Beef Drop VE - Atari 7800

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$35.00

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Beef Drop VE is a port of the popular arcade game Burgertime, which Ken Siders first ported to the Atari 5200 and 8-bit computers. 7800 owners are in for a special treat, as the 7800 version is even truer to the original arcade experience, and features better graphics than the 5200/8-bit version, making the 7800 version the definitive release of Beef Drop VE.

The object of Beef Drop VE is to score as many points as possible by making hamburgers. To do so, Chef Pete must completely walk over each ingredient (buns, patties, lettuce, and more) in order to drop it to the next level. When all of the ingredients reach the tray at the bottom of the screen, the hamburger is complete! Assemble all four hamburgers to advance to the next round.

But in this fast food joint, the food itself can be fatal. While Chef Pete is scrambling to make his burgers, his mortal foes, Frank, Mr. Yolk and Dr. Dill chase him relentlessly. If any of them catch Chef Pete, he loses a life. If Chef Pete loses all his lives, the game is over.

Pete is not without recourse, however. By pressing either fire button, he can sprinkle a dash of pepper on his foes. The spicy substance stuns his foes for a few seconds, giving Pete a chance to make a quick escape. But pepper is precious, and Pete only starts with five dashes of pepper. Collecting an ice cream cone, coffee cup or french fries earns Pete one additional dash of pepper.

Beef Drop VE began life as an April Fool's joke in our Atari 5200 Forum and quickly turned into a real homebrew development effort! For all you wanted to know about Burgertime and more, please visit burgertime.info. We held a Beef Drop Label Contest to design an original label for Beef Drop VE, and the contest was won by Henry Lee. Henry's label design graces the label and manual, with additional artwork featured inside the manual.

Get a Beef Drop Box!

Beef Drop Box

If you'd like a boxed copy of Beef Drop, please select "Box Upgrade: Yes" at the top of the page before adding Beef Drop to your cart. Our boxes are professionally printed and include a box insert to hold your Beef Drop cartridge in place. We want you to play our games, so we have not sealed or shrinkwrapped the boxes in any way, allowing you easy access to the game cartridge and manual.

These boxes are the same size as boxes Atari produced for their games "back in the day". They look great sitting on a shelf with your other boxed homebrew games, or alongside games from the classic Atari 2600 library. We only have a limited number of boxes for each game, and there is no guarantee they will become available again once our supplies are exhausted. Click on the images to the right to see larger photos of the box.

Additional Information

Beef Drop VE includes the cartridge and 12-page, full-color manual. Supports both NTSC and PAL television standards.

The VE version of Beef Drop does not contain the POKEY audio chip that the earlier, numbered release of Beef Drop contains. This means the audio uses the internal 7800 TIA audio circuitry, just as nearly the entire 7800 library does. Because of this, we are able to sell Beef Drop VE at a lower price than the version with the POKEY chip and can produce this version in larger quantities.

You can read more about how the 7800 version of Beef Drop evolved by visiting our Atari 7800 forum:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=59998

Author Ken Siders
Number of Players 1 - 2
Controller Joystick
Cartridge Size 32K
Label Design Henry Lee
Manual Design Tony "Xot" Morse
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Walter Interrante on 08/30/2022 01:13am
This is an excellent clone of BurgerTime! It's allot of fun and it was one game I never played in the arcades back in the day but I now do.
PJ on 06/30/2018 08:27pm
If you like Burgertime, you're gonna love Beef Drop! The controls are smooth, graphics are good, and the sound isn't bad; even without the pokey. A must have for every 7800 owner!
Funkmaster V on 07/17/2017 07:13pm
This might be my favorite game on the Atari 7800 now. Buy this Homebrew, before any others, fool.
Trebor on 12/17/2016 08:47am
For me, early to mid-80s exposure in the Arcades of the original BurgerTime was a blast. I recall thinking how cool it was for food to be chasing a chef. The concept of making burgers and the theme centralizing around building them, did make me think of Wimpy from Popeye, back in the day. Not sure if it was due to there being an Arcade Popeye game around the same time frame at the place where I primarily played (Nathan's), but undoubtedly all the cartoon exposure was a factor. Anyhow, I don't recollect being great at the game back then, but always had a fun time playing.

Enter Beef Drop from Ken Siders...This is some *great* porting of an Arcade classic. POKEY sound featured is the icing on the cake, but the cake itself is what really shines here. Colorful, well designed characters, capturing the Arcade spirit and look beautifully, including all the board layouts. Prior to Beef Drop, having played it on the 2600, I was content at the time. Having any home version, period, was practically good enough for me in those days. It was so cool in my eyes - 'block' graphics and all.

It wouldn't be until the 90's though, that I would acquire or at least play other ports such as ColecoVision (Very good), C64 (Very poor), and the NES, which is (disappointingly) only a decent port at best. Beef Drop is my definitive and go to home port of BurgerTime. It plays really well, having not just one, two, or three difficulty settings - but a total of five (Child, Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert). It is near impossible to imagine any player, at any skill level, not discovering a setting they find both enjoyable and challenging.

Since this is not a game that requires constant use of the fire button(s), except to throw the occasional pepper, in addition to there not being any real fast or/and hairpin directional movements, any controller - joystick or gamepad - for the most part, should work really well.

Missing out on the POKEY sound and left with TIA for the audio in the is VE edition, the background melody is still respectable; although losing a little on scoring and overall enjoy-ability. Nonetheless, it is no 7800 Donkey Kong in the sound department, and again we're taking icing on an already delicious cake.

