A&B Computing


The Frog

Categories: Review: Software
Publisher: Software For All
Machine: BBC Model B

 
Published in A&B Computing 1.06

There is nothing particularly original about this version of the tried and trusted Frogger game. As usual, the player must guide an innocent frog first across a busy street and then over a river, leaping onto stray logs and the backs of turtles in the latter case. There are the usual pitfalls such as being run down by fast-moving traffic or tumbling off the makeshift rafts into the drink.

Also, there is a crocodile which drifts along with the current, waiting to gobble up the hapless amphibian. There is a time limit rather awkwardly displayed by a diminishing coloured bar rather than with numeric figures. Five frogs have to be safely taken to their lilypad havens within this time.

Although preliminaries and other routines such as calculation of high scores are programmed in Basic, the bulk of the game is in machine code. Some of the source is unassembled which immediately presents an unfavourable impression.

The Frog

The game is fast and speed and congestion of the road increases as higher screens are reached. This, coupled with the excellent facility of being able to choose one's movement keys avoids the frustration of other versions of this game.

On the Graphics side, the program scores well, particularly with the representation of traffic; the cars are equipped with flashing headlights and are colourful and well-defined. The frog, however, is rather non-descript, bearing more resemblance to a grasshopper. To make up for the relatively modest array of colours available on the BBC Micro, filling of shapes is frequently achieved by plotting adjacent pixels in different colours, thus obtaining a slightly different shade - this works quite well.

One of the apparent features of the program is the music - five different tunes are played at regular intervals whilst the action is occuring. They are however, rather disappointing being unharmonised and rather monotonous.

Overall, I feel that, although visually quite pleasing, this game does lack the polish and outstanding features of most of the Acornsoft programs. Nevertheless, it is cheaper than many similar available cassettes, although at £7.95 it is hardly the outstanding bargain of the year.