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

This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.

An early build of the PlayStation version of Frogger built on June 2nd, 1997, albeit the disc has June 5th ("5/6/1997") written on it. It is known as the "Alpha" build, since it seems to have been the built sent to Hasbro Interactive on June 2nd, which was known as the "Alpha". Work shifted to producing an E3 build immediately after this build, because the E3 build was completed 11 days after this one.

General Notes

Many animations such as drowning animations do not exist yet, or do not play in certain situations.
There are two ways to pause the game. Pressing SELECT will pause the game and show text which says "PAUSED". Pressing START will pause the game and remove Frogger's shadow.
Frogger's throat is visible during normal gameplay. An easy way to observe this is playing Lily Islands and with the initial camera angle croak a few times.
Frogger's superjump is extremely powerful in this build, it's able to climb seemingly infinite heights, such as scaling parts of the ledges in Boulder Alley, or skipping stairs in Webs Cavern)

Bootup

Upon bootup, the above screen will display for a second before disappearing and loading the main menu..
This screen seems to have come and gone throughout development, some builds contain it and others do not, but most which do are PAL, which is interesting since this build is NTSC.

Early Intro Sequence

Frogger1997-june2psx-fmvintro.mp4

After the anti-piracy screen, a FMV sequence plays which does not resemble the final build's FMV in any way.
This FMV is an early version of the FMV sequence which plays in the E3 builds, as this contains no music and misses the cutaway shot when Frogger jumps off the road.
The Hasbro FMV also plays, but does not have any audio.
The Millennium Interactive logo also plays here and is the earliest we've ever seen it being used.

FROGGERPSXPROTO_MILLOGO.mp4

Sound Differences

To do:
Go over differences in sounds.

The Beetles in the Desert levels have a sort of cartoonish noise for their crawling that can be heard when near them, similar to the sound effect of when Mr. Krabs walks
An odd unused clanging noise happens when hopping into one of the pipes in SWP3

Music Differences

The music in the level VOL1 (Scorching Switches) volcano zone is an early version, lacking all the industrial/blacksmith sound samples that are present in the final version.

Controls

The controls seem significantly different from later builds.

△: Croak & Toggle Collision (If the void is red, enemies will not kill Frogger)

◻: Super Hop

○: Tongue

✕: Nothing

L2 or R2: Die Immediately

Main Menu

Prototype	Prototype (Demo Active)	Final

After the intro sequence, the game boots to the main menu, which is completely blank except for the selection box.
Idling on the main menu will cause demos to start playing. Or at least, that's what normally happens. Here, when a demo loads the player is able to move and control the frog despite being on the main menu.
This doesn't appear to be a bug since there are no actual demo files in this build, so presumably the functionality was not yet complete.
The main menu has no music.

Options Menu

Prototype	Final

Sound Options

Early Level Selects

OptionPage_MAIN (Created April 14th)	Will's Level Select (Created May 13th)

There are two early level selects present which eventually were removed from the code. Both of them can be controlled, but crash if you attempt to load a level with them.

Gameshark Codes:

Enable OptionPage_MAIN Level Select:
3002A290 0000000A

Enable Will's Level Select:
3002A290 00000018

Level Select

Race (Prototype)	Singleplayer (Prototype)	Final

Completely different background from even the E3 build. The background is blue, with spinning lily pads scrolling by.
Most of the levels on the level stack are locked/unplayable, because they haven't been started yet. The ones which have are viewable with FrogLord.
Many levels have incorrect names or a placeholder graphic.
It seems that art for the level select had only been completed for 4 zones: SUBURBIA, SEWER, FOREST, and DESERT, and the art in these earlier builds were more pixelated originally.
The level art for locked levels appears to have been stylized seemingly as if they were drawn on perspective lines
The sewer zone art is an earlier concept than the art seen in later builds.
An early level placeholder graphic is used for levels without previews.
The level select has no music.

