83-470: Coleco Industries, Inc. ( / k ə ˈ l iː k oʊ / kə- LEE -koh ) was an American company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as The Connecticut Leather Company . It was a successful toy company in the 1980s, mass-producing versions of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and its video game consoles , the Coleco Telstar dedicated consoles and ColecoVision . While the company ceased operations in 1988 as
166-621: A gimmick to enhance their collectibility, e.g. some dolls played on water toys, swam, ate food, or brushed their teeth. Some Mattel lines include the updated Kids line of basic cloth dolls that came with birth certificates , the OlympiKids that were made to coincide with the 1996 Olympics , and the Cabbage Patch Fairies . In January 1997, Mattel recalled the franchise's Snacktime Kids dolls after numerous complaints that they were chewing on children's hair and fingers. Also, to celebrate
249-435: A " climbing game " along with Space Panic (1980) and Nintendo 's Donkey Kong (1981). He said it was one of the "most exciting variations" on Pac-Man ' s maze theme along with Donkey Kong due to how players need to "scale from the bottom of the screen to the top" which make them "more like obstacle courses than mazes" since "you always know where you're going—up." Brett Alan Weiss of AllGame later reviewed
332-538: A 14-inch (35.6 cm) Cabbage Patch Kids Fashionality line and other Cabbage Patch Kid products. In 2013, Jakks Pacific released the Celebration edition to commemorate the 30th Birthday of the licensed Cabbage Patch Kids. Wicked Cool Toys is the master toy licensee for Cabbage Patch Kids as of 2015. Wicked Cool Toys released new additions like Little Sprouts, a line of tiny collectable dolls, only 1.5 inches tall. They also released Adoptimals, 8-inch plus pets that
415-419: A Cabbage Patch Kid can adopt. The original 1982 Cabbage Patch Kids license agreement with Coleco Industries was negotiated by Roger L. Schlaifer, doing business as Schlaifer Nance & Company (SN&C), the exclusive worldwide licensor for Original Appalachian Artworks, Roberts' company at the time. Following Schlaifer Nance & Company's signing of Coleco Industries, SN&C designed and/or directed
498-482: A Cabbage Patch Kids 25th Anniversary collection using some of the original head sculpts from the very first Coleco editions. Play Along also partnered with Carvel in a co-branding campaign. The resulting co-branded Cabbage Patch Kids were packaged with a Carvel-branded ice cream cone. JAKKS Pacific acquired Play Along Toys and assumed the master toy licensee for the Cabbage Patch Kids in 2011. Jakks introduced
581-508: A brand name has been owned by several entities since it was created in 1961 by Coleco Industries, Inc. In 2005, River West Brands, now Dormitus Brands, a Chicago -based brand revitalization company, re-introduced the Coleco brand to the marketplace. In late 2006, the company introduced the Coleco Sonic, a handheld system containing twenty Master System and Game Gear games, including two from
664-493: A legal battle with Schlaifer and Roberts over his introduction of "Furskins Bears"— a collection of hillbilly bears that competed with the Cabbage Patch dolls. Coleco's sales plummeted from over $ 800 million in 1986 to nothing in 1988 when the company went out of business. After changing the dolls' name to Cabbage Patch Kids, Schlaifer contacted all the major doll companies in the country. Most declined, commenting that
747-451: A life. After crossing the road, a median strip separates the two major parts of the screen. The upper half consists of a river with logs, alligators, and turtles, all moving horizontally across the screen in opposite directions. By jumping on swiftly moving logs and the backs of alligators and turtles, the player can guide the frog to safety. The player must avoid snakes, otters, and the open mouths of alligators. A brightly colored female frog
830-759: A line of ROM cartridges for the Atari 2600 and Intellivision , selling six million cartridges for both systems, along with two million sold for the ColecoVision for a total of eight million cartridges sold in 1982. It also introduced the Coleco Gemini , a clone of the popular Atari 2600, which came bundled with a copy of Donkey Kong . When the video game business began to implode in 1983 , it seemed clear that video game consoles were being supplanted by home computers . Bob Greenberg, son of Leonard Greenberg and nephew of Arnold Greenberg, left Microsoft where he had been working as
913-552: A line of "Furskins Bears", and failing to pay SN&C its share of the Topps settlement and refusing to allow ABC TV from doing a Saturday morning animated TV show, Roberts worked out a side deal with Coleco for tens of millions of dollars for a renewal of Schlaifer's Cabbage Patch agreement, and jointly litigated against SN&C. The suit was settled in 1988 by OAA and Coleco paying SN&C an undisclosed amount of money. In addition, Paula Osborne, OAA president until Roberts worked out
