Popeye (Nintendo, 1982)

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.

In terms of ratings, Popeye has an unprecedented percentage of lack of such, as there are more versions of the game for platforms that have no dedicated websites which would collect user ratings, than there are those who do. When no such dedicated ratings exist, it has become the tradition here to dig up the user ratings at MobyGames, when available, and in this case, I have taken six of the available ratings.

The oddly named KLOV/IAM score at Arcade Museum at the moment of starting to write this comparison was 3.69 (out of 5.0) from 17 votes, whereas the in-house NES/Famicom port was given a C- by Questicle.net, while at MobyGames, 46 voters gave it 3.2 stars out of 5. The rest of the MobyGames scores I have taken are as follows: Odyssey2 - 2.7 from 6 votes, TI-99/4A - 4.0 from 5 votes, Intellivision - 2.6 from 6 votes, Colecovision - 3.6 from 11 votes and Atari 2600 - 3.0 from 11 votes. Oddly, Atarimania doesn't have ratings for any A2600 games, but the rating for the A5200 version there is 7.6 from 14 votes, and the 8-bit computer version's rating is 6.9 from 47 votes. The C64 version was at 7.33 from 132 votes at Lemon64, and the Timex version was at 6.5 from 2 votes at Spectrum Computing. The unreleased Spectrum prototype only has a meagre 2 out of 10 from 2 votes, and for the rest of the versions, official or not, I have no ratings to offer.

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HISTORY, DESCRIPTION & REVIEW

Back when the arcades were still the first and foremost venue for playing video games, games with a movie or a cartoon license were a relatively rare breed, and so, making a successful game with licensed characters was nothing unusual. With Nintendo having broken through with their Donkey Kong trilogy and the original Mario Bros. arcade game prior to the release of Popeye, they had a fairly certain hit game in their hands. The design and development of Popeye was started even before the release of the first Donkey Kong, however, and the license wasn't acquired until Donkey Kong had become the hit game that it was.

Since back in those days, it would have been practically impossible to make a viable arcade game based on a comic strip or cartoon, featuring animation, with an actual logical plot, the entire game was built around the four included characters, and what were their defining roles. Popeye's main mission is to collect a number of items (hearts, musical notes or letters that spell HELP) dropped by his love interest, Olive Oyl, who is always located at the top of each screen. His quest is constantly in peril due to his arch nemesis, Bluto, who can wipe the floor with Popeye if he reached him, and one of his other enemies, Sea Hag, is also featured as a more randomly appearing character in the game. Popeye would only become the powerful super sailor man that he is known to be, by consuming a can of spinach, which is distributed at the edges of the screen, so once Popeye is under the influence of spinach, Bluto can be temporarily disposed of. You can also see Swee'Pea and J. Wellington Wimpy featured in the second level of the game, as well as a vulture called Bernard in the third.

While Popeye can be considered a platformer, you cannot actually jump in the game, as the only action button is designed for punching, which is used for grabbing a can of spinach, as well as punching either Bluto, flying projectiles or a punching bag. You can go up and down by taking stairs or ladders, falling down or using a jumping board, which is only available in the second level. Since the game only has three levels, its longevity is a bit questionable, but no more so than for most classic arcade platformers of this period.

Popeye holds a rather unique spot in the history of video games, though: not only is it one of, if not THE first comic strip licence games, and a remarkably successful one at that; it is also one of the batch of first three games ever released for Nintendo Famicom in 1983, the other two being Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. I doubt we shall ever get the other two games compared on this blog, but for all this historic value, Nintendo's Popeye deserves to be played by every self-proclaimed retro gaming enthusiast.

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PLAYABILITY: THE OFFICIAL VERSIONS

The very first moments upon starting the game will teach you that you can walk left and right, drop down a level with no injuries, walk through the passage with the "THRU"-sign to the other side of the screen and walk the stairs by moving the joystick up or down, eventually depending on your location. You will also learn to stay as far away from Bluto as possible while trying to grab the floating hearts sent to you by Olive Oyl from her separated area. Not too long after getting down from the top level, you are given the chance to prove your punching skills, when either Sea Hag or Bluto starts throwing skulls or bottles at you, but you might as well dodge them by going to a different level, if time allows. Grabbing a can of spinach, which switches its designated appearance spots in a timed manner, stops the hearts from descending, while giving you some time to punch the living daylights out of Bluto, making him exit the screen for a short while. If at any point, an item dropped by Olive reaches the bottom, an alarm music loop is played while the item floats for a while over the sea level, before it is eventually swallowed by the ocean, upon which you will lose a life, so it's just as important grabbing all these items as it is not to get hit by Bluto or a thrown projectile.

Although that's basically the gist of the entire game, with different items dropped by Olive Oyl in each of the three levels, each of the three levels features something different to give the game some nice variety. The special thing in the first level is the tub at the top of the screen, which can be set off by punching the punching bag next to it right next to the right-side ledge. If you can drop the tub so that Bluto gets covered by it, you get some bonus points and a little bit of extra time without Bluto harassing you. The second level features a jumping board operated by your friend Wimpy, which can sling you back to the top of the screen, where Swee'Pea is waiting to catch you and hand you a stash of bonus points. The third level features a horizontally moving platform and a new enemy called Bernard, who is a vulture. While Bernard doesn't do anything more than fly around and try to snap in on your vertical location, it is still an added inconvenience, but at least you can punch the bird without spinach.

What I find great about the simplicity of these still fairly early arcade games, is that they haven't prioritized animations over gameplay, which means that every action you make is as instantaneous in their execution as your controlling. Well, apart from one thing: when Popeye grabs a can of spinach and eats it, it takes a few seconds before you are allowed to continue moving, as you need to wait for the spinach to take effect. But that's a design choice, not a bug, so we will just have to live with it. But that's not to say there aren't any animations, rather just that they don't get in the way of your playing. More about all that later on, and now, the other versions, starting with the official ones.

While the original game was made by Nintendo, it had never occured to me before, that the first home conversion to be released was not for a Nintendo console, but rather the MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY2, or PHILIPS VIDEOPAC G7000, if you're from Europe. Taken the console's restrictions into account, it will not come as too much of a surprise, that the game has been condensed to just the first level - or more precisely, a demake of the first level. What you do get is Olive throwing down floating hearts, Bluto in an increasingly aggressive mode, spinach alternating between the two ends of the screen (bottom floor this time), a ladder in the middle of the level taking you down, some stairs between the two lowest floors, and the tub at the top of the screen, which you can punch down. Instead of stairs for all floors, two constantly moving elevators have been placed on both sides of the screen, which you can grab to access the top floor again after you have dropped down. Since the O2 version only has this one level, the progression of the game happens merely by raising the difficulty level after accumulating 100 points. For this version, Parker Bros. decided to make the two-player mode a completely different thing, where player two controls Bluto.

