Museum of the Game ®

International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®


Frogger Frogger - Japanese Logo - Katakana / Kanji

Frogger - Cabinet - Video Game Marquee

Description

Try and get your frog from one side of the road, over the river and into your home. To complete a level you must dodge cars, jump on logs and alligator backs while avoiding snakes, alligators, and otters. Bonuses are awarded for getting bugs that momentarily appear, escorting lady frogs home, and getting five frogs safely home.

Frogger was produced by Sega/Gremlin in 1981.

Sega/Gremlin released 21 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1976. Sega/Gremlin was based in United States.

Other machines made by Sega/Gremlin during the time period Frogger was produced include: Digger, Monaco GP, Deep Scan, Fortress, Head On 2, Astro Blaster, Eliminator, Pulsar, Space Fury, and Space Odyssey

Specs

Name Frogger
Developer Sega/Gremlin (United States)
Year 1981
Type Videogame
KLOV/MOG # 7857
Class Wide Release
Genre Platform
Monitor
Conversion Class Konami Classic
Game Specific Frogger Pinout
Dipswitch Settings

Frogger Dipswitch Settings (user contributed)

# Simultaneous Players 1
# Maximum Players 2
Game Play Alternating
Control Panel Layout Single Player Ambidextrous
Controls
  • Joystick: 4-way (up, down, left, right)
Sound Amplified Mono (one channel)
Cabinet Styles
  • Upright/Standard
  • Cocktail
  • Cocktail - Slimline
Bezel Frogger Bezel Image
Control Panel Frogger Control Panel Image
PCB Frogger PCB Image

Game Introduction

If you continually take excessive time getting the frogs up to their homes at the top of the screen, the vehicles and the items in the river increase in speed thus making the level more difficult.

Game Play

The score rolls over to zero after 100,000 points.

Frogger KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 3.76 (20 votes)

Fun Factor: 3.81

Overall Like 4.21
Fun (Social) 3.37
Fun (Solo) 3.80
Collector Desire 3.84

Technical Rating: 3.70

Gameplay 3.75
Graphics 3.50
Originality 4.32
Sound/Music 3.37

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Log in to rate this game!

Cheats, Tricks, Bugs, and Easter Eggs

BUG: Sometimes the lady frog is invisible normally purple until you accidently jump on it. Then she appears white with red legs on the frog's back. You still get 200 points.

BUG: From the middle section between the river and the road, jump upwards to a pad and jump back so where you have been moved to the left just a few pixels. You should be able to go off-screen to the right. If not, repeat. For more fun, jump upwards to where a pad should be. You will make it, but you will die.

BUG: Part of the background music will cut-out from time to time, only leaving the primary melody playing.

BUG: The game is not always even-handed with the rules, and frogs are occasionally killed on perfectly valid jumps.

BUG: When timed just right, if you jump into a home base that has an alligator and the alligator disappears mid-jump, your frog will die but will also make it home safely!

BUG: Moving left and right on the very top log can sometimes be very slow, and is more likely to occur after previously eating a fly.

TRICK: You can usually jump so where you are dangling off of the left side of a turtle, but not the right.

TRICK: If you play this game on a PC emulator such as MAME and use a code for unlimited time, you will hear the entire background song to its finish. This was never possible on the actual arcade game since you always ran out of time before the song finshed playing.

TRICK: The frog becomes controllable in attract mode once it reaches the very top log.

TRICK: When the frog in the demo in attract mode is at it's last move, you can control it with no tokens!

Images

Trivia

Although Frogger is credited to Sega it was originally developed by Konami.

Frogger is featured prominently in the 174th episode of Seinfeld entitled "The Frogger" in which George discovers a local pizzeria still has the machine with his high score still intact from when he was a kid. George buys the machine, then tries to figure out how to get the game across the street Frogger-style without turning the game off and losing his high score. The cabinet seen in the episode has custom sideart rather than the dedicated Frogger sideart.

