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Fun-Filled Facts

While I wish I had a history of this outstanding arcade videogame, in fact, I do not. Instead, I'd like to present some trivia about the game that the casual player may not know or have bothered to record.

NOTE: New additions are at the end of the page!

• Food Fight was released in 1982 by Atari, Inc., at that time still one of the leaders in arcade games with such hits of the era as Pole Position, Dig Dug and Star Wars, many of which were licensed from other game makers such as Japan's Namco. In 1982, the videogame era was still moving along strongly, and videogame arcades could be found virtually everywhere in malls and strip retail centers.
  
  Atari virtually invented the videogame; while its Pong was not the first such game, it was the most widely known of its type, and generally considered the game that launched the industry. Atari's fortunes rose and fell with and through arcade games, home videogames, and home computing. Atari was eventually split into two companies, Atari, Inc., and Atari Games. Only one survives today.
  
  The former Atari used to manufacture Jaguar, a home videogame system, and Lynx, and handheld portable videogame system. In most respects, it's probably fair to say that this Atari had continued in the tradition of the Atari 7800 and its older siblings for the home market, though their systems have been rather completely overshadowed by the Asian trio (Sony, Nintendo and Sega) and the considerable marketing clout that the three have. This Atari was sucked-up by the massive Hasbro toy operation in 1998 as part of Hasbro Interactive, and the Atari name is now seriously downplayed. (You'll still see the logo on some merchandise, however.)
  
  The latter Atari is the maker of arcade (coin operated) videogames even today, and now a division of Midway, which was itself once owned by Bally, the company known for its fitness clubs and gambling machines. Judging by changes made recently to their web site, Midway appears to be downplaying the Atari name to some extent. An interesting Atari company historical milestones page is now gone, for example, along with all the other Atari-specific pages other than a "arcade games released" page.
  
  In any event, Atari Games is the closest analog to the old Atari. In addition to arcade games, they create software for the home market as well (consoles and PCs), though a lot of that is licensed to others.
  
  Both companies use the name Atari, and both use the Atari logo that dates back nearly two decades (though as I said, this is occurring less frequently since the Hasbro acquisition).
  
  I think it's unfortunate that Atari, a name that once was practically synonymous with videogame excellence, has been broken into pieces, bought and sold like a cheap whore, and now means little. Alas, Atari lives on mostly in the fond memories of those of us who grew-up in the company's heyday.
  
  
• It's not particularly clear to outsiders like me who owns what today between the two Ataris (okay, Atari and Hasbro). Both appear to license and cross-license and sub-license these old properties to death, especially since "remakes" of them (such as Frogger, Centipede, Battlezone, etc.) have become big business with big bucks attached. My point is that I truly have no idea who actually owns the Food Fight name and other intellectual properties today. Probably Hasbro.
  
  
• My understanding is that Food Fight was created by General Computer Corporation (GCC) of Cambridge, Massachusetts. According to a 1984 article in Computer Games magazine, GCC got into the business of marketing kits to speed-up Atari's Missile Command game. When Atari sued the company, the parties settled, and as part of that settlement, Atari received the rights to both Quantum and Food Fight, two games GCC was working on for a planned entry into the game development market.
  
  
• Food Fight never gained a great deal of popularity (though it was released as a cartridge for the Atari 7800 home videogame system). Personally, I have no idea why, since its simple but unique concept and exciting game play was a blast. One possibility is that the game, in my opinion, really drags initially. You need to play several quarter's worth of games and use the level advance feature when starting a new game to get to levels where it'll keep somebody's attention and raise your blood pressure like a decent videogame always should. (Doctors may disagree with me on this last point!)
  
  Here in Denver, I had just graduated high school when Food Fight was released, and there was precisely one Food Fight machine I knew of: it was located at Chubby Chuckles pizza and game center, Southwest Plaza Mall, Littleton, Colorado (a place I'd eventually work as an assistant manager in the arcade). Chubby's is long gone today (though ironically an arcade opened-up again in the same space a few years ago), and I never have seen a single other Food Fight machine anywhere else, either then, or since. Not a single, solitary game.
  