The year 1983 brought us no less than six conversions, for which I keep seeing various release dates, none of them too exact, but evidence point toward the FAMICOM/NES version being the first of them, released in July. Compared to the ARCADE version, there are only a couple of notable differences: this is the only version where the ladder in the middle of the first level reaches all the way down to the second-lowest level, so you can actually climb it back up again; and also, the location of Sea Hag when she eventually makes her appearance in the first level, and the way her skulls move around. Instead of being seated in either side of the middle or bottom rows, she occupies the top right corner of the screen, from where she drops a random number of skulls, which will bounce towards the other side of the screen until they see fit to drop down a level, with the purpose of eventually colliding with Popeye. Otherwise, the only difference seems to be, that you can toggle pause with the Start button. There are two difficulty options for both one and two player modes, and the two player mode is traditional turn-based arcade-style mode.

August brought out the COLECOVISION and INTELLIVISION versions, of which the COLECO version is closer to the original. The game plays largely like the arcade version, but there seems to be slightly less room for movement overall - perhaps a screen resolution issue, which we will get further into in the graphics section. Items thrown by Olive appear to be floating down a bit slower than usual, which might well be true, but it's either that the poor animation fools you into thinking so, or it is only barely as I said. Whichever the case, it affects the gameplay very little. One small thing that the reduced animations do have an effect on, is that when you drop down from a ledge, Popeye doesn't do a little hop forwards like he does in the original, which in turn drops the extension of his reach for picking the hearts when hopping from the ledges. The game starting options is probably where the COLECO version proves itself notably different from the rest, by having three difficulty levels for each, single player and two player mode. Numbers 1 to 3 go for single player modes and numbers 4 to 6 for two players.

In the INTELLIVISION version, there are four difficulty levels, after which you choose, whether you play a single player game or a two player game. The difference is, there are only two actual difficulty levels, both in which you have 5 lives to spare, and the latter two decrease the number of lives by one for each level. The animation for jumping off ledges is still missing here, which is less of a surprise in this case, but that's the least of the problems here. The punching bag in the first level is operated differently, as you have no need for jumping off the ledge to reach it when punching, but that can be considered a good thing, even if it's not exactly true to the original. In level 2, Swee'Pea is missing, which takes out an element of some minor importance. In level 3, the vulture seems to use the same exact flight path every time - starting from top left corner, descending to the lowest level, then going back up at the last moment and exits the screen from the top right corner. Perhaps due to the screen resolution, the INTELLIVISION version feels considerably faster to play than the other versions so far, but it is also a bit more difficult due to the relative lack of movement space.

Now we get to the ATARI versions. The A2600 version was released in September, the A5200 version in October, and the 400/800 version in December, if the usual sources are to be believed, which neatly concludes the 1983 batch. None of the ATARI versions have difficulty options. You will not, I suspect, be too surprised to learn, that the A2600 version is the most simplified version since the ODYSSEY2 port. This one features no punching bag and sink in level 1, for one. The second level has a completely different layout and has two trampolines on both sides of the screens instead of a single jumping board. The third level has no vulture, and instead of a horizontally moving lift, you get a flotation field that makes you walk faster between the platforms; and also, Olive drops down X's (kisses) that fall down much quicker than the earlier items. As little as the A2600 version gets things right from the original, it is still miles better than the ODYSSEY2 port.

The latter two ATARI versions feel exactly the same between themselves, which is not much of a surprise, since the 5200 was based on their 8-bit computers. What is perhaps more surprising, is that concerning gameplay, these two versions are so far the most faithful conversions of the original, apart from a minor detail of the collision detection being a bit off, which is the most notable when you are trying to punch the flying bottles and skulls. However, you do get used to the slightly wonky collision detection, so it's not too much of a bother. Of course, using the analog A5200 controller is not exactly the most natural choice for this type of a game, so the 400/800 version is preferred in that sense.

From the three official ports from 1984, the TI-99/4A version has an oddly Coleco'esque clunky feel to it at first, but once you get used to it, it doesn't actually play all that much worse than the latter ATARI versions. With the most alarming difference being, that Popeye doesn't jump off of the ledges in the first level, but just falls straight down, things could be a whole lot worse. The TI-99 version continues the line of having no difficulty options.

For the APPLE II version, I was unable to find a more specific release time beyond 1984, so I will just stick it here. Also, because this version was published by something called Software Computer, I'm not 100% certain it's an official port. More than likely not, but I'm putting it here anyway, if only because it was released during the same period all the other official versions were released. The basic idea of the game has been kept more or less as-is, but apart from Popeye and Bluto, all the side characters are missing, so you have no visual clues on when to expect bottles (or daggers, as they are here) to start flying. Neither are there any visual pointers as to where the wraparound paths are located, but having played any of the other versions, you would know there is such a thing. In the APPLE version, though, all the floors that look like they could wrap around the screen, do that. The gameplay has been simplified quite a bit in other ways, too, since there are no stairs - only ladders; you have only one function for punching, and that is punching the daggers/bottles, since the spinach cans now fly on one level from one side to the other, and the punching bag and its accompanying sink are missing from level 1; you get as many spinach cans for each level as you manage to consume, and Bluto basically has no notable AI, nor does he do his special signature moves that he does in practically every other version; and the vulture in level 3 is of absolutely no threat to you. I guess it goes without saying, that the level layouts have been altered quite a bit, as well, but at least there are three levels, unlike in the ODYSSEY2 version.

Released in April 1984, the C64 port feels like a mixture between the ATARI 8-bit and TI-99 versions in essentials. Again, Popeye doesn't jump off of ledges, which at this point has proven to be a rare occurrence indeed. Also again, no difficulty options. However, there is a notable difference here, in that Bluto is considerably more aggressive here than in any of the versions since A2600, though it still doesn't exactly make the game impossible to complete. Just consider it more of a challenge.

Finally, Parker Brothers were able to push out a version of Popeye for ZX Spectrum's American cousin, a thing called TIMEX TX2068, which is not something I can play with my usual emulation setup, which is Spectaculator. To use the TX2068, you would have to use another emulator capable of running Timex machines, such as FUSE or Warajevo, but while I did get the Timex computers to run, running the Popeye dock file never worked properly on any emulator, always resulting in corrupted graphics, making it impossible to play. If anyone out there knows of a working solution, please throw a comment.

