An early build of the PlayStation version of Frogger built on June 19th, 1997, identified internally as "Build 1". It was released on January 2, 2023 by Kneesnap. It has a ton of differences from the final build. Despite this build being labelled "Build 1", this build was just the first build after E3 1997. The first "official" build of the game is from between April 10th and April 22nd 1997, but this ignores the Frogger game which got scrapped.
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 accessing the green frog in Lily Islands, or skipping stairs in Webs Cavern)
Bootup
Boot Screen
Upon bootup, the above screen will display for a second before disappearing and loading the main menu..
Unused Intro Sequence
The E3 intro sequence is still on the disc, but it is no longer used by the game.
Sound Differences
To do: Go over differences in sounds.
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.
Debugging Cheats
To unlock a couple of locked levels, while on the Main Menu highlight "Start" and press △ instead of ✕.
Cheat Code Instructions:
1) Pause the game by pressing START (NOT SELECT)
2) Press & Hold L1, R1, and the button corresponding to the cheat code you'd like to activate.
3) Press START while holding the buttons, the game will not unpause.
4) Release the held buttons. If successful, text will show up on top of the level timer showing the cheat. If nothing shows up, retry from step #2.
Note: Pressing L1 and R1 will turn the background purple. It seems to return to black after a cheat is successfully entered.
Cheat Code Buttons:
✕: Toggle Enemy Collision Deaths
◻: Toggle Timer
△: Toggle Infinite Lives
Main Menu
Prototype
Final
The main menu in this prototype is completely different from the final build. There are absolutely no 3D objects rendered here, but instead it uses a black background with some simple font, and some "HI-SCORE" text above.
The leaderboard is also the same as in some later builds.
Several game demos exist in the games files, and play if you idle on the main menu for long enough.
Options Menu
Prototype
Final
Level Select
Prototype
Final
Many of the levels on the level stack are locked/unplayable. Most of these levels have not been started and are not present in the game files, but some are present and can be loaded with other means.
To unlock two other levels, highlight "Start" and press △ instead of ✕. The other levels can be loaded with GameShark codes described below.
Many levels have incorrect names or a placeholder graphic.
The background used in this version is the background used on the final PSX version for the "View High Scores" option, and on the "Low poly mode" in the retail PC version.
Weirdness
Upon getting a "Game Over", a continue screen is displayed. Selecting both "Yes" and "No" will return the player to the level select screen.
However, selecting "No" leads to something strange. All levels on the level stack are fully unlocked, including levels which do not have any files in the build. Selecting any map, including ones which load under normal circumstances will exit to the main menu, instead of loading the level.
Additionally, pressing LEFT or RIGHT on the D-PAD allows switching between multiplayer and singleplayer level select modes, even if you started the game as a singleplayer session.
Ruins Zone
By using the quirk of selecting "No" on the continue screen, we are able to see the cut Ruins Zone is in the level stack.
None of its levels are present in the game files, and they all use the placeholder level preview.
Ruins Zone Level Stack Art
Race Mode (Multiplayer)
Prototype
Final
All four frogs use the same model with no lighting, and their croak ball is expanded.
Different strings of text for the menu.
An absent player is referred to as a "Slave".
Multiplayer seems to not work, since it seems impossible to activate any player besides player 1. Upon loading a level, it will load the singleplayer version of the level, because there are no multiplayer map files included in the prototype.
Input Name Screen
Prototype
Final
Levels
To do: Get renders of these maps with FrogLord once FrogLord supports this build.
To do: Search this prototype for ISLAND.MAP's remap, and use that to get a render what that level actually looked like.
Original Levels (ORG)
The spikes/nettles seen in the final build are spikes in this build, as seen in the E3 build footage.
Blue cars use a color scheme close to what is seen in the retail Windows build under low poly mode.
The lady/pink frog doesn't hop with Frogger when stepped on.
Bulldozers are placed are placed above the road and river seemingly at the positions where invisible sound sources are placed in the final game.
Peli's Island is named after the pelicans in the level according to lead tester Alex Sulman.
Map Name (Level Select)
Starting Area
Better View of Starting Area
SUB4 (Spinning Lillies)
The level has not yet been given a sunset appearance, aesthetically looking almost identical to SUB1 aside from a few darkened tiles on the spawning island.
Some tiny enemy is following a path right in front of spawn location, as well as the island across from it, and will kill Frogger. This may explain why the starting island has so much unused space in the final.
All vehicles on this level are the beta light blue car model.
No dog huts exist near the road.
The spire that the red frog sits on in the final build is located where the green frog is instead, and is missing its sides. It is possible to reach the frog with a super hop, despite the height.
Pelican flight paths are different due to the aforementioned change in spire location.
SUB5 (Nameless)
This map was completely replaced with "Bow Wow Revenge" in the retail release.
Large 29x? orange grid.
