Gury Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 Slow: 62850, Fast: 16100 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 Actually I found a Digit Press interview with Steve Kranish that explains it all. At first, John Harris had made the Sierra On-Line version, a 13K game. Up till then, Parker Bros had only focused on making a 2600 version of Frogger, but since they held the cartridge rights they wanted to release it on the A8 too. Apparently neither Sierra nor John did mind licensing the game to Parker Bros, except of course it was too big to fit into an 8K cartridge so it was up to Steve to disassemble it, make cuts and optimizations at the same time Dawn Stockbridge changed the graphics slightly. Near the end of the project, Steve and John met once. Per that story, it would seem that the Parker Bros cartridge version is the redux version of John Harris tape/disk version and explains why the two are so similar - they're based on the same code but the cartridge makes optimizations. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deteacher Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 Fast: 17,420! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 Per the above story about the first SoL & PB versions, I noticed the comment that the source code was lost early on. I've read speculations about the second SoL version by Chuck Benton (which also got ported to the C64), if his A8 version ever was sold, when and what form. Rob at Talkspot posted an article about that Sierra On-Line may have unsure if John Harris would deliver on time, so they put Chuck to work on a version in parallel and eventually released it. Now combined with the interview with Steve Kranish, that indicates that the PB version (8K) was based on John's game (13-16K), it would suggest that Chuck's game (19K) was developed before that, but not finished when Parker Bros asked them about licensing. Otherwise Sierra On-Line could have steered Chuck into making an 8K cartridge game (optimizing away half of the code and data!) on contract for Parker Bros instead of having a third team (Steve & Dawn) adapting John's game. What I would think happened was that Sierra over time wanted to make some changes or fixes, and since they didn't have sources to John's game any longer, they contracted Chuck who anyway was porting Frogger to other format(s) to make a new version that they would have more access to. I don't know how the contract between John and SoL looked like, he is mentioned as a freelancer, or if it had even expired. The second best option would of course be to knock on Parker Bros' door, asking if Sierra could obtain Steve's disassembled and reworked sources but probably they would not have been quite as willing to share assets back and forth. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caco Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 SLOW: 38060 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 13 hours ago, MrTrust said: Apparently, the PB version was subbed out to Roklan? I wondered about this. GDRI has a page about Roklan and which games they developed. On the A8, it lists a possibly unreleased or not archived game called Mathematics Action Games - Frog Jump. Furthermore, the GDRI page writes that Roklan made the official Frogger ports for Intellivision and VIC-20. In the DP interview with Steve Kranish, he mentions Parker Brothers several times but never mentions Roklan, which I take as a sign of misinformation (including a comment on Atarimania) that Roklan would've made the Parker Brothers version of Frogger while he pretty much tells the story how they (in-house) adapted John Harris' version from Sierra On-Line. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted March 10, 2021 Author Share Posted March 10, 2021 On 3/8/2021 at 9:01 PM, graywest said: You guys are posting some killer scores. I've had a hard time breaking through my previous best, especially on fast. Same here, I just cannot keep it together even with all my frogs ready for the last screen. I've updated the current standings with late scores from Blue Max and Qix. Latest Tables Master Frogging Table 1st McKong 58 12pts 2nd Deteacher 57 11pts+1pt # 3rd therealbountybob 53 10pts 4th 8BIT 1337 52 9pts 5th Caco 52 9pts 6th graywest 51 9pts 7th tompateus 47 8pts 8th Gury 46 8pts 9th Sikor 45 8pts 10th Mr Trust 39 7pts 11th mimo 38 7pts 12th carlsson 38 6pts 13th pusakat 30 6pts 14th jblenkle 28 5pts 15th slx 26 5pts 16th 8bitguy1 20 4pts 17th jdh 17 4pts 18th devwebcl 16 3pts 19th RedThunder 16 3pts 20th Mister-VCS 15 2pts 21st NamcoPlayer 14 2pts 22nd Alicja (Caco Jr) 11 2pts #Top NTSC Player bonus point * tied places split by total scores Slow 1st Deteacher 104,130 30 2nd McKong 96,030 29 3rd Gury 62,850 28 4th graywest 61,850 27 5th 8BIT 1337 39,100 26 6th therealbountybob 34,510 25 7th tompateus 33,908 24 8th Sikor 29,970 23 9th Caco 16,790 22 10th Gury 16,280 21 11th mimo 15,340 20 12th carlsson 12,590 19 13th Mr Trust 12,290 18 14th pusakat 9,435 17 15th devwebcl 9,335 16 16th Mister-VCS 8,210 15 17th NamcoPlayer 7,785 14 18th jblenkle 6,855 13 19th slx 4,550 12 20th Alicja (Caco Jr) 150 11 Fast 1st Caco 38,060 30 2nd McKong 33,015 29 3rd therealbountybob 19,520 28 4th Deteacher 17,420 27 5th 8BIT 1337 16,950 26 6th Gury 16,100 25 7th graywest 15,380 24 8th tompateus 14,880 23 9th Sikor 14,110 22 10th Mr Trust 14,020 21 11th 8bitguy1 12,245 20 12th carlsson 10,135 19 13th mimo 8,955 18 14th jdh 8,420 17 15th RedThunder 7,730 16 16th jblenkle 7,235 15 17th slx 6,165 14 18th pusakat 3,870 13 Votes please EVERYONE >>> Round 5 Poll <<< 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caco Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 There is an error in the table. My result is SLOW- 38.060, FAST- 16.790 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tompateus Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 PB fast 16755 p slow 34890 p 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tompateus Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 On 3/11/2021 at 8:33 AM, tompateus said: PB fast 16755 p slow 34890 p It's not an easy game... