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The Official Frogger
Frogger by Starpath? How did that happen? Wasn't
Frogger released by Parker Bros. on the Atari 2600? How
did Starpath get away with doing their own version? The
answer to this question lies in how the game rights were
assigned. It's true that Parker Bros. had the cartridge
rights to Frogger and published every cartridge version of the
game, but Sierra On-Line had the 'magnetic media rights' meaning
disks and tapes which were used by home computers. Since
the Supercharger was unique in that it was a tape interface for
the Atari 2600, it meant that Starpath could sub-license the
rights from Sierra who had no intention of doing a tape port for
the 2600. Since Sierra called their version 'The Official'
Frogger (even though the Parker Bros. version was official as
well), that's what Starpath called their version. Starpath
even licensed the original artwork from Sierra for their
packaging.  Originally developed by Konami and released in the US by Sega, Frogger is a fast paced action game where you must guide your little frog from the bottom of the screen, through a busy roadway, over a river. and into one of five 'homes' at the top of the screen before time runs out. Frogger has no defenses so he must simply hop quickly around enemies or he'll be killed. After Frogger makes his way to all five homes he'll move onto the next screen where enemies move faster and new enemies show up. The roadway section consists of five lanes of various vehicles including cars, sports cars, bulldozers(!), and semis. Cars tend to travel is groups, but there's always room enough between them for Frogger to slip through. Different lanes of traffic move at different speeds, so you'll have to be careful not to stay too long in the 'fast lane'. One you make it through all five lanes of traffic you'll come across a 'safety barrier' which separates the road from the river. This is a good place to take a quick breather, but starting on level 3 a snake will start roaming this area so be careful. Much like the crocodile, only the head of the snake can harm Frogger, so feel free to jump on his body if need be. Interestingly snakes do not appear on the logs at higher levels like they do in the arcade version.  Once you reach the river you'll have to carefully jump from turtle to log in order to make it home. the river constantly flows to the right so Frogger will have to do some quick hopping and backtracking to reach the left most homes. Depending on how the difficulty switches are set, drifting off the edge of the screen will either wrap Frogger around to the other side (making those left homes easier to get to) or kill him. Touching the water is deadly (I guess Frogger is the only frog who doesn't know how to swim), as it touching the wall between the homes. Making things more difficult is that turtles will occasionally dive under the water taking Frogger to a watery grave if he's still on them (you'll get a warning shortly before they dive). Starting on level 2 a crocodile will being appearing in place of one of the logs on the top level. The crocodile is safe to jump on and ride, but touching his head is deadly. Speaking of crocodile heads, one will occasionally appear in a random home at the top of the screen. Jumping into the home while the crocodile head is there is deadly. Starting on level 3 an otter will appear in the center row of the river and quickly swim from right to left. Touching the otter is deadly (or being touched by him while on the edge of the log), but other than that he doesn't pose much of a threat. |
| Version | Cart Text | Description |
| 6/15/83 | Frogger June 15th, 1983 Incomplete! For Demo Only! Copyright 1983 Starpath |
WIP version |
| 7/27/83 |
FROG47 |
Final Version |
