The Official Frogger

The Official FroggerThe Game: You are a frog. Your task is simple: hop across a busy highway, dodging cars and trucks, until you get the to the edge of a river, where you must keep yourself from drowning by crossing safely to your grotto at the top of the screen by leaping across the backs of turtles and logs. But watch out for snakes and alligators! (Starpath, 1983)

Memories: Making crafty use of a loophole in Parker Bros.’ license for Frogger, which specified that Parkers had permission to market cartridge-based versions of the game, the plucky programmers at Starpath proceeded to make a far superior edition of Frogger for the 2600 and got it on the market by licensing the rights to do a cassette-based version.

The Official FroggerBut even ten seconds of play had Frogger fans jumping for joy over the legal loophole. Parker’s Frogger wasn’t terrible, but this Supercharger-only edition was much, much closer to the mark.

The control is smooth as a frog’s eyes – literally, no control issues to complain about here whatsoever. The graphics and sound are a marked improvement, with cheerful tunes playing throughout the game. The dreaded 2600 flicker does rear its head occasionally, though – The Official FroggerFrogger occasionally finds himself riding on the backs of some very flickery turtles.

5 quarters!But with that one minor flaw accounted for, there are no other problems to speak of with the Supercharger Frogger. It’s a huge, uh, leap ahead of the more widely circulated cartridge version for the 2600.