Last Updated on March 17, 2025 by Dave Farquhar
42 years ago this week, on August 25, 1982, the arcade game Burger Time was released in Japan. Published by Data East, Bally Midway imported it to North America later that year. It was popular in 1983, and I think it’s one of the most underrated arcade games of the 1980s.
Burger Time made fast food fun
Burger Time is an interesting take on the single screen platform concept originated by Donkey Kong. Much like Donkey Kong, the hero, Peter Pepper, climbs ladders and walks around on platforms. But the objective is more complicated than Donkey Kong. You have to assemble oversized burgers by climbing to the top of the platform and walking across the components to knock them down a level. Then you have to climb down a level and repeat until all of the burgers on the screen are fully assembled. In the meantime, you have to dodge various enemies that chase you around the screen.
There are six levels that get increasingly harder as the game progresses by adding more burgers, more enemies, and/or changing the layout to make it easier for the enemies to trap Peter Pepper.
The whole premise is silly. But it was extremely easy to learn how to play the game just from watching the attract screen. It was a great example of a game that was easy to learn but difficult to get really good at. It received generally good reviews at the time. After all, it made fast food fun and entertaining.
Home versions
I think one reason people don’t necessarily remember Burger Time as well today as Pac-Man or Donkey Kong is because of the home versions. It didn’t translate well to a 4:3 screen, so most of the console and home computer versions simplified the game, sometimes taking the simplification too far.
Burger Time was not practical to implement on the Atari 2600. There was just too much going on to do a good version of the game on that platform, at least with the programming tricks that developers knew in 1982. Even with the tricks we know today, a competent version would be very challenging. The version the Atari 2600 did get was very forgettable, far less faithful to the original than Atari’s infamous home version of Pac-Man.
The Mattel and Coleco consoles were better suited to a game like Burger Time since they were capable of more complex playfields and had more sprites. But those versions still required simplifications to the game because of the different aspect ratio of the screen.
By the time Nintendo came around, Burger Time was behind the times. Single-screen platform games had given way to games that scrolled beyond the confines of a single screen. So the NES release from 1987 didn’t end up being a big hit, although it was one of the better home console versions, as far as faithfulness to the original.
Home computer versions
Burger Time had numerous home computer versions, including the Mattel Aquarius, IBM PC, Apple II, MSX, and BBC Micro. It would have had more exposure if Atari 800 and Commodore 64 versions had existed. The C-64 version from 1984 that does exist wasn’t an official, licensed port and as far as I know was only released in Europe.
Options for playing Burger Time today
Of course, you have options to play the game today. So if you remember early ’80s titles like Pac-Man, Donkey, Kong, Frogger, or Q*Bert, and Burger Time was one you just didn’t get much chance to play or that you forgot about, this is definitely a game that is worth a look, whether you play it on and Intellevision or ColecoVision or other means that involve emulation, such as MAME. I think you’ll be glad you gave this title a second look.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.