When Peter Pepper walks the length of an ingredient (bun, meat patty, tomato, etc.), it falls one level. If it lands atop another ingredient, the latter in turn falls one level. A burger is completed when all vertically aligned ingredients have been dropped out of the maze and onto a waiting plate. Once all burgers are completed, the screen is finished.

While making burgers, Peter Pepper must deal with three enemies: Mr. Hot Dog, Mr. Pickle, and Mr. Egg. Enemies can be dodged, killed, or temporarily stunned. Killing occurs when an ingredient is dropped atop an enemy, or when support for an ingredient is completely removed and the enemy falls with the piece. In the latter case, the piece will fall much farther than normal, depending on how many enemies are on it. Scoring depends heavily on killing enemies. The more enemies killed with a single sequence of falling ingredients, the higher the score. Therefore, to obtain the best score the player must endanger Peter Pepper by allowing more than one enemy to move onto the ingredient the player is on, just before the player drops it.

Peter Pepper has pepper shots to shake on nearby enemies to stun and render them harmless for a few seconds. Extra shots are obtained by collecting bonus foods, such as coffee, an ice cream cone, or French fries, which appear in the center of the maze when a certain number of ingredients have dropped.

In Burgertime, the player controls Chef Peter Pepper in his quest to make gourmet hamburgers while avoiding the evil foods in his kitchen. Hot Dogs, Eggs, and Pickles are on the rampage and the chef only has his salt and pepper shaker to defend himself. Chef Pepper scores by walking over sections of hamburgers causing them to descend. The player completes the level by completing all of the hamburgers.

As Chef Peter Pepper, you must fend off the Food Foes while making perfect burgers! Use pinches of pepper to stun Mr. Hot Dog, Mr. Egg, and Mr. Pickle; or lure them onto or under burger buns, lettuce cheese or tomatoes to escape their clutches! Making perfect burgers gets progressively tougher through the six screens of BurgerTime.

action game made in 1990