With the brilliant Pang passing us by yesterday we arrive at the second game in the Your Sinclair Top 100 from dk’tronics and also Don Priestley (the last being Maziacs), however this game is one of the first television tie-ins Don will be tackling in a rather bright and large way; we’ve arrived at the spinach guzzling Popeye.
Popeye arrived on the ZX Spectrum back in 1985; based upon the cartoon series from Elzie Crisler Segar, it featured a number of the key cartoon characters including his sweetheart Olive Oil and the bearded swine Bluto. Within the game it was Popeye’s quest to go through the numerous screens to gather valentine hearts and return them to his lady in waiting. However your task faces some tough obstacles as Bluto, the Sea Hag and her pet Vulture – along other such meanies – aim to strike you down if you cross their path. With keys and spinach to collect the game opens as you progress towards your final goal.
The first thing you’ll notice from Don’s Popeye game is how fantastically bright and colourful it is; he had certainly placed a lot of work into this game, and it’s these skills that go on to create the far greater (in my opinion) couple of Trap Door games. Though it looks wonderful and the idea of the game is at its core very enjoyable, there is an issue with speed which unfortunately hasn’t allowed the game to really survive into 2016. Still as Don saidm he made a game that on the ZX Spectrum was truly outstanding at the time, and visually is still impressive today.
Originally published June 16, 2016. Updated October 25, 2022.
