Popeye Saves The Earth isn't that bad!

[Mark W**a]

I've never played it personally, but from browsing rec.games.pinball from the wreckage that Google made of the Deja Usenet archive, it seems one of the common themes of this game is *broken*. This pinball seems to have had a nasty tendency to break a lot and break often.

Apart from that, there are complaints about confusing rule flow and layout and the like (which happens in some of Oursler's pins too). My "first impression" of all of this is that it was a combination of a lot of things: a tendency to break often, a theme that might have annoyed some (cartoons, "tree hugging"), and a deep ruleset that requires some time (and a working pin) to understand. Plus, the competing Bally/WMS pins were of high quality. If you are an operator, would you choose Popeye over World Cup Soccer, Demolition Man, Indiana Jones, or Star Trek TNG?

My guess is: it was underrated back in those days, I think.

Sounds about right, underrated. I would love to have this one in pinball arcade.

And to answer your question: would depend on my arcade. If I had a ton of young children coming to it then yes, I'd buy a Popeye. Adolescents, I'd get the FIFA table and adults I'd get Demo Man. Star Trek and Indiana Jones would be no brainers, those are in my arcade without question!

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

Something I've observed is that a lot, and I mean a LOT of people around my age (I am 27, by the way), is being into cartoons, and it can potentially be anything. I mean, look at the sheer success of programs like The Boondocks.

I think something based on a cartoon can appeal to both children and adults who grew up on these shows.

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

Something I've observed is that a lot, and I mean a LOT of people around my age (I am 27, by the way), is being into cartoons, and it can potentially be anything. I mean, look at the sheer success of programs like The Boondocks.

I think something based on a cartoon can appeal to both children and adults who grew up on these shows.

Perhaps I finally discovered the audience-alienating concept that makes this game "suck". Some of the rules in this game are extremely simple to get along with (Bluto Multiball, Fight modes / Mutant Spinach), so I am considering they made this as an attempt to become popular with the children's market (5-13 year olds). While I do admire Python's crazy story I feel that none of it really made into the actual game, and that was a missed opportunity - it truly redefined Popeye as a character.

 

[Nightwing]

Okay. I finally got to play this at the PWA in NH yesterday. While it doesn't completely suck - to me,it isn't all that good either. Now,I've never seen what one of these tables looked like until seeing this thread - so seeing it in person,I'm gonna give you a couple of my quick impressions:

1: The playfield is very open. But with that huge upper "boat" level covering the top half of the playfield,you really can't see where you are trying to shoot the ball. Which brings me to...

2) The upper playfield. Yes,there is kind of a clear window on it so you can see the upper half of the lower playfield,but it's not all that clear,so what's the point?

3) So you have a clear metallic ramp on the right,and this huge blue colored monstrosity of a ramp on the left,which just happens to cover up the shots you need to make on the left. I'm sure the animals have something to do with the game,but right now - I really don't have a pressing need to find out what that is either.

Final conclusions - I'm glad I played it. To me,it's kind of like Hercules - I could play it once or twice,and then be happy that I got the chance to play it. But Popeye is the first pin I can remember playing that is so open - and you combine that with things covering up the shots that you need to make - which makes it the first pin that you really need to look at what lights are on the table to figure out what to do.

If you like this pin, then good! For me,as of now - there are way too many other more fun tables at the PWA for me to play. So I probably won't touch it again any time soon. Unless...

A) Popeye makes it into TPA. Look,for me - the chance to play a game on my tablet/PC/gaming system that also exists will almost always trump any pinball sim that is strictly in the "digital" realm. I own all the TPA tables on one platform,and while I have my favorites - I do go back and play them all.

Also,having the instructions from TPA helps me in my gameplay. I HATED TZ when I first played it - and wasn't a fan of TOTAN either. Learning what to do made me take another look at those tables - and now I like them both.

B) Meeting our Captain in person,and playing against him on Popeye,so he can explain to me how it's not bad

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

Regarding clear upper playfields, that's always a bad idea, because while they may be clear when new, they get murky real fast as the ball scratches it up. This happened with World Poker Tour, for instance. And the White Water that got fully restored for It Never Drains in Southern California had a perfectly clear whirlpool at the beginning of the competition, but by the end, it became murky and almost opaque too.

Each of the animals represents one of the main missions required to get to its wizard mode. This is why there's a big world map towards the bottom indicating where they live and what Bluto is intending to do there. The idea is that each mission is about Popeye going to that part of the world and saving the species from extinction by stopping Bluto's operations there (and is also why the playfield resembles a ship). The animals could have easily been put somewhere else though.