Level Stack Order:

CAVE (DESERT ICON)
DESERT (DESERT ICON)
FOREST (FOREST ICON)
JUNGLE (SUBURBIA ICON)
ORIGINAL (SUBURBIA ICON)
RUINS (SUBURBIA ICON)
SEWER (SWAMP ICON)
SKY (SWAMP ICON)
SUBURBIA (SUBURBIA ICON)
VOLCANO (DESERT ICON)

	On	Off	Drawn
Desert
Forest
Sewer
Suburbia


An early level preview screenshot for Mower Mania.	Unknown

An early placeholder level preview graphic.	A placeholder texture for a non-existent level name.

Input Name Screen

Prototype	Final

Early High Score Screen

Early Race Screen

Unlike later builds, Multiplayer can be initiated with only one player
All four frogs use the same model with no lighting, and their croak ball is expanded.
An absent player is referred to as a "Slave".

General Gameplay

Pausing the game does not pause animations.
The camera sometimes starts the level in far off places, similar to the april prototype.
Frogger has weird shading / lighting.
If Frogger cannot hop in a certain direction, he won't face that direction, or even initiate a hop. This makes superhop situations very difficult.
Many levels have timers which let the level timer extend beyond the end of the HUD timer bar.
The life HUD icons only display while playing a Suburbia map, because the icons are stored inside the Suburbia texture bank.
Collecting the final froglet will will immediately exit the level without any fanfare.


Frogger's super jump is able to jump unreasonably high heights.	Froglets show their throat at all times, instead of just when croaking.

Early Frog Animations

The regular hop in this build is different from later versions, and is named "Autohop", likely using this for the regular hop just as a placeholder, but planning later to use it for the autohop powerup
When waiting, Frogger does a handstand flip (WAIT4).
It seems that there's a number of animations that were made but not yet put into the gameplay in this build, like the other wait animation, and the backflip animation
A big animation of note that isn't featured in the gameplay of this build, is the swimming animation. This is when they had plans to possibly feature a swimming mechanic; an idea that was later cut

AUTOHOP	BACKFLIP	WAIT1

TIMEOUT	SQUISHED	SWIM

FALLING	WAIT4	DROWN

COMPLETE	FREEFALL

Early HUD

An early HUD is present.
When the game timer extends beyond the end of the timer bar, it starts to turn yellow.
There is an early "CONTINUE?" display on game over pictured below.

Early continue screen

Models


The lilypad shown behind the level select.	The glow worm shown in the cave zone.	An unused firefly model, which would have increased the brightness in the cave zone.

This bird goes unused in later versions.	This is an unused "Bison Cloud".	An early 2D take on the cracking tiles in the desert zone.

DES_HOLE01.XMR	DES_HOLE02.XMR	An early lizard design.

An early snake design.	In later builds the thermal entity has a broken rainbow texture, likely due to palettes.	An early animation of the boulder breaking.

The leaves were intended to fall from the sky as seen in this build.	The owl is not textured properly.	The squirrel has had its limbs removed.

This branch was seen before the recode, and it seems they still had ambitions for it.	FOR_WOODPECKER isn't looking too hot.	JUN_TOUCAN has a funny T-Pose.

An unused curved palm tree with cocounuts	An unused curved palm tree with cocounuts	An unused sunflower model

The only build where ORG_BABY_FROG.XMR is actually a baby frog.	The bulldozer is a little less polished than later versions.	Resembles what the model looks like under the PC "Low Poly" mode.

Resembles what the model looks like under the PC "Low Poly" mode.	The model which replaces this one isn't even used.	Purpose unknown, this frog looks like what Frogger was supposed to look like in this build.

ORG_LOG_LARGE.XMR, this has not yet been textured.	ORG_LOG_MEDIUM.XMR	ORG_LOG_SMALL.XMR

The Frogger logo is lower detail than usual.	The snake appears darker than the later builds.	This green version of the truck goes unused in later builds.

