Tales From the Bargain Bin #22 - Frogger II: ThreeeDeep!

[00:00:01] And welcome to Episode 22 of Tales From The Bargain Bin on Bill Tucker, and this is the side show of a game where looks at 40 where myself and a guest talk about a random game we've received as young people that we either loved or hated or didn't expect.

[00:00:27] But it's one of those weird things that we just kind of appeared.

[00:00:31] And with me after a long absence, too long in my humble opinion is the one and only Joe Coro from Perfect Storm Gaming and Retro Game Guy on YouTube.

[00:00:42] Joey, it's going on man.

[00:00:44] Let's not man, it has been too long.

[00:00:46] It's just definitely a treat.

[00:00:49] I missed you for those who know or may not know, bills my best friend 37 years and any opportunity I get to have

[00:00:57] on with them, I certainly relish.

[00:00:59] And you're doing some really cool stuff on both Perfect Storm and on Retro Game Guy which is really cool.

[00:01:04] You too, man. I keep in touch and watch all your stuff on Twitch, you and your wife are incredibly funny.

[00:01:13] I'm serious.

[00:01:14] I got my wife watching also.

[00:01:18] So I like their, I like their, I think a friend of their on TikTok.

[00:01:21] I think.

[00:01:22] Yeah, that works out.

[00:01:25] Yeah, if you're listening to this and don't know my wife and I every Tuesday and sometimes Thursday or Friday,

[00:01:31] we go on Twitch and we're playing through Fallout New Vegas and it's been, it's been the ride.

[00:01:36] It's been fun. So we are continuing that journey.

[00:01:39] But today we are here to talk about, let's be honest, I never thought I'd talk about this game on any platform or any show.

[00:01:47] This is Joey's pick and it is Frogger 2, 3 deep with an exclamation point.

[00:01:53] On 1984 on the Atari 2600. So Joey, in your pick.

[00:01:59] So what's your history with this game? Why are we talking about this?

[00:02:04] So it's an older game and I had gotten the console from my uncle at the time.

[00:02:10] And little known factor those that don't know.

[00:02:12] And then my mid 40s and my uncle, you know this bill. He's in his mid 50s.

[00:02:19] He was an uncle very young and he became like basically a pseudo older brother to me.

[00:02:27] So during the time of the Sega Master System and the Nintendo, my uncle, he had an Atari 2600.

[00:02:36] He got it in 1979, either 79 or 80.

[00:02:40] And by 8586 he did need it, me more. He says, you know, I'll give it to Joey stuff.

[00:02:46] And I was like, oh great. Yeah, a free video game system. Awesome.

[00:02:51] I'll definitely take it.

[00:02:53] And then he brings it over.

[00:02:57] What is this? There's a little bit of, I don't know.

[00:03:03] I guess it doesn't seem like plastic. And then over here is some wooden paneling for those that have seemed to 2600.

[00:03:12] Yeah, yeah, very, very 79.

[00:03:16] Which at the time was only six or seven years old.

[00:03:19] Right. But for some reason, the jump, it's stylistically between 79 and 88 when I got it was pretty, it was herculated.

[00:03:29] So, um, 80. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. He's living in Bloomfield.

[00:03:34] I was eight years old and I had already had the Sega Master System.

[00:03:37] So to me this was cool. I was a Sega guy and which was frustrating obviously because I built those.

[00:03:46] This I couldn't play Mario and I couldn't play Zelda and I couldn't play Mega Man.

[00:03:50] And you know, every time I went to Cartarat during launch here,

[00:03:53] I would be talking about all these great games and it was like man, you know, I wish I could play these.

[00:03:59] You know, I knew is that Sega for whatever reason didn't have those games.

[00:04:02] So my uncle Cameron said, if you, uh, yeah, if you want to hear that whole story episode three of this very podcast.

[00:04:10] Yeah. All about Joey, I stay on a Nintendo playground. So check out that really episode.

[00:04:15] Yeah. Yeah. So to get this was great.

[00:04:18] I thought, oh, maybe I can play Mega Man on Atari 2600. Now obviously I didn't know any better.

[00:04:24] I was eight years old. So I was like, yeah, I'll take it.

[00:04:27] But he brings this thing as I said with wooden paneling and the cords are all weird

[00:04:32] And they don't, it's not a choice. It's not a control pad. It's a joystick, right?

[00:04:37] And everything about it was just like, uh, it was like kind of a let down.

[00:04:41] My father hooked it up on the television. He says, go crazy.

[00:04:44] And there was really nothing to go crazy about the graphics were awful.

[00:04:50] Um, the sound was worse.

[00:04:53] And for whatever reason, I don't know why just every game that you played,

[00:05:01] you never could go anywhere. For whatever reason that was really big, I guess,

[00:05:06] during the late 70s, early, early, early, 80s where

[00:05:10] the point to the game wasn't to complete it. It wasn't like the next level and the next level and the next level.

[00:05:16] And each stage looked different. Every level looked the same. So when I put

[00:05:21] space invaders, when I got to level two, it looked the same. When I played Pac Man,

[00:05:26] level two looked the same asteroids defender, every level looked the same.

[00:05:30] And if he came very apparent to me, and here's, oh, this is pointless.

[00:05:34] This is just what is the point of this? And you know, my uncle was trying to make a

[00:05:40] cool on you was like, well, you got to beat your score. You got to be the score,

[00:05:44] Joseph. So it was again, that must have been very big during the late 70s, early 80s.

[00:05:50] You know, but you know, but you know, the joy the point is points.

[00:05:54] That is the point. Yeah, point is points.

[00:05:57] But you know, but you were growing up.

[00:06:00] Yeah, we didn't do that. We like to relive a look different.