  But it was at Chubby's that I got so totally addicted to Food Fight, and played the game with my friend at the time, Arnold Brassell (who, by the way, I'm actively trying to locate after losing contact with him). I would easily beat Arnold at the game every time, but we'd still both feed quarters into this thing like nobody's business. (Do you know the whereabouts of an Arnold Brassell who lived in the Denver area in the mid to late 1980s? We worked together at Red Robin, and he later managed a Chili's restaurant in Denver, or so I'm told. If you know where he is, please contact me!)
  
  
• The levels in the game are numbered. Each digit corresponds to a flavor of ice cream or sherbet, and is used to color the ice cream cone in the game (Charley Chuck's goal) as well as to provide names for the levels. They are as follows:
  
  

  1	Vanilla (Ice Cream)
  2	Chocolate (Ice Cream)
  3	Strawberry (Ice Cream)
  4	Pistachio (Ice Cream)
  5	Orange Sherbet
  6	Lime Sherbet
  7	Black Raspberry (Ice Cream? Sherbet?)
  8	Lemon Sherbet
  9	Raspberry Sherbet
  0	Coffee (Ice Cream)

  These are combined starting at level 10, which is Vanilla (the 1) and Coffee (the 0), so Coffee ice cream is the only one that doesn't show up without being combined with another flavor as a "double dip." Level 100 starts "triple dip" cones in the same manner.
  
  You can get some really rank combinations, like level 40, Pistachio and Coffee. (Ick.)
  
  It's never stated whether Black Raspberry is ice cream or sherbet, probably only because of its long name. Someone at Atari or GCC must have liked Raspberry since it's used twice (Black and regular).
  
  

• The highest level in Food Fight is Level 125. If you reach it, levels will no longer increment in number, but you continue to play normally. The food featured in each subsequent level appears to be random, instead of following the normal sequence (which I outline below).
  
  
• If you have more than 11 Charley Chucks, they are represented by only one Chuck picture on the bottom right of the screen, with the number of Chucks shown as digits to the left of Chuck's head.
  
  
• There are five food items in the game: peas, pies, tomatoes, bananas and watermelon. I suppose the ice cream cone counts as a food item, but it's not one you throw. All the foods are in piles that deplete as they are thrown, except the watermelon, which can be thrown as long as you can hold out.
  
  Not all foods are available on all levels. Some levels feature only one food, and levels evenly divisible by 5 are the only ones that feature watermelon. Levels ending in 5 (e.g., 5, 15, 25, 35, etc.) are the only ones that have watermelon only; the even levels divisible by 5 (e.g., 10, 20, 30, 40, etc.) have it combined with other foods.
  
  
• The food items are not the same. Here's how:
  
  

  Peas	Best food for short distances, because the peas spread out and make it easy to hit a chef. But they don't travel very far. Make sure you're nowhere near when a chef throws them, or you're practically guaranteed to get hit with 'em.
  Pies	Maximum range, but pies have only a medium swath making them somewhat more difficult to make a hit than some of the others.
  Tomatoes	Maximum range, but like pies, has only a medium swath.
  Bananas	Maximum range, widest swath. The most effective of the basic foods over the widest range of circumstances. This also means they're dangerous to you when the chefs toss them.
  Watermelon	The biggest trait of watermelon is they never go away, even if you sit on one and throw pieces of it for the whole level. Watermelon only comes up every 5th level. Other than that, roughly the same as pies in terms of swath and range. Because they don't go away, they're particularly dangerous in the hands of the chefs, who can lob dozens of them at you in a virtual shower of watermelon pieces.

  
  

• The levels in the game proceed in a defined order with respect to which foods are available to throw, as follows:
  
  

  1 through 4	Mixed Food
  5	Watermelon
  6	Banana
  7	Mixed Food
  8	Peas
  9	Mixed Food
  10	Mixed Food w/ Watermelon
  11	Tomatoes
  12	Mixed Food
  13	Pies
  14	Mixed Food
  15	Same as Level 5
  16	Same as Level 6
  ...	...

