How to play Food Fight online
- Move Charley: arrow keys
- Throw food: Z or X (either button). Charley throws in the direction you are pushing, so watch his eyes and arms.
- Choose one or two players: up and down on the arrow keys, or F2 (Select), on the title screen
- Choose the difficulty: left and right (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced or Expert)
- Level select: F3 (Reset) or a fire button opens it; pick a starting level from 1 to 16 with left and right, then press fire to begin.
- Pause and resume: F4
- Full screen: F9
Both the USA (NTSC) and European (PAL) releases are on this page; use the switch to choose.
Gameplay
Charley Chuck loves to eat, so at the carnival he heads straight for the Food Fight contest. Each level puts him on one side of the screen and an ice cream cone on the other, and he has 32 seconds to eat it before it melts.
Between him and the cone are piles of food and open manholes. The chefs Angelo and Zorba climb out of the holes in the first level, Oscar joins them in level 2 and Jacques in level 3. Charley grabs food by running over a pile and throws it at the chefs. A hit knocks a chef out, and chefs can also be lured into manholes, but they always climb back out within seconds. Charley loses a life if a chef touches him, flying food hits him, he falls into a manhole or the cone melts.
Later levels bring more manholes and food piles in new positions, and after level 6 the cone moves too. Depending on the level, Charley has between three and eight lives. Play a very close round and the game shows you an instant replay of it.
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| Hitting chefs with food | 100 for the first, rising by 100 each time, up to 1000 from the tenth chef on |
| Making a chef fall into a manhole | 200 |
| Eating the cone | 500 for the first, rising by 500 each level, up to 25,000 at level 50 |
| Each piece of food left on screen | 100 |
You get an extra life at 25,000 points and then every 100,000 points.
Tips
- Watch the chefs’ colours. When a chef is blue or yellow, he cannot hurt Charley.
- Carry ammunition with you. If Charley is holding food when he eats the cone, he keeps it for the next level.
- Leave food behind. Every piece still on screen when you finish is worth a bonus, so don’t throw more than you need.
- Run for the cone on higher levels. Its value keeps climbing.
The story behind Food Fight
Food Fight was made by General Computer Corporation (GCC), the company that also created Ms. Pac-Man and designed the chips inside the Atari 7800. GCC’s work for Atari started with a lawsuit: Atari sued the company over a speed-up kit it sold for Missile Command machines, and the case was settled with an agreement for GCC to develop games for Atari. Food Fight was released in arcades in 1983. Only 1,951 cabinets were sold.
The 7800 cartridge was one of the 13 games announced with the console in 1984 and came out in 1986, the same year as a cartridge for the Atari 8-bit computers. A version for the 2600 was cancelled. The 7800 port has a curious quirk: in rare cases Charley can be hit during an instant replay. When that happens the game shows “ALMOST MADE IT” and gives back the life it just took.
