Lost In Translation/Frogger

About The Game
Frogger is an arcade video game in which players move their frog from the bottom to the top of the screen. This is achieved by overcoming a number of hazards without getting run over or drowned.

The first half of the screen is bi-directional flow of traffic including buses, cars and race cars. Players must avoid these vehicles. Frogs can move safely with the flow of traffic to make their way to the second half of the screen, which consists of a river with fast moving logs and sinkable turtles. Frogs must hop on the backs of the logs and the sinkable turtles to get to the home base at the top of the screen. At random times throughout the game play, a lady frog will appear on a log. Bonus points are scored if the frog successfully hops on the back of the lady frog and escorts her safely home. A fly will also appear randomly in a home base. Bonus points can be scored if the frog hops in the home base when the fly is present. Sinking turtles also swiftly move across the river with the logs. If a frog is unsuccessful in hopping on a turtle's back, the frog will sink and drown. Crocodiles, snakes, and otters also roam the moving river waiting to eat frogs on their way up to the home base. Players can hop on their back (except the snake, whose touch is deadly), but they must avoid their open mouths. The frog must be lined up perfectly to enter one of the 5 home bases. Players must maneuver the frogs to their home base within the allotted time (60 beats on the timer).

The frog can move vertically or horizontally by maneuvering the joystick. Players must maneuver the frog swiftly and precisely without getting run over, drowned, or eaten by the creatures that roam the flowing river. Avoiding traffic, deadly snakes, otters, crocodiles, and the treacherous diving turtles make game action stimulating in Frogger.

Trivia
1981 was a big year in video games. A lot of companies were putting some pretty popular games on the market and it created a very competitive atmosphere as to what company was putting out the most popular ones. In addition, 1981 continued on the trend of the 'cute' type games such as "Ms. Pac-Man", "Qix", and a host of Pac-Man clones. Konami was already becoming a force to be reckoned with in the video gaming world. With such hits as "Space War", "Scramble", and "Super Cobra", Konami was making its mark. Frogger was originally released in Japan (June 1981) and it became a runaway hit. Sega were awarded the license to manufacture the game in the United States (October 1981) and it was the first major hit for this company (in 1982, "Lost In Translation/Zaxxon|Zaxxon]]" became their number one game).

The sound that can be heard when a coin is inserted into the machine was sampled by producer Richard X for the Sugababes' song, 'Freak Like Me' (and is the very first sound on the track).

Frogger has numurous bugs, although many of these are not immediately apparent to the average player :
 * 1) Sections of the music will occasionally cut out, although the main melody will continue to play.
 * 2) On occasion, Frogger displays a somewhat haphazard approach to collision detection. One side effect of this is that the player can sometimes make a perfectly legal and safe jump and still lose a life. Another side effect of this is that the player can jump up onto the first row of turtles, and then immediately jump back. This will place the player 'off the grid', and it is now possible to jump right off the side of the screen, leading to a loss of life.
 * 3) There are several other odd jumps that can be made as well. Firstly, the player can 'hang off' the left side of a turtle, but attempting to do the same on the right side results in death. If the player jumps onto a home base with an alligator (and the 'gator vanishes after you jump, but before the player lands), Frogger will be killed, but he will ALSO make it home. Finally, left and right jumps on the top row of logs are sometimes much slower than usual - this is more likely to occur after previously eating a fly.
 * 4) Another in-game bug is that the lady frog will sometimes be invisible, but will flash red when the player jumps onto the spot where she is.

Mark Robichek holds the official record for this game with 442,330 points.

A Frogger unit appears in the 1999 movie 'Magnolia'.

A bootleg of this game runs on the "Moon Cresta" hardware.

A bootleg of this game is known as "Frog".

Frogger inspired a catchy hit song by Buckner and Garcia called 'Froggy's Lament' released on the 'Pac-Man Fever' album.

