Frogger, first playable demo

[Schmutzpuppe]

One small suggestion: the game doesn't seem to start at all using a standard 2600 stick, which is kind of a shame. Can it be changed so that pressing the standard fire button will start the game?

Also, the RESET switch doesn't seem to work at all... either for starting the game, or resetting a game in progress.

You are right, normal firebutton should work (well I thought it already work, have to take a look at it).

Ingame reset is implemented in the latest (not published) version.

 

TIA sound would be a great enhancement. Just use the TIA sound from that earlier build you had with TIA sound. You don't need to change a thing with it as IMO I thought it was good to go!!

Hm, maybe...

 

Froggie just keeps getting better and better! Every time I start the game, I just have to stare at the graphics for a while, and wonder what more the 7800 could have yielded in the hands of the right programmers with the right resources.

 

I have a few suggestions and bug reports about the latest build, if I may.

• I'm running this on an NTSC 7800, and the occasional flicker is definitely still there.
  
• The music, the in-game music in particular, should be softer in volume, so that it's really in the background. Also, some of the tempos are slower than in the arcade game.
  
• The lady frog should be a different color than the player's frog. In the arcade game, she has a purple tone.
  
• If you hold down the joystick in any given direction, the jump effect is heard twice, followed by what seems to be random noise.
  
• During the victory music played at the end of the level, the player's frog can be seen at the lower-right corner of the screen.
  
• Like sdamon pointed out, the fire button on a standard 2600 joystick doesn't register.
  
• Call me a Cuttle-Cart-carrying smug elitist, but I say stick with the POKEY music and worry about TIA later.
  

Great work!

Some of the mentioned bugs are already fixed.

A differend color for the lady frog would only be possible if the both frogs only have a single color (now the frog has two).

Don't know if it would look better.

 

does someone has the parameters to make it work on CC2?

78POKEY Bankfile and 78BIOS startup will work fine.

 

Thanks for the great feedback guys.

You help me keep it up.

[+FujiSkunk]

The lady frog should be a different color than the player's frog. In the arcade game, she has a purple tone.

A differend color for the lady frog would only be possible if the both frogs only have a single color (now the frog has two).

Don't know if it would look better.

 

Would it be possible for the two frogs to have inverted colors? Many Frogger home ports have a yellow lady frog. Perhaps you could make it so that the player's frog is green with yellow highlights, and the lady frog is yellow with green highlights.

Edited May 2, 2006 by skunkworx

[Paranoid]

Got the version that says April 17th 2006 up and running with Pokey sound on my CC2. Looks excellent, game play is very tight and faithful to the original, no flicker. Other than some of the minor "missing" sounds that have been noted, sound was fine. There are a few discrepencies with the two cars in the second to top lane speeding up, the mole-lookin' swimming-thing that might be a snake appearing behind the long log, etc, that seem different from the arcade, but otherwise, VERY faithful and totally impressive.

 

I really like the Starpath version too... and really, the Parker Bros. version is good, too. Frogger is one of those games that just converts well and tends to be a classic in any format. But this one really does approach MAME in terms of recreating the authentic arcade experience.

 

FWIW, the girl frog does appear a different color, maybe more blue towards violet, on my 7800...

[Paranoid]

Oh... I know one thing I wanted to ask...

 

Any chance that it will eventually work with the high score cartridge?

[Schmutzpuppe]

Would it be possible for the two frogs to have inverted colors? Many Frogger home ports have a yellow lady frog. Perhaps you could make it so that the player's frog is green with yellow highlights, and the lady frog is yellow with green highlights.

I will try it.

 

Got the version that says April 17th 2006 up and running with Pokey sound on my CC2. Looks excellent, game play is very tight and faithful to the original

Thanks

 

no flicker.

PAL or NTSC?

 

Other than some of the minor "missing" sounds that have been noted, sound was fine.

Well it's not finished...

 

There are a few discrepencies with the two cars in the second to top lane speeding up

What do you mean?

 

FWIW, the girl frog does appear a different color, maybe more blue towards violet, on my 7800...

Lady frog should have the same color in the current version!?

