BurgerTime

[BurgerTime on the ColecoVision, by Coleco]

BurgerTime is one of those impossible-scenario games from the 80s (you know, like Q*Bert and Joust). You walk your chef over pieces of a hamburger, making them fall down to the next level. The purpose is to build hamburgers at the bottom of the screen. As soon as you make all of the hamburgers, you go to the next level. In the meantime, an egg, several hot dogs, and pickles are chasing you around. You can squash them under a hambuger component, make them fall while they're standing on a piece, or stun them temporarily with pepper. It's wise to save pepper for when you really need it, as it runs out quickly and is rather scarce to find.

Check out these screenshots.

Screenshots From Various Classic Systems

• Atari 2600
  People seem to like the playability of this version, but the graphics just plain suck! Some of the characters are blocks which flash, alternating between thick and thin blocks. The reason behind this was to reduce flicker. See, the 2600 can show two players (sprites), two missiles (like sprites but they're just boxes), and a ball (another box). Most games use the two players to make more than two on-screen sprites--every other frame, the player alternates between being one pattern and another. This causes flickering like in Pac-Man. The way BurgerTime gets around this is to use players for the chef and one hot dog--that's why they look recognizable. However, instead of having the other hot dog and the egg share the players with the chef and hot-dog (which would cause flicker), the programmers chose to make the second hot dog and the egg use missiles--that's why they're just boxes. Bleah!
• ColecoVision
  Personally, I find this version less fun than the Intellivision version. The graphics are more arcade-like but I find the control lacks in comparison with Intellivision version (and remember the Intellivision uses those awful discs!).
• Intellivision
  This is easily my favorite version of the game. Sure, it's blocky, and the boards don't match the arcade. I don't mind. It's just fun.
• Gameboy [no picture available]
  OK, so the Gameboy isn't a classic system. However, the game "BurgerTime Deluxe" for the Gameboy is great. It maintains the original play mechanics (unlike other Nintendoized classics) with some new boards and graphics.

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Dennis Brown, brownde@cs.unc.edu, creator and maintainer. E-Mail me with corrections and additions. All contents copyright 1997, Dennis Brown. All trademarks are properties of their respective companies.