Frogger

Frogger first showed up in Japanese arcades in 1981, and this classic arcade game is still fun to play today. Everyone can pick it up, kids and adults alike. The idea is simple. Your frog starts at the bottom of the screen and has to reach its home at the top. Between you and safety are two deadly zones: a busy road with speeding cars and a river full of floating logs.

One wrong move and the frog gets flattened or drowns. To clear a level, you have to get five frogs to the finish. There are five homes at the top of the screen. When you bring the first frog to one of the homes, it stays there. Then you take the next frog from the bottom and guide it to the second home, and so on.

How to play?

Below, there is a multi-lane road with cars. They race in opposite directions, one lane to the left, another to the right. Watch the traffic, find an opening, and jump into it. You can stop between two cars and wait for the right moment, then dash forward. If a car hits your frog, you lose a life and the frog appears back at the bottom. Once you cross the road, you reach the river. The mechanics change here. You cannot stand still and you cannot stay in the water. The current carries you, so you have to keep moving. Look for a log or a turtle and jump onto it. Ride along with it, then when another log appears ahead, jump over to that one. You keep crossing the river in short jumps this way until you reach the top.

At the very top are five burrow homes. You have to land exactly in one of them. If you hit it, the frog dives inside and stays there. Then you go back down for the next frog. If you miss the burrow and jump into the wall or the grass instead, you lose another life. On later levels, crocodiles appear. They swim among the logs with their mouths open. If you land on a crocodile instead of a log, it eats your frog. You have to tell a safe log apart from one with teeth. When you fill all five burrows with frogs, you complete the level and move on to the next one. The next stage has the same layout, but everything is faster and there are more hazards. Keep practicing, learn the timing, and try to master this old-school arcade classic Frogger game.