SECTION 10
#1732851535514996-407: A movement detector to show the positioning of the doll and whether it was sensed to be on its belly, back, or even upside down. A special plastic drinking cup containing a hidden magnet, which could be identified with the aid a small reed relay in the built into the head of the toy above the mouth, to signify when it should be seen to be drinking. A more remarkable effect occurred when one doll detected
1079-730: A normal toddler's proportions instead of the morbidly obese bodies on Roberts' originals. It was those comparatively inexpensive ($ 18 to $ 28) dolls, branded in packaging designed by Schlaifer and produced in Coleco's factories in China, that succeeded commercially. Coleco cancelled all of its advertising as they tried to keep up with demand—shipping a doll-industry record, 3.2 million dolls. Sales of dolls in 1984, along with Cabbage Patch branded merchandise generated $ 2,000,000,000 in retail sales across North America, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Coleco's sales continued to climb right through 1986, when they reportedly over-shipped and lost ground in
1162-505: A profit at his own store in Georgia. Thomas later stopped selling additional dolls to Roberts, prompting him to turn to a manufacturing company in Hong Kong to mass produce dolls similar in appearance to Thomas' at a cheaper cost. Thomas brought suit against Roberts and eventually settled out of court for an undisclosed amount in 1985. She and her husband, Tucker Thomas, told the press that she
1245-550: A program developer at the time to assist in Coleco's entry into this market. Coleco's strategy was to introduce the Coleco Adam home computer, both as a stand-alone system and as an expansion module to the ColecoVision. The effort failed, in part because Adams were often unreliable due to being released with critical bugs, and in part because the computer's release coincided with the home computer industry crashing. Coleco withdrew from electronics early in 1985. In 1983, Coleco released
1328-413: A prototype posted by AtariAge showed the device utilizing a CCTV capture card in place of a motherboard. After Retro VGS failed to produce a fully working prototype, Coleco Holdings pulled out of involvement with Retro VGS, terminating the project. Cabbage Patch Kids Cabbage Patch Kids are a line of cloth dolls with plastic heads first produced by Coleco Industries in 1982. They were inspired by
1411-419: A result of bankruptcy, the Coleco brand was revived in 2005, and remains active to this day. Coleco Industries, Inc. began in 1932 as The Connecticut Leather Company. The business supplied leather and "shoe findings" (the supplies and paraphernalia of a shoe repair shop) to shoe repairers. In 1938, the company began selling rubber footwear. During World War II demand for the company's supplies increased and by
1494-482: A share. In 1963, the company acquired the Kestral Corporation of Springfield, Massachusetts , a manufacturer of inflatable vinyl pools and toys. This led to Coleco becoming the largest manufacturer of above-ground swimming pools in the world. In 1966, Leonard persuaded his brother Arnold Greenberg to join the company. Further acquisitions included Playtime Products (1966) and Eagle Toys of Canada (1968). By
1577-474: A single point given for each forward hop. Konami announced that a Frogger game show was in production for Peacock , produced by Konami Cross Media NY and Eureka Productions . It debuted on September 9, 2021. On November 26, 1999, Rickey's World Famous Sauce offered $ 10,000 to the first person who could score 1,000,000 points on Frogger or $ 1,000 for a new world record prior to January 1, 2000. On March 25, 2005, Robert Mruczek offered $ 1,000 for beating
1660-759: A standard cartridge and a cassette for the Starpath Supercharger . Sierra released disk or tape versions for the Commodore 64, Apple II , original Macintosh , IBM PC and Supercharger-equipped 2600, and cartridge versions for the TRS-80 Color Computer Parker Brothers received the license from Sega for cartridge versions which it released for the Atari 2600, Intellivision , Atari 5200 , ColecoVision , Atari 8-bit computers , TI-99/4A , VIC-20 and Commodore 64 . Parker Brothers spent $ 10 million on advertising Frogger . The Atari 2600 version
1743-497: A toy store, in Cleveland, Georgia . In 1981, at the height of Roberts's success, he was approached by Atlanta designer and licensing agent, Roger L. Schlaifer about licensing The Little People. As Fisher-Price owned the name "Little People", the name was changed to "Cabbage Patch Kids." His goal was to build the first and largest mass-market children's brand in history. In order to attract potential doll manufacturers and to create