Luckily, though, we do have the ZX SPECTRUM prototype to play instead, which might or might not be fully comparable to the finished TIMEX release. At least, I managed to play the prototype, so that's something. In the prototype, there are a number of serious problems, though, which I can only guess were smoothed out for the TIMEX release, such as: Popeye dies if he falls off of the right-side ledge; Sea Hag appears very often, and because she could not have been placed outside of the playing area, you can come into contact with her quite easily, and colliding with her can kill you; level 2 has a trampoline instead of a jumping board, and level 3 doesn't seem to feature the horizontally moving platform. That is all I managed to gather from the SPECTRUM prototype, as it is rather unplayable, or at the very least highly unfair. If you want to test the game out for yourselves, the keys used are numbers from 1 to 5, with 5 being the fire button.

Because we have an almost equal amount of unofficial conversions to the official ones, they shall be dealt with in their own segment, before we determine and count the scores.

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PLAYABILITY: THE UNOFFICIAL CONVERSIONS

Now, although all the above being the entirety of the official releases (prior to all the official arcade emulation releases, at any rate) might seem enough for an adequate comparison, we continue with unofficial ports. As it happens, the next item is a ZX SPECTRUM version called Popie, which was written in 1984, but wasn't released until 2015. Popie is a more fast-paced version of Popeye, in that everything moves faster than in the original, but also the number of items you need to pick up in order to advance is smaller. In some ways, Popie manages to capture the feel of the original game better than Parker Brothers' prototype, but then, it is also riddled with visual problems, collision detection problems and oddly behaving stairs. I also haven't been able to punch the punching bag at the top of level 1 so far, and Bluto doesn't jump over the gaps in level 2. Still, could be worse.

Confusing is the first word that came to mind when describing the TRS-80 COCO version, still from 1984, which starts off with a vast amount of graphics options: three main ones (Artifact, Green and Buff) and two other options that are selected to represent your monitor. With my chosen emulator, which is XRoar, I found out that the best combination is one of the cross-colour composites in the emulator, and then go with the Artifact option. After choosing your monitor type, you are taken to a demo mode, where you can start the game by pressing Enter, or go to the game options screen by pressing Clear. In the options screen, you can choose the number of players between 1 and 2; a difficulty level between 1 and 9, with the default level being 4; the number of lives for each player; the starting screen for each player; and something called "Inviso screen" for each player, which means that you cannot see the level graphics, but everything else is there. As for the gameplay itself, the TRS-80 version is smooth as silk, and all the elements are kept pretty much intact, but it is notably slower to play than most other versions. Also, losing a life and proceeding to the next level will result in a fairly slow effect of a horizontal pulling a curtain, which makes the TRS-80 somewhat excruciating to play, which is a pity, because otherwise, it's almost arcade-perfect. Well, apart from one little thing: when you eat spinach, the ARCADE version stops the movement of the items dropped by Olive, while in the TRS-80 version, they continue floating downwards.

A rather paltry COMMODORE 16 & PLUS/4 version called Popeye (or Popey, or even Popay) was written in 1988 by Roby YU, previously known to this blog for the C16 version of Bazooka Bill, with some programming help from BushRat. It was later published on the coverdisk of a German magazine called Plus/4 Power in May 1990. The closest equivalent we can find from the official ports is the ODYSSEY2 version, which stays in the same screen for the entirety of the game. There is no apparent sense of progression, and your mission is merely to gather as many "hearts" as necessary to start the level over, whatever the required amount is. This version only features Bluto as the only antagonist, who is of no apparent menace to you, and picking up the entirely too often appearing "HELP" power-ups (which act as quick replacements for spinach) helps you get rid of Bluto for a while. The worst thing about this fan-made approximation is not the lack of content, but rather the utter lack of basic playability. The fact that you have to wiggle your joystick up and left or right to climb a set of stairs is enough to make this one of the worst excuses for a game that I have ever come across - including those Cascade 50 compilations.

The group known as Bignonia, well-known in the scene for making mostly faithful conversions of C64 games for the COMMODORE AMIGA, is responsible for this 1993 Amiga version of Popeye, more fully titled The Real Popeye. This raises the question, whether this is a faithful conversion of the original, or another C64 port. The elaborate cartoon intro suggests an upgrade even to Nintendo's ARCADE classic, but the actual title screen does claim this to be a C64 port. Apart from one small, but annoying thing, it does play like the C64 version: going through stairs does not allow for pulling the joystick in opposite diagonals, even if you pull the joystick into the intended vertical direction, as you will walk back towards where you were coming from, if you do so. Also, Bluto is more aggressive in the AMIGA version than he is in the C64 version, initially, and the vulture cannot be punched without spinach, so it's not the most player-friendly version out there. The AMIGA version can boast of a unique feature unavailable in any other version, which is a fourth level, but once you actually see the level, you will notice it's more of a hindrance than an asset.

Unless I have missed out something in my research, for the next version of Popeye, we had to wait for 22 years before Beamrider did a VIC-20 port of the game. This one requires a 32k RAM expansion, so there is at least the promise of good quality here. It doesn't take long to realize, this version controls as perfectly as the better ATARI version, but Bluto doesn't seem to be particularly alert here until the second level, where he is overly alert; and the vulture in level 3 doesn't seem to be able to get killed even with spinach. Overall, not bad at all, but there are some bugs that would be worth getting fixed.

The third SPECTRUM version was made by an old acquaintance to the blog, Gabriele Amore, whose Popeye ZX was released in 2016. Like all the other games by Gabriele Amore that I have come across - of which there are quite a few - Popeye ZX was authored with the Arcade Game Designer, so it has a certain recognizable quality to it. Unfortunately, in this case, it means the original game has been reimagined in quite a free manner, and has been made practically unplayable while at it. At the very least, you will have to spend many attempts to get accustomed to the new game speed, the clunky animations, the items thrown by Olive falling down in groups and going spectacularly fast towards the bottom, as well as Sea Hag suddenly appearing and throwing bottles at you at the very moment she appears. Perhaps the most curious of all, Popeye has been given the ability to jump here. Only in the unlikely case that you might consider the original game too slow and unplayable because you actually cannot jump in it, this might curiously prove a point that the game was perfect as it originally was. This version, though, I'm sorry to say, is less playable than the two previous SPECTRUM ports, and only by dumb luck have I managed to reach the second level. Apparently, Gabriele did rework it during 2018-2019, but for all I know, the new version never finished, which is a pity, since there was some potential here.

