An early build of the PlayStation version of Frogger built on July 31st, 1997, identified internally as "Build 20". It was released on September 21, 2022 by Kneesnap. It has a ton of differences from the final build.
A PAL version of this build was compiled roughly 47 minutes after the NTSC version.
This build is visually similar to the gameplay footage seen in the credits FMV sequence present in the final build.
Much of the game's text is blurry, seemingly due to a "glowing" effect. This effect is not present in the final game.
Many bugs exist surrounding Frogger's death. It's possible to get stuck in a dead state and never respawn. Sometimes you'll be dead and can still move.
The purple frog doesn't exist, but instead a yellow frog takes it's place. Likewise, a yellow checkpoint flag is used in multiplayer too.
The "POLY PIECE POP" effect (Balloon popping, tree branches falling, froglet collection, etc) is only used for multiplayer deaths.
Moving platforms, especially turtles often spam sound effects whenever Frogger lands on them.
Upon collecting a froglet, Frogger will perform a somersault and jumps upwards off screen.
Frogger's has many idle animations which were not used in the final build, instead of what got used in the final. Previews can be found in the final game however.
Getting 10,000 points will max out your life count instead of giving you a single 1UP.
Upon getting a game over, if ✕ is pressed, a "CONTINUE" upon will be shown, which will let you restart the level.
Sometimes upon getting a Game Over, you will be given an option to "CONTINUE", which restarts the level. Letting this screen time out will crash the game.
Some levels zoom out when you rotate the camera for some reason.
Hopping off of rotating platforms (especially in SUB1/Lily Islands) is really inconsistent.
The game likes to ignore inputs sometimes.
Bootup
Build Info
Upon bootup, a screen of the build's info will appear until the ✕ button is pressed.
Instead of the intro FMV used in the final build, the Millennium Interactive Logo plays here and is the very last time this was included in a build.
Sound Differences
The jingle which plays on a timeout death is different, sounding like it was pulled from a cartoon sound effects library.
There's a weird piece of music that goes unused in this build. Maybe this was supposed to be used when the level is complete.
The unused falling sound effect has a thud sound at the very end.
The checkpoint sound effect is lower quality and pitched higher in this version.
When Frogger is run over by a vehicle, a tire screeching sound is played before squish. Also, a texture is placed on Frogger. This texture was supposed to be tire tracks, but instead is the texture for Frogger's eye. The final build removes this entirely.
Frogger's eye texture placed on him.
Debugging Features
If you hold down L1 + R1 and use the D-PAD, you can move freely around the level. You can then hold the ✕ or ◻ buttons to ascend to descend. NOTE: Some emulators seem to require L1/R2 or L2/R1 to be pressed, while on real hardware the combo works as expected. This does not appear to be a keybind / configuration issue.
To unlock all levels, while on the Main Menu highlight "Start" and press △ instead of ✕.
Model Differences
The Froglets are beta and only have two animations.
The flags in the multiplayer mode is very beta and have no animations.
There might be more, needs some looking in the game's files to see.
Unused Music
CREDOUT.CDA contains the "good ending" credits music from Defcon 5. It's unknown why this file is present, but it may have been used for testing the credits sequence. The final build includes a 27MB Dummy CDA file with no audio.
Main Menu
Prototype
Final
The camera doesn't follow Frogger. The camera only pans from the top of the leaderboard to the bottom and the main menu resets once Frogger is offscreen.
Runs at 60FPS.
No music plays despite the main menu music being present in the prototype's files. You can hear it however if you can get the game to crash while the Retro Level's music is playing.
The names on the leaderboard are in alphabetical order.
The scores on the leaderboard are in a group of numbers going from 1 to 8.
The score is sorted from least to greatest downwards, opposite of the final.
There are no turtles on the title screen in the prototype. Instead it uses lilypads.
No recorded demos play in this build. They are not present in the game files.
Frogger uses the croaking sound effect from the PC version.
High Score Menus
Various bugs selecting characters/initials. Some characters don't display properly, one of them even shows up as a bullrush 3D model.
If a high score is reached in multiplayer, all players who got the high score can input their initials at once.
Viewing high scores on the main menu uses a completely different (& worse) camera angle than the final version.
Options Menu
Prototype
Final
The options screen uses a completely different camera perspective, one which shows the void.
The menus doesn't have smooth camera transitions in the prototype.
There are 2 islands in the background that were completely scrapped from the final build.
The prototype lacks the controls on the bottom of the screen to select and go back.
Different object placements.
The font for the "View High Scores" option is more thick than the rest of the options.
