Barmy Burgers

User Summary

Barmy Burgers was a very successful and fun platform game, being a clone of an arcade game BurgerTime. You move around the screen trying to knock down the ingredients to build burgers in the right order, avoiding the sausages and fried eggs chasing you. Game-play was fun but not too demanding and graphic design was basic.

Barmy Burgers is worth noting though because its success and fame epitomised the cottage industry of Spectrum games in the UK. Written by two teenagers, Gary Capewell and Gary Sewell, it was published by Blaby Computer Games, in Blaby, a small town in Leicestershire. This form of entrepreneurship sat very well with the Thatcherism of the 80s, a small company jumping up and capitalising on a new market. These small game publishers in turn hired printers, cassette duplicators, distribution, marketing, and that economic stimulus and business enterprise was a new experience for many Brits who had never tried running a business. Barmy Burgers is probably more famous for this sudden rise than for its actual game-play.