That’s why I said “for tradition’s sake.” Seems to me that Popeye’s reputation, especially back in the fabled 90s (when I wasn’t yet a pinball fan, but my SO was, and regales me with many stories of those times), far outstrips its actual demerits.
2 Likes
I would agree: It definitely feels like Popeye Saves the Earth was trashed upon because it broke a streak of hits. I tried playing it myself later on and it didn’t seem that bad to me.
Then again, I tried playing these on my own without anyone else’s opinions on them, and the machines people seem to really dislike, I didn’t really find that bad. Stuff like Austin Powers gets repetitive after some time, but it didn’t seem to be the nauseating level of badness some people make it out to be. (Might also help that I was in middle school and high school around the time the movies came out, meaning my friends all loved watching them.) I was also unaware pinball fans largely dislike NASCAR until now. The only problem I really have with it is that if it isn’t properly set up, the shot from the garage goes straight down the middle with nothing you can do about it. (The Dale Jr. machine that used to be at the Golf N Stuff in Downey, CA was like that. It was barely playable!)
The one that was just as bad as people were saying it was is undoubtedly Stern’s Rolling Stones. Having Mick block your path to every shot you need to make gets annoying real fast.
A lot of machines in this lineup are actually very beginner friendly, speaking of which–stuff like South Park and Gilligan’s Island seem like they were designed for people who had never played pinball before and don’t understand how it works. They are basically training wheel bicycles. Indeed, Gilligan’s Island was one of the first physical machines I had ever played (after learning pinball has rules), and I had a blast on it. It helped me understand how progression structure works in a pinball game and was the first game I got to the end of, which helped me feel like a winner.
2 Likes
No it’s super bad.
- lock mech was historically very unreliable
- light extra ball on… left out lane
- light lock only skill shot choice
- find swee pea is ridiculous
- giant opaque left ramp blocking left out lane view
- jackpot values up to 180m when super wizard mode award is 200m
- modes you feel like you can never win due to constant progress loss
- copy pasted lock rules that make it impossible to get later multiballs because the geometry is different than whitewater
The good
- hstd music is great and you can hear it in test, don’t have to have a good game
2 Likes
Is that how Popeye Saves the Earth was like? I was unaware of most of those. I never played it enough to have noticed them and always figured a few problems were either due to my incompetence or because there was a mechanical problem. What is ridiculous about finding Sweet Pea? I don’t remember anything about that.
Everything about that points towards a rushed game that wasn’t complete in either design or the rules though.
Thanks for detailing it though. I have never seen any criticisms of Popeye Saves the Earth that specified what is wrong with it. I just mainly see stuff written or spoken with the assumption the other person already knows.
I’d also like to know if there’s anything specific like this about what is wrong with Vacation America. I had never heard of that machine until last month, and it apparently sits at the very bottom of IPDb. I’ve never played it, so I’d like to know what was done wrong with its design.
I appreciate the rundown on what’s run down about Popeye. I have played it only a handful of times, so haven’t had enough of a go at it to discover most of its flaws. I always heard how terrible it was but never so much why it was terrible (all anyone told me was that too much of the playfield was taken up uselessly by Bluto).
I can add a pro to it: the art is spot on. It resembles the old comic strip uncannily, and I say this as a fan of the strip.
2 Likes
I would say, however, that the realistic art style the animals are in clash a lot with the style of the old Popeye cartoons and comic strips. But Python Anghelo did a bang-up job of replicating that art style.
Something else I think is worth commending about Popeye Saves the Earth is that it’s a Popeye license. I read about how Nintendo cannot re-release their NES/arcade Popeye game because King Features won’t let them. (By comparison, Nintendo had to clear the rights to three different companies to re-release Donkey Kong 64.) It must have been quite the effort to get the Popeye license for Popeye Saves the Earth at a reasonable price AND get the creative freedom to make a premise like this.
Well, with a concept proposal like this, how could King Features possibly refuse?
http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/1851/Popeye_proposed_theme_from_Python.pdf
Then again, maybe that’s why King Features never let anyone touch Popeye again…
2 Likes
Olive Oyl’s name was spelled wrong. That’s blasphemous!
Light years was also mistaken for a unit of time. Every astrophysicist would groan.
This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.
1 Like
That whole thing was written under the influence of… something very potent.
2 Likes
I like how he got all dark near the end. Pollution, disease, canabalism. Then he cleaned it all up in the last two sentences to give it a happy ending. He probably ate some more shrooms between writing those two sections. Also like how he gave Jeremy the green light to add on to his ideas. Who and where is Jeremy now?
Did anybody here know him very well? I’ve heard he had some chemical dependency issues (don’t care), but I’m curious if he was on a natural. Was he nutty even when he was clean and sober? I’m a big fan of naturally nutty people. And this hobby has more than its share.
You might enjoy this blog post reviewing Python’s concept for the game, by someone who just read it for the first time… he has the same thoughts about “Jeremy.”
1 Like
You’re certainly right that they didn’t carry through the style to the animals. The backglass art is perfect – the playfield not so much, and the animals are the biggest part of that. The way Eugene the Jeep looks on the backglass art is pretty much the style in which Segar (and later Sagendorf) drew all animals.
Another minor art quibble is that Popeye would never say “I iz…” – he always says “I yam” (famously)!
2 Likes
Aw, I thought you meant there was a flyer for the Turdament in the bathroom.
Although I can’t decide which is more appropriate 
4 Likes
Man I wish we had a CBW for the Turdament…
1 Like