F is for Frogger

To be honest, an arcade was not the first place I ever played Frogger.  I actually first played a computer version of Frogger at a fairly young age at a friend's house, and recall being able to get to level 4 after a couple of hours of playing.  I would later discover a Frogger machine at Scandia Fun Center, and would rediscover it periodically at arcades thereafter.

Frogger honestly frightened me to play it as a young kid, because I was scared of the graphics when your frog got run over by a car.  Your frog looked like it blew up like a balloon and transformed into a purple skull and crossbones.  If I was going to die, I much preferred it to be on an errant jump into the water, because of no balloon death effect.

In terms of classic arcade games, Frogger seems to be one of the ones that persists and shows up in places where there are just a couple/few games.  Well, that and Galaga it seems.  It's a simple enough game (or so it seems), needing just a joystick to play, and thus is able to draw in all kinds of players.  My dad doesn't like video games, but even he has been known to play a game or two of Frogger when a machine is found.

Frogger has persisted over time as well in various forms.  It has been ported to multiple home video game systems with updated game play.  I believe my sister still has the miniature arcade cabinet-looking battery powered version she had when we were kids.  I still have a Frogger board game up in the rafters somewhere.  And lately, I noticed a Frogger-themed ticket game show up at Dave and Busters.  Not bad for a game about a frog trying to cross a busy road and a river to get home.

Got any Frogger stories?  Hop to it and leave them in a comment :-)