SECTION 20
#17328515355141826-410: A voice chip, touch sensors, a microphone, short range 49 MHz AM transmitter and receiver for communicating with other dolls. Touch sensors in the hands enabled the toy to detect when and how it was being played with in response to its vocalizations. For example, the doll might say "hold my hand" and give an appropriate speech response when the touch sensor in either hand detected pressure. It also had
1909-583: A year. Among these, 1.5 million units were sold for Pac-Man alone. In 1983, it released three more Mini-Arcades: Ms. Pac-Man , Donkey Kong Junior , and Zaxxon . Coleco returned to the video game console market in 1982 with the launch of the ColecoVision . The system was quite popular and more powerful than the Atari 2600 , and came bundled with a copy of Donkey Kong . The console sold 560,000 units in 1982. Coleco also hedged its bet on video games by introducing
1992-453: Is a 1981 arcade action game developed by Konami and published by Sega . In North America, it was distributed by Sega/Gremlin . The object of the game is to direct five frogs to their homes by dodging traffic on a busy road, then crossing a river by jumping on floating logs and alligators. Frogger was positively received as one of the greatest video games ever made . It was followed by numerous clones and several home-only sequels in
2075-642: Is presented as a birthing , nursery , and adoption center for the Cabbage Patch Kids. In accordance with the theme, employees dressed and pretended to be doctors and nurses caring for the dolls as if they were real. Babyland General moved to a new facility on the outskirts of Cleveland, Georgia, in 2010 and has been voted one of the Travel Channel's top 10 toylands. Under the direction of ABC V.P. of programming, Squire Rushnell, and produced by Ruby-Spears with music by Joe Raposo , The Cabbage Patch Kids' First Christmas , premiered on ABC on December 7, 1984, and
2158-489: Is sometimes on a log and may be carried for bonus points. The very top of the screen contains five "frog homes", and at least one is always open and available. These sometimes contain bonus insects or deadly alligators. When all five frogs are in their homes, the game progresses to the next level with increased difficulty. After five levels, the difficulty briefly eases and yet again progressively increases after each level. The timer gives 30 seconds to guide each frog into one of
2241-464: The Frogger series. The 1982 Atari 2600 version from Parker Brothers sold 4 million cartridges, making it one of the best-selling Atari 2600 games . By 2005, 20 million copies of its various home video game incarnations had been sold worldwide. The objective of the game is to guide a frog to each of the empty homes at the top of the screen. The game starts with three, five, or seven frogs, depending on
2324-637: The Sonic the Hedgehog series. In 2014, River West Brands established the subsidiary Coleco Holdings for their Coleco-branded projects. In December 2015, Coleco Holdings announced the development of the Coleco Chameleon , a new cartridge-based video game system; in actuality, a re-branding of the controversial Retro VGS console, whose Indiegogo campaign failed to secure funding when it ended in early November 2015, with only $ 63,546 raised of its $ 1.95 million goal. In
2407-654: The Cabbage Patch Kids series of dolls which were wildly successful. In the same year, Dr. Seuss signed a deal with Coleco to design a line of toys, including home video games based on his characters. Flush with success, Coleco purchased Leisure Dynamics (manufacturer of the board games Aggravation and Perfection ) and beleaguered Selchow and Righter , manufacturers of Scrabble , Parcheesi , and Trivial Pursuit , in 1986. Sales of Selchow & Righter games had plummeted, leaving them with warehouses full of unsold games. The purchase price for Selchow & Righter
2490-494: The Commodore 64 support both ROM cartridges and magnetic media , so they received multiple versions of the game. Sierra On-Line gained the magnetic media rights and sublicensed them to developers who published for systems not normally supported by Sierra. Cornsoft published the official TRS-80 / Dragon 32 , Timex Sinclair 1000 , and Timex Sinclair 2068 ports. Because of that, even the Atari 2600 received multiple releases:
2573-531: The Garbage Pail Kids , for copyright infringement. Having sold over $ 70 million worth of the cards, Topps settled with OAA for $ 7 million—tantamount to a license—and retained the right to continue producing the Garbage Pail Kids cards. In a bitter legal battle with SN&C over whether OAA had violated their licensing Agreement with SN&C and Coleco's exclusivity by producing a Cabbage Patch bear as
