Video Game Collecting

Is there a Burgertime movie? Not that I know of. Is there a movie about Burgertime? Yes… sorta. Over this past year I’ve come to realize that Burgertime is much more than a game. It’s a piece of art. It’s an enigma. It represents qualities that are no longer found in games. Could you imagine Burgertime as a first person shooter? Today’s youth wouldn’t understand it. I’m willing to bet many teenagers would dismiss it as stupid. But despite having only six screens three enemies and one weapon it contains a depth that rivals any game you can play today.

Take for example Metal Gear Solid. Four games, and three of which I completed in less than a week and never touched since. Lets dissect MGS for a moment. The story starts out like this… oh… wait a minute. There’s the problem right there: a story. We’re talking videoGAMES right? Seems to me that the word STORY doesn’t fit well with a game… I mean think about it… what’s the plot behind tic tac toe? Poker? Baseball? Football? Chess? Is there some salacious plot behind bowling?

That’s not to say games with a story are not entertaining… they are, but the are more story than game. Many games are not particularly challenging nowendays because they are bound to a story. The game needs to be easy enough so that the purchaser can complete the game and finish the story.

If you consider the plot to any early 80′s videogame my point becomes clear. Donkey Kong: avoid obstacles to rescue your girl friend. Pac-man: eat dots and avoid ghosts. Paperboy: Deliver papers and avoid obstacles. Now consider current games. Metal Gear: Destroy Metal Gear located on Shadow Moses Island which has been taken over by terrorists. Collect weapons and rations and interact with people through cutscenes. PS if you die don’t worry about it. Just continue. Grand Theft Auto: Steal cars go on missions attack people watch cut screens count your money avoid cops. PS if you die just continue. Neither of these games sound like videogames… they sound like videoWORK! If you go to a job everyday and you mess it up you get fired then find another job and repeat (continue). Isn’t that work?

So a game like Burgertime is not work. If you play chess and you mess up it could mean game over and if you throw a gutter ball you’re not gonna score 300 and if its the bottom of the 9th or final seconds of the forth quarter and you lose… you are done. There are no continues.

So anyways the story of Burgertime needs to be told, and what better way to tell it than through a movie? More details coming soon…

Ok, so as you can see it’s the start of level three of Burgertime. 100k was achieved on level 1. 75k was achieved on level 2. 12 lives in reserve. Notice that I didn’t say earned. Also notice that the screen shot looks different from previous ones. That’s because it was achieved on the Nintendo DS. That’s right, NES Burgertime on the DS. Don’t ask how or why. Just know that I can’t and won’t claim the score to be legitimate. It’s all part of my method to decypher the grouping for level 2.

I promised I wouldn’t post about Burgertime for a week… well it’s been a week! A long one- and I’ve filled it with stage 2 grouping…. I might have it perfected… It’s going to be critical to break 200k and the eventual TwinGalaxies record.

I can now say with 100percent confidence that my grouping pattern works for Burgertime for the first level. Again though, I choked on every single level thereafter. It’s disgusting. I didn’t even finish the sixth level!  This is the 100th official post of this blog, and a good percentage has been Burgertime related… so with that in mind I’m going to give Burgertime a 7 day rest.

Another choke on Burgertime! Using my new grouping pattern I started level 2 just shy of 100k, and immediately I started dying and wasting peppers. My final demise came on stage 6.

What do you do when you obtain a filthy controller? You clean it up and re-brand it of course! this first attempt was terrible. I needed a sharper knife and that’s why the edges look chewed.

This was the real Burgertime score after I perfected my grouping technique on the first stage. I actually entered stage two with over 100,000 but I kept choking on the subsequent stages… I dunno nerves I guess.

I limped into stage 7 (repeat stage 1) on my last life (down from 8 lives when I started stage 2) and pissed it away trying to group them with the same technique, which proved to be a big mistake as their were enemies all over the screen. It kinda looked like a disturbed wasps nest!

Now this performance is not perfect mind you, but the spirit behind it is perfect.