A must have on the 7800 for the Arcade enthusiast or for anyone that enjoys a well-playing and well-crafted game, ported over excellently. Needless to say, highly recommended
Derek El on 06/13/2016 04:42pm
It is great to see the 7800 get some love. Burgertime was always one of my favorite games. This game should have been on the 7800 back in '87 when I got my Atari for Xmas. Better late than never! Between this game, Pac-Man Collection
Glaswegian on 10/24/2015 04:08am
Wow, what a game.
A must have in each collection.
Fantastic, more homebrews please.
Andy on 09/14/2015 10:45pm
Wow! What an amazing version of BurgerTime. One of the best homebrews for the system. Every 7800 owner needs this cart!
BenjaminR on 03/20/2014 12:35pm
I can’t even begin to tell you how much time I have spent (never wasted!) playing Burger Time in my lifetime. I had this game on several systems over the years and even bought it on the NES at a time when none of my friends could understand why I wanted to play “that old game”. Burgertime has always fascinated me and this Atari 7800 port is nothing short of amazing. The gameplay remains intact and the graphics are about 90% of the arcade version (more than enough to eat the Intellivision's lunch). The controls are good and you can adjust difficulty to your taste (I love playing this game on the most difficult setting). You know, I never could figure out what the enemies were actually “doing” to poor Peter Pepper when they touch him(anybody have any ideas?), but even so, this is a classic game that finally received the home port it always deserved on the Atari 7800.
John "Iggy" Linde on 12/10/2011 12:52pm
As others have said, this is an excellent port of Burgertime. If you liked it in the arcade, you've got to have this in your collection! My son, who has an X-Box360 and is used to the 3D games of today, absolutely enjoys the game.
Austin Mackert on 06/21/2011 07:26pm
While not quite perfect when sat next to the original Burgertime, Beef Drop is still a quality homebrew that should not be missed. Only the inconsistent, almost painful scratching noises of the VE version bring down what is otherwise an excellent conversion. I recommend it highly!
UberArcade on 06/04/2011 07:16pm
I just got a copy of Beef Drop. Man, what a fun game! Right now it is my favorite game on the system. I have Burgertime on other game systems, but for some reason I spent several hours playing this one. Glad somebody made a version for the old 7800.
Lucas 'MrBeefy' Morris on 11/07/2009 12:47am
This is a great port of Burgertime. I will have to admit that Burgertime was not one of my favorites. I only have the VE version so I don't know how it compares to the POKEY version soundwise but have no complaints with how this sounds.

I was only going to give this game a four out of five but it was good to get my girlfriend interested and playing (she really liked Burgertime, and isn't always interested in my Atari games), so I'm going to have to go with the five!
Nathan Strum on 07/11/2009 04:14am
Beef Drop VE is an exceptional port of the classic arcade game Burgertime. You take control of a chef tasked with assembling giant hamburgers, while avoiding enemy frankfurters, pickles and fried eggs (apparently they're trying to avoid becoming your next culinary creations). Your only weapon is a pepper shaker, which you can use to temporarily stun them, and you can also drop ingredients at strategic times to take them out.

The graphics in Beef Drop VE are excellent and the game play is spot-on. The previous non-VE edition used an additional chip to improve the audio, but I can't say that I missed it any - the sounds in this version are already well done. Besides the usual assortment of difficultly levels (nicely laid out in the manual) there are also several extra modes available including "Atkins", "Vegetarian", "Mirror" and "More". These are pretty-much what you would expect, with "More" adding four new boards after the standard ones.

If you liked the arcade version of Burgertime and you own a 7800, order up a serving of Beef Drop VE.
Douglas Carroll on 05/19/2009 12:56pm
I recently purchased this home brew and have been VERY happy with it. This is easily the best home version of the arcade game "Burger Time" that I have ever played on any system. Almost arcade perfect graphics, control and sound make this game a true pleasure to play. If you have a 7800 and love the arcade ports for it then I can highly recommend that you pick up this port as soon as you can! Trust me, you won't be disappointed.
Raul Torres on 03/15/2008 02:21am
I remember walking down street alleys in Puerto Rico after school was out, short cuts to my fav pizza joint on the way home. There they had 2 arcade games. One was Ladybug which at the time I didn't enjoy much. But the other was Burger Time, and it was that arcade that often got me in trouble, for getting home late from school.

Today, I am lucky to be able to remember those memories thanks to this excellent port of Burger Time by Ken Siders. Ken's attention to detail is incredible. Beef Drop looks to take good advantage of the 7800 graphics. The physics seem spot on as well, making the game as memorably enjoyable as the original was back in the day.

So you are wondering if you should buy Beef Drop? Really? Here is a news flash... the rest of us are wondering why the heck you haven't already ;)
William Boblitt on 02/23/2008 08:38pm
A nice job was done on this! The character has the same animation (jiggling and vibrating as he ascends the ladders) and the gamplay and level design is 99% perfect! The music has a slightly funky 7800 off-note quality, but I kind of like it better that way. There is nothing more to say other than: if you liked the original arcade game, you must have this cartridge in your collection! Game play wise, it feels just like the real thing! (much more than the NES, Coleco, & 2600 versions)
Mike Balzer on 02/02/2008 03:18am
This is my new favorite
for the 7800. This game
has excellent graphcs.
The bonus games are great. I always felt that the 7800 was "short
changed" I would like to
see more games for the 7800, maybe Pac-Man or a
version of Frogger or
perhaps a tetris style
game.

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