Cabinet Information

Froggers are typically only found in the Sega/Gremlin laminated wood-grain convert-a-cabinets. There are large side-art stickers that included a large hopping frog with a suitcase.

Conversion

The game uses the standard Konami wiring, but there are no buttons which limits the number of games that can be played in this machine.

Miscellaneous

Sequels, such as Frogger 3D, were created for the home computer. Many clones were also created, the best of which was called Pacific Coast Highway.

It is often unnoticed, but when you complete a level, the noses of all the frogs from left to right will turn into hearts and their eyes will light up.

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Frogger Census

There are 15,264 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,669 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 166,973 machines (7,000 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 675 known instances of this machine owned by Frogger collectors who are active members. Of these, 512 of them are original dedicated machines. 16 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet. 141 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 19 active VAPS members with a Frogger machines for sale. There are 6 active VAPS members with a Frogger circuit boards for sale.

Wanted - Very Popular - There are 48 active VAPS members currently looking for Frogger.

This game ranks a 89 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 65 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Technical

The game uses two Z80 microprocessors and one AY-3-8910 PSG for sound.
DIP switches allow setting the number of frogs to be given at the start of a game. The possible settings are 3, 5, 7 or 256.

Legacy

  1. Frogger
  2. Ribbit

Manuals

Foto-Finder® (Books)

  1. The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 98; Color photo Price guide: No
  2. Arcade Fever Sellers (ISBN 0762409371) Page: 70; Color photo
  3. Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 98; Color photo

Additional References (logged in members often see more)

  1. 3D Model (External): Upright (81959364f9e94269993295cd37eb627b)

Arcade Map - Play This Game

Our members have reported that Frogger is playable at 6 locations:

Name Location State Country Details Check-ins
8-Bit Beans 100 Brock St South, Whitby Ontario Canada Unknown 0
Bartari 101 Adams Ave, Scranton Pennsylvania United States Bar 0
Level One Bar + Arcade 130 Hutchinson Ave, Columbus Ohio United States Unknown 0
Sting Rays Bar And Grill 3112 East State Road 60, Valrico Florida United States Unknown 0
The Very Best Arcade (The Very Best Weiner Shop) 252 E High St, Pottstown Pennsylvania United States Arcade 1
Upstate Pinball & Arcade Museum 109A West Trade St, Simpsonville South Carolina United States Arcade 2

eBay Listings

Click to search eBay for Frogger Videogame machines and related items.

Click to search eBay for Sega/Gremlin for machines and parts.

When you click on links below to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Such revenue helps to fund this site's operations. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

TOP WATCHED LISTINGS FOR: Frogger

Ebay Compatible Application

Arcade1Up Frogger with Riser Arcade Game

Auction ends in: 15 hours, 36 minutes

FixedPrice
$1,100.00

Frogger Mini Arcade Excalibur Electronics Tabletop Frogger game

Auction ends in: 2 days, 21 hours

Auction
$29.99

2016 Frogger Arcade TV Plug & Play Video Game MSI Entertainment Retro!

Auction ends in: 4 weeks, 17 hours

FixedPrice
$5.00

WD Vintage 1981 Midway Frogger Video Game Iron On Patch Retro Arcade

Auction ends in: 3 weeks, 2 days

FixedPrice
$14.44

Frogger Video Arcade Game Board by SEGA

Auction ends in: 2 weeks, 1 day

FixedPrice
$95.00

Frogger Arcade Marquee 26” x 8”

Auction ends in: 4 weeks, 1 day

FixedPrice
$18.95

Sega / Gremlin Frogger PCB board, Manual and wiring. Freshly Repaired.

Auction ends in: 2 weeks, 3 days

FixedPrice
$250.00

Auction Results

Logged in members can see all related auctions.

Auctions Recap

Year Count Median $ Average $
2016 2 258.75 258.75
2017 5 590.00 495.60
2018 4 826.00 811.25
All Years 11 590.00 567.32

Contribute

  1. Log in to contribute content to this page
  2. Please consider donating to the International Arcade Museum Library