Coleco - Misplaced Pages Continue
2656-748: The Oric-1 in the UK (1983) and a later release for the ORIC Atmos, Froggy for the ZX Spectrum released by DJL Software (1984), Solo Software's Frogger for the Sharp MZ-700 (1984) in the UK, and Leap Frog for the NewBrain . Several clones retain the basic gameplay of Frogger and change the style or plot. Pacific Coast Highway (1982), for the Atari 8-bit computers , splits the gameplay into two alternating screens: one for
2739-594: The Sega Genesis , Super NES , Game com , Game Boy and Game Boy Color . Each version has different graphics, with the Genesis version having the same as the original arcade game. The Genesis and SNES versions are the last games released for those consoles in North America. Though using the same box art, they are otherwise unrelated to the 1997 remake. In 2005, InfoSpace worked with Konami Digital Entertainment to create
2822-668: The 1983 Gakken Compact Vision TV Boy . Reporting on Gordon's claim that Frogger ' s appeal lacked barriers of age or sex, Cashbox in October 1981 said "watch for it". Distributors reportedly found that Gordon's statement was accurate, with women enjoying its "non-aggressive yet challenging" gameplay. Frogger ' s success increased production, becoming one of the top-grossing arcade games in North America during 1981. The arcade game earned over $ 135 million (equivalent to $ 452 million in 2023) for Sega/Gremlin in US cabinet sales, becoming
2905-537: The 20-inch dolls debuted in the Times Square flagship store. These were created to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the line, and were available both online and in stores around the US. Expensive and deemed too cumbersome for most young children to play with, they did not last long at the retailer. Play Along toys next obtained exclusive licensing rights to produce the Cabbage Patch Kids doll line. In 2004, again using Schlaifer's original packaging, Play Along launched
2988-567: The Atari VCS version in The Space Gamer , commenting: "All in all, if you liked the arcade version, this should save you a lot of quarters. The price is in line with most cartridges. It also proves that Atari isn't the only one making home versions of the major arcade games for the VCS." Danny Goodman of Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games wrote in 1983 that the Atari 2600 version "is one of
3071-459: The Little People soft sculptured dolls sold by Xavier Roberts as collectibles. The brand was renamed 'Cabbage Patch Kids' by Roger L. Schlaifer when he acquired the exclusive worldwide licensing rights in 1982. The doll brand set every toy industry sales record for three years running, and was one of the most popular lines of children's licensed products in the 1980s and has become one of
3154-557: The Mini-Arcade series of licensed video arcade titles such as Donkey Kong and Ms. Pac-Man . A third line of educational handhelds was also produced and included the Electronic Learning Machine, Lil Genius , Digits , and a trivia game called Quiz Wiz . Launched in 1982, their first four tabletop Mini-Arcades, for Pac-Man , Galaxian , Donkey Kong , and Frogger , sold approximately three million units within
3237-510: The Schlaifer's six-year tenure exceeded $ 4.5 billion, more than ten times the total revenues of Cabbage Patch Kids merchandise and entertainment in the thirty years since–the latter of which never made the impact Roberts claimed it would under his direction in the November 1983 edition of Esquire magazine. And while sales of the dolls and other licensed products declined precipitously in the late 1980s,
3320-457: The arcade game, calling it one of "the most beloved videogames ever created" and "pure, undiluted gaming at its finest". He said the "graphics are cute and detailed, the sound effects are crisp and clear, and the controls are sharp and responsive". Arcade Express reviewed the Atari VCS version in 1982, calling it "a highly authentic translation of the coin-op hit" that combines "great graphics with sophisticated play action". Ed Driscoll reviewed
3403-469: The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The reorganized Coleco sold off all of its North American assets and outsourced thousands of jobs to foreign countries, closing plants in Amsterdam, New York and other cities. In 1988, Canada-based SLM Action Sports Inc. purchased Coleco's swimming pool and snow goods divisions. In 1989, Hasbro purchased most of Coleco's remaining product lines. Coleco as
Coleco - Misplaced Pages Continue
3486-538: The company's most successful first-year product, beating the sales and revenues of its previous best-seller, Merlin . By 2005, 20 million copies of the various home versions had been sold worldwide, including 5 million in the United States. In 1981, Computer and Video Games reviewed the arcade game as "one of the popular new generation of arcade games which are getting way from space themes". In his 1982 book Video Invaders , Steve Bloom described Frogger as
