Producer: Ocean
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.90
Language: Machine code
Author: Jon Woods

Considering how frequently Spectrum software houses crowd each other with arcade copies, it seems surprising that 'Burger Time' type games are not common. Blaby must take the credit by quite a long mark for their Barmy Burgers, which appeared earlier last year, and is a very good implementation. Ocean have attempted to go a stage further in Mr. Wimpy (which actually uses Wimpy's famous logo on the cover) by releasing a version which has two separate parts.

The first screen, reminiscent of Ultimate's Pssst, has Mr. Wimpy attempting to assemble the ingredients. He must carry a tray from the left of screen over to the right where there are three items to be collected one at a time, a lump of cheese and two indistinguishable ingredients but doubtless things that put the ham in burger. The problems are three manholes (lord knows why) which sail up and down and kill old Wimp off if he touches them, and Waldo the burger thief who steals a tray if he runs into Mr. Wimpy. Waldo is fairly intelligent and tries to home in.

If you manage to get all three ingredients back across to the left, then you progress to the second screen, which is the more familiar 'Burger Time' format. Here the layers of the four burgers you must make are kept on separate platforms, connected at intervals by ladders. Segments of each layer are made to drop one platform by walking Mr. Wimpy over them. Kitchen nasties chase around dealing death and destruction, although they can be killed off by squashing them under a falling layer of hamburger, or by a squirt of pepper. It gets rid of them for 30 seconds. You only have 3 squirts available unless you pick up the bonus ice-cream or coffee cup, which gives you more chances to shoot. When all four hamburgers are fully assembled at the bottom of the screen, you are promoted to the next level.

COMMENTS

Control keys: sensible - S/X up/down, N/M left/right, A = pepper
Joystick: Kempston, AGF, Protek, Sinclair 2
Keyboard play: responsive
Colour: very good
Graphics: excellent
Sound: good tunes, poorer in game
Skill levels: gets harder
each game
Lives: 5
General rating: very good.

This is a very colourful game with smooth graphics and good synthesised sound. It starts off well with an excellent title screen. Waldo is an absolute menace, pinching your tray, and this part of the game can be frustrating because the thief is too intelligent. Good tunes, a fairly easy game at first, but it gets more difficult at higher levels. I found it tended to lose its addictiveness after 2 to 3 hours of playing though.

The graphics are excellent and use of colour very good. I liked the tunes between games, although during the game the sound Is rather poor. The nasties include Sid Sos, Ogy Egg, Sam Spoon and Pam Pickle, and a rotten bunch they are. This is a fun game to play. Very good!

The graphics are nicely animated and very well drawn, which makes Mr. Wimpy fun to play. Added to that, I think they've got the levels of frustration about right to make it pretty addictive.

This is a version of the arcade game Burger Time, and you take the place of a chef desperately trying to find the ingredients required to make a beefburger. Numerous attempts are made to stop you fulfilling your cooking quest.

Stewart: Starts off slowly, but soon speeds up to an acceptable level. The graphics are a treat, and the burgers are actually burger-coloured, adding that extra touch of realism. A very nice game in all, but arcade games need to be better than brilliant nowadays.

Ryan: Very addictive, and lots of fun. Definitely worth the money.

Peter: After playing the game for some time, three short descriptions sprang to mind - very good, excellent, and b****y marvellous. Building burgers is great fun!

HAMBURGER INGREDIENTS ARE ELUSIVE

Mr Wimpy for the 48K Spectrum is an unusual product in more ways than one. Commissioned by Wimpy international, it is billed as the first British computer game to feature a promotional character, complete with company logo and advertising jingle.

Mr Wimpy manages to be an entertaining game in its own right. It has eight levels of difficulty and the first screen entails guiding Mr Wimpy across the screen with his tray to collect the ingredients he needs to make his hamburgers.

On his way, he has to avoid manholes which engulf him and the burger thief who darts about intent on upsetting his tray, compelling him each time to return to the start and collect another one. If he manages to assemble his ingredients, the next level brings out the kitchen rebels in the form of Oggy Egg and Syd Sos.

The game can be played with a joystick and if you are using the keyboard you are unlikely to be able to match the speed of most hamburger restaurants in taking food to the table. The action is extremely fast and steering Mr Wimpy across the screen and back again without mishap is a feat possible for only the very expert player.

