Frogs and Flies

Frogs And Flies is a Player Versus Player Platform Game by Mattel, released in 1982 for the Atari 2600, and later ported to the Intellivision and Commodore 64. Now available as Frog Bog on Xbox Live Arcade.

Each player controls a frog in a lily pond. Flies wander around overhead, and you jump up and try to eat them. Each fly is worth two points. Two lily pads are the platforms. If you land in the water, your frog will swim back to a pad. Each round lasts three minutes, and as the game goes on, day turns into night. Finally, both frogs jump offscreen, and a firefly drags a "The End" sign to the middle of the screen.

If you leave a frog alone for 15 seconds, the computer will control it. This leads to an Attract Mode, with the computer playing itself. No two games are identical; the frogs and flies are all controlled by some of the best AI ever seen on the 2600.


 * Artificial Brilliance: By 2600 standards, this is as good as it gets. Flies follow realistic semi-random paths, changing direction and speed. They even seem to become aware that you're after them. Computer-controlled frogs can time their jumps right to eat them, doing as well as a novice player.
 * Attract Mode
 * Bubblegloop Swamp: Inverted. This is a peaceful swamp, with clean blue water, and you are the frogs.
 * Color-Coded Multiplayer
 * Difficulty Levels: The difficulty switches select between a fixed arc and free control for each frog. (The computer always uses the fixed arc.) If both switches are set to free control, the flies are much more variable.
 * The Golden Age of Video Games
 * Instant 180-Degree Turn
 * In-Universe Game Clock: Day turns into night.
 * Jump Physics: Hey, they're frogs! Free control allows a lot of variety, depending on which direction you point the controller and for how long.
 * Lead the Target: The game's biggest challenge.
 * No Plot, No Problem
 * Palette Swap: The two frogs, and the two kinds of flies - the ones you eat and the firefly at the end.
 * Platform Game
 * Player Versus Player
 * Scoring Points
 * Side View: With the water lily leaves in top view with perspective, giving some three-dimensionality.
 * Timed Mission: Three minutes.