Popeye (Nintendo, 1983)
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Popeye was an arcade game released by Nintendo and licensed by Atari in certain regions based on the cartoon and comic strip of the same name. Popeye never became a franchise and is not quite as well known as other iconic video game figures but it was a pretty big deal at the time.
In an interesting twist of fate, Donkey Kong was originally planned to be a Popeye themed game. However, Nintendo did not get a license to use the characters in time for that game so it became Donkey Kong instead and a new Popeye game was developed a little later. Popeye was one of the first three games released for the Famicom in Japan.
Parker Brothers ported the game to a wide variety of systems including the Atari 5200, Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit computers, Commodore 64, ColecoVision and others. Oddly, the ad mentions the Atari 2600, Intellivision, Atari 5200, ColecoVision, Atari 400/800, and VIC-20. However, the game was never officially released on the VIC-20 but it did come out on the Commodore 64 and a few other systems that aren't mentioned.
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Definitely an overlooked arcade classic.
Quick story: I bought a Donkey Kong arcade machine about 10 years ago and the seller also had a Popeye. Both were in great condition, but I was suffering a little sticker shock from the Donkey Kong so I passed on the Popeye.
In hindsight, I wish I'd bought it. I'll likely never see another minty Popeye machine for sale, and definitely not at the $400 the seller was asking for it.
This reminds of of a completely unrelated story. About 20 years ago, I was riding down the road and saw a parking lot with several arcade machines. This was in Panama City, FL and it was shortly after a hurricane had passed through the area (Opal probably). They all had some water damage and were left out as trash. I don't remember how many or what machines were there except I know there was a Tempest machine. Except for the water damage to the cabinets I imagine that some could have been made to work again with little effort. Water doesn't really hurt electronics as long as it isn't powered up... At any rate, I was a college student at the time and had nowhere to put them and no way to move them anyway. They only thing I got out of it was the manual for Tempest which happened to be sitting on top of it. I think I still have that lying around somewhere...
I remember this in the arcade.
A friend of mine has a working Popeye arcade cabinet in his kitchen. I am very jealous. That Donkey Kong bit sounds familiar. Shame, I get knowledge of stuff then forget eventually.