Preppie!

If long-time computer gamers were asked to play Preppie! and identify the company that produced it, probably the last software-maker it would be ascribed to would be Adventure International. The Florida-based company founded by the first father of text adventures, Scott Adams, has not exactly built their reputation around either arcade contests or high-resolution graphics.
The day of text-adventure dominance, however, has gone the way of the covered wagon or, more accurately, radio drama. Today's computer adventures are full-blown visual epics, with arcade-style action elements frequently built into the program. Adventure International therefore decided to strike out in new directions, offering high-speed action contests such as Rear Guard and, now, the Frogger-inspired delight, Preppie!.
As with the original, this is a game wherein gamers must maneuver an on-screen character across, first, a roadway and then a body of water. The object here, however, is retrieval rather than goal-oriented. Moreover, the amphibian has metamorphosized into a graphically-realistic preppie, complete with alligator shirt and saddle shoes! This suave little chap must first make his way over a golfing green literally crawling with everything from golf carts and lawnmowers to slick roadsters, to the horizontal mid-lane, where a golf ball turns up randomly and must be picked up and returned to the base of the playfield.
Later rounds introduce more golf balls, and many of them turn up at the top of the screen, meaning our collegiate friend must also navigate a strongly-flowing river, leaping from canoes to logs and even onto the backs of alligators. The jump must be carefully timed, though, since landing on the edges of either logs or boats causes them to tip over.
Sure it sounds familiar, but what elevates Preppie! from the score of Frogger-clones on the software market is the enchanting four-part harmony sound effects and musical accompaniment and the stunning graphics. True, the background rendition of "I Was Walking through the Park One Day" (in the merry, merry month of May) can grate on the nerves with the umpteenth replaying, but it is pretty. And what graphics! Everything from our preppie protagonist to the tractors in lavish colors and with marvelous definition by designer Russ Wetmore. The logs seem so real you almost feel as if you could touch them.
Preppie! does not want for special features, either, the cute, little touches that can make all the difference. When our hero is crushed by one of the vehicles roaming the highway sector of the playfield, we see him realistically pancaked, flattened into a wall poster. Tipping over a canoe, or falling off a log into the lake, however, is presented with a nice splash effect.
Problem: the roadway half of Preppie! seems much too easy while the watery portion appears more difficult than it ought to. In reality, neither portion of this videogame challenge is disproportionately facile or unreasonably problematic. It's just that the two segments are so out of whack with one another that they create this impression. The walking segment's a real milk run in the early racks, while the jumping action on the waterway is a challenge even on the initial playfield. The trick is to land squarely in the center of any floating objects, especially the canoes which do so love to tip over when our prep school protagonist hits the front or back of the various-sized watercraft.
Preppie! signals the dawn of a new age at Adventure International, one where audio and graphics are as vital as game play and concept. Rarely is the debut software from even a veteran producer this finely crafted, however, I mean, really...