[00:06:04] Yeah, Mario and Zelda, just the 88 we're talking about like we are in the

[00:06:07] prime of the NES. Yeah. Yeah. So like I just kind of left it at the

[00:06:14] wayside and like this system is, you know, garbage for lack of a better

[00:06:18] term. I mean now, you know, I'm right. I'm in a dud. There's new

[00:06:22] foundation that I have for it. But at eight years old, I'm just like, all right,

[00:06:25] I went from bad to worse. You know, this is, I went from the Sega

[00:06:29] Masters system to this thing. So forget it. It's sat there.

[00:06:34] It's sat there for months until my uncle came over some sort of a holiday

[00:06:41] and he's like, oh, by the way, I forgot to give you this.

[00:06:43] You know, I didn't give you this game with the rest of them. This is

[00:06:47] Frogger 2. So I'm like, okay, you know, I'll try it out

[00:06:51] and I try it out and bill when you get to the next stage.

[00:06:57] Loan behold, it's a different stage. Yeah. And when you get then there,

[00:07:03] and it's now I'm in water and those that have played Frogger 2, the all six of

[00:07:08] you know, you're on the water when you're when you're when you're when

[00:07:14] you're playing level one. And then when you're on level two, you're off

[00:07:17] the water and the stage style is typically looks different. You're trying to

[00:07:21] leap from leap at the leap at or turtle or alligator. And I think there's a

[00:07:26] stage in the clouds, if I remember correctly, I think there's the

[00:07:30] stage where you're in the sky and you're leaping from bird to bird. So

[00:07:34] yeah, I was, I was really, I mean, I really got into it.

[00:07:38] The only thing that I had trouble with was the joystick because again, you

[00:07:41] and I were raised on a controlled pad. Right. But I really got into this thing.

[00:07:45] I remember people would come over and I would say, hey, check this out. And the

[00:07:49] kids that know what it was. And at the time, let's face it. 84, you said the

[00:07:53] game came out. I didn't even know that. 88, it's still a relatively new

[00:07:57] game. Yeah. I mean, this is end of the little 2600

[00:08:00] life cycle. I guess at this point, right? I mean, got me a late 2600 game.

[00:08:05] Yeah. By today's dad, there's it's, you know, this came out after the crash.

[00:08:09] This is crazy. Yeah. I'm thinking about it. Yeah. By any standards, let's face it.

[00:08:14] Four years, this four years. I mean, 2020 was four years ago. So by any standards, it's a relatively new game.

[00:08:21] Graphically, it was the best of my collection or my uncle's collection, I should say.

[00:08:26] And now I couldn't put it down. I played that until I moved, which was when 90

[00:08:31] for two years that had a run because of that same reason, because of every level looking

[00:08:38] different. Now I remember thinking, okay, I want to complete this. And this really

[00:08:42] brought out to a larger conversation, how for whatever reason that generation, late

[00:08:48] 70s I'm talking about, they were fine with trying to beat their own score. The point

[00:08:53] chasing is you called it, right? But our generation never worked. You know, I mean,

[00:08:58] is that just me or were you the same? I never cared about points. Points was not a thing for me.

[00:09:03] And never has been. I was always about getting to the next level, beating the boss

[00:09:08] and seeing what more the game has to offer. The repetition of early, you know, asteroids and

[00:09:13] defender and Pac-Man is never hooked me. And I think it's because I started with Mario,

[00:09:19] you know, that's a game that's a progression of levels and there's different things going on.

[00:09:25] I guess if I was born maybe 10 years earlier and playing, you know, frog or, you know,

[00:09:31] as a 10 year old probably different. But yeah, it's definitely a generational thing for sure.

[00:09:36] Definitely. And for me it was something that, you know, you learned at a very young age, like,

[00:09:41] this is obviously doing it for my uncle who's older than me but not much older than me.

[00:09:48] But it's certainly not doing it for me. And that was my first foot in the toe and the water

[00:09:54] pun intended because it's now that we're talking about frog or it's a pro. And I didn't know

[00:10:00] that it was a sequel to. I mean, for years afterwards and people would talk for, I didn't know

[00:10:04] this frog or two. I was going to risk. Yeah, I was going to ask you never play the original

[00:10:09] frog at the time? No, no. The years later I had played it and I remember,

[00:10:15] I mean, years later, I've did probably in college, you know, when emulation was big and

[00:10:21] ROMs were big. You know, that was my main goal to try to acquire every movie I ever had digitally

[00:10:31] and P3 Music Song album I ever had digitally during the boom of Napster. And video games

[00:10:37] as you know were no different. I was trying to acquire every video game or ROM, I should say,

[00:10:42] digitally. And when I, of course, I went to go get Frogger. I had played it and

[00:10:47] I was like, this isn't it. This isn't. And I tried to have the other version and I'm just like,

[00:10:53] what is this? And I think it was my brother at the time that said, Joseph, that's the sequel.

[00:10:59] The one we got from Uncle was Frogger, too. And I'm like, no, they never made a sequel to Frogger.

[00:11:05] And they made a sequel to Frogger. They made a sequel to Frogger in 1984. It's a described

[00:11:14] the game. People most people should know the concept of Frogger, right? You're a little frog

[00:11:19] and you're jumping off from down a street in the original Frogger I believe and you're trying

[00:11:23] to avoid cars and scapewards and whatever other obstacles. It's really a timing game where

[00:11:28] you really, it's actually very challenging. It's this is not, yes, Frogger ain't easy. And there's

[00:11:33] been many Frogger games over the years. I think my wife has a Frogger game for the Game Boy Advance.

[00:11:38] I look this up now. The whole franchise evidently, but I'd never heard of Frogger 2 when you brought

[00:11:44] it up. I went ahead and I downloaded the ROM at like a good American and sure enough, I played

[00:11:51] 10 minutes of it and they said, I got it all. So, I'm not the biggest fan of Atari games.