So far, the last Popeye remake that I know of, that has been released, is an ATARI 400/800 version that utilises the VBXE graphics enhancement board, which makes the port look pretty much exactly like the original, but unfortunately, this version has been taken offline since its release. Quite possibly copyright issues, since this is a Nintendo game. Also, there is a re-authored version for the COLECOVISION called Popeye Arcade, which was supposed to be published in 2023 already, but Opcode Games' website says the game will not come out until sometime next year. I suppose this will just have to wait for yet another update.

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PLAYABILITY: THE SCORES (SO FAR)

At this stage, when there are so many unofficial versions already, I suppose we could give them separate scores from the official versions, but that would serve less purpose. Only if you happen to be completely uninterested in either the original, official versions, or the later, unofficial versions, the separated scores might be useful, so in order to please the approximately 0.5% of readers who does either way, I present you first with the separated scores.

The official versions were surprisingly easy to put in an order here, since there are only a few important points in gameplay that makes Nintendo's Popeye the game that it is. Firstly, the number of levels, which immediately drops the ODYSSEY2 version down to the bottom - well, just above the uncooperative TIMEX/SPECTRUM version - even though it does have a unique two-player mode. Secondly, the balance of speed between Popeye, Olive's dropped items and Bluto. Speaking of Bluto, his lowest-level aggressiveness is also something that needs to be considered. Finally, whether the additional antagonists - Sea Hag and the vulture - behave as they do in the original.

1. Arcade
2. Famicom/NES
3. Atari 400/800
4. Atari 5200
5. Colecovision
6. Commodore 64
7. TI-99/4A
8. Intellivision
9. Atari 2600
10. Apple II
11. Odyssey2
12. Timex TX2068
13. ZX Spectrum prototype

The unofficial versions are much more separable from each other, not only because of the way they are built, but also how far from the intended result they are. As such, there is a much wider berth in quality here, even if there is a smaller number of versions in the unofficial league - at least, currently.

1. TRS-80 CoCo
2. Commodore Amiga
3. Commodore VIC-20
4. ZX Spectrum / Popie
5. ZX Spectrum / Popeye ZX
6. Commodore 16/+4

So, the combined results for Playability is, by design, a mixed bag. The king of the unofficial ports, the TRS-80 version, is hindered by its slow transitions, so while it plays just about as well as the most accurate official ports, it's still not exactly a version you might logically choose over the better known ones. Then again, the VIC-20 version is surprisingly good for what it is, and the C16/+4 version is even less recognizable as the intended game as the ODYSSEY2 version, which in turn is a much more playable game than two of the SPECTRUM versions. Therefore, the full results are as follows:

1. ARCADE
2. NINTENDO FAMICOM / NES
3. ATARI 400/800
4. ATARI 5200
5. TRS-80 COCO
6. COLECOVISION
7. COMMODORE 64
8. COMMODORE AMIGA
9. TI-99/4A
10. COMMODORE VIC-20
11. MATTEL INTELLIVISION
12. SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM: POPIE
13. ATARI 2600
14. APPLE II
15. MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY2
16. SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM: POPEYE ZX
17. TIMEX TX2068
18. SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM: POPEYE PROTOTYPE
19. COMMODORE 16 & PLUS/4

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GRAPHICS

Because Popeye only has a title screen and three levels to show for itself, we shall deal with each version as its own complete unit in this Graphics comparison. Of course, the most logical way to go about it as we did before - chronologically (as far as is known), and the official versions first.

Screenshots from the original arcade game.

The original game boots up into the Top Five chart, which moves on shortly into a nice title screen with the official Popeye logo in full red, sitting large and proud below an animated headshot of Popeye himself lodged within a blue star, looking at the camera for a long while before focusing on puffing his pipe. Below all this graphical stuff is the usual copyrights of both Nintendo and the original comic's publisher, King Features Syndicate Inc.

One thing you will notice from the in-game graphics is, that all the comic/cartoon characters look exactly their part, at least as far as high-resolution pixelation can bring them to life on a video game screen. Although... upon closer look, perhaps Olive Oyl doesn't look precisely like she does in the comics on in the cartoons, but then, she's hardly the one you ever focus your gaze upon when playing. Neither do you see Popeye wearing all white clothes elsewhere than in this game, but the dark backgrounds make the change of wardrobe necessary. Let's just say, they're all close enough. And therein lies the meat of the game's graphical offerings, which is great indeed, since they're all animated to their fullest potential, taken the time period into consideration.

None of the level backgrounds are particularly detailed, but they're just enough to give them an appearance of vague locations. The first level takes place in a dockside area near Popeye and Olive's homes, which you see in the top section of the level. The second level takes us to an urban setting, and the third takes place on Sea Hag's ship, where she has flown Olive to be held captive. None of the level details are crispy clear, but the "thru" signs are clear enough, which is all you really need. In addition to the licenced characters, only the things thrown down by Olive, and the cans of spinach, are hi-res.

Odyssey2 version.

A single screenshot is quite enough to visualize everything that the ODYSSEY2 version has to offer, since all of the game's action is restricted to this one level. The graphics are very blocky, which is really the status quo in all Odyssey2 games, and as you can see, most of the staircases from this level have been switched to two elevators (the ones that look like division signs) that move constantly up and down. The green circular object is, perhaps obviously, the respawning can of spinach, and the white dots in the middle of the screen are a disappearing ladder. Popeye himself is the little white stick man, Olive Oyl is represented by a pink girly shape that throws down red heart-like shapes, and Bluto is a super-blocky green giant. Overall, it's just about recognizable as the first level of Nintendo's arcade game, but it cannot be denied, that it is superbly unattractive and barely functional.

Screenshots from the Atari 2600 version.

Taking clean screenshots of the ATARI 2600 version was almost impossible, because the game draws the character animations in such a way as to make two frames appear simultaneously in an alternatingly flashing manner. So, I had to do a bit of manual photoshopping to get all three screenshots as clean as necessary.

The A2600 version looks much closer to the original than the previous, although the graphics still aren't exactly detailed or too colourful. At least the protagonist looks more like Popeye, and consuming a can of spinach now changes your colour, as it's supposed to. Some elements are missing, as is only to be expected, but it looks as though level 2 has been built on the same template as level 1, with the top area of the screen looking exactly the same. The background colouring and detailing is similar throughout all three levels, and level 3's "HELP" letters have been changed to 'X'-type kisses. Still, a definite step up from the O2 version.