  
  

• Bonus points received by eating the ice cream cone and finishing a level are equal to the level number times 500. For example, Level 1 is 500 points, Level 2 is 1,000 points, and so on, up to Level 50 which is 25,000 points. From then on out, it's 25,000 points per level.
  
  
• The chefs (Oscar, Angelo, Jacques and Zorba) each have slightly different behaviors. The most noteworthy among them is Oscar, whose standard behavior is to generally skip coming after you (Charley Chuck) in favor of playing guard by blocking you from the ice cream cone. More often than not, unless you're lucky enough to see Oscar fall into an open hole, you'll have to plaster him with a piece of food in order to finish a level.
  
  
• If you're holding onto a piece of food when you eat the cone, you'll carry it to the next level, which often yields an advantage. Highly recommended to do when you can.
  
  
• It was rumored at the time that the initials in the high score table that comes up when the game is first powered-up are the initials of key developers on the Food Fight project, a common practice at the time, since most game companies (including Atari) did not give on-screen credit by name to the game authors. (I have no idea whether this is actually true.)
  
  
• As I mentioned previously, Food Fight was released for the Atari 7800 home videogame system. While I've never played it, rumor has it that it was a reasonably faithful interpretation of the game considering the 7800's "crude-by-today's standards" graphics. One limiting factor, however, was the 7800's 8-way joystick. (With an arcade emulator, I find it next to impossible to do well with the game using an 8-way stick, such as a gamepad; a true analog stick is pretty much a requirement, so I can't imagine playing it on the 7800 with that limitation.)
  
  
• I had heard a rumor that Food Fight is coming out for PlayStation and Nintendo 64 as a member of a second Atari classics collection to be released by Midway Games' home videogame division. Alas, it's not to be, at least not for now. Midway announced both the Atari and Midway #2 collections, and Food Fight isn't part of the plan. Considering that these companies seem to be motivated by the popularity of emulation, and are wanting to cash-in on the retro craze, I can only hope that Food Fight will surface eventually in an officially blessed retro home edition. Stay tuned. (And hey, Midway! Now's the time guys! Consider at least one copy pre-sold – to me!)
  
  
• Speaking of Chuck's head (were we?), does he have a receding hairline or not? When you play the game, the character you're moving with the joystick has hair on the top of his head.
  
  However, look at the lower-right hand side of the screen... The Chucks that are lined-up there (representing how many "lives" you have left) are missing hair on top.
  
  Does Chuck need dome polish or doesn't he? The world may never know...
  
  
• While we're on the subject, ever notice Chuck's body shape? The picture on the right shows what I'd look like if I were similarly proportioned, including Chuck's enormous bug eyes. This reminds me of discussions about Barbie dolls and their relative, scaled proportions... But I was amused by the result just the same. (Gawd I'm glad I'm not really proportioned like our hero...)
  
  
• I've been asked under what circumstances the "Instant Replay" comes-up. As near as I can tell through observation and more hours of game play than I care to confess to, the Instant Reply is activated by approximately six (6) "near misses" with flying food thrown by the chefs. Near misses of almost running into chefs, and/or open holes, doesn't appear to count... Only barely sliding by the food coming at you. When that happens enough (and the number may or may not be six times), you'll get the Instant Replay. So just because you have a particularly exciting round, or perhaps one in which you used-up most of the food, or maybe one where you took until the last seconds of the ice cream cone melting to complete the level, doesn't mean you'll get an Instant Replay (something that confused me for a long time, to be honest).
  
  

Got More?

Do you have your own interesting facts or tidbits about Food Fight? Let me know.

Content unique to this web site, Copyright © 1998, 1999 Alan D. Bryant, all rights reserved.

Screens, characters, and other game elements, Copyright © 1982, 1998 Atari Games (formerly Atari, Inc.), a wholly owned subsidiary of Midway Games, Inc., and/or their heirs and assigns, all rights reserved. "Food Fight" is a trademark of Atari Games.

DISCLAIMER: I do not condone or encourage software piracy. Use of computer system emulators is legal, but possession or use of copyrighted software, including disk-based images of software ROMs for use in emulators, is subject to license, and the lack of such license may subject the violator to prosecution under civil and/or criminal statutes.