The truck model is higher detail than later builds.	The turtle is untextured, and follows an earlier color scheme than later builds.	ORG_TURTLE2.XAR

ORG_TURTLE3.XAR	A peddle boat that remained unused, only featured in the Island Placeholder Map

Interesting Textures


A stop sign texture that was temporarily planned for use	There's a pointier flower texture seen in this build that was later scrapped

These are the cloud textures that were used for the sky levels before being later scrapped

Levels

Cave Levels (CAV)#

Early textures bear resemblance to the pre-recode cave level.
Spiders are not yet path-based.
The lighting behavior is very glitchy, where it will cull out parts of the level which should be drawn. Eventually, the lighting counter will underflow and the level will become fully visible.
At max brightness the levels lag.
The usually invisible "CAV_FROGGERLIGHT" entity which controls the brightness of the level is visible as a model "CAV_GLOWWORM.XMR".
The bugs which increase brightness when eaten have the appearance of a normal "score increase" bug.


The glow worm 3D model.	The glow worm is shown ingame.

CAV1.MAP#

This level appears to be a layout test for the "Webs Cavern" map.

A render of the level.

CAV2.MAP (Cave Maze / Dark Dark Cavern)#

Only one spider, and it's out of range of the player.
The walls are not textured well, and some walls can be walked through.

CAV2.MAP

CAV3.MAP#

This is a test map of unknown purpose.

CAV3.MAP

CAV4.MAP (Webs Cavern)#

It is possible to hop through webs.
There is poor camera visibility throughout much of the level.
The height of all of the high platforms are extremely high, but superhop is almost able to jump up the entire distance.
The area which contains the gold frog in the final game is completely empty
It's possible to hop on the wall in one place.


A render of the map.	A wall which can be hopped onto.	The empty cavern.	Glitchy Webs

CAV5.MAP#

This is a test map of unknown purpose.

CAV5.MAP

Desert Levels (DES)#

The Desert Levels featured here are Cactus Point and Boulder Alley, which were already fully developed in this build with the exception of a slight few entity changes


The lizards in Cactus Point from this build are a different species of lizard	The rideable birds in Cactus Point and Boulder Alley use a unique bird model rather than the pelican	The snakes in Cactus Point started off using a different model in this build

Original Levels (ORG)#

The blue and purple cars use a color scheme close to what is seen in the retail Windows build under low poly mode.
The river bank has not yet been textured, and there is no water texture.
Frogger, the froglets, and the fly seem to turn blue sometimes. It may be related to death and/or water effects.

Blue Shading Bug	Fly Model

ORG1 (Retro Level 1)#

The spikes/nettles seen in this level match the final build.

ORG1.MAP

ORG2 (Retro Level 2)#

The spikes/nettles in this level match their E3 appearance as seen in the E3 build footage.

ORG2.MAP

ORG3 (Retro Level 3)#

Has no decoration at the end of the level.

ORG3.MAP

Gameshark Code:

Unlock ORG3
D0089BF0 00000001
30089DAC 00000004
D0089BF0 00000001
30089D78 00000002

ORG4 (Retro Level 4)#

The froglets seem to be placed above the ground.
Bushes line the end of the level to prevent jumping onto spots without frogs.

ORG4.MAP

Gameshark Code:

Unlock ORG4
D0089BF0 00000001
30089DAC 00000004
D0089BF0 00000001
30089D78 00000003

ORG5 (Retro Level 5)#

Missing all entities, except the crocodile head and froglets.
The froglets are placed under the map.

ORG5.MAP

Gameshark Code:

Unlock ORG5
D0089BF0 00000001
30089DAC 00000004
D0089BF0 00000001
30089D78 00000004

Sewer (SWP)#

SWP1.MAP (Bang Bang Barrel)#

Level design is close to final.
Water and waterbed floor are untextured.
Missing decorations

SWP1.MAP

SWP2.MAP (Recycle Bin / Reservoir Frogs)#

Level design is close to final.
Water and waterbed floor are untextured.
Missing decorations
There are two orange frogs. One in the normal spot, one next to the blue frog.

