M Network BurgerTime

[Mr. Postman]

Of all my M-Network carts I noticed that my BurgerTime cart was about 4 times as heavy as the others I owned. I opened her up and this is what she looks like without her clothes on. I know that there's no Eproms, but is this normal?

 

[T2KFREEKER]

Wow, that is just bizarre. I know that Burgertime was a larget Atari 2600 cart, byut I can honestly say that I don't ever really remember seeing anytrhing quite that intricate on the 2600 as far as boards go. Cool dude!

[Mr. Postman]

Just found this thread:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...p;hl=burgertime

 

 

How many different revisions are there of the burgertime cart?

[Vic George 2K3]

You finally managed to get an Intellivision cart casing removed from one of those M-Network 2600 game slot adapters. Tried that a few times in my youth and never succeeded, it was so darn difficult to do.

[shadow460]

Just push the tabs down with a small scredriver and pop the little plastic piece over them. It's not hard, but it requires a LOT of patience and some strength.

 

I had to re attatch my Dark Cavern board to its case, and that's how I learned to open Mattel carts.

 

I think the back panel pries off of other models of them. All I know for sure is that Mattel ahd about eight million different casings they used.

Edited July 15, 2006 by shadow460

[jaybird3rd]

Interesting. I guess that VTI chip is there to implement the crazy bank-switching scheme that the game uses.

 

EDIT: I just looked at the Blue Sky Rangers' web site, and according to them, the extra RAM and other hardware in that cartridge was originally meant to be an add-on expansion module for the 2600. Marketing concluded that people didn't want expansion modules, so they ordered the memory to be added into the cartridges instead.

 

This all reminds me ... I noticed that my Intellivision Diner cartridge has a Triple Challenge chip inside it, which struck me as odd. I'll have to post a picture in another thread.

Edited July 15, 2006 by jaybird3rd

[jferio]

Interesting. I guess that VTI chip is there to implement the crazy bank-switching scheme that the game uses.

 

EDIT: I just looked at the Blue Sky Rangers' web site, and according to them, the extra RAM and other hardware in that cartridge was originally meant to be an add-on expansion module for the 2600. Marketing concluded that people didn't want expansion modules, so they ordered the memory to be added into the cartridges instead.

 

This all reminds me ... I noticed that my Intellivision Diner cartridge has a Triple Challenge chip inside it, which struck me as odd. I'll have to post a picture in another thread.

 

That certainly explains why my 7800 chokes on it. The 2600 handles it just fine, but I don't get a playable result on the 7800.

 

Oh well, I've got a better version through one of the Playstation discs anyway (Arcade's Greatest Hits: Midway Collection 2).

[kisrael]

Somewhat underrated game. The enemies are a bit square-ish, but they got a lot of good gameplay in there. Though the whole pause thing is mysterious 'til you figure it out..

[jaybird3rd]

Somewhat underrated game. The enemies are a bit square-ish, but they got a lot of good gameplay in there. Though the whole pause thing is mysterious 'til you figure it out..

I always thought it was a good effort considering the limitations (technological and otherwise) that the developer, Ron Surratt, had to deal with. He did the game under protest because he knew the 2600 couldn't properly handle it, but Mattel wanted to take advantage of the popularity of BurgerTime and to quickly get it on as many systems as possible. They also insisted that it be done without flicker, which left Surratt no choice but to use the 1-bit objects for the enemies. So, the enemies became blocks and sticks. The result runs a little slow and isn't particularly nice-looking, but all the gameplay elements are there.

[supercat]

They also insisted that it be done without flicker, which left Surratt no choice but to use the 1-bit objects for the enemies. So, the enemies became blocks and sticks. The result runs a little slow and isn't particularly nice-looking, but all the gameplay elements are there.

 

Though the game still does flicker whenever a pepper powerup appears.

 

Actually, I think some developers had too strong an aversion to flicker. The 15Hz flicker in Pacman was inexcusable (Adventure's was even slower, but at least it had a certain charm) but 30Hz flicker of objects is generally not objectionable. How many people, for example, complained about Asteroids' flicker? IMHO, a lot of games could have been improved greatly had the developers been willing to accept 30Hz flicker. For example, I would have liked to have seen the "fireball" round of Donkey Kong designed with two sets of fireballs, one on even frames and one on odd frames. The fireballs could then have had some vertical freedom of motion. Mr. Kitchen was probably out of code space, but adding vertical motion to the fireballs would have improved the game enormously.

 

BTW, another thing that might have helped would have been to alter the missiles' horizontal positions as their width changed so that they would "spin" about their center point rather than their edge. Using mid-frame resizing and HMOVEs on them would have been even better, of course, but that might not have fit within the available kernel time (though using 2K RAM it might).

[Godzilla]

i dont care what a tech marvel it is or isnt, 26k burger time is weak and a waste of good coding. they should have tried more to adapt/change it so it took advantage of the 2600 instead of getting taking advantage of by the 2600.

[kisrael]

I disagree, it was a favorite in my family.

[Christophero Sly]

There are some control issues and the collision detection is a bit wide. I might even say it's too difficult. But, overall, I think it's a good game.

Edited July 17, 2006 by Christophero Sly

[shadow460]

Interesting. I guess that VTI chip is there to implement the crazy bank-switching scheme that the game uses.

 

EDIT: I just looked at the Blue Sky Rangers' web site, and according to them, the extra RAM and other hardware in that cartridge was originally meant to be an add-on expansion module for the 2600. Marketing concluded that people didn't want expansion modules, so they ordered the memory to be added into the cartridges instead.

 

This all reminds me ... I noticed that my Intellivision Diner cartridge has a Triple Challenge chip inside it, which struck me as odd. I'll have to post a picture in another thread.

 

Anyone know what part of the Blue Sky Rangers' page this is on? I looked and couldn't find it. While I was looking at stuff, I looked inside Bump 'n' Jump. It has the same PCB that my BurgerTime does, but it lacks two of the glop tops and the Toshiba IC.

[CPUWIZ]

Interesting. I guess that VTI chip is there to implement the crazy bank-switching scheme that the game uses.

 

EDIT: I just looked at the Blue Sky Rangers' web site, and according to them, the extra RAM and other hardware in that cartridge was originally meant to be an add-on expansion module for the 2600. Marketing concluded that people didn't want expansion modules, so they ordered the memory to be added into the cartridges instead.

 

This all reminds me ... I noticed that my Intellivision Diner cartridge has a Triple Challenge chip inside it, which struck me as odd. I'll have to post a picture in another thread.

 

Anyone know what part of the Blue Sky Rangers' page this is on? I looked and couldn't find it. While I was looking at stuff, I looked inside Bump 'n' Jump. It has the same PCB that my BurgerTime does, but it lacks two of the glop tops and the Toshiba IC.

 

The Toshiba IC is RAM, Bump & Jump does not use extra RAM.

[shadow460]

I wonder why they put Bump 'n' Jump on the same PCB? So far, I know of a couple copies that have it. Is it just the particular ROM that was needed, then?