Right... when I said that, I couldn't remember whether I'd dared try it with the lizard (I knew the mole wouldn't work because you can't jump). I think at some point in the video, I do manage to jump on a snail while a frog by accident, even though I said that it looked like the best thing to do was avoid them.

You really were expected to do a lot of experimentation for yourself in games then, even besides the issue of most things being explained in the manual rather than the game - I'm suddenly reminded of the Lolo games, where some squares the enemies regenerated on were very important, but you couldn't tell if they moved or not until you tried. Now, it's important that you're able to recognize a game's language and cues very quickly.