Justin

@TrekMD @RickR This is my strategy exactly, but with the added measure of running right or left with the "traffic". Then I can take a step back, let a path become clear, and then go for it. If you watched me play you'd see I move more like a lion than a frog. Sit and wait for the right opportunity and then pounce.

This probably isn't much less obvious than saying "Don't get run over" - but the strategy I've found works best for me is not hesitating to "take two steps forward and one step back". Quite often I have to take a step back, move further down the screen, and try another move at advancing up the screen. I lose some precious seconds, but I keep my lives and live on to fight another round. It's okay to take a step or two back, so long as you see a path worth taking.

Lets do this: keep it simple. If you’d like to share Frogger scores from other systems, go for it! Whatever is fun. Officially this remains a double feature for the 2600 Parker Bros and Starpath versions of Frogger. Having too much going on at once can get messy and overwhelming for everybody, especially keeping track of scores across multiple different platforms. (Super time consuming!) but it's fun and engaging sharing interesting pictures and scores on a game that’s been on so many systems. Share what you’d like, if it becomes competitive and others jump in, I’ll do my best to tally up those scores too! @RickR I love it! Vectrex is entirely underrated and sometimes completely forgotten.

@Atari 5200 Guy Yes! I love doing things like that! We did that a few years ago with a Crystal Castles Double Feature, playing Crystal Castles on Atari 2600, alongside the original arcade version of Crystal Castles. You were the first to join in! We also did a Devil's Crush pinball Double Feature on TurboGrafx-16 and Sega Genesis (Dragon's Fury) where it was fun to compare the differences between the two games. It seemed like that was one of the times where TurboGrafx-16 won out:

In addition to the original self-centering Atari 5200 joystick, and the arcade joysticks that @RetroGameBoyz have been making, which are incredible - I'd also like to see this Super Nintendo / Super Famicom control pad modified for the Atari 5200. Would be perfect for the Intellivision and ColecoVision also:

Thanks for coming along for the challenge! Good luck to everyone playing!

Let's go for it! We'll make this Squad Challenge a Double Feature. DIFFICULTY B, Starpath Frogger ROM and PDF Instructions included in this post below. I'll add a second category for Starpath Frogger in the Final Standings and we will play both games. Please be sure to denote your score as STARPATH FROGGER when posting your score if you're playing the Starpath version of the game. The Starpath version of Frogger nearly looks as good as an early Famicom or NES game. Almost. Amazing for the 2600. Programmed by Stephen Landrum who did Blue Lightning for the Lynx, which is an incredible game! Starpath Frogger.pdf Frogger (Starpath).a26

Funny you say that, my original intent was to post the Starpath version and we almost did! It's definitely my preferred version. Atari 5200 Guy had nominated the Parker Bros. Frogger last year, and the cartridge is far more widely available for everybody to play compared to the Starpath Supercharger version. Maybe we'll get something going for the Starpath version too if enough people are up for it 🤔 Great to have you join in, good luck on your score @TrekMD! 🐸 🖖

Please remember to TYPE OUT YOUR HIGH SCORE when posting to High Score Squad! We want to get your score right, and prevent mistakes. Scores can be blurry in photos, tricky on the eyes, or hidden deep within play-through videos. Claiming your score 100% prevents confusion.

@nosweargamer has a fantastic review of Parker Bros. Frogger for Atari 2600! It's a great place to start if you're new to the game!

