Popeye V1 - A special find for today, as an unreleased and early C64 prototype of a classic Arcade game appears!

Now here's a blast from the past, as we've recently been informed by our good friends Games That  Weren't, that the classic Arcade game of 'Popeye' which was originally released on the C64 back in 1983 via the Parker Brothers, has re-appeared on the same system, but this time as an unreleased and full C64 conversion prototype. A different version of the game not seen for almost 40 years by a completely different developer Jack Verson for On-time Software

Today #GTW presents a surprise unreleased and full #C64 conversion of Popeye, not seen for almost 40 years! Completely different conversion & closer to the Atari 400/800 game. Thanks to preservationist Ken Van Mersbergen, go and check it out at: https://t.co/iH8RRitYe1 pic.twitter.com/mtSHmygTha

— Games That Weren't (@fgasking) October 22, 2021

As noted by Games That Weren't as a brief description of this game : This is not only a surprise thanks to the preservationist Ken Van Mersbergen, who provided two early versions of Parker Brothers titles that he recovered, including this very different and early Popeye prototype. But this version hasn’t been seen for almost 40 years through the archive of a retired programmer who used to work for Roklan and On-Time Software; Jack has also been linked as the developer for Joust which was recovered last year (also by Ken), and a direct port from the Atari 400/800 edition!

Links :1) Source  ( Download / Detailed Write Up )