Screenshots from the Atari 400/800 and 5200 versions.

For some reason, Parker Brothers didn't think it necessary to include an actual title screen even into the ATARI 400/800 version, which was already far more capable as a platform to do graphics than the previous two contestants. At least, all of the visual in-game elements from the original have found their places here in this version, and subsequently the identical looking ATARI 5200 version. All the thus far non-essential characters make their appearances: Sea Hag, Swee'Pea, Wimpy and the vulture. The graphics still aren't exactly pretty, making a bit mess of most of the possible details - even so far as to making the "thru"-signs to have no writing on them; and the colour choices makes the platforms in level 2 considerably more difficult to notice. The animations are a bit hit-and-miss, with Popeye's death animation missing entirely, but everything else being good enough.

Screenshots from the Colecovision version.

The COLECOVISION version still doesn't have a title screen, but at least now you get a clear prompt for choosing your preferred game option. The level details are more or less what you get in the previous ATARI versions, except the platforms are coloured better here. What the COLECO version does considerably better than any home conversion so far, is all the characters, which look almost arcade-perfect. Well, more specifically, they do in screenshots, but in action, the animations are clunky and have a diminutive amount of animation frames, thanks to the characters being handled in ASCII-character size blocks. The cheapness of this method comes clear in the event of Popeye consuming a can of spinach, whereupon he turns completely green, instead of just the skin bits of him under his outfit. Then again, this is not the only version to do so.

Screenshots from the Mattel Intellivision version.

We had to reach the INTELLIVISION version to get a title screen for a home conversion. It's not exactly pleasant to look at, but it's there, so it's a bonus of sorts. In addition, you get a separate screen for player and difficulty options. In general terms, the graphics in this version are somewhere between ATARI 2600 and ATARI 5200, with the details closer to A5200 and animations closer to A2600. That said, some of the graphical elements are missing, such as Swee'Pea and Wimpy, and the second and third levels' background graphics have been slightly rearranged to fit the Intellivision's capabilities. This version plays and looks smoother than the COLECO version, but the blockiness of the graphics is definitely more than a bit off-putting.

Screenshots from the Nintendo Famicom/NES version.

Nintendo's own home console port for their FAMICOM (and later NES) is, for the most part, beautiful to look at, with details in all the characters and background being the closest to the original so far. I had not noticed this before, but Bluto's outfit colour changes for all three levels, as it does in the ARCADE original, so the FAMICOM version is the first home conversion to repeat this feature. In the less logical graphical features, Sea Hag's location is odd, and hogs out the entire square she occupies by having a black square around herself. Also, Wimpy is missing. Otherwise, the graphics are as good as you have any reason to expect, animations included.

Screenshots from the Apple II version.

Nearing the other end of the spectrum, the APPLE II version could perhaps be considered slightly more colourful than the ATARI 2600 version, but it's lacking in most of the elements that make Popeye look like the game it's supposed to be. The only characters you see here are Popeye and Bluto, while the items are dropped from thin air, and projectiles fly on their own free will. All the play areas in each of the three levels are coloured the same, and have no stairs - only ladders. The spinach cans fly slowly from one side of the screen to the other, and since I missed them for the screenshots here, they are also white, as are all the other projectiles and moving items in this version. Although Popeye and Bluto are animated well enough, considering everything else, the A2600 version really is preferable.

Screenshots from the Commodore 64 version.

The C64 version is the second Parker Bros. conversion, which features a title screen (and an actual Game Over screen), which still isn't particularly pretty to look at, but at least the colour of the text changes at regular intervals. The quality of the in-game graphics fall somewhere between the ATARI 400/800/5200 and FAMICOM versions, with the basic quality being closer to the ATARI versions, but the details being closer to the FAMICOM version. You get text for the "thru"-signs, all the characters are included apart from Swee'Pea, and Popeye himself has a hi-res look. Even Bluto has a differently coloured outfit for all three levels, so overall, it's a definite step up from the ATARI versions, in every aspect except one: the animations were dealt with slightly more diligence in the ATARI 400/800/5200 versions.

Screenshots from the TI-99/4A version.

For the TI-99/4A version, Parker Bros. dropped the title screen, possibly due to memory constraints, but there is a dedicated difficulty option screen at startup. Thankfully, the in-game graphics are rather nice, with a reasonable amount of attention given to make all the featured characters look their part - and for a change, they're all actually included. There aren't quite as many colours in use as there perhaps ought to, as evidenced by the lack of wardrobe options for Bluto, but all the used colours are well-picked, and make the levels easy to navigate. The only character lacking in detail is Sea Hag, whose seldom appearances excuse the fact, and while the animations are well-made, their choppy movement takes a notch down from the full experience. All things considered, though, the TI-99/4A version ranks graphically among the best out there.

Screenshots from the Timex TX2068 & ZX Spectrum prototype versions.

The last version Parker Bros. had anything to do with is the TIMEX TX2068 version, which was also partly converted for the European counterpart, the SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM. The screenshots shown here are taken from the SPECTRUM prototype, because I couldn't get the TIMEX version to play as intended: it wouldn't show any of the sprites in action in any of the capable emulators that I tested. The SPECTRUM prototype worked better, but I'm not certain of what was unfinished in the prototype, since all the graphics seem to be in. At least, I can more or less confirm, that the two versions look exactly alike, apart from the animated title screen's "Popeye" logo colouring, which is green in the prototype.

From the screenshots, you can clearly see that the main focus was to get the shapes of all the available characters as close to their arcade counterparts as possible, while filling the shapes with a selected solid colour: white for Popeye, red for Olive, magenta for Bluto, green for Sea Hag, and black for the vulture. Swee'Pea and Wimpy make no appearance. In terms of level detail, this version reminds me of the ATARI 2600 version with the sparse presentation, but at least the level layouts are more or less correct here. The animations are a bit on the cheap side here, but not much different from the A2600 version.

Screenshots from the unofficial "Popie" conversion for the ZX Spectrum.

Compared to the official SPECTRUM conversion, Simon Freeman's less official Popie gets the appearance closer to the truth. All the characters from the original game are featured here, and despite their monochromatic appearance, all wearing the same colours, the key is in the details. Olive specifically looks much more like herself, and there's a lot more of animation both in action and between levels. The title screen is also the closest one to the ARCADE version that we have seen in home conversions so far. The problem is, that the game runs too fast, and some of the visuals get lost in the hectic speed. The background graphics are a mixture of even blockier and less defined elements than you get in the ATARI 2600 version, and some high quality elements, such as the "thru"-signs, the crescent moon and one or two other minor objects. I'm not really sure what to make of it, because as screenshots, Popie looks much better than in action.

