BurgerTime
Platform: Intellivision
Region: USA
Media: Cartridge
Controller: INTV
Genre: Arcade > Action 
Gametype: Licensed
Release Year: 1982
Developer: Data East Corporation
Publisher: Mattel Electronics
Players: 1 or 2 Alternating
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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 the burger area below. To actually do this you have to let Chef Pepper step all over the burger ingredients. As soon as an ingredient (a piece of lettuce for instance) has been stepped on, it will fall to the next level below. Falling food will squish any enemy following you and will also"bump" any other ingredient bellow 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 which will momentarily stun enemies, allowing you to walk past them.

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

The PlayStation 2 version is a port of the original arcade game and comes with a soundtrack disc, a DVD, a guide book and some other bonuses.


DEVELOPMENT HISTORY:

Returning from vacation in August 1982 thinking he was going to start the Loco-Motion conversion, Ray Kaestner discovered he was going to do the BurgerTime conversion, instead. Scheduled to get married in December, Ray was determined to finish the job within three months so he wouldn't have to worry about deadlines and debugging during wedding preparations.

Three months was a tight schedule; Ray did it in two, a record for an Intellivision game in the Hawthorne office. The extra month gave him a chance to tinker with the timing of the game to get it just the way he wanted. (He didn't escape the game on his wedding day, though -- the groomsmen were playing it while waiting for the ceremony to begin.)

Data East did not have wide distribution for their arcade games, which had hurt when the Intellivision version of Lock 'N' Chase came out -- the name wasn't exactly a household word. But BurgerTime was so good that arcade giant Bally Midway licensed it and got the game into every arcade in America. Mattel had lucked out; it finally had the license to a hit game.

Marketing ordered BurgerTime ported to every system possible (to "all flavors"). M Network Atari 2600, IBM PC and handheld versions were released. Apple and Aquarius versions were also developed. A Commodore translation was ordered but never started. A Colecovision version, done at the Mattel Electronics French programming division, was eventually purchased and released by Coleco. (A later version for the original Nintendo system was unrelated to Mattel Electronics.)

BurgerTime was the first Intellivision cartridge not released as part of a game "network," although the box color, burgundy, matching that of Vectron, indicates that it was originally intended to be part of the Arcade Network. BurgerTime was initially released in the same style boxes of the game networks -- the covers opened like a book. Later copies of BurgerTime were sold in the cheaper, slightly shorter, end-opening boxes used for all subsequent cartridge releases.

The popularity of BurgerTime was such that a sequel, PizzaTime, was ordered by Marketing. (Mattel Electronics was closed before programming could begin.) A different sequel, Diner, was released by INTV Corporation.


FUN FACT:

Many people ask why one of the bad guys in BurgerTime is an egg. The arcade game was developed in Japan where many fast-food restaurants give the popular option of adding a fried egg to your burger.

The television commercial for BurgerTime was the first non-Plimpton ad to focus on one game. In it, 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.

BurgerTime benefited from the demise of the Aquarius Home Computer System. Mattel Electronics had bought considerable television time and magazine space to advertise Aquarius during fall and winter 1983. When the Aquarius was quickly killed by Mattel, the rest of the reserved advertising was switched mostly to commercials for BurgerTime.

 
http://www.mobygames.com/game/intellivision/burgertime
http://www.intellivisiongames.com/bluesky/games/credits/1983b.html#burgertime