[00:12:00] To this day is not a, I don't have a lot in the nostalgia for them and they are more pain than

[00:12:06] their worth. I got about 10 minutes in and said, that's enough for me. I think I got, I think I got

[00:12:12] the idea. It's incredible. I, I, I, I, I, I, when you break it, and I don't want to be here.

[00:12:16] I'm going to track you. It's incredible when you look back at the success of that and great

[00:12:22] consoles, you know, Genesis, you know, obviously the Wii, you know, obviously the original NES.

[00:12:31] I'm talking consoles that have just incredible legendary success. It takes you five minutes to play

[00:12:37] the thing. And you know, you just know, okay, this is why this system was so big. Atari is one of

[00:12:43] you that you play it and you're like, and this thing was mega. I mean, it was going to help you

[00:12:48] went back in the end. Oh yeah, we know that. When you 600, yeah. You and you just play it and you're

[00:12:53] like, man, for the life of me, I don't get it. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I didn't live

[00:12:57] grew up in the 70s. I'm so, I'm so glad we missed a five year. We barely got you. Well, I mean, yeah,

[00:13:05] we were born in 1980. You know, so, but we weren't for it. You know, we were playing games until

[00:13:11] we were six in Shane and then we did say six in that Nintendo. Yeah, I just look back at it. And again,

[00:13:16] I can appreciate it. But I just don't have them to style. I've had the, they came out with

[00:13:21] I think it was that 50th anniversary Atari collection on Steam and Switch and all the other consoles.

[00:13:27] And it's supposed to be not only like all these old Atari games and a collection, but also

[00:13:32] stories about how they were made, Atari in those days. It's definitely supposed to be very cool.

[00:13:37] I've had it in my wish list for years now and I never pulled the trigger because it hasn't

[00:13:40] cheap enough yet. But no, he's great of it. I'm not, I'm not, yeah, it's a game. I'm sorry. I didn't

[00:13:47] answer your question. So for those that don't know, it's, it's a game where you're frog, the original

[00:13:53] and you're trying to get across the street that the platform that you're on is, is the street.

[00:13:58] And this was the late 70s and for whatever reason, companies didn't really license their mascots,

[00:14:05] which is why a lot of them got lost. Santa Star is one of them,

[00:14:11] Cuebert, another great example. These were mega, mega mascots back in the day. And, and

[00:14:18] Frogger was, was one of them. Incidentally, Nintendo nearly lost Mario. They, they were

[00:14:23] reporting it to Atari via the Donkey Kong, which was on the 2600. But then by the 80s,

[00:14:30] companies learned in Nintendo, they did a wonderful job, license, and things Zelda, and, and

[00:14:35] Mario Sega with Sonic, Capcom with Mega Man, etc. But it's a frog that you're trying to get

[00:14:42] across the street. This is the first one, the first frogger is you're just trying to get across

[00:14:46] the street and you're dodging obstacles that that being cars, trucks, motorcycles, etc.

[00:14:54] And it's just her ins repeat as we spoke about its point chasing. So level two, looks like level one,

[00:15:00] 100, it looks like level three, etc. I think it gets a little challenging as far as speed,

[00:15:06] the objects and obstacles get faster. But Frogger 2, the platform, the plane rather is not

[00:15:15] is not a street. It's level one is a pond. You're on a, there's a pond that you,

[00:15:20] you're walking on. You can walk on it, and you're trying to dodge obstacles that are coming

[00:15:25] in front of you. And then level two is the inverse. It's just the opposite. You can't walk on the pond,

[00:15:31] and you're walking on these objects. And I'm pretty sure I got to a level where I was in the clouds.

[00:15:36] I know it's not crazy because you're not. Oh, there's the third level is the cloud level. And what's

[00:15:41] interesting about the cloud level is, and actually the, the water level is if you fall,

[00:15:47] you don't lose a life, you just go back down to the previous level. So if you're in the clouds

[00:15:52] and you fall, you fall to the lake, just the one that you can't go on. If you fall in the lake,

[00:15:58] you go down to the water, I guess, I don't know why how you're going down to the water if you

[00:16:04] look at the applications you're underwater now. But it's a pretty neat concept. And there's lots of

[00:16:10] different, the, the obstacles are more interactive. So if you hop on top of a bird, it'll take

[00:16:16] you to a cloud area. If you hop on certain, the Lily pads are one stop only so soon

[00:16:22] you get off a lot of the pad that goes away. There are certain spots on the whales. You can hit

[00:16:28] the spout and they're diving up and down. It's very ambitious for an Atari 2600 game. You know what

[00:16:35] bill? That's the perfect word. And yeah, I was one of those games I play on like, this is not terribly

[00:16:40] fun. But I really respect the hell out of this. This is impressive feat to give all of this

[00:16:46] variety to standard Frogger, which initially was just avoiding obstacles and moving up a board.

[00:16:52] So yeah, it's an impressive game. Now you're joking. My memory actually. Did you play this

[00:17:00] years ago or because of this episode? You saw the only reason I played this because of you,

[00:17:07] good sir. You see, I'd never even knew this existed until last week when we used scheduled this

[00:17:14] conversation. I'm convinced that you came over a 16th street of play. You probably forgot.

[00:17:25] I probably forgot. Probably being a smart eight-year-old. All of my play.

[00:17:33] Joey, Joey, you have to say you did this. We could be playing with the essay,

[00:17:36] you made up a master system. We could be playing for no beat. Yeah. There was, yeah, there

[00:17:42] was a system space, Harry or Chanel B. There was, that was great. The biggest thing obviously when I

[00:17:48] looked back at it, that was the most challenging. Excuse me, is the joystick, you know, and that

[00:17:55] was another thing. Like, for whatever reason, like that just was such a leap and just everything

[00:18:03] when you think about it. When you look at the 80s to 90s, when you look at the super Nintendo,

[00:18:08] let's say versus the NES or the Genesis to the master system or anything. It isn't that big a leap.