Screenshots from the unofficial TRS-80 CoCo version "Sailor Man".

Sailor Man on the TRS-80 looks not only surprisingly faithful to the original game, but also surprisingly good despite the machine's colour restrictions. Most of the characters look recognizable, with the exceptions of Olive Oyl, who has been turned to Elsie in this version, so I suppose she had to be made to look different as well. Taken that into consideration, it seems a bit odd that Sailor looks exactly like Popeye. Otherwise, all the details are as close to the original as humanly possible within the given restrictions, and the animations are smooth as silk as well. Thanks to the variety of graphics modes available, Sailor Man can be enjoyed with alternative colour schemes, but the red-based artifact mode is the closest to the original.

The unofficial Commodore 16/+4 version.

By far, the worst attempt of the lot, if it surprises anyone at this point, is the COMMODORE 16 and/or PLUS/4 version, which, similarly to the ODYSSEY2 version, takes place entirely in one screen. Only this time, the screen doesn't really resemble any of the original's levels, but rather feels like a mutated offspring of the first and third levels, with nothing more in the background but a pink brick wall. The stairs are not only barely functional, but also barely visually connected to anything. Of the three given characters, only Olive Oyl looks even remotely like herself, but even that is due to her location, more than her actually looking distinctly like her compared to the other two characters. Probably the most interesting element in this version is the "HELP" sprite, which has the letter 'P' fallen into a horizontal position. If that's the best I can say about this version, you can guess how bad it truly is.

Screenshots from "The Real Popeye", an unofficial conversion for the Commodore Amiga.

Bignonia's AMIGA ports of "C64 classics" tend to have an upgraded look even when they attempt to be faithful to the source material, which generally means they try to get their ports to look as close as possible to the C64 versions of the games they work on. Of course, some upgrading cannot be avoided, and such is the case with Popeye. There are two graphics modes in the AMIGA version, where the "original" mode gives us a fairly C64'esque look, as far as the details in the background and the info panel font go. However, all the characters have a more 16-bit look to them, and feature new animations, including an amazingly elaborate death animation for Popeye. In the "Amiga" mode, you get the same characters and their animations, but the backgrounds have a lot more detail in them, and the info panel font is pure Amiga. The modes are to be selected in Bignonia's own mode selection screen, which also features instructions on how to order their previous C64-to-Amiga games.

Additionally, you get two variations of the C64's title screen, and since that didn't seem like enough, Bignonia added another title screen with a proper Popeye logo and all the usual characters drawn in high quality. As an unexpected bonus, the massive digitising of the old cartoon intro is a number of its own, which is a fun addition, but hardly necessary, as it takes a lot of time to load, and has no point other than fill up the disk. If a full-blown cartoon immersion is what you're looking for, however, then the AMIGA version certainly provides that.

Screenshots from the unofficial Commodore VIC-20 version.

The VIC-20 version, being as recent as 2015, has the advantage of modern retro programmers having more know-how to squeeze out as much as possible out of a platform such as this, even if it does require a 32k RAM expansion to make it work. Once the game has loaded successfully, you get greeted by a surprisingly faithful rendition of the title screen in the ARCADE version, in which Popeye is looking through a blue star frame, and then toots his pipe before you are taken to another screen, which in this case is just another title screen with basic text and prompt to press fire to start the game. Once you start the game, you will be surprised to notice the opening animation being included here, which doesn't appear even in all that many official home conversions. The graphics aren't too pretty compared to most of the other versions, but for a VIC-20 game, it's much better than it would have been reasonable to expect. The animations are smooth and plentiful, there are more details in the backgrounds and all the characters than one would expect from the VIC-20, and everything in the game is clearly visible at all times, when necessary.

Screenshots from the unofficial "Popeye ZX" for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

The third SPECTRUM attempt, and so far, the newest available version, is Popeye ZX, which gives us a fairly good rendition of the original title screen both as the loading screen and the title screen, which in that case also features control options in the top left corner. The in-game graphics have a unique and funny personality about them, as if built from Lego blocks. This means, for the first time ever, a Popeye game on the ZX SPECTRUM has multicolour characters. The top area of each screen looks very nice, and the animations are good, but the actual play areas look even more blocky than even in the A2600 version, and less logical than in the APPLE version. Added to that, you get an impossible collision detection and game speed that breaks the whole thing, then you never really get to enjoy the good things it has to offer.

Usually, I would go with the "more is more" mentality, but I'm not really convinced of this being true when it comes to the AMIGA version. Sure, you do get a lot more graphics - even two modes on the same disk - but in the end, it doesn't really work equally well as the ARCADE original does. The AMIGA version's graphics are good - there is no denying that - but not quite as good as the original. The rest of them are more difficult to put into any order, since you really do have to discount the title screens from the equation, since almost half of the versions do not have one. There is a logic to these placings, though, which can be easier determined by examining all of the above text, rather than me trying to recap everything in a short but ultimately even more convoluted manner than necessary.

1. ARCADE
2. COMMODORE AMIGA
3. NINTENDO FAMICOM / NES
4. TI-99/4A
5. TRS-80 COCO
6. COLECOVISION
7. COMMODORE 64
8. ATARI 400/800 & 5200
9. COMMODORE VIC-20
10. MATTEL INTELLIVISION
11. ZX SPECTRUM: POPIE
12. ZX SPECTRUM: POPEYE ZX
13. TIMEX TX2068 & SPECTRUM PROTOTYPE
14. ATARI 2600
15. APPLE II
16. MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY2
17. COMMODORE 16 & PLUS/4

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SOUNDS

Arcade games in 1982 still hadn't really evolved to the point of having sophisticated sound chips and/or pure audio from a laser disc, so all Popeye had to offer in its original form were bleepy-bloopy tunes with two channels at most in use, and single channel sound effects while a similarly single channel tune or another would be playing in the background. The most obvious and important piece of the soundtrack is the chorus from "I'm Popeye the Sailor Man", the official theme song composed by Samuel Lerner, that plays in the title screen, and each time Popeye consumes a can of spinach. There are a few more appropriate jingles and excerpts from other songs to fill up the soundtrack nicely: each level has its own four-chord bass-line loop, and then you get a "hurry up" loop of two descending lines, another level-opener for the third level, and a "level complete" jingle. The sound effects are classic Nintendo bleeps and bloops, tingles and thumps, that are mostly impossible to describe in words, but decorate the performed actions appropriately.

