1978 · Platform · Arcade
Frogs is a single-player action / platform arcade game released by Sega-Gremlin in 1978. It is the first video game with a jumping character (predating Donkey Kong by 3 years), which by some definitions could make it the first platform game. The player controls a frog on lily pads and attempts to catch (with the frog's tongue and while jumping) various insects (butterflies and dragonflies) worth different amounts of points in a set amount of time. Frogs is one of the first arcade games to include a static background as part of the arcade cabinet.[citation needed] The game’s graphics are "projected" by laying the monitor flat on its back and reflecting the computer-generated graphics of the frogs and flies toward the player via a mirror at a 45-degree angle. (The game’s graphics were actually generated and shown backward, so the mirror reflection would show letters and numbers properly.)