[00:18:15] You know, I mean, yes, you're jumping from 8 bit to 16 bit, but conceptual you're talking about

[00:18:20] the same. Graphically it's just the same only souped up. It's 2D. The control pad is a control pad.

[00:18:28] You know, moving up a level how to complete a game is the same. But when you look at the 2600

[00:18:34] versus the NES, which is only 5 years, what a jump in everything and everything when you think

[00:18:41] it's like they just said, you know what? Screw it. Let's just reinvent the wheel here.

[00:18:48] Exactly. Right. And it's, those, those generational leap. So I think are really interesting.

[00:18:53] How some seem like again, we've talked about a frog, frog or leaps get it. Yeah, high five.

[00:18:58] No, no, no. But yeah, you're right. Those leaps really seem different. But you're

[00:19:05] right that leap from Atari to just Nintendo and the master system was monumental. I mean,

[00:19:12] grab them perfectly at different sound. It's different. The control pad looks different. Right.

[00:19:18] How we talked about the conceptual of a game from platforming versus point chasing, just everything.

[00:19:24] And it's only five years. I've never seen such a shift in how the industry and consoles

[00:19:30] veered. It's incredible when you think about it. It really is. I mean, the only thing that's

[00:19:34] comparable probably would be the 16 bit to N64. You know what, you know what built that?

[00:19:42] Well, yeah. Yeah. I mean, the N64, I was playing Crone Trigger in Final Fantasy 6 and the next

[00:19:48] thing I know, there's a demo console in my local Bradley's or wherever best spot, not best

[00:19:54] by that time probably would be the best spot. There's circuit city for an Nintendo 64 where I'm

[00:19:59] going in 360 degrees with Mario and I'm like, this is the future. It's here. How how does this happen?

[00:20:05] How did this happen? It's three day to two days. Yeah. So the control pad, there's there's actually

[00:20:11] many joysticks. Yeah. Stay packs, rumble pack. Very well. Very well said, Bill. Probably the only thing

[00:20:17] you can draw a parallel to is the 16 bit to 64 bit. Yeah. That's really really that I think the

[00:20:23] biggest leap. And ever that ever since then it's more incremental because again, you don't have

[00:20:28] that shift. It is once again time to say thank you to our wonderful patrons starting with Terry

[00:20:43] Kiner, games with coffee, BT Goables, Julian of the Stage Select podcast, set Surgeal of all

[00:20:51] in media, Tim, formerly of the latest, though let's play Princess. Right, so we're of the Player

[00:20:56] One podcast and Generation 16 series of videos. Bill a Becker and finally the one and only

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[00:21:20] no worries. A rating review or even telling a friend about this series is always greatly appreciated.

[00:21:28] Thanks so much and let's jump back into the episode. A Frogger is a French eyes as we've discussed.

[00:21:44] There are a lot of Frogger games doing. So if you want to relive Frogger,

[00:21:51] you can across across the length and breadth of the video game world you and enjoy Frogger.

[00:22:01] I don't have a succinct list. I'm going to have to pick and choose this from a Wikipedia article.

[00:22:05] So I apologize. It's not as organized as I'd like. Frogger of course the first one was 1981.

[00:22:10] It was developed by Konami. And then of course we have our sequel Frogger 2, 1984.

[00:22:16] Released on a bunch of consoles Joey it was on the Apple 2 Atari 8bit computers Atari 2600.

[00:22:22] Wow. 5200. Calico vision Commodore 64 and IBM PC compatibles. Wow. So Frogger 2 made its way

[00:22:30] around as things did in that era. Never made it to tell a vision. Not bunatima, Uncle Gary.

[00:22:36] Yeah, that's interesting. Never made that interesting. Never made it to tell a vision.

[00:22:41] Frogger was then re-released in 1997 for the PlayStation and Windows.

[00:22:46] There was a 1998 game dot com version. Name Frogger. Do you have a game dot com?

[00:22:52] Of course. Yes I do. I got a game. Yeah. It's a there was there is three there was S N 6

[00:23:00] and there was game com that tiger made and then the third one which is terrible is the arzone

[00:23:06] which yeah. It's very good. Arzone was a tiger join. I forgot that. You're right.

[00:23:13] This was in the advance to dawn. I should say of the three D virtual reality boom craze for

[00:23:18] whatever reason VR was really big in the 90s. I don't know why because the tech was so awful.

[00:23:23] But you know an Nintendo released virtual boys. Sega had their own VR glasses and tiger said,

[00:23:31] yeah we could do this and they made the arzone.

[00:23:36] Which that is a story for another day. I've actually had an arzone on my head. It was joys.

[00:23:43] It was your arzone. I've strapped that thing to my head. Literally strapped it.

[00:23:48] And you didn't get a seizure which is incredible for you to make. And we will do an episode on

[00:23:53] virtual by at some point because I know you are a staunch defender.

[00:23:57] staunch defender of the virtual voice. We will we will we will reconvene for that.

[00:24:03] If you want a little earlier so Frogger again, 97 for the PlayStation and Windows game.com

[00:24:08] 98 and then Frogger two swampies revenge was released in 2000 for the PlayStation game.

[00:24:14] True. Are you following this all true? No, this is all it's online has to be true. Windows and

[00:24:20] however if you need something a little more modern from the 2000s Frogger's got you coverage.

