Proto:Frogger (1997)/Milestone 3

This is a sub-page of Proto:Frogger (1997).

  This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

To do: FrogLord now supports viewing models from this build. Document the sounds, models, and the credits track from another game. Document interesting textures too. This documentation task is assigned to Kneesnap

A very early build of the PlayStation and Windows versions of Frogger built on March 19, 1997, identified as "Build 2, Milestone 3". This build has a staggering amount of differences from the final build.

Sub-pages

50px	Models Familiar assets with a different coat of paint.

Background

Frogger had been in development for several months at this point, but this build seemed to mark a turning point in development. It was sent to Hasbro (the publisher) for review, and seemingly this kicked off several major changes which included:

• The game's code getting rewritten from scratch.
• The control scheme getting changed (for good) to the control scheme in the final game.
• Grid-based movement instead of Frogger being able to walk on freely on any part of a map.
• Completely new game maps which took utilized some of the experiments seen in this build.
• The PC version also does not support keyboard input, and instead requires a DirectInput compatible controller.

It is not clear why such drastic changes were taken, but it was clearly necessary. The Highway Frogs community agrees that this build is not fun to play. Perhaps Hasbro was unhappy with the build. Or maybe it was planned and this iteration of the game was meant exclusively for experimenting with concepts instead of being a final product. Regardless, it seems apparent why a full recode was necessary: Nothing in this build seems to reach the level of quality seen in the final game.

Additions from Milestone 2 (February 4):

• PlayStation Version
• New Maps: Swamp, Volcano, Caves
• Many new entities.
• New control system, including swimming.
• Massive amount of work on 3D models and maps.
• New options menus
• Score/Life/Timer Bonuses

General Notes

• There's absolutely no sound in this build whatsoever.
• There's no Saving/Loading.
• Very prone to crashing.
• When Frogger dies, his death animation is simply rotating the model.

Version Differences

• The PC version is much more reliable at rendering, and has a much better framerate. One example is the swamp level, where the massive brown pipe mesh flickers in and out of existence on the PSX build, it even shows at all. While on the PC version it renders properly.
• The PSX version also has rendering problems on the desert level, where sometimes textures will corrupt and the game will freeze for a little bit.
• The PC version does not have bees in the forest map.
• The PC version's forest map uses incorrect textures.
• The free movement cheat has not been found in the PSX version.
• The PC version crashes when the player loses all their lives, while the PSX version displays a "Game Over" screen.
• Pressing L2 on the PSX version will toggle if certain decorative entities get rendered.

Controls

• Frogger can move diagonally, allowing for movement in 8 directions, instead of the 4 allowed after the recode.
• Movement is done by pointing Frogger in the desired direction with the D-PAD then pressing ✕ to hop.
• If the player hops into the water in the Suburbia world, Frogger will start swimming. Swimming is a very rare feature in Frogger games.

Final Version Game Icon

Frogger's 3D Model (SUBURBIA)	PC Icon (Final Version)

The PC executable in the "post-recode" builds of Frogger (including the final version) use a picture of a frog as their icon which looks very similar to the 3D model of Frogger seen in this build.

Bootup

Bootup	Jungle Frog Statue (Final Game)	Magazine Screenshot (Play Issue 026)

• Upon bootup, an otherwise unused (and somewhat creepy) Frogger model spins until ✕ is pressed to continue.
• This model appears to be a slightly older version of the model used in the frog statue in the final build's "Tropical Trouble" level.
• A newer version of this model appears to be seen in a pre-release render from a magazine.

Main Menu

Title Page	Main Menu

• After continuing from the boot screen, a placeholder screen that simply says "Title Page" shows up.
• The main menu has a completely black background, with ominous looking text.

Main Menu Options:

• The options labelled "Story" and "Arcade" seem to do the same thing.
• Selecting the two-player option will load a map with two frogs, though this is buggy.
• The race option allows for network multiplayer on PC. This functionality is untested, but may work.
• "View credits" crashes on the PSX version, however on the PC version it boots a screen with the words "This", "is", "the", "credits" written over each other, falling one at a time downwards.

