Popeye (Arcade) Playthrough

A playthrough of Nintendo's 1982 license-based arcade game, Popeye.

Nintendo's Popeye, released two years after the movie starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall, was the first video game to ever feature the famous spinach-munching sailor.

Nintendo had initially begun work on a Popeye game back in 1981, but King Features Syndicate rejected their proposal. Instead of scrapping the project, Shigeru Miyamoto set to work creating a replacement cast of original characters based on King Kong. The resulting game, Donkey Kong, was one of the biggest arcade hits of the year.

Once Donkey Kong and its sequel had established Nintendo as a major player in the industry, King reconsidered their stance and granted Nintendo's licensing request, and when it was released at the end of 1982, Popeye became Nintendo's third major arcade success.

In Popeye, the goal is to collect the objects Olive Oyl tosses from the top of the screen while dodging Brutus's (Bluto's) attacks. There are three stages, each with its own unique layout, theme, and gimmick. In the first, Popeye has to collect hearts and can drop a bucket on Brutus's head to slow him down. In the second, he collects music notes and can launch himself from Wimpy's seesaw to reach Swee'Pea for bonus points. In the third, Popeye has to collect letters that spell "Help" as he avoids Bernard the Buzzard on a pirate ship.

Popeye can defend himself by punching dangerous objects out of the air, and if he grabs a can of spinach, he can temporarily knock Brutus out of play. Most of the time, though, it's a game of cat and mouse, and Popeye will have to thread a careful, defensive path through each stage if he wants to survive beyond the first few rounds. Much like Donkey Kong or Pac-Man, Popeye is a classic, simple game that is easy to pick up and play but is nuanced enough to keep people (and their quarters) coming back for more.

Aside from its license, one of the game's biggest draws was its graphics. The machine runs on the then typical Z80A processor (an enhanced 8088 chip, essentially), but the game outputs an interlaced 512x448 image which allows it to display super clean, high-resolution sprites atop a simple, low resolution background plane. It looks amazing, and the style still holds up. In 2023, it's pretty much the video game equivalent of Masahiro Sakurai: you can tell that it's no longer a spring chicken, but it has aged so gracefully that you could easily mistake as something far newer than it really is.

(Seriously, how does he still look so young? The dude is in his 50s!)

We rented the NES version countless times when I was a kid, and I always loved it. I still do, and I was stoked as a teenager to find out that the arcade version was even better. I've never been especially fond of games from the arcade's first "golden age" - as a kid growing up in the NES era, they always felt like they were just a bit before my time - but Popeye was one of the rare few from that generation that really managed to sink its hooks into me.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

[NintendoComplete]

This arcade antique is one of my favorites of its time. How does it still look this good?!

[grantcole]

If it weren’t for Popeye, we wouldn’t have Mario.

[joemint]

A classic Arcade game! I think it was also the idea for Donkey Kong, Mario, and Pauline.

[Dorelaxen]

Finding an almost flawless condition marquee of this some years back at a flea market for 10 bucks was amazing. The movie is also a long time favorite of mine. Really got treated unfairly by critics, especially they criticisms of the story. I mean, what do you want? It's Popeye. Sailor man eats spinach, sailor man punches Bluto. I yam what I yam.

[rjcupid]

I used to play this in the late 80’s at a restaurant near me that had a whole arcade in it for the kids to play. I remember it being next to Galaga and Arabian. Those were the days!

[michaelfields]

I own the actual arcade. My most treasured item.

[kevinmurphy]

Man, the sprites are super high quality! I can’t believe this predated the Famicom.

[cherokeefit]

I never played this game but the arcade port looks like a gem for its time. The blue colour on the cab is very distinctive.

[thegreatcanadianlumberjack]

It's still really wild to think that without this game we probably would never of had Mario or Donkey kong.

[avabethmcghee]

The animation got a genuine smile out of me.. would have LOVED this game when I was a kid. Always been a fan of Popeye.

[silverdamascus]

Popeye is soon becoming a public domain character in USA, and he is already in the public domain in many countries like mine, my town has a burger restaurant themed around Popeye, and with spinach burgers.

Nintendo should exploit this and rerelease this game without needing to pay a license.

[evanhanley]

NES did a fantastic job converting this!

[ArgyrosVivum]

This looks good. Someone tried to remake this with 3D graphics, but it wasn’t pretty. Dang that Brutus double jump got you!

[spoonshiro]

Classic game, classic cartoon! Pretty amazing animation for 1982 as well.

[samuellayton]

I find it immensely funny the King Features decided not to allow Nintendo have the license because they hadn’t proved themselves yet in the video game space, yet nearly 40 years later they grant the license to a company best known for making Calculator on Switch.

What a world.

[lu.cicerone.cavalheiro]

Surprisingly good-looking sprites for a 1982 arcade. Seems hard as balls because controllers, through.

[WispyBlueBricksGPX]

great games still retain their charm after all these years

[brianwashington]

Holy crap I just remembered this game out of nowhere. Use to play the heck out of it.

[angeldeb]

Wow! This brings back so many memories! :)

[Seiko]

love those little tunes when you get a heart