The TV show, Seinfeld, has an episode named 'The Frogger'. George and Jerry are in Mario's Pizza which is closing down, and they find a Frogger game still there. They realize that the high score of 860,630 points has George's initials GLC [George Louis Costanza]. They reminisce about the night it happened : "I was unstoppable!... Just the right amount of grease on the joystick". George decides to buy the Frogger machine to immortalize his high score, but Jerry informs him that unplugging the game will erase all of the scores. Later, George tries in vain to call an electrician to help : "I need a guy that can rig a Frogger machine so that I can move it without losing power, 'cause I have the high score. H-hello?". Kramer suggests an electrician who can help. George says, "Kramer, listen to me. I'm never gonna have a child. If I lose this Frogger high score, that's it for me". George assembles a team and hatches a plan to salvage the game. But when he arrives, he finds the team playing the game, which has only three minutes of battery life left. They can't get it back in the closed pizzeria, but there is an open pharmacy across the street where it could be plugged in. George decides to push the machine across the highway, and an overhead shot of this feat looks much like the Frogger game itself, and the music from the game is played. At the end, George is unable to push the game onto the sidewalk and it gets destroyed by an oncoming truck.

MB (Milton Bradley) released a board game based on this video game (same name) the same year, 'One Wrong Leap Will Get You Squished And Splattered' : in this version of the game, 2 players face off, each with their own army of frogs, logs, and automobiles. Each turn, a player spends his movement points either moving his frogs toward their goal (the other side of the board), or moving logs and cars in an attempt to block or squash the other player's frogs. Complete with 'bonus points' for landing on flies, this is actually a pretty faithful interpretation of the video-game; but far too simple to have any long-lasting interest. More of a curiosity for video game enthusiasts than anything.

Frogger also spawned a cartoon series of the same name : Ruby-Spears Productions. Produced By Joe Ruby, Ken Spears. Originally aired September 17, 1983 as part of 'Saturday Supercade' on CBS.

Scoring

 * Forward Hop : 10 points (max points per home is 100)
 * Frog Safely Put in Home : 50 points
 * Completing a Level : 1000 points
 * Bringing a Frog to Your Home : 200 points
 * Eating a Fly : 200 points
 * You also get a time bonus of 10 x the remaining seconds added to your score.

Tips and tricks

 * When you start the game, your frog will start at the bottom of the screen. You will have 60 seconds to move your frog up 10 spaces and successfully put it in their home. If you are successful, then you will try to put a frog in the next home and so on until you fill up all five homes with frogs. When you do this, you progress to the next level.


 * Note the traffic flow of the 2 parts. The cars travel on the roadway from left to right while the logs, turtles, crocodiles, etc. travel on the water lanes in the following direction :
 * 1) Lanes #1, #3, and #5 go from right to left.
 * 2) Lanes #2 and #4 go from left to right.


 * First, you must cross the highway. You will become road kill if a vehicle hits you or you hit a vehicle. Try to find 'lanes' in between the vehicles. You must plan for gaps to form in the first three lanes so you don't become trapped. The vehicles in the first three lanes move slowly enough that you can jump side to side with reasonable safety.


 * Lane #4 is the dangerous lane. Depending on how much time you are taking, the cars may pick up speed even though it shows slow on the chart. Keep this in mind when you are moving your frog.


 * At level 3, a snake will either be in the median or on the log in water lane #3. The snake is deadly to your frog and you cannot hop over it.


 * The turtles are pretty easy to navigate over in water lanes #1 and #4. Be wary of the diving turtles and only use them as a quick bypass to a more solid footing. If your frog is on a diving turtle when it dives, your frog will drown.


 * Again, time your jumps to coincide with the logs and turtles to ensure you will always have a solid footing to jump to. As the levels progress, you will have less things you can jump to.


 * You can jump on the backs of the crocodiles and otters. Just don't get near their mouths or they are apt to turn your frog into a meal.


 * You may see a purple frog hopping around on the log in water lane #2. Just cross over this frog to give it a piggyback ride to your home and get an extra 200 points.


 * Watch out for the snakes, they sometimes like to ride on the logs. If you see a snake on a log, jump back to solid footing.