Original Frogger

Starting Area	End Area #1	End Area #2

• This has bus errors on the PSX version, but if bypassed will load.
• Unfortunately, the camera has issues which make it impossible to see, unless a PSX emulator allowing camera manipulation is used.

Options Menu

Options Menu

• There are many options which can be configured in this menu. None of them appear to have any impact.

View High Scores Menu

Level Select

• There are many options here for the high scores which can be viewed.
• It seems that "Number of Hops" has been misspelled as "Number of Hopes".

Level Select

Level Select

The level select uses a version of the "original" level without any of the static terrain geometry.

The level select can be quite confusing to use due to the name of the currently selected level getting rendered off-screen.

Pressing UP these number of times will load these levels on the level select screen:

• 0 SWAMP
• 1 SUBURBIA (Broken Texture Remap)
• 2 FOREST (Broken Texture Remap)
• 3 SKY
• 4 DESERT
• 5 CANNOT SELECT
• 6 CAVES
• 7 CANNOT SELECT
• 8 CANNOT SELECT
• 9 CANNOT SELECT

Maps

To do: Show map renders with FrogLord once support is added.

• None of the maps visible in this build remotely resemble anything in the final game, but many of the concepts seen in these levels are seen in the final.
• These maps seem to have been designed explicitly as testing maps, to test out gameplay ideas so they could pick and choose what ideas they liked and did not like.
• There are many ideas (disappearing clouds, sky tornados,

Swamp	Suburbia	Forest
Sky	Desert	Caves

Models

To do: Show model renders with FrogLord once support is added.

• 3D model animations appear not to be in the game data yet, seemingly because the export pipeline hadn't been completed.
• The game prints error messages about animations not being present.
• Nearly all of the 3D models seen in this build are present in later builds, both used and unused. However, many of the models (such as airplanes, and tornado) are used in ways which are different from later builds.

Debug

Debug Display

Both games contain a debug display which can be turned on in-game by pressing SELECT on the PlayStation build, or ✕ on the PC build respectively. There is no known way to toggle the cheats displayed here in either version, excluding the use of tools such as GameShark or CheatEngine.

The PC version also contains a free-movement cheat. If you hold R2, the analogue stick will move Frogger in any direction, with ?/? able to control Frogger's vertical position.

Command-line Arguments (PC Only)

When run from the command line, frogger.exe has a few debug arguments.

Options:
 -M <number> Selects the map to load.
 -D <number> difficulty
 -S skips options and loads first level.
 -H help

Maps:
 "frogger.exe -M<put number here>"
 "frogger.exe -M1"  Loads SWAMP.MAP
 "frogger.exe -M2"  Loads SUBURBIA.MAP
 "frogger.exe -M3"  Loads FOREST.MAP
 "frogger.exe -M4"  Loads SKY.MAP
 "frogger.exe -M5"  Loads DESERT.MAP
 "frogger.exe -M6"  Loads VOLCANO.MAP      (Exists, crashes)
 "frogger.exe -M7"  Loads CAVES.MAP        (Exists, crashes. This is strange because the cave map does load normally from the level select.)
 "frogger.exe -M8"  Loads RIVER.MAP        (Exists, crashes)
 "frogger.exe -M9"  Loads RUINEDCITY.MAP   (Exists, crashes)
 "frogger.exe -M10" Loads JUNGLE.MAP       (Exists, crashes)
 "frogger.exe -M11" Loads MULTIPLAYER1.MAP (SUBURBIA.MAP but with proper textures)
 "frogger.exe -M12" Loads MULTIPLAYER2.MAP (Exists, crashes)
 "frogger.exe -M13" Loads MULTIPLAYER3.MAP (Exists, crashes)
 "frogger.exe -M14" Loads MULTIPLAYER4.MAP (Exists, crashes)
 "frogger.exe -M15" Loads ORIGINAL.MAP     (The camera is zoomed in and Frogger is not visible.)