Posted on May 21, 2023
Beef Drop (Burgertime Clone) for Atari 400/800/XL/XE, Atari 5200, and Atari 7800
Late AtariAge user Ken “Kenfused” Siders ported the popular arcade game Burgertime to the Atari 8-bit computers, giving it the name Beef Drop. This version of Burgertime began life as a 2004 April Fool’s joke in the AtariAge Atari 5200 Forum and soon took on a life of its own, quickly turning into an actual homebrew development effort!
The original arcade version of Burgertime proved to be popular with players and was ported to many home game consoles and computer systems, including the Intellivision, ColecoVision, Atari 2600, and Nintendo Entertainment System. However, a truly faithful port had not found its way to Atari 8-bit computers before Mr. Siders created his masterpiece. While a disk-based version of Burgertime was released for the Atari 8-bit computers, Ken’s version was written from scratch to be more accurate to the arcade version than the older 8-bit port.
Unlike the arcade version and most home versions of Burgertime that I’ve seen, Beef Drop has multiple skill levels available, including “Child,” “Easy,” “Normal,” “Hard,” and “Expert.” This allows players of all ages and skill levels to enjoy the game while keeping player frustration to a minimum.
As you can see in this Atari 8-bit gameplay, Beef Drop’s play is nearly identical to the original Burgertime, as the player controls Chef Pete, guiding him around the screen to build burgers and hotdog creations, while avoiding multiple “adversaries,” including Mr. Yolk, Frank, and Mr. Dill.
Players begin the game with 5 lives, as well as 5 to 10 “pepper shakers” which can be sprinkled on the adversaries, temporarily freezing them, allowing Chef Pete to pass safely past them. Every so often, an item will appear on screen for a short period of time. If Chef Pete can grab the item before it disappears, he gains another pepper shaker for use on his opponents. The game can be played by 1 or 2 players and 2 players can either share a joystick or use separate controllers. Bonus Chef Petes are earned for every 10,000 points.
Players can score points for completing sandwiches while scoring bonus points for dropping ingredients either on top of adversaries or by dropping ingredients with the bad guys sitting on the ingredients. The more bad guys that are along for the ride, the more levels the ingredients will fall, completing the sandwiches faster.
Beef Drop was originally released for the Atari 5200, and Ken Siders then updated the game to work with Atari 8-bit computers. An Atari 7800 version is also available. Cartridge versions are available for the Atari 8-bit, Atari 5200, and Atari 7800 at the AtariAge website. Links to each version can be found below in the description.
I hope you’ve found this video informative and enjoyable, and I strongly suggest you visit AtariAge for more information about Beef Drop, and support AtariAge by purchasing a cartridge for the Atari 8-bit, Atari 5200, or Atari 7800. You’ll be glad you did.
Purchase Beef Drop for Atari 400/800/XL/XE
Purchase Beef Drop for Atari 5200
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