[00:24:25] In the sixth generation of video game consoles,

[00:24:28] we had that we started with the colon wars because everything in 2000s had a colon. So we had Frogger,

[00:24:33] the great quest in 2001. We have Frogger beyond in 2002. The colon wars but just to be clear

[00:24:40] you mean the punctuation. punctuation? Yes no not the not directed not an upper GI series or

[00:24:46] right exactly. Not the colonoscopy wars of 2000. A little totally different situation. No no this is

[00:24:54] not the gastrointestinal wars of that era. This is the colon. Everything had to be the great quest

[00:25:00] or we had Frogger's adventures, the rescue in 2003 and then we had Frogger, ancient shadow in 2005.

[00:25:08] Some of them sounds like a Pokemon series now. It does. Konami kids play around Frogger,

[00:25:13] cops play in a giant for the places you choose. That's just crazy.

[00:25:17] And then the Game Boy Advance, I knew my wife had it when pretty against,

[00:25:20] had four Frogger games. Oh my gosh. Frogger's adventures,

[00:25:24] tip-on-the-frog, Frogger's Vance, the great quest, Frogger adventures too, the Lost Wand

[00:25:30] and Frogger's Journey, the forgotten relic in 2003. And then there's some mobile games.

[00:25:36] Look at how I can't believe that there was such a great, fake franchise. They must

[00:25:39] but there's more. Because in the set of generation of video game consoles, we have Frogger on the

[00:25:45] Xbox 360. You're a K-Fame player. Are you serious? No Frogger 2 and 360 as well. It was in 2008.

[00:25:53] Frogger returns in 2009. Frogger hyper arcade edition.

[00:25:57] Oh my gosh. For the Wii PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, iOS and Android in 2012.

[00:26:06] And of course hand-helds, we're not left out. We had Frogger helmet chaos.

[00:26:11] Frogger helmet chaos in 2005. My Frogger toy trials in 2006. Frogger evolution, Frogger beats

[00:26:20] and bounces Frogger lost. There's been a lot if I haven't made the point. If I haven't cemented

[00:26:25] this home free. Fair listener. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. The final one,

[00:26:31] I think that was released. We'll just move forward. Oh, check this is interesting. I'm

[00:26:37] well finished with this paragraph. And then the 2010s we have Frogger in Ferno on iOS. Frogger

[00:26:43] from mobile devices. Frogger 3D for the 3DS in 2011. Frogger decades for iOS in 2011. Frogger

[00:26:51] in Toytown for Apple Arcade in 2019. Joey if you have access to Apple Arcade as a very good

[00:27:00] chance. A Frogger game is that your fingertips are? I can't believe this. I'd Frogger and the

[00:27:07] rumbling ruins for Apple Arcade in 2022. There is a modern Frogger game you can plan Apple Arcade,

[00:27:14] probably right now. This is unbelievable to me. And then the while the wildest of all them,

[00:27:22] I'll just end with this as a Frogger pinball game. There's no one called crack out, which I don't even

[00:27:25] want to know what that is. The final one here is Frogger get hoppin was a casino game in 2017.

[00:27:35] So it's very likely if you found yourself down at Atlantic City, showbode or resort or one of those

[00:27:42] possible. You have gambled on Frogger get hoppin and you just said it a new version of Frogger,

[00:27:52] which is probably not going to happen anymore because the system is not going to happen anymore.

[00:27:57] A new Frogger was being planned for the Intellivision Amiko. We have come full circle Joey.

[00:28:05] Wait, how can you explain dumb this down? How is Jo. Okay. So the Intellivision Amiko,

[00:28:10] you have the Amiko you haven't heard of this surprise you haven't in your circles.

[00:28:14] No I haven't actually. The Amiko is I don't know if it's dead or not but it was basically a

[00:28:21] outsourced console that was basically going to be an Intellivision that you could play modern.

[00:28:28] A modern day Intellivision. Yeah, basically and it had all intelligent games,

[00:28:33] had the television controller with a disk and everything else, plugged into modern systems. It was

[00:28:38] basically like a NES mini or a super NES mini before the Intellivision and had Intellivision games

[00:28:44] and it was going to have original games on it. There was a lot of controversy. I was stalled

[00:28:50] development for years and years. Kickstarter money that went nowhere and had nothing.

[00:28:55] It was played with issues and I think as of a few months ago it was pretty much not going to

[00:29:04] happen, although the blade is a Atari purchased the Intellivision brand and its assets.

[00:29:09] Yeah, it was not included in the sale but what I mean, I was really excited about that. Yeah.

[00:29:14] So it could happen with a different thing but unfortunately the Amiko was the was a brainchild

[00:29:20] of one Tommy Telerico. I want to say is that right, the guy's name? I'm re-shirt. I'm looking

[00:29:24] at up right now. My phone. I'm going to check more of this out. Yeah, my pals, the gamers we

[00:29:29] have did a lot of coverage on this console. It was just a poorly planned thing and it's one of

[00:29:36] those things that was trying to go on the backs of the Atari small systems and many systems and

[00:29:42] I don't think there's enough fondness for the Intellivision to warrant its own console but

[00:29:47] I don't know. That's where we were at with that but I can't believe there were so many

[00:29:52] froggers. This is a real franchise. I mean, I like to check as far as where they rank

[00:29:58] revenue-wise. Sounds like a compiler. Frogger might be the mega death if you will.

[00:30:05] Where like you see, you're like oh this franchise made a lot of X amount of money but it came

[00:30:10] at the back of 38 games that no one knows about but that's interesting. I had no at this was

[00:30:15] really informative and completely education. I'm not kidding either. I had no idea about it.

[00:30:20] Yeah, are you saying that Frogger is a Cal Rippian Jr. of video game? That's just the ultimate

[00:30:24] compiler. It's exactly the same. Say it's very crista birdy. He played a lot of games and had a lot

[00:30:33] touched down. But nothing were good. No to no end. Too to what end. That's funny. Parker Brothers was

[00:30:40] confident that released Frogger to all the other Frogger.

