See,
FROGGER
is one of my favourite games...
Here comes the story how it was brought back to life...
So the green jumping will never come to an end.
Sometimes, when I'm feeling lonely or if I'm just bored with myself I sit
in front of my computer, do really a lot of nothing, looking totally
occupied to all those people around me who know not a lot about
computers.
One day in 1994, it was just one of those days, you know, just sitting in
front of that darn electronic bastard that allways keeps you occupied
even if there is nothing to do. Just deleting some files, sorting
directories, running 'chkdsk' on all drives (yes I know there is another
program called scandisk, and it'll work so much better...)
Starting this program, getting bored just so much faster and so on, the
luck actually was on my side, for a change WINDOWS did not do
anything to my FAT, all partitions were in working order (strange!),
I knew for sure that this big blue OP wouldn't work with my CD ROM, so
there was no need to try to install that again ...
Even LINUX was setup... (a pitty actually that I happened to start
browsing under DOS, otherwise there might have been a nice
X-version of FROGGER
.
Anyway there was this compiler of an unknown small company. What
was its name again, borland, yes I think borland it was, well as I said, I
was browsing thru my directories and there happened to be this
compiler. It lay there in its directory. It was screaming out. Screaming
that it wanted to be worked with again (ever heard a compiler scream?
it's not like sort of a YELL more like SCREECHING, you know what I
mean, don't ya). I didn't really want to use it again, it gives me all
those headaches when it comes to the debugging part...
(If you want an essay about my experience debugging with borland
tools just send me an email, and I will happily go on gloating over that
subject...) Now however, I really would like to do some more
programming using that DJGPP compiler, but porting to that compiler
having used BC is a bit tedious, but I promise, if I ever do some
programming again, that I can start from scratch I will certainly use
DJGPP. (Tell me about reuseability (spelling!?!?)) Writing action
games usually involves some parts written in assembler, ever heard
something about 'coff' and using 'AT & T' assembler conventions (have
I got that straight!=!)"?).
Well I guess I'm drifting away a bit to far and to fast, what was I talking
about, ah->
FROGGER
, actually my version's name is supposed to be 'KARL QUAPPE' but I
allways say
FROGGER
see- I'm a German guy - and the name 'KARL QUAPPE' is pretty
German too. You see - 'KAULQUAPPE' translates to 'tadpole',
'QUAPPE' then is a shortcut of tadpole, and KARL is just a name that
is similar to 'KAUL' (hey, all you linguistic people out there, what's the
correct name for this kind of gambling with words 'ANAPHER',
'METAPHER', 'YET-ANOTHER'?). So if you want to translate it to, for
example English, you might get something like 'CHARLES POLE'
(charles being the English version of karl) or Pegpole ('Peg' being a
name which sounds similar (sort of) to 'tad'...).
Oh my, I'm writing really a lot of sh... (sorry) crap...
So after being bored, having made contact to a screeching compiler
and finally finding a new name (guess PARKER's copyrights are still
valid, even if they are probably not very much concerned about it
anymore...) (the name was evolved by my ex-fiancee), the hard work was
done. I just had to do some programming...3 weeks later a pre-release
version was finished.
After heavy bugfixing (none!!) the version number was fixed to 0.99
(being convinced that no program, has no bugs to start with).
I tried publishing it as shareware, putting it in some mailboxes...
(a version containing just three levels, everything else same as the full
version). Well, now after two years I dare say it was well worth it. The
people that registered can be counted with one hand (even if 4 fingers
are missing!!!). I'm a bit dissapointed. It's not because I didn't make
any money with it, the shareware idea was just for fun, I wanted to see
how many people are still interested in a game like that. The main
reason for me to do my own version of the game was, that no
other version existed that I liked. I had fun programming it, (even if I
hated every pixel I had to draw, drawing/painting IS hard work and
NOT an art!!!), I'm still proud that I did it and I still enjoy it now and
then. But I think it a pitty that nobody is interested in a game that I like
very much.
OS needed...........: MS DOS (or the like) Processor needed....: 386 (probably about a DX 40 needed with the well occupied levels) Sound...............: I'm using MODOBJ of Mark J. COX better switch sound off while running windows don't expact anything spectacular its OLD Grafics mode........: 320x200 (modeX) Graphics interface..: MODEX library of Matt Pritchard (modified) Input/Output........: Keyboard (own handling, might get in trouble with multitasking OS's) Language............: C (dirty...), assembler Sourcecode..........: provided, just download it, but better get some aspirins too, it'll give you an headache... (I'm a registered owner of MODOBJ, I'm NOT supposed to give away a registered version of it. I've tried 3 times to get in contact with Mark J. Cox, I can't reach him. I want to give away the whole package. Since his library is really sort of ancient, and there are way better once available for free (sort of free) like MIDAS sound system, I think nobody in his right mind should have anything against distributing it for free as well. SO-> With the sourcecode I do give away my registered version. Mark if you are still out there say something to me!!! Is that allright with you? If not I will immediately withdraw your library from the package (and finaly use MIDAS with this game too...))
Before I describe what it does and what it doesn't do: It's not intended to be an exact CLONE of the arcade machine. I haven't seen one in the last 12 years or so, and I will possibly never see one again, so for me there is no way to verify anything. I did however play the arcade machine, and some memories are still there (but not many...) The cars certainly look different (no idea what the original ones looked like). The music is different, that is something I certainly regret, everytime I hear the YANKEE DOODLE it reminds me of the FROGGER days of my life... . If someone out there has a decent version (MOD), please send it to me and after ten minutes we'll have a FROGGER version with the original tune. (I'm not very good at drawing, but just thinking about composing gives me a shiver, I'll never do that...) You don't have to (actually,- you can't) insert coins. And so on...
All I want to say is, that the instructions are written out in German. If
there are some requests I'll translated them, but people tend to be not
very interested in
FROGGER
games, so there will probably be no need
for that...
The gameplay after all is pretty obvious, no instructions needed for
that. However if you are interested in level design and want to set up
your own levels, it will be neccessary for you to get some
instructions. If you want to do that and need instructions you may
contact me.