Playing the game[edit]
In Food Fight, the player must maneuver Charley Chuck, controlled by a joystick, from the right of the screen through piles of food, to the left side where he must eat an ice cream cone. Crossing a pile arms you with one piece of food to be thrown at one of four chefs. The chefs also try to hit Chuck with food, so you must watch them to see if they are picking up anything to throw.
Fortunately you are given a huge advantage in that Chuck can just stand on a pile of food and throw in any direction at machine gun speed. You can actually knock out chefs faster than they can come back on the screen to fight again, although you can only throw until all of the food in a pile is gone.
The chefs—Oscar, Angelo, Jacques, and Zorba—appear from holes in the floor. These holes are actually slits, and some are filled in with a light grey color. These are safe to move across. The others—those that aren't filled in—are dangerous, and you will lose a turn if you let Chuck fall in one.
Points and lives[edit]
The first Chuck is usually awarded at 25,000 or 30,000 points (depending on how the machine is set.) But, of course, Atari limited the number of extras that you can save up.
Point scoring can be high in Food Fight. The first chef hit is worth 100 points, and this increases by 100 points with each chef hit until the maximum values of 1000 points for each chef hit is reached. This makes it well worth knocking off as many chefs as possible before eating the ice cream cone and going to the next level. Also, each piece of leftover food at the end of a level is worth 100 points so missed throws cost you 100 potential points.
The ice cream cone is worth 500 points times the level number; on the first level it is worth 500 points, on the tenth level it is worth 5000 points, and on the 50th level it is worth 25,000 points. The value of an ice cream cone stops increasing at Level 50, so every ice cream cone thereafter is worth 25,000 points.
Strategy[edit]
The ice cream cone begins melting as soon as the level begins. If all of the ice cream melts, you will lose a turn, so the best thing to do is to get over to the piles of food that are nearest to the cone and begin hitting chefs. Before the ice cream melts, a warning signal will let you know to eat the cone. Keep a piece of food in your hand when you eat the cone—it will carry over to the next level.
This becomes very important on high levels where things begin to move really fast, and the chefs can get over to piles of food and become armed before you can. If there is a chef between Chuck and the nearest pile, you can wipe him out with the food you carried in from the last level. Once on this nearest pile, you should knock out the rest of the chefs and use the short time that it takes for them to pop back up through the holes to advance toward the cone.
One thing you should watch closely for is Oscar, the chef with the large rounded hat. He tries to get between Chuck and the cone, and if he manages this there is no way around him—other than to plaster his face with a cream pie or some tomato. The other chefs, however, aren't as clever as Oscar and tend to get in behind you or trap you against a wall or in the corner.
Levels and food[edit]
As with many Atari games, you can choose which level you wish to start on. Try starting on the first level so you can play a little longer and get used to the games. On Level 1 there are only two chefs and they won't pick up any food, so you can run around a bit and pick off these two at will. Things move slowly on Level 1, so you probably won't accumulate much of a score there.
The second level has three chefs, and they can carry food and throw it. Starting with Level 3, all four chefs are present, and they can all carry and throw food.
Level 5 is a watermelon board. Watermelons have an interesting property; Chuck can stand on one and throw watermelon pieces all day—the supply never runs out. This is an excellent board to knock off as many chefs as possible. There's almost enough time to get an extra Chuck on a watermelon level, but it's not possible, so it's not a good idea to stay on a watermelon board hunting 1000 point chefs. However, if you have the maximum number of Chucks in storage and can win one more by playing the watermelon level one more time, it's worth killing off a Chuck to gain points. But with extra Chucks awarded every 1000,000 points or more, this can't be done indefinitely.
The only other food to look for is green piles of peas. Try not to use the peas if it's possible to use something else, because peas spread out when thrown and won't go as far as the other foods. Watermelons also begin to show up on boards with other food (not just on watermelon boards), so always look for watermelons to stand on. Beware of Oscar and always eat your ice cream, and you'll soon be a top-flight food fighter.