The "Load/Save Frogger Data" is instead "Load/Save High Scores" in the prototype. Apparently it only saves high scores instead of level progress.
If you select the "Load High Scores" option when there's no save file, a screen will quickly appear that simply says "No".
The music note and SFX text is missing from the prototype.
The music/sound settings will mute upon highlighting them.
When the music volume option is selected, music played on the Airshow Antics level will start playing.
Frogger doesn't dance when the music settings is highlighted.
Level Select
Prototype
Final
Similarly to the Japanese "Taikenban" demo, by default levels are locked on a per-level basis instead of a per-zone basis like the final game.
To unlock all levels, highlight "Start" and press △ instead of ✕.
Many of the zone icons shown on the level select differ from the final.
The prototype uses early level previews, and many levels have incorrect or early level names.
There's no water in the background, instead the background is completely black.
The prototype lacks the "SELECT LEVEL" text at the top of the screen.
The control layout on the bottom right of the screen use simpler button icons and font.
Idling for more than 10 seconds will kick you back to the main menu.
The ordering of the levels are different.
When you pick a level, the text for the X button changes from "Select" to "Play Level!!".
The animation for entering a level is very different. The blocks will descend and the text shifts to the center of the screen before the whole screen turns black.
Different icons & font for the control indicators selecting a level.
The high score entries are colored, in the final they are all-white.
Trying to move the selected level beyond the final level or before the first level plays a noise which isn't played in the final.
Race Mode (Multiplayer)
The Frog Selection screen is very bland. There's no background, all four of the frogs are green, and it's barely functional.
All flags in a multiplayer level must be collected in order for the game to end, even if a player already meets the victory conditions.
There is score (& tracked high scores) in this mode.
The Lorry Truck is missing a few polygons.
The Lorry Truck has an animated windshield.
The water in the original level has not been made low-resource yet.
The pink/lady frog still shows up in race mode on the Retro Level stage.
The flags do not fly up into the air when collected.
Multiplayer frogs use a model with giant legs. It's most apparently on the high score initials screen.
When stepping on another frog, a croak sound plays.
If nobody collects a flag in a certain amount of time, both players get a timeout death.
When more than 1 player is entering a high score initial, some of the graphics can glitch.
Input Name Screen
Prototype
Final
Frogger uses a different low-poly model in this version.
The "Space" character is missing in the prototype.
The splashing sound effect from the lilypads is missing.
The prototype uses this unused sound effect when you select a character. This sound was used in much later builds as well.
If you leave the Input Name Screen with little to no characters in the name, then it may crash, or it display the bullrush model for that missing character(s) on the leaderboard.
If you move down on the letter T, Frogger will teleport to a glitched character and move to the center of the screen. Selecting it will make one of the 3 lilypads disappear. And if you were to delete one of the glitched characters or leave the Input Name Screen after that, then the game will crash.
Levels
General Differences
Most levels are significantly less polished and more buggy than final.
Level time limits are very poor. Some are too slow to realistically reach certain parts of the level, and some parts are so long that they extend beyond the end of the timer bad HUD.
Most levels seem to have a pointless massive glow bug in them, despite those bugs seeming to only have purpose in the cave levels.
Many levels lack edges, so it's possible to just walk off and fall into the void.
Many levels have improperly configured scrolling/animated textures, so they do not render correctly in-game.
Golden frogs do not exist in this build. Most of the spots in the levels where the golden frogs eventually got placed exist, but are empty.
Many flies are set to the default value of 10.
Time bugs do not respawn on death, unlike the final release.
Original Levels (ORG)
There's no fade-out shading on the left/right side of the level geometry.
Croc heads face sideways when in small form.
Blue cars do not exist, and orange cars take their place.
The orange car models don't appear fully finished.
The lady/pink frog has a weird brown spot on her head.
The lady/pink frog doesn't disappear on death or upon collecting a frog.
Log snakes can occasionally detach from logs and linger on the path as an unintentional hazard.
These levels are way harder than the final version's ORG levels.
Suburbia Levels (SUB)
Beta blue cars take the place of purple cars, and the final game's blue cars are replaced by more orange cars.
All instances of the beta blue car and red truck models are unable to kill Frogger.
Pelicans in this zone will use regular pelican calls when idling, where in the final build their call was swapped with their much louder "frenzied" call.
Pink balloons do not exist in SUB2 and SUB5, but 2D cloud platforms fill their roles.
Snakes appear in SUB2 and SUB5, but appear to freeze in place on their paths seemingly at random. All of these snakes were replaced by lawnmowers in the final release.