 

Oh... I know one thing I wanted to ask...

 

Any chance that it will eventually work with the high score cartridge?

I didn't had the chance to find out how the HSC worked but I'll take a look at it.

[Paranoid]

NTSC... No flicker at all...

 

But the lady frog seemed like a subtly different color, too... so maybe I'm just a freak.

 

As far as the discrepencies... they're just places where the game has different timing than the actual arcade version (where my basis for comparison is MAME, too... which probably isn't exact to the timing of the ACTUAL arcade game either, being that I run on a monitor and not a true arcade CRT).... More or less, just nit-picking. Some ports, like Xevious, if you have a pattern you follow on the arcade version, it'll work on the console version as well. When I'm playing your version, I "expect" things to happen at certain points... and they do happen, just, maybe not at the same timing as in the arcade version. It isn't any big deal... it is still a great translation.

Edited May 20, 2006 by Paranoid

[Danno]

The every 5 seconds flicker/screen refresh jump is very much still there on the cc2.

[Paranoid]

Yeah... I'm totally not seeing this on my CC2 NTSC setup...

 

no flicker/screen refresh jump. I'm sure I would notice something like what is being described... Nice steady image.

 

Although, I've been blown away by how clear and noise free my 7800 is, being that I'm just using an RF signal... no fancy AV mod. It looks almost as sharp as my FB2, and FAR sharper than my 5200...

[Shaggy the Atarian]

Mine has the flicker only for the duration of the first level, then it disappears and the game plays perfectly after that point.

[bjk7382]

I just updated my cc2 with the latest version and have to say it is really great. Both in gameplay and sound. But like everyone else I have to nit-pick a few things.

 

1. I did have the flicker on my ntsc system for the first few screens, then it went away.

 

2. Seems to be some kind of background noise from the pokey. Hard to explain, but sounds like really quiet white noise the whole time the music is on (goes away on the title screen) (I will also note that I have the 8bitdomain AV mod in my system which seemed to quiet down the pokey sounds on other games like commando, so it could be an issue with that)

 

3. I think you should have the high score on the title screen after the game is over. As it is now you have to look at your score before the title screen comes up. (and it would be hard to have in a high score contest where people would have to take pictures of thier scores)

 

That is all, keep up the great work.

[Danno]

Mine has the flicker only for the duration of the first level, then it disappears and the game plays perfectly after that point.

 

Same here. Actually, it becomes a lot less frequent after you get one frog to the top, as well.

 

Either way, Much like the Mrs. Pac-Man Hack into the varying versions of Pac-Man, and Beef Drop, yet another absolutely stellar Arcade Port for the 7800.

[NightSprinter]

Just a note regarding the double sound if you hold a direction: this IS something that occurs in the arcade. So that is not a bug actually.

[Paranoid]

I just had a conversation with a MAME guy I know, about this... and to illustrate the argument, I showed him the Frogger demo on the 7800. He was blown away...

 

Then I showed him the Parker Bros. version... and he was like, "That sucks".

 

Then I showed him the Supercharger version and he was like, "somewhere in-between the two".

 

He agreed with me with a point I've argued in other threads like this... Currently, the best HOME version of almost ANY game that has been ported to home consoles is going to be the MAME version. To illustrate I turned on MAME Frogger, and he went, "Yup... that first version is damn close, but this is better..."

 

The interesting thing is, I showed him the 5200 version, and he was like... "I like this version BEST of all the Atari versions. It doesn't look as arcade PERFECT as the first (Frogger 7800) version you showed me, but it looks BETTER".

 

If you're familiar with the 5200 version, it is really a beautiful version... individual leaves of ivy up around the Froggers "houses"... the bricks are real detailed... the graphics are crisp and bright and vibrant. I even like the actual gameplay... point in a direction and press a button. I agree with him. 5200 frogger actually makes certain IMPROVEMENTS over the arcade, graphically speaking. But only if you're open to those improvements. If you're a purist, it isn't going to do it for you.

 

But... it kind of illustrates, you can't nail these things down.