 * Your frog cannot 'wrap-around' the screen so make sure you bail off before that footing disappears off the edge of the screen or your frog will come out the other side in a squished condition.


 * By that same token, if you have the time and necessary footing, you can hold out until the fly appears in your home before you settle your frog in. That's another 200 points.


 * Try to fill in the two end homes before going for the middle. The hardest home to get into is the left-hand one (home #1) since everything in lane #5 goes from right to left up here. This may have to bounce back to lane #4 so you can get a good shot at your home.


 * Speaking of getting your frogs into their homes. You must hit exact center or your frog will die. Also, keep in mind that crocodiles like to randomly appear in your home. Make sure that your home is clear before trying to settle your frog down into it.


 * Again, if you waste too much time, the things on the river will move quicker so you will have to adjust your strategy accordingly.


 * When the game is playing in demo mode, you can control the frog. When the frog reaches water lane #4, you can control the frog's movements until you move either up or down.


 * If you jump into your home at the same time the crocodile is leaving your home, you will be credited with making to your home but you will still lose a frog in the process.


 * You can dangle your frog from the left side of the turtles but not the right side.


 * Your side to side movements in water lane #5 may be slow and sluggish.


 * The purple frog will sometimes be invisible. The only time you know its there is when you jump on it. It will then ride on your back to your home.

Series

 * 1) Frogger (1981)
 * 2) Frogger II - Three Deep (1984, Colecovision)
 * 3) Frogger [Unreleased Prototype] (1991, Sega Game Gear)
 * 4) Frogger 2 - Swampy's Revenge (2000, PC CD-ROM, Sony PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast)
 * 5) Frogger's Adventures Temple of the Frog (2001, Nintendo Game Boy Advance)
 * 6) Frogger's Adventures 2 - The Lost Wand (2002, Nintendo Game Boy Advance)
 * 7) Frogger - The Great Quest (2002, PC CD-ROM, Sony PlayStation 2)
 * 8) Frogger Beyond (2003, PC CD-ROM, Microsoft XBOX, Nintendo GameCube)
 * 9) Frogger's Adventures: The Rescue (2003, PC CD-ROM, Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2)
 * 10) Frogger - Ancient Shadow (2005, Microsoft XBOX, Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube)
 * 11) Frogger Helmet Chaos (2005, Nintendo DS, Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2)
 * 12) My Frogger Toy Trials (2007, Nintendo DS)

Ports

 * Consoles :
 * Magnavox Odyssey 2 (1982)
 * Colecovision (1982)
 * Atari 2600 (1982)
 * Mattel Intellivision (1983)
 * Atari 5200 (1983)
 * Atari XEGS
 * Sony PlayStation (1997)
 * Nintendo Game Boy (1998)
 * Nintendo Game Boy Advance (2002, "Konami Collectors Series - Arcade Advanced")
 * Microsoft XBOX 360 (2006, as a downloadable Live Arcade game)


 * Computers :
 * Sinclair ZX81 (1981, "Frogger" - Sega)
 * Atari 800 (1982)
 * Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1983, "Froggy" - DJL Software)
 * PC [Booter] (1983)
 * PC [Booter] (1983, "Hopper", a part of "Friendlyware PC Arcade" suite)
 * Tandy Color Computer (1983)
 * Apple II (1983)
 * Commodore C64 (1983)
 * PC [MS-DOS] (1983)
 * MSX (1983)
 * Acorn Electron (1984, "Hopper")
 * Amstrad CPC (1985, "Froggy")
 * Oric I ("Hopper")
 * Commodore VC20 ("Menagerie")
 * PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (1997)


 * Others :
 * VFD handheld game (19?? - GCL (Computer Games Limited))
 * VFD handheld game (1981 - Coleco)
 * VFD handheld game (19?? - Gakken)
 * Radio Shack LCD handheld (1996, "Frog Crossing")
 * Tiger Game.Com (1999)
 * Frogger Plug 'n Play TV Game (2004 - Majesco)
 * Konami Arcade Advanced Plug 'n Play TV Game (2004 - Majesco)