5th Ave Frogger Uses Real Cars, Spares Frogs

In honor of the classic video game Frogger on its 30th birthday, my friend Tyler DeAngelo conceived a version of the game that uses a webcam to track the live position of actual cars on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Those positions are used as obstacles that the poor 8-bit frog must avoid in order to cross the street. 5th Ave Frogger uses an arcade cabinet from the original version of the game and it can be switched back into classic mode if you want to play the original game (for instance, when the traffic on Fifth Avenue makes gameplay too difficult).

Tyler worked with Ranjit Bhatnagar and Renee Lee to make this modern spinoff of Frogger and he’s campaigning to have it included in The Art of Video Games exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In the meantime, if you’d like to take a look at the build process, the team diligently documented every step of the way.