 

Actually, going on, I showed him Q*Bert. 5200 version (doesn't look to hot, but actually plays well)... the 7800 demo... (looks FANTASTIC, doesn't play well... the joystick input isn't crisp or quick enough)... 2600 version (looks bloody awful), and the MAME version (looks PERFECT, but also sucks with a 8 way HAPP controller). As I played the three, I realized that the 5200 version is actually the most PLAYABLE Q*bert at home, short of having the REAL console or a special stick on your MAME cabinet or control panel. And the funny thing is, what makes it playable is the unique 5200 joysticks which forced them to do the same thing as with frogger, you point FIRST then push the button to jump. A lot of people hate this scheme on Frogger and Q*bert, but actually, I think it makes Q*Bert on the 5200 one of the most playable versions on any console.

 

So... go figure, I guess... let the debates rage on...

[jpfalcon2003]

When will the final version of 7800 frogger be complete? any guess on the time it will take?

[Shawn]

To quote a very old and wise man I once knew:

 

"Hurry up and wait"

[Schmutzpuppe]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I was on vacation the last week so I had better things to do than coding

But I planned to make an update soon.

Anyway, I have no idea when it will be finsihed.

I have the following to do's on my list:

- get rid of this nasty ntsc flicker

- different color for lady frog

- Highscore + last Score on title screen

- adding missing sound fx

- end screen (yes it will end)

- PAL enhancment

- XBoard support (unfortunatly my XBoard doesn't make any sound yet...)

- different difficulties

- crocodile (allready implemented but only on/off and not level driven)

- HSC support?

- TIA support?

- Bugfixing

- Bugfixing

- all things I forgot...

[Schmutzpuppe]

Small update.

Last score and highscore are now visible on the introscreen.

Little digi quark.

Small bugfixes.

froggie.zip

[+Mitch]

If I can add one small feature request, is it possible to turn on/off wrapping for the frog while on the river via the difficulty switches. The 2600 Parker version has this feature and it would be nice to have it in the 7800 version if it's not too much work.

 

Mitch

[Brian R.]

This is very promising, and impressive. Just tried it on the ProSys emulator, and I think in many ways it looks better than the version of Frogger I have for the Sega Genesis.

 

May have been mentioned already, but the only thing that jumped out at me so far was that there's no sound indication when you pick up the other frog on the log.

[pocketmego]

This is very promising, and impressive. Just tried it on the ProSys emulator, and I think in many ways it looks better than the version of Frogger I have for the Sega Genesis.

 

May have been mentioned already, but the only thing that jumped out at me so far was that there's no sound indication when you pick up the other frog on the log.

 

Agreed!

 

It is extremely first class. It's very polished and professional looking. GREAT JOB!

 

-Ray

[jpfalcon2003]

can't wait for the release date.

[Schmutzpuppe]

Unfortunately I am very busy at the moment but I will working on it asap.

[Schmutzpuppe]

As some of you liked to see TIA support I tried to implement it.

Well it was a pain but worked (somehow).

Even if I prefer the Pokey sound the TIA sound isn’t that bad.

Let me know what you think.

Btw. currently only music and no sound fx.

frogger_tia.zip

[gambler172]

Hallo Matthias

also mit Pokey hört es sich wesentlich besser an.Aber der Frosch Sound am Anfang ist cool.Bleibt abzuwarten,was die Mehrheit der User will.Natürlich ist ein Cartridge mit Pokey Chip etwas teurer aber mir wäre das egal,wenn der Sound besser ist.

Gruss Walter

[Schmutzpuppe]

Hallo Matthias

also mit Pokey hört es sich wesentlich besser an.Aber der Frosch Sound am Anfang ist cool.Bleibt abzuwarten,was die Mehrheit der User will.Natürlich ist ein Cartridge mit Pokey Chip etwas teurer aber mir wäre das egal,wenn der Sound besser ist.

Gruss Walter

Hi Walter,

Pokey ist schon sehr viel netter, der Sound/die Musik wird auch bestehen bleiben.

Den Digisound am Anfang gab es übrigens schon in der letzten Version

Ich war heute dabei ein wenig an der PAL Version zu arbeiten, sieht netter aus, mehr wie der Automat.