Frogger Arcade Game
Frogger - A True Arcade Classic
Frogger is an arcade game which was released waaaay back in 1981.
It was developed by those arcade giants Konami, and ended up being licensed for worldwide distribution by Sega.
For anyone who is not familiar with this classic of the genre, the object of the game is to direct frogs to their homes one at a time.
To do this, the player must ensure that each frog avoids cars while crossing a busy road and then navigate a river full of waterbound hazards.
This game is regarded as a classic from the golden age of video arcade games and was noted at the time for its novel gameplay and subject matter.
Frogger is still extremely popular and versions of it can be found on many Internet game sites such as Miniclip Games - and it remains a popular addition to the ranks of games online.
Many versions of it were released on home computers such as the ZX Spectrum, Acorn Electron, BBC Micro, Commodore 16, Commodore VIC 20 and Commodore 64 back in the day, so let's have a look a Frogger and many of it's versions...
Frogger - The Arcade Game
Frogger Gameplay
In the game the player begins with either with three, five, or seven frogs which count as lives.
The player guides a frog which begins at the bottom area of the game-screen. The lower half of the screen displays a roadway complete with moving vehicles. There are a large variety of vehicles to avoid such as trucks, buses, cars, JCB's, vans, cycles, motorbikes and even beach buggies!
The vehicles move horizontally over the roadway, from left-to-right and right-to-left depending on the 'side of the road'. It was nicely done.
The upper area of the game-screen consists of a river complete with logs and creatures such as turtles and deadly crocodiles. Again these creatures are moving horizontally across the screen.
The top-most portion of the game-screen contains five 'hidey holes' which are the destinations for each frog.
In classic arcade tradition each level is timed; so the player must move those frogs to their save havens quickly before the time limit expires.
On the original cabinet the only player control is a joystick which is of course used to move around each frog (one at a time naturally). Each joystick 'push' in any direction causes the frog to 'hop' once in that direction, by moving sort of '1 character square'.
On the bottom half of the screen, the player must successfully guide the frog between opposing lanes of trucks, cars, and other vehicles, to avoid becoming a squashed frog on the riverbank highway.
Once the river has been reached the frog can be moved to safety by jumping on swiftly moving logs and the backs of turtles (which do not eat the frogs). The frogs must not come into contact with any snakes, crocodiles or otters which live in the river, but may catch bugs or even escort a lady frog for nice bonus points.
When all five frogs are directed home, the game progresses to the next level, which is more difficult than the last.
After five levels, the game gets briefly 'easier' before becoming progressively harder to the next fifth level. Nasty!
The Frogger Arcade Cabinet
Frogger Items On Amazon
Watch out and keep those frogs safe!
There are many different ways to lose a life in Frogger, such as:
- Colliding with road vehicles (Splat!)
- Jumping into the river (I am not sure why this would kill a frog? Perhaps the water is heavily polluted! ;-))
- Coming into contact with snakes, otters or jumping into a crocodile's jaws in the river (Deadly!)
- Jumping into a home that is occupied by a crocodile (Just as deadly!)
- Sitting on top of a diving turtle for too long (It will submerge itself and of course - the water kills you!)
- Drifting off the edge of the game-screen by sitting on a log or turtle for too long (There is no wrap-around facility for our dear frogs!)
- Jumping into a home already occupied by a frog (Two's a crowd in this game)
- Jumping into the side area of a home or into the bushes (Even the bushes are deadly!)
- Running out of time before getting a frog safely home (That darned pesky time limit)
Frogger Player Modes and Cabinet
This game was available as a standard upright unit or as a cocktail cabinet.
The controls were very simple; a 4-direction joystick used to make the frog jump in each direction - and that's it. There was an option for two players to play, but the number of simultaneous players was only one.
Two player mode was turn-based.
Frogger The Arcade Game
Hopper On The BBC Micro - A Frogger Clone
Home Conversions of Frogger
Frogger was such a popular game it was converted to pretty much every home computer of the era.
Versions were available for the ZX Spectrum (although the official version of the Speccy was not very well done), C16, C64, BBC Micro, Oric Atmos and more.