The ODYSSEY2 version has no music at all, just some sound effects which do have a unique sort of a rhythm to them, but feel as if they were randomly generated before they were programmed to take their designated places. It's good to have at least some noise, but I can't say I'm a fan of the sounds in this version.

Considering that the original soundtrack doesn't really have much going on for it, the ATARI 2600 version manages to pull it off well enough for the given amount of memory in the cartridge. That is to say, you only get a shortened "Popeye the Sailor Man" to start each level with, and the same background music from level 1 for all three levels, and the "hurry up" ditty has been omitted. Simple as the original music is, it sounds similar enough here. The sound effects are quite nicely translated, as well, with only a couple of the less obvious effects missing from the set. All in all, not bad, but obviously condensed.

In the ATARI 400/800 version, and subsequently the A5200 version, you get the last four bars from the theme song - extracted from the ARCADE version's more lengthy tune - playing when you boot up the game, but at no other time is this tune played. The actual chorus bit of Popeye's theme is played when you grab some spinach, and all the other in-game tunes are included, as well. In terms of sound effects, the A400/800/5200 version feels a bit too busy and noisy compared to the original, but otherwise, everything necessary has been included.

The COLECOVISION is only slightly less economical about its soundtrack as the ATARI 2600 version is, with the "hurry up" ditty now included, but manages to slightly botch up the most important part in a way. Popeye's theme during the spinach power-up is a single-channel rendition, with no sound effects playing over it, even though you get music and sound effects everywhere else during the game. At least you get a similar intro rendition of Popeye's theme here as you get in the more hi-def ATARI versions.

Perhaps the most infuriating version in terms of sounds is the INTELLIVISION version, in which the amount of music is similar to the COLECOVISION version, but the sound effects ruin the entire experience. The way Popeye's soundtrack in the INTELLIVISION version is built, is that the sound effects take precedence over the music, only playing the effects when any effects are to be played (which is a lot and often), and when the effect is done playing, the music restarts, which means you rarely get to hear the single background tune in its entirety. Then again, the developers probably took this approach, because they realized that the in-game tune has some seriously bad notes during the final chord of the progression. As it is, I'm not entirely sure, whether I prefer this one or the ODYSSEY2 version. At least the ODYSSEY2 version isn't supremely annoying.

Before doing this comparison, I had never really given too much thought to how accurate NINTENDO's own home console port is regarding sounds. As it happens, while the theme song is played in full - or as full as it appears in the ARCADE version - there is a brief sequence in it, where the bass line is written wrong. Other that that, however, the FAMICOM/NES version's soundtrack is not only fully translated from the original to feature all the music and sound effects, as closely as humanly possible with the given sound hardware differences, but there is also an additional little ditty made for toggling Pause mode. Taking the little mishap with the title tune into consideration, the NINTENDO home conversion deserves a tied top spot.

The questionability of the APPLE II version's official status becomes more pronounced with the lack of the official Popeye theme song. Instead, what the folks at Software Computer have done is include a bi-tonal rendition of one of J.S. Bach's Minuets in G Major into the title screen. There is no other music, and even with Mockingboard plugged in, the sound effects are no better than the usual farts and drony drill noises that you get in old cheap Spectrum and/or DOS games.

Back to the more faithful conversions, we have an almost complete soundtrack in the C64 version, with only the introductory version of Popeye's theme being a bit shorter than it was in the original game. All the other in-game music has been kept in, and sound as close to the originals as necessary. Some of the sound effects seem to have two channels simultaneously in use, giving the effects a little bit of more personality, but not unnecessarily much. I would say this one sits just above the ATARI 400/800 and 5200 versions, but technically, they're equally good, and it's really a matter of taste, which one you think fits the game better.

Starting the TI-99/4A version gives you a false sense of security, because after the shortened but accurate opening Popeye theme, the only bits of music you hear are between levels. While in action, there is no background music, which takes away a considerable amount of the game's feel. Granted, it's not nearly as bad as the APPLE II, ODYSSEY2 or INTELLIVISION versions, but even just one of the tunes for background music would be preferable. Too bad, since the sound effects are made well enough, albeit without much of imagination regarding sounds.

From the official ports, the most disappointing version in terms of sounds is quite easily the TIMEX TX2068 version. Or perhaps I should say, the ZX SPECTRUM prototype from Parker Brothers, because I'm not completely sure if the Timex version works properly on any emulator. Whatever the case, neither version was able to utter a single noise during my attempts at it.

So, if the unofficial SPECTRUM conversions can claim to have nothing else going on for them, at least you get some sounds. Popie has the basic chorus part of the Popeye theme in the title screen, naturally blasted out in beeper style with no embellishments or trickstery to make it sound more than it is. There are only a couple of sound effects in the game, both being strange chirpy ascending or descending toots that make no sense on either occasion. You do get to hear the Popeye theme again, when you eat spinach, but only until you hit Bluto and send him off flying, whereupon you get another descending chirpy toot, which is the only place where it makes sense here. Also, finishing a level plays the jingle it's supposed to, so it's not all bad here. Just a little underwhelming on the sound effects department.

I'm taking the liberty of talking about the most recent SPECTRUM conversion at this point, since it's convenient that way. Popeye ZX appears to have no other sounds than the sound effect of your death, which starts off with a series of quick ticking sounds for your fall to the ground level, followed by an ascending "froop". So it's just barely better than the old prototype.

Probably the most surprising version of the lot, at least sound-wise, is the TRS-80 CoCo version, which uses sampled music and sound effects. None of these are even trying to emulate the original game's soundtrack, likely to make a clear statement about its unofficial status, but it's all very high quality. Mind you, the few thumps and ticks you get aren't particularly arcade-y, but they are good, nonetheless. Additionally, though, you get a quick ditty for picking up Olive's (or Elsie's) hearts and whatnots, a two-bar jingle of "Sailor's Hashpipe" when eating a can of spinach, and somewhat lengthy organ music pieces at the end of each level, all different ones, but more or less cheery, sort of fairground-esque tunes. The quality of the sounds manage to baffle me every time I play this version, and while there is no background music here, it all fits this unofficial version perfectly.