By the way, I like open playfields. Gives me time to think, and ironically, allows the designer to fit more things. That is, if you mean "open" as in "things get pushed closer to the edges" like Twilight Zone or Star Trek (Stern) and not "open" as in bare like Bugs Bunny's Birthday Bash or Indiana Jones (Stern).

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

Regarding clear upper playfields, that's always a bad idea, because while they may be clear when new, they get murky real fast as the ball scratches it up. This happened with World Poker Tour, for instance. And the White Water that got fully restored for It Never Drains in Southern California had a perfectly clear whirlpool at the beginning of the competition, but by the end, it became murky and almost opaque too.

Each of the animals represents one of the main missions required to get to its wizard mode. This is why there's a big world map towards the bottom indicating where they live and what Bluto is intending to do there. The idea is that each mission is about Popeye going to that part of the world and saving the species from extinction by stopping Bluto's operations there (and is also why the playfield resembles a ship). The animals could have easily been put somewhere else though.

By the way, I like open playfields. Gives me time to think, and ironically, allows the designer to fit more things.

I thought the progress towards Save Olive was kept on something like the Vacation Jackpot chart in Whitewater or the Victory Lap chart in Indy 500, AFAIK the animals are used to represent shots collected on the upper play field towards the Stampede hurry-up.

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

Really? Well, you played it for real, and I've only been able to look at photos and observe it carefully, so I'll take your word for it.

Certainly, something that bugged me about this table, from an artistic standpoint, was that the animals weren't drawn in a style that would be in a Popeye cartoon. Instead, the more realistic style makes it look disjointed, as if it were two tables that got combined into one. (I get the feeling this was something Anghelo was forced to do, because no artist would think it's a good idea.)

 

[Mark W**a]

Really? Well, you played it for real, and I've only been able to look at photos and observe it carefully, so I'll take your word for it.

Certainly, something that bugged me about this table, from an artistic standpoint, was that the animals weren't drawn in a style that would be in a Popeye cartoon. Instead, the more realistic style makes it look disjointed, as if it were two tables that got combined into one. (I get the feeling this was something Anghelo was forced to do, because no artist would think it's a good idea.)

Yeah, sounds to me like he wanted to do a green-themed table about saving animals and fighting pollution, but was forced to add in Popeye.

Is Python Angelo the designer who recently passed?

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

Yeah, sounds to me like he wanted to do a green-themed table about saving animals and fighting pollution, but was forced to add in Popeye.

Is Python Angelo the designer who recently passed?

Yes. This is also the final Williams / Bally table he did the art for.

Also I'm pretty sure Popeye was in there at first but the story Python created was way too tough for Williams to grasp; it talks about Popeye trying to earn $ after the bankruptcy of his TV show by building the "Popeye's Ark 2000" and rescuing two of each animal

 

[Kolchak357]

If I walked into a pub and saw a Popeye, would I play it? I definitely would. Pins are just to rare these days for me to be a pin snob. I'll play any pin, and I'll have a good time doing it.
Back in the arcade boom days I frequently passed up pins just because I didn't like the theme or the backglass. Over the years I walked on by the Shadow because of Alec's giant head, Congo because the movie stank, and Baywatch because of the Hoff. I missed out on a lot of great pinball fun for silly reasons. Last year was the first time I ever played Rollergames. Boy, did I feel stupid after I played it and realized how great it was. Even Orbiter 1 and Hercules are good for a play based on their gimmickyness (word?).
Popeye isn't gonna crack my top ten, but I'll play it, and I'll be happy I had the opportunity.

 

[DokkenRokken]

That is some hideous artwork.

 

[ER777]

I played a couple games of Popeye at Pinfest (there were a couple of them there actually) and its not terrible in terms of gameplay, but its not really very good either. I would say it gets an 'ok' rating for gameplay. The upper playfield blocking the top area of the main playfield wasn't a big deal, sure you couldn't see the rollover lanes but oh well. You could see the shot entrances to aim at just fine. The big open playfield is about what you what expect from a widebody fan layout but I didn't think that was a terrible thing either. I didn't play long enough to really get into the depth of the rules but it seemed like there was a decent amount of stuff going on.

The theme is very corny though and I think that's what kills it. The big Bluto head in the the middle of the playfield is the first thing that grabs your eye and it doesn't really look very good. The rest of the playfield forming a cartoon ship deck is a little cheesy looking too. It would make sense as something more aimed at children.

I think when you compare it to the rest of the super-pin widebody lineup that was being released in that timeframe you can see why its considered a dud.