How to play Popeye online
- Walk, climb stairs, step off ledges: arrow keys (there is no jump button)
- Punch (and grab the spinach): Z (the lower buttons). One press is one swing; holding the key does not repeat it.
- One or two players: the = key (the keypad’s # button); a second score appears at the top right for two players
- Start: Enter, or Z
- Pause: P
- Player 2: I J K L to move, N to punch
- Restart, full screen and save states: move the mouse over the screen to open the emulator’s toolbar
Gameplay
Olive Oyl stands at the top of the screen tossing down tokens of affection, and Popeye has to catch every one before it sinks into the water at the bottom. Brutus prowls the four platforms trying to flatten him, the Sea Hag throws a bottle whenever she is on the same platform as Popeye, and vultures swoop in. Any hit costs a Popeye, and so does a sunk token. Tokens are worth more the higher you catch them: 500 points on the top platform, then 300, 100 and 50. A punch stops a bottle for 100 points and a vulture for 1,000.
Brutus cannot use the central ladder or walk on the open ledges, but he can reach up or down the ladder and jump up at a ledge to knock you off. Once per round a can of spinach appears in a set spot. Grab it with a punch and the Popeye theme plays: every token is worth double while it lasts and one punch knocks Brutus flat for 3,000 points. You get a bonus Popeye after 40,000 points, and the game ends when your last Popeye is gone.
The rounds
- Round 1, Sweet Hearts: catch 24 hearts. The top platform has open ledges at both ends. Stepping off the right one lets Popeye punch a bag that drops a bucket, and if Brutus is underneath it stops him for 1,000 to 4,000 points depending on the floor.
- Round 2, Love Notes: catch 16 notes. The open ledges are now on the second floor, and a see-saw at the bottom left flips Popeye up to the top. Grab Swee’Pea on the way for 500 points and you land on the top floor; miss and you land on the second.
- Round 3: the manual stops at round 2, but like the arcade game the 5200 version continues on a ship, where Olive drops the letters H-E-L-P, before returning to the first screen at a higher difficulty.
Tips
- Stay high. Tokens caught on the top floor are worth ten times those caught at the bottom.
- Save the spinach. It only appears once a round, so grab it when Brutus is close, then catch as many doubled tokens as you can while the tune plays.
- Change floors when the Sea Hag shows up. She only throws when she shares your platform.
- Tap, don’t hold. Each punch needs its own press, so tap Z as a bottle approaches.
The story behind Popeye on the 5200
Nintendo’s arcade Popeye, based on E. C. Segar’s comic strip, came out in North America in November 1982. Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda designed it, and it has a family link to Donkey Kong: Mario, Pauline and the ape were created as stand-ins for the Popeye characters in that earlier game.
Parker Brothers held the home rights. The Atari 2600, ColecoVision and Intellivision versions came first, in August 1983, and the Atari 5200 and Atari 8-bit computer cartridges followed in November 1983. Reviewing the computer version in Antic, David Duberman called it “a thoroughly entertaining challenge for gamers of all ages”.