[00:30:44] Now Parker Brothers most commonly known for board games. Yes, such as Monopoly and Clue

[00:30:52] and Sorry, Risk, Tribal Presuits, Scrabble all sorts of other different games but they did

[00:30:58] have a video game. It's a division where they made as of my research 17 different games

[00:31:05] for the 2600 basically. That's what they lived off of. So Joey as a as a as a as a

[00:31:11] a connoisseur of the 2600 a former owner I'm current owner because I'm going to see if you've

[00:31:17] played any of these 2600 games that were made by Parker Brothers. Let's see how many.

[00:31:24] Now mind you this is going to be challenging. Yeah, and then yes because there was so much

[00:31:29] stuff made for the 2600. There was a lot of trouble where yep. There was so much. So we're going

[00:31:33] to we're going to go through this alphabetically. So first one is Amadar. I have not played

[00:31:39] Amadar. So you're going to drag snite out. I don't know. That was actually for the Nintendo.

[00:31:45] That was actually any S game. I was going to say there was a couple that were any S ports,

[00:31:50] Dockey, Com being, I mean, Doc playing his Parker Brothers but yeah, there was no I now

[00:31:55] to answer your question. Oh, it's actually hang on one second. It was never officially released.

[00:32:01] So you had no chance of playing this game jelly. Oh, drag snite out was never officially released.

[00:32:06] The game feeds their sponsorship of the re-bock pump shoe. Remember the re-bock pump?

[00:32:11] Oh, big time. That was that took over the late 80s early 90s. That was like the cool thing.

[00:32:17] Talking about group think kids group think everyone school had that everyone thought that if

[00:32:21] you can inflate a balloon around your feet, you could play like Michael Jordan. That was fire.

[00:32:26] You could jump higher. Like it was the game genie for your feet. It was ridiculous.

[00:32:30] I never had a pair of pump shoes. I had fake ones. I think they were, I promise you this is not

[00:32:37] a bit. I think they were called XJ-890s or something and they had a little bubble basketball on the

[00:32:44] tongue that you could squeeze. Didn't do anything. It was just there to look like a pump shoe.

[00:32:51] Of course, I would sit there in reality of it. The reality of it was that none of us could afford it.

[00:32:56] We were both in the same situation. We were living in a duplex and blow fields. Yeah,

[00:33:00] our blue collar dads. Yeah. So yeah. We went to academy shoes. Yeah. I'm blue field av and bought

[00:33:07] fake pumps. So I fully remember my XJ-890s or just I thought those were just the bees knees.

[00:33:15] I'll just sit there and Carter out and gym class pumping my fake pump shoes. Look. Oh no, no,

[00:33:24] I remember this to my son. This is a bit of an aside, but my son is at a basketball camp this week.

[00:33:31] He's taking a liking to basketball and he's doing very well and he asked me, Daddy,

[00:33:37] did you play basketball? I said, I tried, son. I tried. Me and Uncle Joey. We

[00:33:44] third grade tried our hand to basketball. I do remember there were huge green garbage pelcids and

[00:33:50] joke comics. Yeah. And you score, I think you did you ever score a basket? I never scored

[00:33:57] a thing I basket. I think I scored one basket. You scored one basket. Either you

[00:34:01] lose of not just about it. Oh, I saw you on your latest perfect storm arcade crashes. You

[00:34:09] playing Daytona and all I could think was like, yeah, that's he's always been doing that since we

[00:34:19] know like I'm stunted and I'm mad enough to admit it's called a rare development. My best friends

[00:34:26] aware of it, and he's too good a person to to to let on that he knows that I know that he does.

[00:34:34] You know, the a man should what Rubin hates it is that like yeah, this is my crazy

[00:34:38] friend from Jersey. Yeah, from January 16. When people in Texas say hi, they're messing

[00:34:45] up with New Jersey. I say, well, hold my beer because I have some let me show you these videos.

[00:34:50] This is this is Jersey personified. This is right here.

[00:34:58] Anyway, I diverge him. Yes, my son is playing basketball now and I had to tell him that

[00:35:04] like now, daddy was not very good at basketball. I never scored a single basket. You scored once

[00:35:08] and we lost our minds and Paul Willie scored once and we lost our minds. We've celebrated

[00:35:13] life. We'd want a championship. We literally it was the greatest moment leading by carries

[00:35:18] late through my also on athletic friends. So next one, next one list was GI Joe Kubra's strike

[00:35:25] for the 2600. I played. Yes, that I played my my uncle didn't have it. I didn't play it. Let me

[00:35:32] be clear. I didn't play it in 88 when I got the console. But I played it on a ROM a years later in college.

[00:35:39] Yeah, that's fine. James Bond, double of seven for the Atari 2600 and 50200 was on a couple

[00:35:47] of their system as well. Never played that now. Lord of the rings journey to Rivendell. What?

[00:35:54] I don't think that's got to be a type. Yeah, that can't. I don't think this was released either.

[00:35:59] Let's say here was a video game scheduled to be released in the winner of 83. Parker Brothers was set

[00:36:05] up. And I never ties it. But I don't think it ever came out. It never came out. Wow. Okay. So that's

[00:36:12] another wrinkle in my brain. I thought he'd or Jackson. I thought that was a new franchise. Okay. Wow.

[00:36:18] Yeah, that's say that say yeah, that was never released. It was released right around the crash.

[00:36:23] And it just never saw the light of day. Monopoly. 90. One for the Game Boy. Yeah, boy Monopoly.