SWP2.MAP

SWP3.MAP (Recycle Bin / Reservoir Frogs)#

Map is extremely early, and largely untextured.
There seem to be test objects in the place where the pipe mesh belongs.
There are two orange frogs. One in the normal spot, one next to the blue frog.
Water is brown.
The SWP_BOX model is seen in this level.
There's an extra set of nuclear barrels for reaching the green frog.
A yellow frog sits in front of the weir model.
An unused clanging, hollow pipe-like noise happens when hopping into one of the pipes, and it makes you slide down into the ground. This may have been a test for potential pipes that you would hop into and slide down through

SWP3.MAP

Gameshark Code:

Unlock SWP3
D0089BF0 00000001
30089DAC 00000006
D0089BF0 00000001
30089D78 00000002

SWP4.MAP (Recycle Bin / Reservoir Frogs)#

The map is later than SWP3.MAP, but earlier than SWP2.MAP.
Water and waterbed floor are untextured.
Missing decorations
There are two orange frogs. One in the normal spot, one next to the blue frog.
Acid drip landing spots are not textured.
There is solid ground under the pipe mesh instead of water.

SWP4.MAP

Gameshark Code:

Unlock SWP4
D0089BF0 00000001
30089DAC 00000006
D0089BF0 00000001
30089D78 00000003

Sky Levels (SKY)#

The Sky levels featured in this build are the original Looney Balloons, and Airshow Antics, both of which were already fully developed, with the big difference being that:

They used a noticeable texture for the clouds that was later scrapped
In this build, the black rideable birds are used which were also cut from the game later
The green balloons started out with a different unique shape, and in this build they seem to have a grey placeholder/glitched texture

SKY1.MAP

SKY2.MAP

Suburbia (SUB)#

Suburbia is the only zone to show the lives counter, since its texture bank is the only to contain the lives HUD graphic.

SUB1 (Lily Islands)#

This level does not yet have a water layer, and the waterbed is completely untextured.
The land has much lighter shading than in later versions.
All of the cars are blue.
No tunnels are at the ends of the streets

SUB1.MAP

SUB2 (Peli's Island / Bow Wow Falls)#

This is the infamous level seen in the German trailer.
Peli's Island is named after the pelicans in the level according to lead tester Alex Sulman.

SUB2.MAP

SUB3 (Mower Mania)#

The trees use hedgehog textures instead of appearing as brown.
The hedge tiles in the final which require a superhop only require a regular hop here. This is probably because if you can't hop somewhere in this build, you can't face that direction.

SUB3.MAP

SUB4#

This map is a molded green plane, with frogs all at one side.
It may have been a test map.

SUB4.MAP

Gameshark Code:

Unlock SUB4
D0089BF0 00000001
30089DAC 00000008
D0089BF0 00000001
30089D78 00000003

SUB5#

This map was completely replaced with "Bow Wow Revenge" in the retail release.
Large 29x29 orange grid.
The only thing in this level are the baby frogs in the bottom right corner of the plane.

SUB5.MAP

Gameshark Code:

Unlock SUB5
D0089BF0 00000001
30089DAC 00000008
D0089BF0 00000001
30089D78 00000004

ISLAND.MAP#

This is the placeholder map.
The texture mapping is present in this build, and this map is registered as a valid level which could be loaded, which is usually not the case.

ISLAND.MAP

Gameshark Code:

Unlock ISLAND.MAP
D0089BF0 00000001
30089DAC 0000000A
D0089BF0 00000001
30089D78 00000000

QB.MAP#

This is a test map, which is textured oddly
There are floating trucks which go around in a circle through the geometry
Floating log platforms spin in a spiral toward the top of the level

QB.MAP Overview	Top-down view	Odd formation beneath geometry

Save Information#

The information that would be stored on a memory card when saving the game differs in many of these builds compared to the final release.

A placeholder save icon is used throughout many builds later than this version until Build 38 where the save icon was finally changed to a green Froglet sprite that is used in-game which is slightly different from the final, and after Build 50b is where the final save icon was given.

Info	PSX Alpha - Build 37	Build 38 - Build 50b	Build 52 - Final
Save Icon
Title	Frogger	Frogger	Frogger
Serial Number	PSX.EXE	SLUS_005.06	SLUS_005.06

Gameplay

Watch on YouTubeGameplay which shows the intro screens, all of the full-fledged levels in the game files, plus the interesting test maps