Producer: DJL, 16K
£5.95

A highly rated version with very busy 3-lane highway, turtles that sink under your weight, crocodiles in the frog homes and five lives. There's a time limit too which can be very cruel. For extra points there's a stranded frogling to rescue. Four skill levels and seven speeds. Joystick: Kempston, or AGF and Protek on the cursor keys. Recommended.

Our reviewer Matthew Uffindel delves into his software library for this month's reappraisal as he hops onto FROGGY, the most engaging Frogger for the Spectrum, a game by D.J.L. Software.

As long as you can go along with the fact that frogs drown if they fall in the river, then as a game type 'Froggers' have a lot going for them. The object of the game is to guide your frog across a busy road without getting squashed under the vehicles, and then across the river on the logs and turtle backs without falling off, getting eaten by crocodiles or run off the screen edge, and so into a frog home on the far bank.

On the road in this version, there are trucks and much faster hot rods to leap between. The river has four lanes alternating between logs and rows of turtles, each moving in the opposite direction to the other. You must hop from one to the other without falling into the river. The turtles have a nasty habit of submerging, and if this happens while you are riding one, you will lose a life if you don't jump across to a log in time.

Once onto the last lane (logs) you must jump neatly into one of the five frog homes. A miss-jump loses a life - a successful one results in a large smiling frog in his home. Every now and then a baby frog appears, floating down the river on a log and crying our for you to rescue it. To do this you must jump onto the log carrying him and let it leap up onto your back. If you get him safely home a bonus of 200 points is awarded.

As the game goes on more hazards appear, such as alligators in the river and snakes on the bank of the river. The game will also speed up as each screen is cleared, until the maximum speed is reached on screen 7. Turtles also get scarcer and the logs get smaller in size. The entire game is played against the clock - about 25 seconds is allowed to get a frog across and home on screen one, but this reduces with each screen. There is also a demo mode and a hall of fame.

This game is a very good copy of the arcade original and is very well produced. When I first saw it I though the character block movement would spoil the game, but I was proved wrong. It is very addictive and enjoyable to play. This must be the best 'Frogger' around and I would recommend it to anyone. The game plays with a Kempston joystick (load one side of tape) or cursor keys (load other side of tap) and so cursor key joysticks like Protek and AGF. Use of colour and sound is excellent as are the instructions and general presentation.

Matthew Uffindel

Producer: DJL, 16K
£5.95

A highly rated version with very busy 3-lane highway, turtles that sink under your weight, crocodiles in the frog homes and five lives. There's a time limit too which can be very cruel. For extra points there's a stranded frogling to rescue. Four skill levels and seven speeds. Joystick: Kempston, or AGF and Protek on the cursor keys. Recommended.

Producer: DJL, 16K
£5.95

A highly rated version with very busy 3-lane highway, turtles that sink under your weight, crocodiles in the frog homes and five lives. There's a time limit too which can be very cruel. For extra points there's a stranded frogling to rescue. Four skill levels and seven speeds. Joystick: Kempston, or AGF and Protek on the cursor keys. Recommended.

After loading the game for about five minutes, the game auto runs and thank goodness, the Break key is disabled which means that there's no way you're Suddenly going to lose your best score ever just through a misplaced finger.

The title page is very impressive with a frog bringing on the title of 'FROGGY ' in large letters. Four more screenfulls of instructions revealed the scoring mechanism and which controls to use. DJL chose my favourite - the cursor keys ('5', '6', '7' and '8').

On playing the game, a full screen greets you with a busy road, a river full of turtles, logs and crocodiles, and five homes. The game is great fun to play with bonuses for picking up baby frogs, for finishing quickly and so on. Each completed screen brings a new, much harder one. The graphics are superb and very smooth.

WARNING! This game is very addictive and will keep you on the keyboard for literally hours.

However this is hardly a fault and, all in all, the game is superb. Oh, by the way, the price of the package is £5.95.

FROGS ON THE MOVE

Moving frogs across a busy road and fast-flowing river into their homes can be a hazardous business. The DJL Software game Frogger is a fairly straightforward obstacle-avoidance trek from the bottom of the screen to the top, where five frog homes await their occupants.

The journey is aided by handy logs and turtles in the river on to which the frogs can jump but beware staying too long on the turtles - they have a habit of diving and that is the end of your frog.

Points are earned for each frog which reaches home and the arrival of all five leads to increased hazards - including more traffic on the road, alligators and snake patrols on the river banks - for the next game. The hazards continue to increase two more levels, so life for the frogs becomes more and more precarious.

The cassette costs £5.95 from DJL at 9 Tweed Close, Swindon, Wiltshire SN2 3PU.