Popeye 7800

[+sramirez2008]

On 3/11/2023 at 6:51 AM, GaryH917 said:

I love when Al includes the extra brochures with the upcoming releases! Played the crap out of this on the 5200. Need to order this very soon. Great job Darryl!!!

+1. I Keep them in a three ring binder along with my manuals. Brings out the 10 year old in me.

[Albert]

1 minute ago, sramirez2008 said:

+1. I Keep them in a three ring binder along with my manuals. Brings out the 10 year old in me.

That's pretty cool, I know I don't have copies of all the older flyers (although I have them digitally, of course).  I already have enough to keep track of without saving things like that.

 

 ..Al

[GaryH917]

20 hours ago, sramirez2008 said:

+1. I Keep them in a three ring binder along with my manuals. Brings out the 10 year old in me.

As a collector that's a great idea! Saves you from constantly opening the box and damaging the box flap. I also find myself going back and reading my 5200/7800 manuals and brochures over again like a 10 year old! I will look into doing this. Any pics of your binders?

[+sramirez2008]

1 hour ago, GaryH917 said:

As a collector that's a great idea! Saves you from constantly opening the box and damaging the box flap. I also find myself going back and reading my 5200/7800 manuals and brochures over again like a 10 year old! I will look into doing this. Any pics of your binders?

Sorry for the crappy pics, but this gives you an idea. This binder has my 2600, 5200 and 7800 homebrew manuals, and my AtariAge magazine collection. I've tried to get a manual for all of my 2600, 5200 and 7800 OG carts, but of course I'm missing some. Those manuals are in another binder. There's also a binder for all of my owners manuals (consoles and accessories) and patches/letters. It's all neatly maintained in one of the book shelves in my Atari room. You can pick up the clear sheets at Office Max. They come in various sizes. We briefly touched on this subject in this thread.

[+Muddyfunster]

Love it!

[+DrVenkman]

Finally remembered to order a copy of this gem today. I’ve been fooling around with the demo for too long not to pick up a full copy.

[Cris1997XX]

Will you consider a cheaper, ROM-only version for those who don't have a 7800 and want to play on emulator?

[+darryl1970]

On 3/17/2023 at 8:30 AM, DrVenkman said:

Finally remembered to order a copy of this gem today. I’ve been fooling around with the demo for too long not to pick up a full copy.

Let me know when you get it. I am anxious to here when the latest batch to get out there.

[+DrVenkman]

1 hour ago, darryl1970 said:

Let me know when you get it. I am anxious to here when the latest batch to get out there.

Will do! I don’t think it’s been shipped yet. I know Al typically does first ordered/first shipped so I’m used to waiting a few weeks - nothing unusual there. I’m looking forward to finally being able to play a full non-demo game!

[Dire 51]

I too am waiting on my copy, which I ordered back at the end of January. I am a patient man, and I know Al must be working constantly to get all these orders filled. So until it's sitting in my 7800, I'm content with the demo.

Edited April 10, 2023 by Dire 51

[SalemFrost7800]

I ordered mine on 01/24/2023, I too am a patient man however I am moving at the end of this month (April) if I don't get it by than I hope I can contact Al and let him know my new address.

Edited April 12, 2023 by SalemFrost7800

[+darryl1970]

Did anybody receive their copy yet?

[+DrVenkman]

Nope. I don’t think @Albert has shipped them yet?

[SearsRoebuck]

I ordered mine back at the very start of Feb and nada yet. I wanted to do a further order but holding off until this one is completed. 

[Albert]

They are coming soon -- yesterday I finished building the last of the Popeyes, and I only need to finish up Gorf Arcade, the QuadTaris (which only need the cables attached), and a small number of other games.  Then everything will ship in a huge shipping extravaganza.  Can't wait to get all these out to everyone!

 

 ..Al

[SearsRoebuck]

19 hours ago, Albert said:

They are coming soon -- yesterday I finished building the last of the Popeyes, and I only need to finish up Gorf Arcade, the QuadTaris (which only need the cables attached), and a small number of other games.  Then everything will ship in a huge shipping extravaganza.  Can't wait to get all these out to everyone!

 

 ..Al

 

Al thats awesome to hear. One question though - will the Pokey games be available again? I've meant to get a copy of Bentley Bear for a couple of years now, but haven't seen it available. 

[7800Knight]

Good things are worth waiting for.

 

 

[Atariboy2600]

I have Popeye for both 2600 and 5200 now Im waiting for a copy on the 7800, still dont have it ^_^

 

[johannesmutlu]

This version of popeye looks and sounds very beautyful,i wonder why it never got an official release on the 7800 aside from this unofficial cool homebrew version,

but am also wondering why on earth atari NEVER ported stunt cycle and quack to the atari 7800 ,didn’t they saw excitebike & duckhunt on the nes? (Yeah they did eventually came up with buck hunt but still,,,)

also am amezed that their paperboy game never got released on the 7800 but it did got at average released on the nes and mastersystem so what the heck???

also pac land should,ve to be released on the 7800 as an ideal competitor against supermariobros,

also too bad atari pulled the plug for releasing toki on their 7800 back in 1993,

what a miseed oppertunity from atari to doing that,because it may could,ve sold more 7800 systems,

the only reasons i can think off why on earth atari (among other game developrs) didn’t released those games on the 7800 was,

1,they were too lazy or 2 atari saw no longer hope for their 7800 and just give up waaay too fast on it and just decided to get split up into tengen to make games for both sega and nintendo systems,

or 3,those game developers apart from atari were stack with an unfairv 2 year contract with nintendo to only make games for the nes,

or there might be a combination of those factors,

but still it’s beyond believe to me that atari just in 1990 came up with atleast scrapyard dog and not much earlier on before the split.

