Sadly Frogger is one of those smash hit arcade games from the 80s that, for whatever reason, never got a release on the Famicom. Q-Bert is another one in that category that I really wish they had released on the Famicom so I could play it.
Anyway, I`ve been wanting to get a vintage copy of Frogger for something for the longest time and today I found it: an original 1982 Frogger handheld produced by Gakken, a subsidiary of Konami.
It is a really awesome machine. The gameplay is a very faithful reproduction of the original, a bit better than my Puckman handheld that I found last year, which isn`t quite the same as the Pacman arcade game.
This one came with the original box and manual, which was a nice touch.
The controls are pretty simple, I like the fact that this one lets you turn the music on and off. Puckman and my Game and Watches all make a bunch of noise that you cannot turn off, meaning you can`t use them in some situations.
I also like the yellow plastic and the distinctive Frogger logo I remember so well from my old Apple IIC floppy disk:
It was a pretty good deal for about $50, my wife was actually nice enough to buy it as a gift for me. I checked on Yahoo Auction and there are a couple without boxes with buy-it-now prices well above that so I think it was a good deal.
Frogger is also an awesome game because of the fact that it was a central plot element of the best episode of Seinfeld ever:
Total classic. I will play this game until I best Costanza`s high score.
