BurgerTime by Data East was released in arcades in 1982. The game sees players guide Peter Pepper through a multi-level maze of ladders and platforms. As Peter walks over various oversized burger ingredients they fall to assemble completed burgers at the bottom of the screen. The players progress is hampered by a group of antagonist food items who patrol the maze, if Peter comes into contact with these enemies the player will lose a life.
The goal is to assemble all burgers for each level by stacking the required ingredients.
Ladders
The greatest pain point gamers will experience with BurgerTime lies in the interaction of its ladders. The player needs to be apply a degree of precision with their positioning to successfully mount and dismount each ladder. There is a very fine line between success and costly failure.
In user experience this is called forgiveness, we see forgiveness designed in a range of systems and interfaces. Appliances with physical dials employ forgiveness when the user is not required to align the select marker perfectly inline with the function icon in order to activate that function. Forgiveness is about accepting that humans are analogue creatures and should be given assistance when required to align or position something in order to make a choice.
Peter Pepper needs to be one step from the ground in order to leave a ladder, any higher and Peter will simply not respond to the players frantic pressing of left or right.
Similarly, for Peter to ascend the ladder, the player must position Peter within very close proximity to the centre of the ladder.
Looking at modern 2D titles with ladders, we can see a greater emphasis on forgiveness, allowing the player to dismount the ladder further from the ground or ascend without the need to be flush with the ladder.
In the picture we see Peter Pepper from BurgerTime, the player is currently pressing up to climb the ladder. Though the majority of Peter’s body lies within the area of the ladder, with Peter’s left hand within reach of the left edge of the ladder, Peter remains static and in danger of being caught by a fried egg.
Conversely, in Alwa’s Awakening (Elden Pixels, 2022), Zoe lies primarily outside of the ladders area, and yet once the player presses upward Zoe snaps to the rungs of the ladder and begins her ascent.
It could be argued however that Alwa’s Awakening is a platform game, rather than a maze type puzzle game. The fact remains however that both present a 2D character attempting to climb a ladder, both have the ability to shape a players expectation for this behaviour going forward.
Motion
Some maze games will see the player’s character in a state of continuous movement, this resolves the problem of forgiveness as the character will follow the direction the player has requested at the earliest convenience. If the up direction is held down, the character will go up at the first corridor or ladder it reaches, the player need not worry about precise positioning.
Perhaps a disadvantage to continuos motion is the sensation of a lack of control, or a heightened need to pre-empt your next turn prior to reaching the junction or corridor.
Some games will allow the player to utilise diagonal controls to climb or descend at the earliest possibility. The player holds diagonal right/down, the character walks toward the right, as soon as the character encounters an opportunity to move downward the character does so without the need for the player to relinquish pushing right.
BurgerTime does not permit this shortcut, Peter Pepper stops when the player slides their directional controls from right to diagonal right/down.
Pepper and Icons
Despite the box artwork for BurgerTime showing a vertical obstacle course of ladders and platforms, the presentation invokes mental models of Pac-Man (1980), Lock ‘n’ Chase (1981) and other flat, top-down maze games.
Bringing this mental modal, some players may miss an important fact which can have a significant impact on their success of the game.
Peter is not defenceless in his quest to construct burgers amid enemy sausages and fried eggs. Peter can throw pepper at his foes to stun them momentarily, enabling Peter to move past them or to hold them in place while falling burger ingredients squashes them.
At the beginning of each game Peter is equipped with five Pepper, once those five have been exhausted Peter is no longer able to stun enemies. There is audio feedback relayed to the user when pepper is attempted to be used but depleted.
Pepper can be used within quick succession and with this comes the topic of error prevention. It is very easy to double tap the pepper button and accidentally use two peppers when only one was needed. Perhaps this has benefits, or perhaps there should be a few more milliseconds gap before an additional pepper can be used.
As per the rolling title sequence, if Peter collects either an ice-cream cone, coffee cup or fried icon, he will also be granted one additional Pepper.
Other maze games are no stranger to having food items appear in the game maze, typically however these simply add to the players score. In Pac-Man collecting a cherry will grant you 100 points, in Lock ‘n’ Chase collecting a top hat will gift you 200 points.
If you don’t feel that the extra points are worth the risk, some players may choose to leave the ice-cream cone or coffee to disappear as there is no clear signal during the game that collecting these items will grant you precious Pepper.
This is perhaps less of an issue in the arcade version where pepper has no existing imagery to represent it, The NES version of BurgerTime however bestows your Pepper count with a pepper shaker icon in the top right corner. It is interesting that this icon was not used within the game as an additional pickup to clearly signal a bonus to the players Pepper count. It is not uncommon for interface or score icons to match those which are used in the game arena, such as using Pac-Man’s iconic profile to signify the amount of lives you have. Here however we have Pepper being awarded without imagery and very little feedback.
The game Lock ’n’ Chase (Data East, 1981) has the opposite problem, where icon reuse can cause confusion. Players would be forgiven for assuming that collecting the top hat icon will grant an extra life, as this is the same elaborate hat worn by the players character and which forms a large part of their identity. Unfortunately it only grants 200 points.
Due to icon reuse, it would be quite easy for the player to assume they only have a single life left, as oppose to the two they actually have left.
Difficulty
Having access to both the Arcade and NES version of BurgerTime, there is a very clear spike in difficulty when transitioning to the home console version.
In the first level the arcade version pits you against four enemy food items, the NES adds an additional two foes to the maze. Furthermore, the arcade will award the player with one additional pepper per completed level, the NES offers no such perks and so collecting the bonus food items becomes essential in replenishing your pepper count.
Final thoughts
Clearly it is unfair to compare modern games and systems with those over forty years old. This series is not tasked with mocking old games however. Quite the opposite, I’m using BurgerTime (and similar retro titles) to highlight user experience terms (like forgiveness, mental models, feedback, signals and error prevention) which are very relevant to today’s systems and interfaces.
I hope that using historical video games could make an interesting vehicle to discuss user experience, you may even have played these games before and have personal thoughts about the points I’ve raised, I’d like to hear them.
BurgerTime is often regarded as a classic title in the history of gaming. Wikipedia informs me that Peter Pepper makes an appearance in the films Wreck-It Ralph and Pixels, so Peter is clearly doing well for himself.