In order of appearance, we now come to the staggeringly bad COMMODORE 16/+4 version, which at this point, I must say I'm surprised that it has any sounds at all, considering the quality of Parker Bros. SPECTRUM/TIMEX version. But the sounds that the C16/+4 version does have are all just short "ding" notes of the same pitch, from different octaves. Losing a life plays a series of high "ding" notes, and there are three other "ding" sounds for picking up the two different items and hitting the thing that's supposed to be Bluto. The good thing about this is, it's easy to place it in this section's ranking list.

Bignonia's extravagant AMIGA version starts off with a massive intro segment featuring the full Popeye theme, as well as some thematically appropriate orchestral music for the message scroller following the cartoon opening, neither of which sound like they were sampled from the cartoons, but rather built from scratch with more modern sound samples, copying the style of composition from the cartoons. After the intro, we get to the first title/options screen, where you can select the graphics mode, and the sounds of the music are more based on late 80's SID works a la Ben Daglish and such, using SID-like arpeggios and effects, only with the advantage of Amiga's extra sound channels and stereo capabilities. The game itself features the entire C64 soundtrack, note for note, sound for sound, exactly as it appears on the C64 - at least as far as I'm able to tell - regardless of whether you choose the C64 graphics mode or the Amiga mode.

The already surprisingly good VIC-20 version surprises us yet again with a full soundtrack, even including the full Popeye theme as it appears in the ARCADE original. Too bad the VIC-20's sound capabilities are a bit rough, which makes some of the played notes slightly off-key. Also, some compromises were made for prioritizing sounds during play, but nothing so bad as to make the experience suffer all that much from it, particularly when you take into account, that this is a VIC-20 game here. More capable platforms have a much less accurate official version of the Popeye soundtrack.

Playing through all these versions of Popeye makes one realize, there are surprisingly many ways to ruin what seems like a relatively easy arcade game to port to home systems, since it doesn't require all that much memory. Even in terms of sounds, which I didn't think would have been all that difficult to get fully translated even to the least capable home systems of the day. Then again, some versions managed to pull it off very nicely one way or another, so I'm blaming laziness on it, or optionally, a lack of knowledge on how to program sounds. At least, I can say that putting all the versions in some sort of an order in this section was rather easy.

1. ARCADE
2. COMMODORE AMIGA
3. NINTENDO FAMICOM / NES
4. COMMODORE 64 / TRS-80 COCO
5. ATARI 400/800 & 5200
6. COMMODORE VIC-20
7. COLECOVISION
8. ATARI 2600
9. TI-99/4A
10. ZX SPECTRUM: Popie
11. MATTEL INTELLIVISION
12. MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY2
13. APPLE II
14. COMMODORE 16 & PLUS/4
15. ZX SPECTRUM: Popeye ZX
16. TIMEX TX2068 & SPECTRUM PROTOTYPE

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OVERALL + VIDEO LINK

Having gone through all the above, it feels redundant to just put it all into one clean order, when there is no clear truth or even a firm opinion about the matter of which versions are the most optimal home conversions of the original. However, it must be done, and this is how it all boils down:

1. ARCADE: Playability 19, Graphics 17, Sounds 16 = TOTAL 52
2. NINTENDO FAMICOM / NES: Playability 18, Graphics 15, Sounds 14 = TOTAL 47
3. COMMODORE AMIGA: Playability 12, Graphics 16, Sounds 15 = TOTAL 43
4. TRS-80 COCO: Playability 15, Graphics 13, Sounds 13 = TOTAL 41
5. ATARI 400/800: Playability 17, Graphics 10, Sounds 12 = TOTAL 39
6. ATARI 5200: Playability 16, Graphics 10, Sounds 12 = TOTAL 38
7. COMMODORE 64: Playability 13, Graphics 11, Sounds 13 = TOTAL 37
8. COLECOVISION: Playability 14, Graphics 12, Sounds 10 = TOTAL 36
9. TI-99/4A: Playability 11, Graphics 14, Sounds 8 = TOTAL 33
10. COMMODORE VIC-20: Playability 10, Graphics 9, Sounds 11 = TOTAL 30
11. MATTEL INTELLIVISION: Playability 9, Graphics 8, Sounds 6 = TOTAL 23
12. ZX SPECTRUM / POPIE: Playability 8, Graphics 7, Sounds 7 = TOTAL 22
13. ATARI 2600: Playability 7, Graphics 4, Sounds 9 = TOTAL 20
14. APPLE II: Playability 6, Graphics 3, Sounds 4 = TOTAL 13
15. MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY2: Playability 5, Graphics 2, Sounds 5 = TOTAL 12
15. ZX SPECTRUM / POPEYE ZX: Playability 4, Graphics 6, Sounds 2 = TOTAL 12
16. TIMEX TX2068: Playability 3, Graphics 5, Sounds 1 = TOTAL 9
17. ZX SPECTRUM / PROTOTYPE: Playability 2, Graphics 5, Sounds 1 = TOTAL 8
18. COMMODORE 16 & PLUS/4: Playability 1, Graphics 1, Sounds 3 = TOTAL 5

Since the text format comparison already took me enough time and energy, I decided not to do a video myself, even though the available comparison video by Gaming History Source doesn't feature all the versions in this comparison. Then again, I didn't give the Game & Watch game a place in this comparison, even though it's easily more playable than the bottom five or six in the above list. The reason is, of course, that the Game & Watch game doesn't play anything like the arcade game. Anyway, here's GHS's video from 11 years ago:

So, the new Atari 400/800 VBXE remake is still missing from this comparison, as is another unofficial re-authored version called "Popeye Arcade" for the CBS Colecovision. This was written by Eduardo Mello, and apparently was supposed to be published by Opcode Games in 2023, but the game's page at Colecovision.dk says that the release date is now 2025, instead. If I'm not completely mistaken, I thought I read something about yet another version for the ZX Spectrum to be in the making at the moment, but who knows if that will ever happen. If it does, let's hope it's actually a properly good one this time.

If this comparison doesn't showcase enough of reasons, why I try to avoid comparing games like Bubble Bobble, Arkanoid, GryZor/Contra, Ghosts 'n Goblins or perhaps even Tetris, all of which have just about as many, if not more versions available, and all of which are much more complex games to examine, I suppose I need to do one of those mentioned at some point.

But hey, this was the last actual comparison for 2024, and we still have the usual traditional December non-comparison material still coming up. Until then, keep an eye on FRGCB's YouTube channel for the somewhat postponed season finale of My Nostalgia Trip Games. Thanks for reading, see you later!