You can ride down the waterfall without falling off in SUB2 and SUB5.
You can fall from the cliff onto the green frog in SUB2 and SUB5.
The tunnel that the turtles and logs go into in SUB2 and SUB5 is absent in this build.
SUB1 (Lilly Islands)
Name is spelled with an extra L, versus the final build where the name is "Lily Islands".
There are some turtles on a loop between the islands above the starting one and the small central island. In the final build these turtles are present in SUB4, but not in SUB1.
The grassy median near the central road tunnels is absent, but there is a manhole cover present instead.
All lily pads in the level spin.
The lone butterfly near the orange frog's location(purple in the final) is absent in this build.
Extra L
Extra Turtles
Missing median + manhole cover
SUB2 (Pelis Island/Bow Wow Falls)
Bears much closer resemblance to the final game's Bow Wow Falls than the level seen in earlier builds, even using the final version's level art, but still retains "Pelis Island" as its name.
There are two roads right next to the starting spot which go straight into the water. Maybe this could be a remnant from a removed section.
The clouds leading to the red and blue frogs are not in sync with each other, unlike the final game's balloons.
There is a floating grass patch on the way to the red and blue frogs instead of the wooden platform on a tree seen in the final build.
The bottom left corner of the map is blocked off by fences instead of hedges.
The tree that the red frog is perched on is located on the corner where the river bends, instead of on its own island on the outer edge of the map. The path the clouds take is slightly different as a result.
The small hill on the right side of the level is much less pronounced, looking more like just a couple bumps.
A lawnmower is found on top of the landmass where the blue frog is located, much like SUB5 in the final build.
There is land connecting to the area where the final game's orange frog is found, and much of this land is textured with the flowery bush texture.
The mower-occupied alcove underneath where the blue frog is found contains a 1UP, and the space is marked with the same ring used to mark baby frog locations.
Closer to final
Floating grass and missing tunnel
River tree
SUB4 (Spinning Lillies)
Is spelled with an extra L, just like SUB1.
Level select icon is a corrupted looking version of the icon for Lily Islands, but with a big "2" pasted on it.
The spire that the red frog is perched on in the final game is located where the green frog is, and the flight path to it requires a rather tight and awkward jump between 2 pelicans to reach it.
The spot where Frogger gets picked up to go to the aforementioned spire is just a small hill, whereas in the final game it's a block that needs to be super-hopped on to.
Funky level icon
Pickup hill
Low red frog, high green frog
Awkward transfer
SUB5
To do: Get a video of the changes to the red/blue frog route.
An early version of Bow Wow Revenge. Uses an unedited version of the Bow Wow Falls level art, and does not have a name.
The bottom left region of the map is entirely fenced in at the road level. Despite this, you can still hop right through the fence in the spot where the final game's gap would be.
There are no dirt textures in the bottom left region.
The small hill on the right side is completely flat ground here.
The alcove below the blue frog is still marked with a checkpoint circle like SUB2, but now only contains a fly worth 1000 points instead of a 1UP.
The path to the blue and red frogs is significantly different and much, much harder, and makes use of a platform in a tree that exists but goes unused in the final release.
Nameless Revenge
Fenced in...?
Lack of elevation
Sewer/Swamp Levels (SWP)
Boom Boom Barrel has the pink water seen in the game's credits.
Boom Boom Barrel is extremely difficult because you can't see the barrels you need to land on until after you jump. So it's a crapshoot.
On the level "Slime Sliding" (or on this prototype: "Nameless"), if you ride the first pipe straight, the spots you can jump down onto behave strangely.
Slime Sliding is also missing the wall on the edge of the level in the final version.
Sky Levels
All of the levels are laid out roughly the same as in the final, but have significant visual differences.
There are these weird looking green balloons, which appear to have been an experiment for "environmental texture mapping".
Forest Levels (FOR)
There's a swan in Honey Bee Hollow.
Canopy Capers is called "Swinging Trees" despite not having any swinging trees in the level.
Canopy Capers feels more unfinished than most other levels.
Many forest graphics are broken.
The reflection of the water has leaves in it.
Honey Bee Hollow plays the unused Ruins Zone music.
The bees in Honey Bee Hollow don't work nearly as well in the final.
Volcano Levels (VOL)
The zone icon is a flame instead of a pair of gears.
All 3 of the levels use the level art for Uncanny Crusher.
The switch platforms use a gray gradient texture rather than the yellow and black stripes seen in the final game.
The switches function, but are visually alternating between on and off.
The lava texture in VOL2 and VOL3 does not scroll.