The only thing in this level are the baby frogs in the bottom right corner of the plane.
Starting Area
Froglets
Load SUB5 GameShark Code: (Activate ONLY after selecting a level on the level select, but before loading it.)
3009429C 00000000
30094254 00000004
Sewer (SWP)
SWP1 (Bang Bang Barrel)
Level design is close to final.
Water is untextured
Waterbed floor is untextured.
Missing decorations
Starting Area
Untextured Waterbed floor
Green frog on Fridge model.
SWP2 (?)
To do: Get a proper render.
This level appears to be the upper half of Reservoir Frogs.
Appears impossible to reach the lower part of the level due to the newspaper and oil drums being too slow to reach the other side before reaching the waterfall.
Crashes sometimes if you ride the oil drums or newspapers down the waterfall, or if you go to capture the green frog.
SWP3 (Uncanny Crusher)
Uncanny Crusher has not been finished yet, and using size reference textures to
The water is a purple plane and can be walked on.
Green Frog, Red Frog, and Orange Frog are inaccessible.
Superjump
Walking on trash pile
Water Walking
Inaccessible Green Frog
Left Path
Right Path
SWP4 (?)
Doesn't resemble any map in the final.
There's a straight path with crushers that branches off into two separate paths. One of the paths has crushers on it, but both contain nothing at the end.
Starting Area
Ramp to fork in path
Right Path End
SWP5 (Reservoir Frogs)
This level appears to be the lower half of Reservoir Frogs.
The pipes are not slimey.
The water under the pipes can be walked on if you fall down.
SKY
The land backdrop scales up very large when Frogger falls off the map.
The sky land backdrop sometimes shows its edges / where it ends.
SKY1 (Looney Balloons)
Green balloons are a funny shape and rotate in place without ascending.
They appear to reflect a texture on them, and the reflection changes as they rotate, so they were likely some kind of rotation test.
Starting Area
SKY2 (Airshow Antics)
Clouds are not slippery
Clouds are white & see-through.
Starting Area
Non-slippery Clouds
SKY3 (Time Flies)
Unfinished version. Has flat 2D tiles instead
Neither of the cloud islands at the bottom of the level are present, though there is a see-through plane where one of the islands belongs, which cannot be jumped on.
Flocking bird only has a single bird in the 3D model, despite having collision around it.
Not very many bugs on the way down.
Starting Area
Retail Area (& SKY_LAND edge)
Bottom Cloud Island Plane
SKY4 (?, Bug Test)
9x9 grey grid
Appears to have been used to test bugs.
Full Map
Load SKY4 GameShark Code: (Activate ONLY after selecting a level on the level select, but before loading it.)
3009429C 00000003
30094254 00000003
SKY5 (Multiplayer Airshow Antics)
This map appears to be Airshow Antics, but with four starting spots, for multiplayer frogs.
Starting Area
Load SKY5 GameShark Code: (Activate ONLY after selecting a level on the level select, but before loading it.)
3009429C 00000003
30094254 00000004
Forest (FOR)
To do: Get renders of the maps to avoid the beehive crash.
Activating a beehive will crash the game, so it's difficult to know what's in these levels.
FOR1 (Honey Bee Hollow)
Starting Area
FOR2 (?, Beehive Test)
Appears to have been used to test beehives.
Starting Area
Load FOR2 GameShark Code: (Activate ONLY after selecting a level on the level select, but before loading it.)
3009429C 00000004
30094254 00000001
VOL (Volcano)
VOL1 (Scorching Switches)
Graphics set appears different from the other builds, with a red tint.
None of the floating platforms exist in the level, so it is impossible to complete.
The lava floor's textures look very different from other builds.
Starting Area
Cave (CAV)
CAV1 (Cave Maze)
Untextured maze-like structure which somewhat resembles Webs Cavern. There is no collision on the maze walls.
Appears similar in design to Webs Cavern.
Starting Area
Bottom Left
Mid Left
Top Left
Top Middle
Middle
Load CAV1 GameShark Code: (Activate ONLY after selecting a level on the level select, but before loading it.)
3009429C 00000007
30094254 00000000
CAV2 (Dark Dark Cavern)
Pretty much final.
CAV3 (Snail Racing)
This map appears to be the cut "Snail Racing" level, before the snails were added, because there are tracks in this level which you can't walk outside of, which seem to suggest some kind of sliding mechanic.
There are only 4 froglets in this level,
Because the racing snail model was created after this build, it is likely that a later build will have the snails in it.
Starting Area
One of the tracks
CAV4 (Webs Cavern)
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, not even a spider is there.
Some webs are missing collision.
Starting Area
Empty Gold Frog Area
CAV5 (?)
9x9 grid of size reference textures
This map is also present in build 20, but this one has a bug powerup.
This prototype is documented on Hidden Palace.