[00:36:29] I played, I think we both had that. I know I had that. Yeah, I had monopoly for the original brick

[00:36:35] Game Boy. We do. Yeah, also. Hey, go. You want to just do childish humor? Montezuma's revenge.

[00:36:43] I did that play. There's a part of me, a smart part of me that he's kidding. You can tell me anything

[00:36:51] right now. I know. I can be like Johnny Ruth and the five menorcasters show. We have you ever tried that?

[00:36:57] I'm not playing that one. This is a legitimately a real thing that I sell. I tell only the truth

[00:37:09] on this program. Yeah, you're just going to skip that one. Very good.

[00:37:16] Cuber and we're talking arcade Cuber. This I think the Cuber was supposed to be this most of

[00:37:27] library. It wasn't just like he gave me the console with not the he gave him a I had

[00:37:34] I had Pac Man, I had Defender, I had Astrids, I had Pong, I had Cubert, I had

[00:37:43] obviously Frogger 2. I'm convinced if we jogged your memory or got you in front of hypnosis.

[00:37:51] Someone that could really bring out the old Carol Montgomery memories. Yeah,

[00:37:56] yeah, I can recall them. I'm convinced you played it. But yeah, I mean, you came over and I definitely

[00:38:03] knowing me today, check this out. You know, that was always my, uh, modest top or on day.

[00:38:09] Yeah, I think we've everyone like, oh look at this. I guess not totally. Never heard it.

[00:38:12] At the risk of this bit going too long, I'm just going to rattle off the last few days because

[00:38:16] there was actually a couple of good ones on this list. So we have reactor, which I don't know

[00:38:21] this game. There's an arcade game initially and it was imported. Returned the Jedi Death Star Battle.

[00:38:27] That's a damn good game. Yeah, I'm not a game. I'm done that Parker Brothers. Wow, I didn't know

[00:38:33] that. Parker Brothers joined. They produced that. Wow, interesting. Parker Brothers joined

[00:38:37] and another one, which actually just recently came up with a co-worker who bought an emulation

[00:38:42] system just to play this game. Spider-Man on the Atari. That I never played. Wow, I don't

[00:38:49] you. The only reason is I know she sometimes listens to the show Natasha. It's come full circle.

[00:38:55] Jettari, as Atari Spider-Man was developed by the same people who did Frogger 2. There you go.

[00:39:01] That that's we've now connected so many threads. Star Wars. Yeah, literally like six degrees with

[00:39:06] Kevin Bacon. We really connected. Yeah. And then we'll just go through real quick. Star Wars Jedi

[00:39:12] arena. Star Wars return the Jedi. You walk adventure. Star Wars Empire Strikes back. I played that,

[00:39:18] which is that one. Another good game. That's a good game and super co-brain, which I don't know

[00:39:22] that one. It's I didn't play that one now. Now Parker Brothers. So I guess I had three or four

[00:39:27] maybe four down the list. Not bad. Not bad. Listen better than I better I have. Again, this was

[00:39:33] not my era at all. Boy oh boy. This is awesome. I didn't know any. I appreciate this.

[00:39:41] Especially I'm going to go to Delta after we hang up and download some of these great ones.

[00:39:46] Yeah, see what else Parker Brothers has up there? I want to be clear to the Patriots

[00:39:50] listening. We started this and it was like, well, how much fodder can we really talk at length about

[00:39:57] Frogger toe? It's 40 minutes deep now folks. There's a rich, well I knew there was a lot of

[00:40:06] Frogger games. I didn't realize how many there were. I'll have to put some chapters in here so

[00:40:11] people they don't want to hear the laundry list of Frogger games. They can just stick that perhaps.

[00:40:15] But and I also download the manual. I always find the manuals of games fascinating. I love video game

[00:40:21] manuals. If I collect it things I don't collect anything, it probably would be video game manual.

[00:40:26] Let me care about the box. I just love a good manual. I love it. The manual for the

[00:40:33] Frogger toe for the Atari 2600 is not good. I have seen technical manuals on PC equipment.

[00:40:41] That's more exciting than the plain text of Frogger 2. So there's not much here. Let me see if

[00:40:47] I can entice you to play this game by the opening paragraph because this is the, now mind you

[00:40:52] about the game. I mean it's not like let's hear it in a second. Let me try it. Try it. Try

[00:40:58] your two Atari 2600 box. I'm always curious how do people try to, how do companies get you

[00:41:08] to buy these things? I never got the boxes or the manuals or the artwork. I got in the console,

[00:41:16] two control pads. The hookup cords obviously and my uncle gave me like 14 games and a

[00:41:23] shoe box. Luckily for us, the copy on the back of the Frogger 2 boxes is the exact same copy that's

[00:41:28] inside the manuals. Perfect. This big, it works out perfect. So here it is. Let's see if this

[00:41:34] tantalizes you and folks at home too want to play this. This is now your chance. This is how

[00:41:38] Parker Brothers has decided to sell this game to you. Look who's resurfaced in an all new adventure.

[00:41:43] It's Frogger. Three distinctly different screens take our fearless frog in another homeward

[00:41:48] bound journey of this time it's underwater, overwater and through the air. But notice how

[00:41:57] it advertised three screens. That was a big deal for the Atari three multiple screens. That's

[00:42:04] I'm waiting for you to finish. Is that it? Are you done? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

[00:42:07] no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

[00:42:12] and hippos side steps of marine spring from cloud trampolines to High flying birds and so much more.

[00:42:19] So Frogger lovers kiss your little guys goodbye and get set for some fast and frantic fun.

[00:42:27] So dance your question. Yes, you would ask me what you said with this touch your

[00:42:32] I forget the vernacular, or tantalize would this tantalized you to buying the answer is if he

[00:42:42] because as a gamer hearing, okay, there's three different,

[00:42:46] I'm just not playing the same level over in Oregon.

