Developed by Nintendo R&D1
Designed by Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto
Programmed by Ikegami Tsushinki (unconfirmed)
Originally published by Nintendo as a Japanese arcade game in 1982, followed by European and American releases by Atari, Inc. in 1982.
Magnavox Odyssey2 / Philips Videopac version was developed and published by Parker Brothers in 1982.
Atari 2600 version was written by Joe Gaucher, and published by Parker Brothers in 1983.
Atari 400/800 version was written by David W. Johnson, and published by Parker Brothers in 1983.
CBS Colecovision and Mattel Intellivision versions were written and published by Parker Brothers in 1983.
Nintendo Famicom version was developed and published by Nintendo in 1983, but wasn't published for the North American and European NES systems until 1986.
Apple II version was developed and published by Software Computer in 1984.
Atari 5200, Commodore 64 and TI-99/4A versions were developed and published by Parker Brothers in 1984.
Timex TX2068 version was written by Amazon Systems and published by Parker Brothers in North America in 1984; the UK counterpart for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum version was unreleased, but has the prototype been salvaged.
An unlicenced clone called Popie was written in 1984 for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum by Simon Freeman, with graphics by Simon Freeman and Dave Hayhoe, but was unreleased until 2015.
Unofficial Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer version was written by Chris Latham, and published as "Sailor Man" by Tom Mix Software in 1984.
Unofficial Commodore 16 & Plus/4 clone named Popeye written by Roby YU in 1988.
Unofficial Commodore Amiga conversion developed by Bignonia:
Programming and graphics by Ard Joosse
Music by Christian Blaha
Published as "The Real Popeye" by Bignonia in 1993.
Unofficial conversion for the 32k expanded Commodore VIC-20 was written by Beamrider in 2015.
Unofficial re-authored version "Popeye ZX" for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was written by Gabriele Amore, with music by Alessandro Grussu, and released as public domain in 2016.
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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS
For the first arcade comparison since Kung-Fu Master from April this year, we now have an even earlier arcade classic by Nintendo, based on one of the best known King Features Syndicate comic strip characters - Popeye the Sailor. This happened while Nintendo were still co-operating on worldwide distribution with Atari, which likely opened up more possibilities with regards to other home conversions. This is, by far, my favourite era in the collective lives of Nintendo and Atari, which resulted in a considerable number of arcade classics also known on many home systems, and I shall be attempting to revisit this era more in the coming year. However, this comparison shall be an anomaly, since we're dealing with no less than 19 different versions of Popeye, which is something I would normally avoid getting into, but knowing there is not all that much content in the game, I decided to go for this one anyway.
