Vic20 frogger development or prototype cart

[MegaRecognizer]

I'm looking for information on this pictured frogger cart. I'm told it's a vic20 proto or development cart. It'd like to figure out if it's identical to the final release. Any other info on vic20 carts like this welcome.

 

Thanks.

[0078265317]

Is this something you own or are deciding weather to buy?

[MegaRecognizer]

It's been offered to me to buy. But ignore the price tag - asking price is significantly less. I have a hard time justifying value even at that.

[CatPix]

I guess getting a dump of the cart would be the only way to tell if it's a pre-release cart.

The sticker says RLS.1 That might be Release 1; maybe one cart sent to game journals for an early review? (there are some know cases, with pictures in the test showing graphics different form the released public version).

That looks too "polished" for a development cart, as they were meant to have the ROM swapped or flashed quickly. If it is a proto, then it was near release, maybe in a playtest/demo phase.

[Tempest]

The sticker says RLS.1 That might be Release 1; maybe one cart sent to game journals for an early review? (there are some know cases, with pictures in the test showing graphics different form the released public version).

 

Correct. It's going to be the same as the released version.

[MegaRecognizer]

Ok thanks everyone. Seems reasonable it could have been used to preview (or review) before release. Or maybe playtesting though I don't know how much that was a part of development back then.

[carlsson]

Given how relatively poor the game is, I'd think it went directly from development to production without anyone play testing it.

 

Frogger '07 by Glen Richards is how Frogger should've looked and played.

[SoulBlazer]

Given how relatively poor the game is, I'd think it went directly from development to production without anyone play testing it.

 

Frogger '07 by Glen Richards is how Frogger should've looked and played.

Given the limitations of this Vic 20 I don't fault the programmer.

[carlsson]

Without going through all Frogger clones (*) of the day, I'm sure there are 3.5K tape versions that equal Parker Brothers' 8K cartridge version.

 

Indeed this is a post-Y2K homebrew which just like every one other homebrew in modern days vastly supercedes the original games, but still:

 

(*) Ok, I won't link to more videos but games like Froggee, Hopfrog, Hopper, Princess and Frog, Road Toad etc mostly are unexpanded games that are very close to the cartridge graphically and playability.

Edited August 8, 2017 by carlsson

[Lamer Deluxe tm]

Sorry for the necro-bump, I came across this post with a Google search. I received two Parker Brothers VIC-20 prototype cartridges in the eighties, from a family friend who worked at an electronics store. They looked like this one, no label but a little white sticker with the name of the game on them. I remember the label as handwritten, but that may be incorrect.

 

One of those games was Q-Bert, which, as far as I can remember was the same as the release version. The other one was Popeye, only the first level was playable, the rest was just static of the level screens. Up to now, I still have never seen any other evidence of the existence of this Popeye port by Parker Brothers.

 

Interesting to know there was a Frogger prototype as well, first time I've seen such a cartridge in the exact same style as mine were.
 

[+Psionic]

9 hours ago, Lamer Deluxe tm said:

One of those games was Q-Bert, which, as far as I can remember was the same as the release version. The other one was Popeye, only the first level was playable, the rest was just static of the level screens. Up to now, I still have never seen any other evidence of the existence of this Popeye port by Parker Brothers.

They ported Popeye to every platform available so it's no surprise that a VIC-20 version was at least started.  What happened to this prototype?  Long gone, I assume?

[Lamer Deluxe tm]

On 1/7/2023 at 5:27 AM, Psionic said:

They ported Popeye to every platform available so it's no surprise that a VIC-20 version was at least started.  What happened to this prototype?  Long gone, I assume?

Sadly, yes. I got a new computer and my VIC-20 went to my brother. He didn't do much with it and sold everything to someone in the neighborhood.

I vaguely remember that the Popeye prototype stopped working eventually, I don't think I knew about cleaning cartridge contacts at the time. It had regular EPROMs in there, with stickers on their windows (two for 16K), but I don't expect that to have caused problems. As it didn't work anymore, chances are high that it got thrown away by the new owners.