3569-504: The deal with Coleco, sued over the share she was entitled to as a stockholder of OAA and received a seven-figure settlement. Six months after settling with SN&C, Coleco was out of business. One of Mattel's line of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls, the Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kids, was designed to "eat" plastic snacks. The mechanism enabling this was a pair of one-way smooth metal rollers behind plastic lips. The snacks would exit
3652-430: The design and quality of virtually all CPK branded products produced by its over one hundred and fifty CPK licensed manufacturers, including Coleco. They included the first children's licensed character diapers and low-sugar cereal, children's apparel, bedding, stationery products, books, backyard pools, and thousands of other children's products – generating over $ 2 billion in retail sales for 1984, alone. Total sales during
3735-669: The doll's back and "magically" appear into a backpack. The mechanism could be de-activated by releasing the backpack. They were extremely popular during Christmas 1996. The line was voluntarily withdrawn from the market following an agreement between Mattel and the Consumer Product Safety Commission in January 1997 following several incidents where children got their fingers or hair stuck in the dolls' mouths leading to safety warnings from Connecticut's consumer protection commissioner, Mark Shiffrin. Frogger Frogger
3818-463: The dolls for younger children, which led to smaller and smaller dolls. In 1994, Mattel acquired the licensing rights to the dolls from Original Appalachian Artworks. Their first Cabbage Patch dolls hit the stores in 1995. The Mattel Cabbage Patch dolls were not limited to cloth bodies and included dolls made from vinyl , resulting in a more durable play doll. The Mattel dolls are mostly sized 14" or smaller, and most variants were individualized with
3901-462: The dolls have become a mainstay of the toy industry, and one of the few long-running doll brands in history. These limited edition dolls were available from Applause gifts and later by direct mail from the Danbury Mint . They have a rigid fabric body with porcelain legs, arms, and head. "Talking Cabbage Patch Kids" were among the last new CPK lines introduced by Coleco. They were equipped with
3984-454: The dolls with various gimmicks, including dolls that played kazoos . Some of the more popular doll lines to come out under the Cabbage Patch Kids name included the "Birthday Kids", "Splash 'n' Tan Kids", and "Pretty Crimp and Curl". Hasbro produced a 10th anniversary doll, reintroducing Schlaifer's original packaging – a practice that other CPK doll manufacturers would do to give sales a boost on various anniversaries. Hasbro gradually began making
4067-643: The dolls' 15th anniversary, Mattel created a line of exclusively female dolls with reproduction face molds, dressed in a reproduction dresses reminiscent of the original line and packaged in retro style box. These were 16 inches tall, the same measurement of the first Coleco Cabbage Kids. In 2001, with Mattel's sales stalling, a former Coleco marketing employee, Al Kahn, acquired Original Appalachian's licensing rights and sold retailer Toys "R" Us on producing 20-inch (50.8 cm) Kids dolls and 18-inch (45.7 cm) baby dolls, both with cloth bodies and vinyl heads. They were packaged in cardboard cabbage leaf seats. In 2001,
4150-532: The end of the 1960s, Coleco operated ten manufacturing facilities and occupied a new corporate headquarters in Hartford, Connecticut. Coleco experienced financial difficulty during the 1970s, even though sales had grown to $ 48.6 million in 1971. In 1972, Coleco entered the snowmobile market through acquisition. Lower than expected snowfall that year and market conditions led to very reduced sales and poor profits. Dozens of companies rushed to introduce game systems after
4233-538: The end of the war, the company was larger and had expanded into new and used shoe machinery, hat cleaning equipment and marble shoeshine stands. By the early 1950s, and thanks to Maurice Greenberg's son, Leonard Greenberg, the company had diversified further and was making leather lacing and leathercraft kits. In 1954, at the New York Toy Fair, their leather moccasin kit was selected as a Child Guidance Prestige Toy, and Connecticut Leather Company decided to commit to
SECTION 50
#17328515355144316-460: The entertainment and publishing businesses he envisioned, Schlaifer and his partner/wife wrote the Legend of the Cabbage Patch Kids . To make sense of how special cabbages gave birth to Cabbage Patch Kids, Schlaifer invented BunnyBees — the bee-like creatures that use their rabbit ears to fly about and pollinate cabbages with magical crystals. Since Roberts insisted on being a character in