 

[+DrVenkman]

Al's busy today - just got notice of a shipping label being printed for my order. W00t!  

[Albert]

1 hour ago, DrVenkman said:

Al's busy today - just got notice of a shipping label being printed for my order. W00t!  

Shipped 110 orders yesterday, have shipped another 50 today so far, and expect to be well over 200 by the end of the day.  After that, smaller batches of orders will go out each day until I get through them all. 

 

 ..Al

[John Stamos Mullet]

2 hours ago, Albert said:

Shipped 110 orders yesterday, have shipped another 50 today so far, and expect to be well over 200 by the end of the day.  After that, smaller batches of orders will go out each day until I get through them all. 

 

 ..Al

Got my tracking number email!!!

 

thank you, thank you, thank you!!

[+darryl1970]

8 hours ago, johannesmutlu said:

This version of popeye looks and sounds very beautyful,i wonder why it never got an official release on the 7800 aside from this unofficial cool homebrew version,

Thanks. Popeye was licensed by Parker Bros, before the 83-84 game crash. Parker Bros was no longer in the video game business by the time the 7800 was re-released. Nintendo had a exclusive licensing agreements. Popeye was also a Nintendo arcade game. Probably would have been tough to get that back into circulation.  I doubt Atari would have sought out quality programmers.

 

Popeye is not a popular title amongst modern gamers. I have the arcade game, as does an arcade down the street from me. Guests rarely play my machine, and I am told the arcade Popeye gets very little play. I don't think people understand it. People don't understand why they can't punch Brutus at anytime. Some find it confusing that there isn't a jump, like the "Kong" games. It really caught my eye back in the day. The graphics were unheard of for the time, and Brutus was so "real" in his mannerisms. Modern day players take that kind of realism for granted, and they raise it 100x.

 

Overall, I doubt it would have sold very well, as it was an aging title. The nostalgia wave that we are riding now was not a thing then. Gamers were looking for more modern arcade ports. Furthermore, the "New Atari" had a very low budget. Once the licensing fee was finally paid to release the 7800, it appears that Jaclk's sole purpose was to liquidate inventory and try to make a buck off of budget software. Quality was not on Atari's radar.

 

[+darryl1970]

4 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

Al's busy today - just got notice of a shipping label being printed for my order. W00t!  

Awesome news. I hope you enjoy!

3 hours ago, Albert said:

Shipped 110 orders yesterday, have shipped another 50 today so far, and expect to be well over 200 by the end of the day.  After that, smaller batches of orders will go out each day until I get through them all. 

Wow!

1 hour ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

Got my tracking number email!!!

 

thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Great news!

[electronicsibley]

51 minutes ago, darryl1970 said:

Thanks. Popeye was licensed by Parker Bros, before the 83-84 game crash. Parker Bros was no longer in the video game business by the time the 7800 was re-released. Nintendo had a exclusive licensing agreements. Popeye was also a Nintendo arcade game. Probably would have been tough to get that back into circulation.  I doubt Atari would have sought out quality programmers.

 

Popeye is not a popular title amongst modern gamers. I have the arcade game, as does an arcade down the street from me. Guests rarely play my machine, and I am told the arcade Popeye gets very little play. I don't think people understand it. People don't understand why they can't punch Brutus at anytime. Some find it confusing that there isn't a jump, like the "Kong" games. It really caught my eye back in the day. The graphics were unheard of for the time, and Brutus was so "real" in his mannerisms. Modern day players take that kind of realism for granted, and they raise it 100x.

 

Overall, I doubt it would have sold very well, as it was an aging title. The nostalgia wave that we are riding now was not a thing then. Gamers were looking for more modern arcade ports. Furthermore, the "New Atari" had a very low budget. Once the licensing fee was finally paid to release the 7800, it appears that Jaclk's sole purpose was to liquidate inventory and try to make a buck off of budget software. Quality was not on Atari's radar.

 

I agree across the board.
 

It may have made more sense if the 7800 was released when it was intended to have been. But the Parker Brothers license would’ve been an issue. 3rd party, perhaps?

 

FWIW, I’ve cross-referenced the 7800 releases with the Atari arcade titles in that timeframe, and they did a pretty good job of covering the hits. This wasn’t kept up post-split, however. The Klax prototype is the only Atari “Games” title that comes to mind.
 

As for Nintendo, they certainly didn’t need to proactively license any more of their games by the time the 7800 did get released. My assumption is Atari got to publish what they had rights to, and nothing more.

Edited May 7, 2023 by electronicsibley