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McKong Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 110300 Slow Sierra 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 NTSC PB Slow - 15210 PB Fast - 9165 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STARBUG Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 Howdy all My first time ever playing Frogger, though I did have Preppie! as a kid which I loved. I think I'd have preferred Frogger to be honest, I can see why it's a classic. Terrifying gameplay, what more could you want? Anyway, here's me scores Fast - 16050 Slow - 32990 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister-VCS Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 JH fast 4,280 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister-VCS Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 slow 9,750 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, STARBUG said: I think I'd have preferred Frogger to be honest, I can see why it's a classic. Terrifying gameplay, what more could you want? As you may have seen from the history posts interleaved with the scores, supposedly it was a close call that it had remained an idea (or perhaps an obscure arcade game in small quantities in Japan) if it wasn't for one woman's pushing the execs and comparing to when Sega supposedly lost out on Pac-Man (would that have been Bally/Midway who snatched the overseas rights?). Frogger was thought to be a game for women and small children, nothing the general male gaming community would like to play, but they were proven wrong during test marketing. Edit: Aha, I just learned that Gee Bee by Namco 1978 was published in the US by Gremlin Industries, which in the same year was acquired by Sega. On the other hand, at some point Namco America was founded too, and it was through them Midway got the US rights to Pac-Man so I'm not sure how Sega/Gremlin ever could have missed out on licensing it. Wikipedia also writes: "When Namco presented Pac-Man and Rally-X to potential distributors at the 1980 AMOU tradeshow on November 15, 1980, executives believed that Rally-X would be the best-selling game of that year. Midway Games agreed to distribute both games in North America, announcing their acquisition of the manufacturing rights on November 22 and releasing them in December." That is a one week window between the tradeshow and Midway announcing they would distribute it. Indeed Pac-Man was test marketed from May 22 and released in Japan in July, so if Sega were active in Japan they would've seen the game for about four months before it was presented in the US, though I'm not sure if they would've contacted Namco in advance to get the rights before it was shown on the tradeshow. Furthermore, Wikipedia writes that Pac-Man at the beginning wasn't that popular in Japan, as the predominantly male game players preferred shooters like Galaxian, though women liked Pac-Man's cuteness, just like they were expected to like Frogger's cuteness. Perhaps guys in America were more open for new concepts and cute things than their Japanese counterparts were? Edited March 11, 2021 by carlsson 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pusakat Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 Slow: 14,730 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sleepy Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 Before I´m late again, here´s my actual scores: Fast: 6735 P Slow: 8665 P Sleepy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 Alright throw some scores in here... 9,425 Fast 15,745 Slow 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrTrust Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 Slow 36,115. Alas, I don't think I'm going to be able to improve my fast score. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8BIT 1337 Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 Modest improvements to what I first posted (which was my first playthrough for each) FAST: 17140 SLOW: 47330 I just got sloppy on SLOW after awhile. Should not have lost those last 2 lives. I found it very hard to get into SLOW after playing FAST first. Made me impatient LOL 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tompateus Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 PB slow: 70840 fast: 18000 Don't think i'm gona play this game ever again..! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted March 13, 2021 Author Share Posted March 13, 2021 On 3/11/2021 at 2:56 PM, STARBUG said: Howdy all My first time ever playing Frogger, though I did have Preppie! as a kid which I loved. I think I'd have preferred Frogger to be honest, I can see why it's a classic. Terrifying gameplay, what more could you want? Anyway, here's me scores Fast - 16050 Slow - 32990 Welcome back STARBUG late scores for rounds 1-4 still welcome (everyone)! This round and ends tomorrow (Sunday) 10am UK time, currently a 2 way shoot out in the Round 5 POLL VOTES PLEASE EVERYONE!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sikor Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 Harris fast: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted March 13, 2021 Author Share Posted March 13, 2021 1 hour ago, therealbountybob said: This round and ends tomorrow (Sunday) 10am UK time, currently a 2 way shoot out in the Round 5 POLL VOTES PLEASE EVERYONE!!! Gave up on Fast but ground out 78,040 on slow (pbros) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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