4399-477: The fictitious world record of 860,630 as set by George Costanza in an episode of Seinfeld or $ 250 for a new world record by the end of that year. On December 1, 2006, John Cunningham offered $ 250 for exceeding the same fictitious world record of 860,630 points by February 28, 2007. These scores were surpassed only after the bounties had all expired. The first and only score to have been verified as having beaten George Costanza's fictional score of 860,630 points
4482-492: The full order. Though dedicated game consoles did not last long on the market, their early order enabled Coleco to break even . Coleco continued to perform well in electronics. The company transitioned into handheld electronic games , a market popularized by Mattel . An early success was Electronic Quarterback . Coleco produced two popular lines of games, the "head to head" series of two player sports games ( Football , Baseball , Basketball , Soccer , Hockey , Boxing ) and
4565-456: The highway, one for the water. Preppie! (1982), for the Atari 8-bit changes the frog to a preppy retrieving golf balls at a country club. Frostbite (1983), for the Atari 2600, uses the Frogger river gameplay with an arctic theme. Crossy Road (2014), for iOS, Android and Windows Phone, has a randomly generated series of road and river sections in one endless level, with only one life and
4648-402: The homes, and resets back to 60 ticks whenever a life is lost or a frog reaches home safely. In 1982, Softline stated that " Frogger has earned the ominous distinction of being 'the arcade game with the most ways to die'." There are many different ways to lose a life (illustrated by a skull and crossbones symbol where the frog was), including being run over by a road vehicle; jumping into
4731-415: The level the player earns 1,000 points. A single bonus frog is given at 20,000 points. 99,990 points is the maximum high score that can be achieved on an original arcade cabinet . Players may exceed this score, but the game "rolls over" and only keeps the last 5 digits. The game was developed by Konami . On July 22, 1981, Sega gained the exclusive rights to manufacture the game worldwide. Sega/Gremlin
4814-559: The longest-running doll franchises in the United States. Additional Cabbage Patch products include children's apparel, bedding, infants' wear, record albums and board games. According to court records, Roberts, a 21-year-old art student at a missionary school in North Georgia, discovered craft artist Martha Nelson 's Doll Babies. They came with a birth certificate and adoption papers. With the help of artist Debbie Moorehead, he hand-stitched dolls called "The Little People". Roberts modified
4897-491: The look of Little People, many of Little People's defining characteristics – such as the dolls' overly round faces and that they came with an adoption certificate – were taken from Martha Nelson Thomas , an American folk artist from Kentucky . Before Roberts became involved in the toy industry, Thomas had created and marketed her own line of dolls, called Doll Babies, which she sold at local arts and craft shows and markets. Roberts began purchasing Thomas' dolls in 1976 to sell at
4980-425: The look of Nelson's dolls, birth certificate and adoption papers sufficiently to get a copyright, and told potential customers his Little People were not for sale; however, they could be "adopted" for prices ranging from $ 60 to $ 1,000. The Little People were first sold at arts and crafts shows, then later at Babyland General Hospital , an old medical clinic that Roberts and his friends-turned-employees converted into
5063-519: The look of the Little People was too ugly to sell on the mass-market. Coleco, then famous for its success with electronic toys, were sold on becoming the Master Toy licensee, including an advertising guarantee. At the peak of their popularity, between 1983 and 1986, the dolls were highly sought-after toys for Christmas. Cabbage Patch riots occurred as parents literally fought to obtain the dolls for children. In later years, Coleco introduced variants on
SECTION 60
#17328515355145146-460: The machine's settings. Losing all frogs is game over . The player uses the 4-direction joystick to hop the frog once. Frogger is either single-player or two players alternating turns. The frog starts at the bottom of the screen, which contains a horizontal road occupied by speeding vehicles such as race cars, dune buggies, trucks, and bulldozers. The player must guide the frog between opposing lanes of traffic to avoid becoming roadkill and losing