Frogger Atari 2600 (Parker Bros. Cartridge + Starpath Cassette) Controller: JOYSTICK / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE Difficulty Level: Game 1, Difficulty B Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / Emulation OK! ✔ Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST November 30th, 2022 Nominated by @Atari 5200 Guy Objective Play for the highest possible score using the difficulty settings defined in the challenge. Post a photo or YouTube video of your score in this thread. Scores must be achieved between November 15th through November 30th, 2022. Screen captures are not allowed as they are more easily manipulated for falsified scores. Multiple submissions are permitted. The player with the highest score at the end of the competition is the victor! Eligibility Anyone can join in. All players are welcome! Play Rules Games may be played on real hardware, Flashback / Mini console, or emulation, using any controller or keyboard, following all rules and game settings defined in the challenge. Choosing between real hardware or emulation, and choosing which controller to play on is part of formulating your strategy. Enhancements, rewinds and hacked versions of this game are not allowed. Difficulty Level We're playing the original Parker Bros. cartridge version of Frogger (not the Starpath Supercharger version of Frogger) on Game 1, Difficulty B, which provides for a default level of gameplay suitable for adults. Game 1 will give us difficulty that increases at a standard progression for every 5 frogs brought home, and Difficulty B allows us to harmlessly warp around the screen when riding a floating object off-screen. Please refer to your PDF instruction manual provided below for more. Fair Play Your integrity is everything. Players should play fairly, be honest, and have fun! Falsified scores will result in your immediate removal from the site. It goes without saying that we will not allow cheats, hacks, cartridge frying, enhancements, rewinds, deceitful photo manipulation, subterfuge, or any other unfair advantage. Everybody hates a cheater. More To review detailed rules on how to play, please visit the High Score Squad page here: Message Welcome to our 139th Squad Challenge!!! For this challenge we're playing one of the greatest classic video games of all time - FROGGER! Not only was Frogger a smash hit at home and in the arcades, it inspired an all-time classic episode of Seinfeld which paid homage to the game. We're playing the Parker Bros. cartridge version of Frogger on the standard default settings, which are enough to provide real challenge and fun gameplay for adult players. Difficulty increases with every 5 frogs you bring home. Later levels also add snakes to the mix which you will want to avoid as well! Frogger was originally a Konami game that was brought to the U.S. and distributed in arcades by Sega. The Parker Bros. 2600 cartridge version of Frogger was programmed by Ed English who also made the Atari 2600 version of Mr. Do! Can you help get Frogger home? ROM and PDF Instruction Manual are provided below. Special thanks to @Atari 5200 Guy for nominating this game! Frogger is a true classic on the Atari 2600 and I hope all of you enjoy joining in this High Score Squad Challenge! Frogger.pdf Frogger.bin

@RickR Do you think in 2023 our Squad Challenges should go for the entire month? 🤔 You raise an interesting question that I've played with for years. Your thoughts on this are highly valued! When the forums were new we had a lot of activity, and new challenges consistently posted on the 1st and 15th. Then around 2018 I made it once a month to give us more time to play, but then participation dropped off and things got a little quiet in the forums. My analytics at the time showed that about 80% of our scores in High Score Squad were posted in the first 4 days. I see other sites like AA offer new high score contests even more frequently than we do (that's not enough time to play and keep it fun in my opinion) and others like NSG seem to have fallen off and taken the concept to their own Discords. It feels like 2 Squad Challenges a month posted on the 1st and 15th give people constant activity and something fun to do in our site. The other side of that coin is I too wish Squad Challenges went for the entire month so I'd have more of a chance to play, and was able to spend more time with a great game that I loved. It's like getting into a good book! I've had a very unexpectedly busy year outside of the site, and it's a real task having to keep up with organizing, scheduling and posting new Squad Challenges, in addition to maintaining Atari I/O. If we could do one big Squad Challenge every month, keep participation up, get people excited and still have a great time, that would be easier on my end - but only worth it if it was fun for all of you! The reason we're here is to have an amazing little community with fun events, and I don't want that to fade off. We also have the wonderful Recharged Squad Challenges hosted by @Sabertooth in Club VCS which have been off-the-chart amazing, and really have the feel of the fun activities we had going in the first year or two of Atari I/O. Maybe it's time to run them both in parallel both as simultaneous monthly events.

