper. Wii added by Michael Cassidy. Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 added by Rik Hideto. Sharp MZ-80K/700/800/1500, PC-8000, Sharp X1 added by Infernos. Antstream added by firefang9212. Coleco Adam added by Hipolito Pichardo. Arcade added by Pseudo_Intellectual. Atari 2600, Apple II, NES, ColecoVision, Intellivision added by Servo. MSX added by koffiepad. J2ME, BREW added by Ms. Tea. Commodore 64 added by Katakis | カタキス.

Additional contributors: Grov, Shoddyan, Nélio, formercontrib, Patrick Bregger, STiGMaTa_ch, Rik Hideto.

Game added November 24, 1999. Last modified March 2, 2024.