5229-429: The microphone was to delay the search and communication with another of its type when the ambient noise was above a certain level. Babyland General Hospital is the "birthplace" of Little People and is located in Cleveland, Georgia . With the help of local friends, Roberts converted an old doctor's clinic into a general store/souvenir shop and "doll hospital" from which to sell his original "Little People". The facility
5312-627: The mobile game Frogger for Prizes , in which players across the U.S. competed in multiplayer tournaments to win daily and weekly prizes. In 2006, the mobile game version of Frogger grossed over $ 10 million in the United States. A Java version was released for compatible mobile phones . Frogger was released on the Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360 on July 12, 2006. It was developed by Digital Eclipse and published by Konami . It has two new gameplay modes: versus speed mode and co-op play. Some of
5395-470: The most detailed translations I have seen", noting the addition of the wraparound screen. InfoWorld 's Essential Guide to Atari Computers cited the Sierra version as an entertaining arcade game. Ahoy! said that both the Sierra disk version and Parker Brothers cartridge version for the Commodore 64 "are excellent, with little to choose between them". In 2013, Entertainment Weekly named Frogger one of
5478-429: The most successful Sega/Gremlin release. In Japan, Frogger was the 12th highest-grossing arcade game of 1981 . Home versions of Frogger had high sales. The 1982 Atari 2600 version earned its publisher Parker Brothers $ 40 million in orders upon launch. By the end of the year, 4 million Atari 2600 cartridges were sold with $ 80,000,000 (equivalent to $ 253,000,000 in 2023) in wholesale revenue. It became
5561-664: The music was replaced, including the familiar Frogger theme. This version is in the compilation Konami Classics Vol. 1 . The original 1981 arcade version joined the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 Arcade Archives on December 12, 2019. Video game clones include Ribbit for the Apple II (1981), Acornsoft 's Hopper (1983) for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron , A&F Software's Frogger (1983) for BBC Micro and ZX Spectrum , PSS's (Personal Software Services) Hopper for
5644-574: The original Cabbage Patch Kids, and derivatives of the original line of dolls continued to be marketed. When Coleco was producing the dolls for the North American market during the 1980s, they provided technical assistance to other doll manufacturers in Panama, Europe, Australia and Japan who wanted to use their molds. Hasbro took over the rights to produce Cabbage Patch dolls in 1988 after Coleco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and continued to make
5727-437: The presence of another through its 49 MHz AM transmitter / receiver . The dolls were programmed to signal their "awareness" of each other with a short phrase, e.g. "I think there's someone else to play with here!", and then to initiate simple conversations between the dolls themselves with enough randomness to sound somewhat natural. The joint synchronised singing of 'rounds' being particularly impressive. The inclusion of
5810-521: The press release, it was established that the system would be able to play new and classic games in the 8, 16, and 32-bit styles. The release for the system was announced to be sometime in early 2016, with a demonstration at Toy Fair New York in February. However, some critics suggested that the prototype fell short of its developmental goals and was nothing more than the motherboard of a Super NES model SNS-101 inside an Atari Jaguar case. Later mock images of
5893-453: The release of Atari 's successful Pong console and the company entered the video game console business with the Telstar . Nearly all of the new game systems were based on General Instrument 's " Pong -on-a-chip". General Instrument had underestimated demand, resulting in severe shortages. However, Coleco was one of the first to place an order and therefore one of the few companies to receive
5976-444: The river; running into snakes, otters, or an alligator's jaws; sinking while on top of a diving turtle; riding a log, alligator, or turtle off the side of the screen; jumping into a home already occupied by a frog or alligator; jumping into the side of a home or the bush; or running out of time. The opening tune is the first verse of a Japanese children's song called "Inu No Omawarisan" ("The Dog Policeman"). Other Japanese tunes include