[00:42:49] That would sell, that's the hook.

[00:42:50] So yeah, that is the hook.

[00:42:51] And they said that early, which is great.

[00:42:53] Three distinctly different screens.

[00:42:55] Yep, distinctly different screens.

[00:42:58] That's, that is really, yeah, it's a selling point for sure.

[00:43:02] My friend ambitious ambitious.

[00:43:03] I'm sorry to cut you off ambitious.

[00:43:05] You had said that earlier, you said this was an ambitious game

[00:43:09] for Atari 2600.

[00:43:12] And Bill, you have a way I always said

[00:43:15] of cat encapsulating things simplistically.

[00:43:19] And you did it, you nailed it.

[00:43:20] That is the term.

[00:43:21] It was Atari's probably in most ambitious game

[00:43:24] that they released on to console.

[00:43:27] I am a simple man, so it makes perfect sense.

[00:43:30] So thank you.

[00:43:32] What I usually end these episodes with,

[00:43:33] we kind of already wrapped it up.

[00:43:34] I'll just end it real quick with this.

[00:43:36] So we brought our two three deep, which I, oh, I get it now

[00:43:41] because it's got three screens.

[00:43:43] That's why it's called three deep.

[00:43:46] Do we?

[00:43:46] I'm sitting here, why is it three deep?

[00:43:48] I'm thinking about this for 24 straight hours, probably.

[00:43:52] And the back of my mind, just think why is it called three deep?

[00:43:55] It's got three screens down here.

[00:43:56] You nailed it.

[00:43:57] There it is.

[00:43:58] That's three.

[00:43:59] Joey, Frogger 2, do we, in this day and age,

[00:44:03] in the near, near of our Lord, 2024, are we,

[00:44:07] are we taking this game home?

[00:44:09] Are we putting it back in the bargain bin?

[00:44:12] I'm taking this home.

[00:44:13] I, there were several games of the 14 or some odd

[00:44:17] that my uncle gave me that I completely discarded,

[00:44:20] played once and never played again.

[00:44:23] Frogger 2 is not one of those games.

[00:44:25] So yes, I am taking this home.

[00:44:28] Please give it, you know, give it a go for those

[00:44:31] little listening, if you're bored and it's an easy enough

[00:44:34] rom to download.

[00:44:35] You want to check it out.

[00:44:36] I definitely encourage you to do so.

[00:44:39] Yeah, and I'm going to say we've figured home as well.

[00:44:41] As much as why I played it, I'm like, oh yeah,

[00:44:43] this is an Atari game.

[00:44:43] I don't like it.

[00:44:44] There is something to it.

[00:44:45] I think there's something admirable about it.

[00:44:47] I add moreable about it.

[00:44:49] And again, the ambition behind it is, yeah, it's great.

[00:44:52] So I really respect it.

[00:44:55] So I figured you and I have always been in sync with with this thing.

[00:44:58] So yeah, I, I, I, I agree with them.

[00:45:01] Joey, tell the fine folks at home where they can find you right now

[00:45:05] on the internet's doing video game things.

[00:45:08] Yep. So I'm on perfect storm gaming with my co host

[00:45:12] veto versus my other co host multi-mic.

[00:45:16] You can find this there on YouTube, perfect store gaming.

[00:45:19] And I'm also on retro gaming guy with my buddy Chase.

[00:45:23] I do some some bits for him, some reviews and products.

[00:45:27] And we do a show called Retro Live.

[00:45:30] Every Tuesday at 8 o'clock Eastern Standard Time

[00:45:33] where we've got some great guests and giveaways.

[00:45:36] It's always a great time.

[00:45:37] He's a great guy.

[00:45:38] So you can catch man those devices.

[00:45:40] And I'll be lurking every once in a while,

[00:45:43] the Phantom of a gamer looks at 40 as well.

[00:45:47] The ever looming Phantom of a gamer before the.

[00:45:52] You never know, I need like a little soundboard of you,

[00:45:54] just like insert like you'd go and

[00:45:57] reeling going

[00:45:58] just send something insert you like a weird old row of the show.

[00:46:02] Random Tourette's Fit Trip Joey.

[00:46:07] Just record random utterances.

[00:46:13] Do you know what?

[00:46:15] We'll do that for like a few episodes just see if we can pick it out.

[00:46:18] It's you know what?

[00:46:19] It's a deal.

[00:46:19] It's a deal.

[00:46:20] I am weird enough to just do that and people are like,

[00:46:23] there's a weird artifact in one of your episodes.

[00:46:26] This guy's the best.

[00:46:27] So yeah, there's no one better than Bill.

[00:46:30] I'm not just saying that 37 years.

[00:46:33] Salt of the earth and he knows that.

[00:46:36] So I appreciate that brother.

[00:46:37] All right, that does it for this addition of tales from the bargain bin.

[00:46:41] If you enjoyed this madness, wow.

[00:46:43] And they made this far double.

[00:46:45] Wow, really appreciated.

[00:46:47] There are 21 other episodes of this side show out there.

[00:46:50] We cover a whole bunch of games with a whole bunch of stories

[00:46:53] and a whole bunch of divergence like we had today.

[00:46:56] If you enjoyed the show, then go to a game where looks at 40.com for zero

[00:47:00] as all of my everything there including a section for full of full series playlists

[00:47:06] where my full series you can go there and check out my full series on the

[00:47:10] Legend of Zelda Earth found.

[00:47:12] Hales in the bargain bin and Final Fantasy.

[00:47:14] All in one place you can just sit there and binge it for hours while you're doing whatever it is

[00:47:19] you do during your workday other than work.

[00:47:22] Thanks again Joey for joining me on this particular show and

[00:47:26] and then until next time just be kind to yourselves and each other.