Hamburger [Model DT-126]

44 Years old DECO cass. Data East Corp. [Japan]

Hamburger © 1982 Data East Corp.

Hamburger is a platform game in which one or two players take on the role of burger chef 'Peter Pepper'. The chef must create a set number of burgers per level by collecting the separate ingredients needed to make each one (two pieces of bun, the burger itself and/or a garnish, such as lettuce or cheese).

Each screen is made up of platforms joined by connecting ladders. At the bottom of the screen are a number of empty plates while the burger ingredients lay across the platforms directly above the plates. The chef must walk across the entire width of the ingredients to make them drop to the platform below. A burger is only completed once all of its ingredients have been dropped onto the corresponding plate at the bottom of the screen.

The chef's efforts are hampered by the rogue ingredients that are constantly chasing him. They are called 'Mr. Hot Dog', 'Mr. Egg' and 'Mr. Pickle'. Any contact with them results in the loss of a life. The chef can temporarily freeze the enemies by throwing pepper at them. He only carries a limited amount of pepper but this can be replenished by collecting the bonus food items that randomly appear (ice cream cones, coffee, and fries). In addition to the pepper, any enemies located on a platform below the chef can be killed by dropping an available burger ingredient on top of them.

Enemies become more numerous and faster moving as the levels progress.

TECHNICAL

Runs on the "DECO Cassette System" hardware

Cartridge ID: Model DT-126

TRIVIA

Hamburger was released in October 1982 in the Japanese arcades. It was known as the 26th video game made for this system (Cassette No. 26).

Hamburger is the original version of the popular Burger Time. It was known as Burger Time outside Japan.

Have you ever wondered why one of the enemies is an egg? In Japan, where the game was made, it is common to add a fried egg to your burger. Hence, Mr. Egg as one of the enemies.

A pirate hack of this game is known as Cook Race.

A sequel called "Pizzatime" was planned around 1984 but was never released.

SCORING

Stacking a burger ingredient	50 points per ingredient
Crushing Mr. Hot Dog	100 points
Crushing Mr. Pickle	200 points
Crushing Mr. Egg	300 points
Collecting Ice Cream	500 points
Collecting Coffee	1,000 points
Collecting Fries	1,500 points
Dropping Ingredient with 1 enemy on top	500 points
Dropping Ingredient with 2 enemies on top	1,000 points
Dropping Ingredient with 3 enemies on top	2,000 points
Dropping Ingredient with 4 enemies on top	4,000 points
Dropping Ingredient with 5 enemies on top	8,000 points
Dropping Ingredient with 6 enemies on top	16,000 points
and so on...

TIPS AND TRICKS

* 'Mad Dash' : J.D. Lowe, the current world record holder adds some suggestions... Something that very few players use is something I call 'Mad Dash'. If you watch as the chef is drawn on the screen, he walks up/down ladders at approx. 8 steps a second. So, in theory, if you can press the up and down arrows faster than 8 times a second, you can go faster. This is very helpful on later levels like Level 20. This does not work on going left and right, because the steps are smaller, and the computer has to draw the chef facing you again if you let go of the controller. It's a bit complicated, but like I said earlier, it can be very helpful.

* Pepper Appearances : the peppers do not appear randomly on the screen; in fact, they appear after so many ingredients have fallen to the bottom of the screen...
Level 1 - Peppers appear after 4, 8, and 12 ingredients have dropped.
Level 2 - After 5, 7, and 13 ingredients.
Level 3 - 4, 8, and 13.
Level 4 - 6, 16, 22, 29.
Level 5 - 3, 6, 9.
Level 6 - 3, 7, 12, 14.

NOTE: In this early revision of the game, the levels appear in the order 1, 5, 2, 3, 4, 6.

* Enemies can't turn around immediately, so you can follow them around temporarily.

* The best tactic is generally to stand halfway across a piece of food, wait for enemies to appear on the food's edge, and then drop the food and enemies at once. Always lure the enemies onto the highest portion of the screen, and then drop them. This has several advantages : it clears more burger pieces, plus it means that units on lower levels may wander into the cascading pieces, killing them also.

* Leave plenty of room around yourself when going up ladders - the sprites in Burger Time are somewhat bigger than the visible characters.

* When enemies first appear, you have 1/4 sec to go through them, if you need to.

* IMPORTANT : If you get caught while the last piece of food is falling into place, the game will NOT deduct a life from your game!

PORTS

CONSOLES

Nintendo Famicom (nov.27, 1985) BurgerTime [Model NAM-NBT-4500]

Nintendo Famicom Disk (sept.23, 1988) "Burger Time [Model DFC-BGT]"

Sony PS2 (oct.27, 2005) BurgerTime [Oretachi Geasen Zoku] [Model SLPM-62695]

HANDHELDS

Nintendo Game Boy (feb.15, 1991) BurgerTime Deluxe [Model DMG-GMA]

COMPUTERS

MSX (1986)

SOURCES

🔗

ROM dump (MAME).