Congratulations btbfilms76! Congratulations to High Score Squad "Swag Master" @btbfilms76 for becoming our Space Harrier II Squad Champion! BTB blew the doors off this game and claims the #1 spot in our Final Standings with an insane score of 21,751,500 points. If submitted, this would be the #3 highest Space Harrier II score of all time on Highscore.com. @btbfilms76 is within striking distance of setting a new World Record, and from the sounds of it, BTB will continue playing Space Harrier II even after this Squad Challenge has concluded, attempting to film his gameplay on real hardware and set a new World Record on Highscore.com! Way to go on your performance, BTB! Even with Club VCS going on, @Sabertooth found time to consistently play and post higher scores for Space Harrier II, ultimately taking 2nd Place in the Final Standings with an incredible score of 2,312,900 points. Congratulations Sabertooth! It ain't quittin' with The Don @RickR as he was h ot on Sabertooth's tail, posting an impressive score of 2,261,900 points to take 3rd Place on the board. Rick made multiple attempts and gave it his all! "The Mayor" @greenween joined us for Space Harrier II and posted a highly respectable score of 1,876,600 to take 4th Place in our Final Standings. Congratulations once again to @btbfilms76 for almost setting a new World Record and incredible performance, and a huge congratulations to our wonderful community for being such a great group to spend time with! Did everybody enjoy playing Space Harrier II on the Genesis? A few notes: We encountered a new issue in Squad Challenge that may become more frequent in the future. BTB's initial scores were submitted as screenshots instead of photos of his screen, and although this is just for fun and we want to be flexible, we also have best practices which ask for photos of your screen rather than screenshots as it's a little more difficult to manipulate your score that way. I know and trust BTB and believed his score, but with a score approaching a new World Record, it was important to have a photo to substantiate the score beyond doubt. When we talked about this, something came up that we had never had before. BTB explained he was playing Space Harrier II on his phone, using his new Backbone. Since he was playing on his phone, it was not possible for him to use his phone to take a photo of his screen nor was it convenient to use somebody else's phone to take a picture. As products like Backbone become more popular, and as more and more gaming companies like Sega release official, original versions of classic games and compilations on phones, it's likely we will encounter this issue again in High Score Squad. If you're unable to take a photo and can only provide a screenshot, please PM me first and we will work something out. We always want everybody to be able to participate and have fun in High Score Squad! Photos of real scores are always the way to go. If you're playing a classic game on a mobile device, it's also important to confirm that you're playing the original game and not an "updated" mobile version that differs substantially from the original release. As long as it's the same game, we're good! Usually compilations like "Sega Genesis Collection" etc. will have the original game and be fine to play. Also, I had hoped both @Gianna and I would be able to post scores for this Squad Challenge but unfortunately that was unable to happen. Participation has been a little low and having 2-3 more players in the mix would make our friendly competition more lively! A special "Thank You" to everyone here for always joining us in High Score Squad, and to @Sabertooth who is doing yeoman's work continuously hosting wonderful Squad Challenges and other fun events in our new Club VCS! NOTE: Our next High Score Squad Challenge is a classic for the Atari 2600. Be there!

Looking forward to it! It's funny you did this, a few weeks ago I found a copy of Lotus 1-2-3 for DOS that I've had since probably 1990 and I've been tempted to find a way to use it. Not much fun, but I've been working with spreadsheets quite frequently and it got me thinking about Lotus. You never forget your first.

Hey that's super cool @RickR! I've been thinking of doing a similar thing but with an ancient computer. I like what you did here! 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥

SO AWESOME to hear that @RickR!! High Score Squad is all about sampling different retro games, discovering great classics that we somehow missed and rediscovering common games and enjoying them in a new light, all in an environment of friendly competition among friends in Squad. I only ever had Space Harrier on Sega Master System, and a Squad Challenge like this is a good opportunity to try something I never got to play back in the day. Glad you enjoyed this one!

Glad to hear it!

Please remember to TYPE OUT YOUR HIGH SCORE when posting to High Score Squad! We want to get your score right, and prevent mistakes. Scores can be blurry in photos, tricky on the eyes, or hidden deep within play-through videos. Claiming your score 100% prevents confusion.