Now here's a blast from the past and no it's not the Amstrad version of Popeye, but an arcade Atari 5200 improvement and 8-bit conversion to the original Atari 5200 arcade port of a Nintendo platformer by Parker Bros, released way back in 1983. In a similar vein to Donkey Kong albeit not as good, you play as Popeye and must collect hearts, musical notes and the letters H-E-L-P that the lovable character Olive drops from the top of the screen. But be warned, just like the cartoon, Brutus will get in your way with the help of the bad Sea Hag!
If you can avoid being grabbed from above, below or sideways by Brutus, or punch the bottles thrown in your direction, you may just be able to grab a piece of Spinach and turn the tables on the big bully. If you can grab all the items needed, the level is a success and you're on the way to the next!
When it comes down to the improvements and conversion of this game, I was very impressed by what the retro community has achieved. Not only does it run really smoothly and sound great on both versions, but thanks to Aking, the 5200 improvement contains all Popeye hacks, tweaked analog controls, character improvements and a hi-res title screen. As for the 8-bit version, that was done by Homesoft!
Both versions are free to download and play, but If you don't have the real hardware, I would recommend downloading the latest Altirra 2.60 binary emulator and only changing the input controls (F2 to start game).
Links :
1) Popeye Atari 5200 discussion
2) Popeye Atari 5200 download
3) Popeye 8-Bit conversion discussion
4) Popeye 8-bit conversion download
5) Emulator
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