Mr Wimpy is produced by Ocean, Ralli Building, Stanley Street, Manchester M3 5FD, and costs £5.90.

PARALYSED BY PEPPER!

If you think that a game called Mr Wimpy must mean another version Burgertime, then you're not wrong. But you're not exactly right, either.

The opening screen is original and quite good, but the remaining frames are just another version of Burgertime.

The first task in the game involves moving the ingredients from one side of the screen to another. You have to collect a tray and gather the cheese, ham and bun while avoiding Waldo the burger thief, and a group of flying manhole covers. No, I don't get it either!

Once you've gathered all the bits and pieces you get to the other screen, which is a pretty accurate copy of the Burgertime theme. The chef is replaced by Mr Wimpy, the logo used in their advertising. You are pursued by an egg, spoon and a sausage and you still have your supply of pepper.

The original Burgertime was written by Data East and was licensed for home use by Mattel, who produced a cartridge for the Intellivision.

The object is to build up the burgers at the bottom of the screen by walking over the ingredients so that they fall down a level.

If you pick up the ice cream or the cup of coffee then you get extra shakes of pepper, which is used to paralyse an enemy temporarily.

Burgertime is the same game, whatever you call it. But this is probably the best version around for the Spectrum.

It runs on a 48k machine and is available from Ocean Software for £5.90. It's a shame that they couldn't call it by its real name.

PASS THE SAUCE

MAKER: Ocean Software
MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £5.90

You can just imagine it, can't you: "Hello. Ocean Software? This is Wimpy International. We think too many people are staying at home playing with their micros and not out buying tons of our burgers. Run off a quick game. would you, starring our lovable mascot, and sell it to them. They're bound to fall for our subtle advertising ploy and come flooding back!" Thus we have Mr Wimpy, an eating experience over two screens that could put you off burgers for life. Your first task is to guide Mr Wimpy through the job of collecting the ingredients needed to make a burger, frustrated by a maniacal blob called Waldo who keeps stealing them from you. Successfully evade Waldo and you move onto screen two which is, naturally enough, a version of the Burger Time arcade game. Mr W dashes up and down ladders and across buns, meat, lettuce. etc, which drop down to make up complete burgers below. Antagonists in this section are Sid Sos, Pam Pickle and friends. Screen two makes a great game on its own and should have been accessed directly rather than having to go through the lacklustre screen one. Other features include: Joystick options, demo mode, high score and bonus time score. Machine code graphics are smooth and very good, sound is fine also. There are eight levels of difficulty in all. I think I'd prefer a double cheeseburger and a bag of soggy chips.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
JOYSTICK: Optional
CATEGORY: Arcade
SUPPLIER: ocean
PRICE: £5.90

A certain hamburger manufacturer may make 'the greatest burgers under the bun' but Ocean's game of Mr Wimpy is certainly one of the greatest games on the Spectrum.

As player, you take on the role of an animated Mr Wimpy whose only aim in life is to manufacture as many hamburgers as possible. You perform this task by collecting a tray from a serving hatch on the left hand side of the screen, and then moving to the right-hand hatch to collect the ingredients.

This is not as easy as it sounds since a character named Waldo is out to nick whatever you are carrying (perhaps Waldo is one of those teenage hooligans we read about in the papers).

To make it even harder, you have to avoid the moving manholes. Quite what moving manholes are doing in a hamburger store, I'm not quite sure, but they do get you rather annoyed when your last man has just fallen into one.

If you manage to complete a burger, Mr Wimpy moves on to screen two.

Now Mr Wimpy has to make the Wimpy burgers by walking over the top of the ingredients. and by making them fall into the trays at the base of the screen. Mr Wimpy's enemies on this level are the kitchen rebels: Sid Sos, Oggy Egg, Sam Spoon, and Pam Pickle.

If there is no way past the nasties, Mr Wimpy can use up one of his three pepper pots, which will enable him to get past the rebels. By picking up bonus gems, ice cream, or a cup of coffee. Mr Wimpy gets an extra pepper pot.

Ocean have got a winner with Mr Wimpy, with smooth graphics and excellent sound (including the 'Wimpy is the Home of the Hamburger' tune), and it will give many hours of fun.