Atari Proving Grounds: Burgertime
Atari Proving Grounds: Burgertime. 2600 vs 7800 vs Atari8bit/5200 vs ST up next
The Burgertime Arcade game, released in 1982 by Data East is one that I have always felt did not really get its due props as a pioneer in food related platform gaming, on Atari home systems at least. There are, however, a number of good clones across the Atari8bit, 7800, ST and also the 2600 to look at today
Amazon BurgerTime MyAcade Micro Player
Amazon Data East Evercade 1 With BurgerTime
The Burgertime Arcade game, released in 1982 by Data East is one that I have always felt did not really get its due props as a pioneer in food related platform gaming, on Atari home systems at least
It was ported to a few American console systems and computers in 1983 including the Colecovision. Apple II, C64, Ti-99, Intelliviosn and the Atari 2600 and others
There was a started and planned by not released version for the Atari 800 and 5200, but it has never seen the light of day and no other Atari machines received an official port.
There are, however, a number of good clones across the Atari8bit, 7800, ST and also the 2600 to look at today.
So, what exactly is Burgertime?
Burgertime is a platform game in which you take on the role of burger chef ‘Peter Pepper’, who must create a set number of burgers per level by walking over ingredients and dropping them and stacking them into place on plates below.
Each burger consists of two pieces of bun, the burger meat itself and a garnish, such as lettuce or cheese.
You, as Peter Petter must walk across the entire width of the ingredients to make them drop to the platform below. A burger is only completed once all four of its ingredients have been dropped onto the corresponding plate at the bottom of the screen.
Your chef’s efforts are hampered by other, shall we say, rogue ingredients that are constantly chasing him. These are called ‘Mr Hotdog’, ‘Mr Egg’ and ‘Mr Pickle’ and any contact with them results in the loss of a life.
To aide peter in this fever dream back-kitchen nightmare he can temporarily stun these angry ingredients from his limited supply of pepper
Let’s get started looking at the earliest and only Atari official port
Atari 2600
Atari VCS Burger Time is a late 1983 M-Network release that is criticized by Atari 2600 and Burger Time fans for not looking the part.
The average review score for the game is 57% on AtariAge.with the venerable Video Game Critic calling it “ most unpleasant version of Burger time he has ever played”
Let’s tackle the giant purple elephant right now, this game looks terrible, BUT it plays pretty well. The controls are tight and the pepper works as it should. The falling physics are well presented and I was able to use my arcade strategies to get through the first level without too many problems.
Overall I am giving 2600 Burgertime a 5/10
Next up is ChaoticGrill from 2022, a brilliant current work in progress Atari 2600 homebrew of Atariage user splendidnut
It sets straight the VCS’s capability to pull off this type of game in the hands of a developer who has access to modern tools and is quite an achievement with everything looking and playing pretty much like you expect from a quality port. The controls are tight, the graphics are well presented and I was able to use my simple arcade version strategies to complete the first level.
Overall, I am going to give Chaotic Grill a 8.5/10
Now let move to the Atari 5200 and 8bit Computers
Burger Boy from the early years of the Atari 8bit is the first of quite a few Ken Siders (rest in peace) versions that we will examine today. This game, written in the Action! Language for the Atari 8bits is quite well done for a first attempt at Burgertime.
It looks decent, with all of the arcade elements present, but the graphics and animation leave a little to be desired, as does the pace of the game and the controls which are slow and somewhat unresponsive in places.
Like the others, I was able to use some of my arcade strategies to successfully pass the first round.
Overall, I am going to agree with Atarimania users and will give it a 6.3/10
Burger Chef by Gordon T Kakegamic for the Atari 8bit computers is next and like Burgey Boy before it, I can’t seem to find the original release date of this compiled Turbo Basic Burgertime clone.
Gordon produced quite a nice little simple Burger making experience that contains most of the arcade elements and is slightly more polished and playable than Burger Boy. I was also able to complete the first screen of burger chef with my arcade strategies
Atarimania users give Burger Chef a 6.9/10 and that’s where I am going to rate it too.
The next two go together as Burger TIme and Beef Drop are both early 2000’s versions of Ken Siders magnificent Burger Time clone for the Atari 8 bits. It’s obvious to me that Ken started out making a pure burger time clone, even down to the name, and then pivoted to Beef Drop moniker, leaving most of the rest of his game fully intact.
The biggest difference between the two is this:
In the Homesoft Atari library Burger Time seems to be the complete game with just a few polish differences from Beef Drop, while Beef Drop is just a demo on homesoft and Atarimania.. I do own that cartridge version, which was at one time available from the Atariage store. The full version of Beef Drop was also released on cartridge for the Atari 5200
For me, Beef Drop is about as close to the Atari 8bits and 5200 will get to a distinctive arcade perfect Burger time clone.
In both of these versions I was able to get to the end of level one using my arcade strategies
Atariage has an average review score of 95% for the 5200 while Atari Mania users rate the Atari 8bit Beef Drop as a 7.5/10.
I’m going to go a little in between here and .give Beef Drop / Burgetime by Ken Siders is a 9/10
Now let move to the Atari 7800
Ken Siders also crafted and released two versions of Beef Drop for the Atari 7800. The original uses the 7800 version, adds colors to what plays and sounds very close to the Atari 8bit version using the added pokey chip that is stock in the 5200 and the Atari 8bit machines.
The Beef drop VE version or Value Edition replaces the pokey sounds in the full version with a nice, but inferior Tia sound.
Both versions play just as well as Beef Drop for the Atari 8bit with all of the arcade elements intact and looking very spiffy with a few more colors than that Atari 8bit 5200 versions.
Like the other version of Ken’s masterpiece, my arcade strategies work well in this version too.
The full version gets a 9.5 from me, but since I cannot find a VE version to test in this video I cannot not give it a rating
While the 16 bit Atari computer did not get a port of the original and unfortunately, Ken Siders was not an ST developer, Burger Man, a 1991 Byte Back release for the Atari ST gives 16 bit Atari computer games a nice close approximation to the arcade game with very nice simple sounds and colorful visuals.
The game starts off with your hero only having to build a single burger on the first two levels and the pepper seems to have been replaced with what looks like a front farts but is actually brown mustard that can be used to stun the enemy food items.
The Amiga also received a port of this game and the only review I could find for either machine was Amiga Joker and they rated the game at 19% .
Ouch!
Atarimania fans were much more appreciative of the classic nature of this game clone and rated it 8.2 out of 10, so I’ll stick with them and do the same.
So, the final tally is
7. The official Atari 2600 port with a score of 5
6. Ken Siders earliest recorded clone, Burger Boy for the Atari 8bits with a 6.3 score
5. Burger Chef for the Atari 8bits by Gordon T Kakegamic comes in a 5 with a 6.9 score
4. The Atari ST Burger Man breaks into top 4 with a score of 8.2
3. Chaotic Grill the fantastic 2600 homebrew 8.5
2 Beef Drop / BurgerTime for the 5200/ Atari 8bits which I’m considering a single game for this count down with 9/10
1. Beef Drop for the Atari 7800 with a score of 9.5/10
That’s it for this time, thanks for watching and next up we are going to take a look at either Pole Position or Choplifter I have not decoded yet as I need to find all of the clones that might work for each game and there can be be A LOT depending on how wide I go with the definition of each game.
Until then, have fun playing your choice of food related arcade classic on the system of your choice, in the vertical blank.