6059-723: The story, Schlaifer created him as a curious, ten-year-old boy who discovered the Cabbage Patch Kids by following a BunnyBee behind a waterfall into a magical Cabbage Patch, where he found the Cabbage Patch babies being born in a neglected garden. To save them from being abducted to work in the gold mines operated by the villainess Lavender McDade and her two cohorts in crime, Cabbage Jack and Beau Weasel, young Roberts tried to save them by finding loving parents who would adopt them and keep them safe in their homes. In 1982, Coleco's design team, headed by famed doll designer Judy Albert, devised an industry first: one-of-a-kind, plastic-headed Cabbage Patch Kids dolls with cuter features, softer bodies and
6142-466: The themes to the anime series Hana no Ko Lunlun and Rascal the Raccoon . The American release has the same opening song plus " Yankee Doodle ". Every forward step scores ten points, and every frog arriving safely home scores 50 points. Ten points are also awarded per each unused ½ second of time. Guiding a lady frog home or eating a fly scores 200 points each, and when all five frogs reach home to end
6225-457: The top ten games for the Atari 2600. In 1997, Hasbro Interactive released Frogger , a vastly expanded remake of the original for Windows and the PlayStation . Unlike the original, it consists of multiple different levels. It was a commercial success, with Windows sales alone at nearly one million units in less than four months. In 1998, Hasbro released a series of versions of the game for
6308-438: The toy business. In 1956, Leonard read about the emerging technology of vacuum formed plastic; the company adopted this and it became increasingly successful, producing a wide variety of plastic toys and wading pools. In 1961, the leather and shoe findings portion of the business was sold, and Connecticut Leather Company became Coleco Industries, Inc. On January 9, 1962, Coleco went public, offering 120,000 shares of stock at $ 5.00
6391-432: Was $ 75 million. That same year, Coleco introduced an ALF plush, based on the furry alien character who had his own television series at the time, as well as a talking version and a cassette-playing "Storytelling ALF" doll. The combination of the purchase of Selchow & Righter, the disastrous Adam computer, and the public's waning infatuation with Cabbage Patch Dolls all contributed to Coleco's financial decline. In 1988,
6474-415: Was anything worth licensing, and she stumbled across Frogger . Thinking the game deserved a chance though being "cute", she requested a licensing window for playtesting. She persuaded executives who denigrated Frogger as a "women and kids game" by reminding them of Pac-Man . Sega/Gremlin agreed to pay Konami $ 3,500 per day for a 60-day licensing window. A prototype was playtested in a San Diego bar and
6557-456: Was more upset by the corruption of her dolls, for which she cared deeply, than the money she'd lost as the result of Roberts' actions. Thomas died in 2013, at the age of 62, with her favorite dolls attending her funeral alongside her family members and friends. Roberts' company, Original Appalachian Artworks, later brought a $ 30 million lawsuit against Topps , the company that produced grotesque trading cards parodying his company's dolls called
6640-502: Was programmed by Ed English. Coleco released stand-alone Mini-Arcade tabletop versions of Frogger , which, along with Pac-Man , Galaxian , and Donkey Kong , had three million sales combined. The game was ported to systems such as the PC-6001 and Game Boy (with two separate releases for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color in 1998). Frogger is one of the 6 launch games for
6723-444: Was skeptical about Frogger ' s earning potential in North America. This was because no other company licensed the game. Also, an earlier game called Frogs that was developed there had flopped. It was believed that Eliminator would be the company's next big hit. Elizabeth Falconer, a market researcher at Sega/Gremlin, was tasked by Gremlin founder Frank Fogleman to check Gremlin's library of video presentations to see if there
6806-405: Was so successful that distributors agreed to resell the game based on the test alone. Wanting to broaden the player base demographics, Jack Gordon, the director of video game sales at Sega/Gremlin, noted that women shied away from the "shoot em' ups" on the market and that games like Frogger "filled the void". Frogger was ported to many contemporary home systems. Several platforms such as
6889-703: Was the top-rated show in its time-slot. Additional shows include Cabbage Patch Kids: The New Kid , a stop-motion animated special produced by Goldhill Entertainment, and aired on the FOX Kids Network programming block on August 26, 1995. It was followed by four other stop-motion animated specials, Cabbage Patch Kids: The Club House in 1996; Cabbage Patch Kids: The Screen Test in 1997; Cabbage Patch Kids: Saturday Night in 1998; and Cabbage Patch Kids: Vernon's Christmas in 1999. Roberts rejected an offer from ABC for an hour Saturday show combining Cabbage Patch Kids and Furskins Bears. Though Xavier Roberts originated
#513486