VOL1 (Scorching Switches)
Lacks the unique red lighting present in the final game, with the whole level appearing much more gray.
The center portions on most of the spinning gear platforms cannot be stepped on.
The center of the gear platforms each have tiny replicas of the ridable gear platforms on them. These may be a placeholder model to visualize the sound emitters that are present here normally.
There is no frog present in the final game's purple frog location. The orange and yellow frogs are placed symmetrically in the back center of the level instead.
It is possible to reach the green frog without needed to activate the switch platform, utilizing the spinning cog platforms. The paths of these platforms were changed to prevent this.
Some platforms are much taller here than in the retail release.
VOL2
Is an unnamed version of Lava Crush, occupying the second level slot instead of the third.
The fireballs use a much chunkier, more teardrop shaped model. This model does not spin nor does it emit particles, unlike the final model.
A few copies of the early fireball model can be seen floating in the lava in various places, likely as another sound effect placeholder.
The checkerboard tiles have more cracks and smear marks on them, giving them a somewhat more gruesome appearance than in the final game.
The camera auto-rotates to give the optimal view for the crusher sections, unlike the final which leaves camera rotation up to the player(though the game doesn't very well communicate that you can do this). It's unknown exactly why this was removed, though a possible reason could be due to the sudden shift in direction leading players to accidentally jump off the walkway.
Frogger cannot be squished on the ground by a crusher if he is standing still.
The crushers on the ends of each section now slowly move from around half height to the ceiling. In the final game, the crushers one space away from the ends follow this pattern, while the ones on the ends themselves don't move at all. The crushers one space away still move slower than the rest, but now dip low enough to pose an actual threat to Frogger while he's on the ground.
The gray platforms leading to the red and blue frogs dip down into the lava much more slowly, but will then shoot back upwards at their regular speed.
Attempting to stand on top the red ceiling in the crusher sections results in death.
VOL3
Early Platform Madness, referred to as "Mechanical Mayhem" which is the name of this zone's multiplayer stage(VOLM) in the final game.
The falling platforms and swinging boxes are dark gray in color, much like their appearances in this level's artwork in the final game.
The platforms here fall down after being stood on, rather than opening up like trapdoors. Frogger will still instantly drop through as if it were a trapdoor, despite the platforms appearing to fall quite slow.
There is a very disorienting forced camera rotation during the spiral to the blue frog. This can be mitigated by having the camera already facing south before attempting this section.
There are 3 flies(each 200 points) present inside of the pipes in the northwest corner of the map.
Cave Levels (CAV)
Frogger Goes Skiing has all the frogs at the end of the level. It's also very incomplete, and has walls on some of the sides.
Webs Cavern is quite interesting. The platforms are very tall, much higher than the retail version, and there's a ring around the edge allowing Frogger to safely move between the different parts of the level without obstacles. This makes the weird side paths in this level make way more sense, since they used to actually lead to this ring.
There are bugs, which if eaten, it'll show the mazes from above with full brightness, so you know the path.
Desert Levels (DES)
Most of the levels are the same as previously seen in other prototypes, except DES2 has a cliff sloping downwards, instead of seeming like it's part of a bowl in the retail release.
Jungle Level
The level is named "Trouble in the Tropics" instead of "Tropical Trouble".
The bridge to the blue frog is invisible until it collapses.
Very significant change to the terrain at the end of the level, completely different from the final version.
Bouncy mushrooms bounce the player onto the tops of trees, where they can sit. Flamingos can be ridden to transport Frogger across the level since it's so large.
Completing the level (which normally triggers the credits/outro) crashes the game here, seemingly because it's not finished yet.
Unused Levels
To do: Document the unused levels.
Crash Handler
Crash Handler
This game has a special crash handler that's never meant to be seen by the player. It can be triggered at any given time in the game when it crashes.
DuckStation Method: Make sure that the CPU Emulation Mode is switched to Interpreter. Once you've done that, go to the Input Name Screen, move down on the letter T, and press X to trigger this crash handler.
Method 2: In some levels, when you try to fly into the sides of the level, it can also crash the game and display this crash handler. This happens because the death barrier of the level has not been finished yet. A good example on getting this to happen is in the Suburbia Levels.
BizHawk Method: Go to the Input Name Screen and input at least one of the glitched characters as mentioned above. The lilypads don't disappear in BizHawk. Once you leave the screen, the leaderboard will show up. You can see where your high score is there are absolutely no lilypads in your initials. And after that, the crash handler appears.
Debug Text
Upon bootup, some debug text will appear in the developer console.
This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.
