Pressure Cooker is a cooking video game for the Atari 2600 that puts the player in the role of a chef tasked with assembling hamburgers according to customers’ orders. As hamburgers move through an oven and onto a conveyor belt, the player must catch the appropriate toppings for each order and place them on the burger.
The player must pay attention to the orders displayed on a chart at the bottom of the screen. Once a burger is assembled with the correct toppings, the player needs to catch the top bun, place it on the burger, and then drop the completed burger into the corresponding colored slot. When all the slots are filled, the level ends, and the player receives bonus points for remaining performance points and for every burger successfully completed.
At the start of the game, the player has 50 performance points. However, points can be lost due to errors such as:
- Being hit in the back or side with a flying topping (-1 point)
- Allowing a flying topping to hit the wall (-1 point)
- Placing the same topping on the same burger twice (-1 point)
- Dropping the burger into the wrong slot or missing a slot altogether (-5 points)
- Allowing a burger to fall off the conveyor belt (-10 points)
The game is over when the player loses all their performance points. Pressure Cooker provides an engaging and challenging experience that tests the player’s speed and accuracy in assembling burgers according to the customers’ preferences.