See the videos below to make a visual comparison between home computer versions and the arcade original.
Frogger On The Commodore 64
Useful Retro Links
- Acorn Atom
The Atom was the ancestor to the BBC series of computers manufactured by Acorn - Acorn Electron
The Electron was an 8-bit Micro manufactured by Acorn - Aliens: Infestation
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The Amiga CD32 was released (gulp!) in September of 1993 - Amiga Games
The best in 16-bits - Amstrad CPC 464
During the 1980s entrepeneur Alan Sugar made a foray into the home computer market - Asteroids
Asteroids (along with the seminal Space Invaders) must be one of the most famous arcade games of all time - Astro Blaster
Astro Blaster was a table top arcade game - Astro Wars
Astro Wars was an electronic arcade game of the 'table top' variety - Atari Falcon
The Falcon was Atari's final home computer product before they concentrated on consoles such as the Jaguar - Atari ST
The Atari ST was a 16-bit home computer that was commercially available from 1985 through to the early 1990s - Awesome Graphics
Some awesome graphics were created on many retro computers - AY Music
Cool tunes - Bagman
Bagman was an arcade game released in 1982 by the lesser known Valadon Automation - Battlezone Arcade Game
The classic vector combat game from Atari - BBC Micro
A fine machine for the series user - Best PC Games
Best PC Gaming - get the best in online games - Centipede Arcade Game
Frantic blasting action from Atari - Commodore Amiga
We love the Commodore Amiga!!! - Crash Magazine
Crash magazine was one of the most popular monthly magazines available for the Speccy - Currah Microspeech
Hooray for Currah! They made plenty of useful gadgets - Funny Games
Games that made you chuckle - Games Online
Games Online - one of the phenomenons of the modern internet - Ground Zero
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Even Van Damme used this to hone his skills ;-) - Miniclip Games
Just what are Miniclip games? Well, if you are into games online then miniclip games might well be just for you - Missile Command Games
Missile Command (along with Space Invaders, Pac Man, and Asteroids) must be one of the most well know arcade games of all time - Ocean Software
Ocean Software was one of the biggest developers of games within Europe during the 1980s and 1990s - Pacman
For those retro gaming fans among us, who can forget the year of 1980 when Pac-man first appeared in the amusement arcades? - Paperboy Arcade Game
A classic game from '84 - Retro Arcade Games
Classic games that ate your loose change - Rolling Thunder Arcade Game
A classic side scrolling run n gun game from Namco - Scramble Games
Scramble must be one of the most famous arcade shoot em ups ever - Sinclair ZX Spectrum
We love the ZX Spectrum!!! - Sinclair Interface 2
The ZX Interface 2 was great for two players - Space Invaders
Space Invaders, an all time classic that really launched the genre of the shoot em up - Spectrum emulator
If you were an owner of a Sinclair ZX Spectrum back in the 1980s you probably hark back to those halcyon days of gaming - Tomy Sky Attack
Tomy Sky Attack was one of the first games released by Tomy who would manufacture quite a few other 3D type games - Vectrex
Wireframe smooth arcade action - ZX80
The Sinclair ZX80 - ZX81
The Sinclair ZX81 - ZX Spectrum Games
The best in 8-bits! - ZZap 64
ZZap 64 magazine was one of the most popular monthly magazines available covering the C64
Froggy On The ZX Spectrum
Frogger Arcade Features and Home Conversion
All of the usual arcade type features were present within Frogger.
The player's high score was displayed at the top of the screen and there was also a high score table which recored the top five scores.
This game was converted to nearly every 8-bit computer of the era such as the ZX81, ZX Spectrum, C16, C64, C128, Amstrad CPC 464, Oric 1, Oric Atmos, Acorn Electron and BBC Micro.
On each machine there were lots of unofficial ports which had similar sounding names such as Frog, Frogs Run, Froggy and so on.
The ZX Spectrum had roughly twenty versions developed for it - and programming magazines often featured a version of Frogger as a type-in BASIC program which was great for teaching simple game design and logic to budding coders.