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About Frogger

Frogger Arcade Screenshot
Frogger Arcade Screenshot

Frogger is a classic arcade game, developed by Konami in 1981. The object of the game is to help your character (the frog) cross from the bottom of the screen to the top.

The game starts with three, five, or seven frogs (lives), depending on the settings used by the operator. The player guides a frog which starts at the bottom of the screen, to his home in one of 5 slots at the top of the screen. The lower half of the screen contains a road with motor vehicles, which in various versions include cars, trucks, buses, dune buggies, bulldozers, vans, taxis, bicyclists, and/or motorcycles, speeding along it horizontally. The upper half of the screen consists of a river with logs, alligators, and turtles, all moving horizontally across the screen. The very top of the screen contains five "frog homes" which are the destinations for each frog. Every level is timed; the player must act quickly to finish each level before the time expires.

The only player control is the 4 direction joystick used to navigate the frog; each push in a direction causes the frog to hop once in that direction. 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 roadkill.

The middle of the screen, after the road, contains a median where the player must prepare to navigate the river.

By jumping on swiftly moving logs and the backs of turtles and alligators except the alligator jaws, the player can guide his or her frog safely to one of the empty lily pads. The player must avoid alligators sticking out at one of the five "frog homes", snakes, and otters in the river, but may catch bugs or escort a lady frog for bonuses. When all five frogs are directed home, the game progresses to the next level, with increased difficulty. After five levels, the game gets briefly easier yet again gets progressively harder to the next fifth level.

The game was originally going to be titled "Highway Crossing Frog," but the executives at Sega felt it did not capture the true nature of the game and was changed simply to "Frogger". In addition to inspiring numerous clones, this game inspired an unofficial sequel by Sega in 1991 called Ribbit which featured improved graphics and simultaneous two-player action.

POINTS
Successful forward jump
10 points
Getting a frog home
50 points
For each remaining clock beat
10 points
Escorting a lady frog home
200 points
Catching a fly
200 points
Getting all five frogs home
1000 points

Frogger Sequals

The original game has been ported to a wide variety of home systems for personal use over the years. Official sequals to the original game are all listed below:

  • Frogger II: ThreeeDeep! (1984)
  • Frogger (1997)
  • Frogger (Tiger Electronic) (1998, LCD Game)
  • Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge (2000)
  • Frogger: The Great Quest (2001)
  • Frogger's Adventures: Temple of the Frog (2001)
  • Frogger Advance: The Great Quest (2002)
  • Frogger Beyond (2002)
  • Frogger's Adventures 2: The Lost Wand (2002)
  • Frogger's Journey: The Forgotten Relic (2003)
  • Frogger's Adventures: The Rescue (2003)
  • Frogger: Ancient Shadow (2005)
  • Frogger: Helmet Chaos (2005)
  • Frogger Puzzle (2005)
  • Frogger's 25 Anniversary (Xbox 360) (2006)
  • Frogger 25th, Frogger Evolution (mobile game) (2006)
  • My Frogger Toy Trials (Nintendo DS) (2006)
  • Frogger Launch (2007)
  • Frogger Hop Trivia (arcade) (2007)
  • Frogger 2 (Xbox 360) (2008), the third game to call itself "Frogger 2", for Xbox Live Arcade
  • Frogger Returns (Wii/PlayStation 3) (2009)
  • Frogger Beats 'n' Bounces (2008)
  • Frogger Inferno (iOS) (2010)
  • Frogger (Windows Phone) (2010)
  • Frogger 3D (Nintendo 3DS) (2011)
  • Frogger Decades (iOS) (2011)
  • Frogger Free (iOS) (2011)
  • Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition (Wii) / (PlayStation 3) / (Xbox 360) (2012)
  • "Frogger Free" (iPhone/ Android) (2012)
  • Frogger's Crackout (Windows Store) (September 11, 2013)

In the United States, Frogger was licensed by Sega to multiple companies for conversion: Parker Brothers held ROM-cartridge rights, while Sierra On-Line held magnetic-media rights. Several platforms were capable of accepting both ROM cartridges and magnetic media, thus these systems received multiple versions of the game. Sierra also sublicensed their magnetic-media rights to developers who published for systems not normally supported by Sierra; because of this, even the Atari 2600 received multiple releases: a cartridge from Parker Bros. and a cassette for the Supercharger from Starpath.

Game Details

Developer
Konami
Publisher
Sega/Gremlin
Platform
Arcade
Release Date
1981
Genre
Overhead View Action
Mode
Up to 2 players, alternating turns
Input methods
4-way joystick
Cabinet
Upright
CPU
Z80 (@ 3.072 MHz)
Sound
Sound CPU: Z80 (@ 1.78975 MHz); Sound Chips: AY8910 (@ 1.78975 MHz)
Display
Raster, 224 x 256 pixels (Vertical), 99 colors
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