Frogger

In 1981 the arcade game, Frogger, was released. It was licensed and distributed by Sega/Gremlin and licensed for Worldwide use. It is a classic and was popular among many kids and adults alike. The game is still being played and is available in many different versions. It can be found on many internet game sites. Highway Crossing Frog was going to be the original name of the game but the Sega execs did not think it covered the full nature of the game, so it was changed to Frogger. The game was so popular that there were different versions of it made and it inspired the execs of Sega so much they came up with the game called Rabbit which had two player capabilities.

Frogger is considered as one of the top 10 video games by the Killer List of Video games. The game has five frogs. The player tries to get the frog across the street without getting it killed. There are many obstacles in the path. Once the frog has crossed the road, it has to navigate a river in which there are logs, alligators, and turtles. The player has to get each frog safely to their homes. There are five homes and the player has to guide each frog to an empty lilypad home. After the five frogs have been directed to their homes safely, the player progresses to the next level which is much harder. The player frogs have to jump on moving logs and the backs of turtles. He must avoid the alligators, snakes, and otters in the water. In the street they have to avoid oncoming traffic which may be a car, bus, truck taxi, or motorcycle. After the road, there is a median and the player has to prepare for the trip in the river. The frog can catch bugs or escort a lady frog for bonuses. The player will lose a turn if they get hit by traffic, gets bit by a snake in the median strip or on a floating log, if they miss a turtle or log and end up in the water, or run off of the screen, if they stay on a turtle too long and the turtle takes a dive into the water, jumps into the mouth of a floating alligator, jumps into the mouth of an alligator at the dock , misses the dock, jumps onto a dock that is already occupied with another frog, or runs out of time. This is a fast paced game and that is what seems to please people.

The original game Highway Crossing Frog, was a copy of the game called Freeway, which was developed in 1971 at the University of Washington Psychology Department on a graphics minicomputer and was the reward part of a project related to the studies of the human short term memory. The Atari version was released in 1981 and was developed by Ed English.