Previous Next

Every machine needs some brilliant games and it obviously helps a machine to gain a foothold in the marketplace if it has brilliant games available on launch day. Hopper comes from the Acorn Electron's official software publisher, Acornsoft, the software arm of Acorn Computers Ltd, and so it was programmed by someone who not only knew how to get the very best out of the machine but already had a fully working BBC version using ostensibly the same code to copy from.

Hopper was everywhere, not only in shop windows on launch day in 1983 but throughout the Electron's shelf life. There aren't that many Electron games that have versions in the English, German and Dutch language, and there are even fewer that appeared not only on cassette but also on ROM cartridge.

If you haven't already guessed from the name, Hopper is a version of Frogger, an arcade game from the dawn of time itself. Your aim is to hop a frog from the bottom of the screen to the top, firstly over a busy road and then over a lily pond. If you get hit by a car, or you all off a lily pad, said frog promptly expires. You have to get five frogs into five froggy lairs on the top row to win a sheet and proceed to the next one.

Hopper was not only the first conversion of Frogger but the very best. It uses the entirety of the screen, has very pleasing graphics, music and sound effects and it just has a "flow" to it that makes it addictive enough for one more go. The first few sheets are easy, but then the traffic on the roads becomes much heavier and the logs and fishes in the lily pond become sparse and unpredictable.

The island strip between the road and the pond, which is a convenient place to get your breath back on the early sheets, sports a snake on later ones. A bite from this and the frog is toast.

You jump in the four directions with ZX*? keys and everything is very responsive. The game runs at a perfect speed, with a time limit bottom right. It gives you just enough time to dither five or six times whilst making the perilous crossing, but no longer.

If you fancy owning a physical version of a genuine classic, they don't come any more famous or ubiquitous than the UK cassette version of Hopper. Practically everyone got this game bundled with their new Electron. Expect to pay £1-£2. The German and Dutch versions are much harder to find at £15-£20 each. The market price of the UK ROM Cartridge version varies, but boxed, mint condition versions may fetch £50+ and even an unboxed version a respectable £30+.