BurgerTime

The game has an amusing cast of characters. The player character is a chef called Peter Pepper who is pursued by enemies named Mr. Hot Dog, Mr. Pickle and Mr. Egg.

The object of the game is for Peter Pepper to assemble four giant burgers without colliding with any pursuing hot dogs, eggs or pickles who appear in later stages. Peter Pepper has to climb up ladders and walk across ramps to get to each of the burger fixings which include buns, beef patties, lettuce leaves and sometimes tomato slices and cheese slices.

Peter Pepper has to walk across each of the burger fixings, so they will fall downward to the each of the lower ramps until they reach each of the plates below at the bottom of the screen. He must assemble all four burgers to advance to the next stage. As the hot dogs, eggs and pickles pursue him, he can stop them three different ways. He can throw a pinch of pepper on them to stun them and make them temporarily harmless, but his pinches of pepper are limited, so he will have to use it wisely. Additional pinches of pepper can be gained by getting bonus items the will occasionally appear on the screen temporarily including ice cream cones, french fries and cups of coffee.

Another way Peter Pepper can stop his pursuers is by crushing them with one of the burger fixings. He does this by dropping it onto them whenever they walk under it. The third way to stop them is by dropping them on one of the burger fixings whenever they walk onto it, this will also allow each of the burger fixings to fall two, three or four floors more depending on how many of them are on it. However the pursuers are put out of action, they will continue to walk around in each stage until all the burgers have been completely assembled.

If the player dies while the last burger is completed i.e., the final piece drops into place, the game will reanimate the current Peter and not take away the man.

There is a simple way to get a massive score on this. For each of the six screens you need to get all the hot dogs / eggs / pickles grouped together following you. You can do this by throwing a pepper in front of them. Once bundled together they will chase you like a single piece of food. You then drop the lot from the bottom bun working upwards on each screen. If memory serves this is 32000 a drop. The six screens can be completed like this three times but the first screen for the 4th time around is rediculously fat. I got the official world record of 3,058,000 in 1983. Only the 58,800 registered on the screen. I still had 110 extra lives and pinches of pepper!

• Vector BurgerTime - Uses vector graphics.

Data East produced the original version of the cabinet in the same year. The artwork differs substantially the marquee is a smaller size with completely different depictions of Peter and his foes.

The instructions on both the cabinet and the screens of this game do not say that the restaurant in the game has a name. Some references say that the name of the restaurant is BurgerTime, just like the game itself, but other references say that the restaurant can be McDonald's, Burger King, Jack-In-The-Box, Wendy's, Whataburger or any other famous fast-food franchise that serves burgers. The game itself never mentions that the restuarant where the game takes place even has a name.

A full size Peter Pepper adorns both sides of the upright cabinet. The tops of the sides are cut to match the curves in his chef's hat. The front of the cabinet depicts Peter seated on a burger with a Mr. Hot Dog on either side. A picture banner just under the joystick shows left to right Mr. Egg, Mr. Pickle, Mr. Hot Dog, a burger, Mr. Hot Dog, and Peter. A picture around the joystick shows a hand pointing in each compass direction. Playing hints and a picture of Peter are to the left of the monitor and instructions and a picture of Mr. Hot Dog are to its right. The basic color of the cabinet is mustard yellow.

A cocktail cabinet was also released for this game.