Previous Next

Q. Why did the frog cross the road?
A. In this case, it was to get to his breeding grounds.

Frogs, being creatures of habit, like to return to their place of birth to breed, but since this particular frog left the safety of his birth waters, two things have happened. Firstly, a busy road has been built, and secondly (well, I'm guessing), the waters are not safe for the frog to swim in (because of localised pollution?), so his return to copulate is doubly complicated.

Our poor amphibian must therefore be guided to avoid the perilous traffic and cross the river safely by hopping on the backs of turtles, passing logs and even crocodiles to five places of safety. Once all five of the breeding grounds have been visited the level is complete, and it's time to populate again. You're granted three lives, and there are nice bonuses to be collected during play.

What I really like about Frogger '07 is its variety. During play you hear a medley of simple one-channelled melodies including "Yankee Doodle Dandy", "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow" and "If You're Happy And You Knows It", with some fairly simple-but-cheerful sound effects.

Unlike other Frogger clones that have come and gone, this one doesn't stick to levels that repeat themselves. Whereas you'll start seeing the nasty Crocodiles from level two, and venomous frog-hungry snakes from the third, the traffic varies in amounts of vehicles per lane and speed of each carriageway, as does the river's floating debris and creatures therein. Therefore, your reactions need to be sharp and your eye keen on proceedings.

I only have two niggles with this production; firstly that the controls can be a little over-sensitive, as you occasionally carry on moving in one direction one leap more than you were expecting, and secondly, the collision detection is at times a little unfair. Other than that, this is a very good game indeed, featuring nice, colourful and clearly defined graphics with audio to really get you into the mood. Probably the best Frogger clone yet to appear on the VIC-20.

Download it from www.adam.com.au/grichards/FROGGER07.d64
Machine: Commodore VIC-20 with 16K RAM expansion

Previous Next

Q. When is a Commodore 16 game not a Commodore 16 game?
A. When it's been faithfully ported across to the Commodore 64, of course.

Kikstart C16 has been done thanks to the careful work of Jason Kelk, who has painstakingly fixed bugs and optimised code, though this game remains very much Shaun Southern's work.

The game is loosely based around the classic BBC show Kick Start and Junior Kick Start, with a nice rendition of the theme tune as heard on television as you play. It's one of many Kikstart games to appear on Commodore machines, but the C16 version is very much a different beast to those that appeared on the C64 and 128.

This game is played against the clock for one player only, and it's much simpler than the popular Kikstart II published by Mastertronic. The only controls over your motocross bike to hand are its speed and when to jump. You can have up to a maximum of five replacement bikes at any one time, though you might find the set time limit on each level to be more pressing, as running out will void your game entirely, meaning starting again from the first course.

It all sounds quite simple, but the devil is in the detail; courses are well designed, with obstacle placements requiring finite control and timing. Booster pads will see you hurtle quite comfortably over almost any object, and there are balloons to pop from time to time.

Being a very faithful port of the original game, it's obviously more in the spirit of the humble C16 than the C64, but this doesn't detract from the hours of pure and simple fun that is to be had. This is definitely one for nostalgia hunters out there.

Developers: Shaun Southern and Jason Kelk
Web Site: www.cosine.org.uk
Required spec: Commodore 64