That and or a couple buy ins.

Yes, looking to play 5 balls but ends after 3 drain.

It’s in adjustments settings along with buy ins and free play. It’s ok to ask, we are all friends here. If you want to call me, send me pm. I can walk you through it? These games are pretty smart. Popeye is a great game. In settings you can set it for up to 7 seconds before the ball gets shot to upper play field. Great for people who don’t play the game all the time. Gives you chance to get ready.

Thanks Tony, we must have accidentally adjusted it when we set it on free play. I’ll take a closer look. Thank you!

So last night I took some time to work in the game room. Added standard flippers to my popeye and a piece of lexan to the top of the ramp to keep the ball from flying out and getting lost in the back of the game. Huge improvement in gameplay. Went through it replacing bulbs and found all but one of the bulbs on the lamp board that light up the animal countries won’t work even after I put new bulbs in. Not sure what to do about it, any ideas?

If it is a twist in bulb socket. I would do this first. Remove the board from machine. Add/Flow some more solder on the board where the legs for the bulb socket touch the board. It could either be worn down or really didnt get enough solder when the board was made.

Just had this same scenario occur on a later 90’s Bally game and it ended up the connector that fed the board needed reseated at the lamp board. So maybe mess with that.

Howdy!
Just picked up my third machine a couple of weeks ago which is PSTE great pin.
I was hoping to see if anyone has ever tried painting their boat apron? any if it was successful?
Any advice would be great.

Gav

...why would it cause problems if you use primer beforehand?

Interesting idea. What are you color thoughts? Just white to get it back to bright stock or something entirely different?

I would be so happy to get a new repro plastic set.
Come on CPR !!

We should reach out to them. Starship fantasy. They will say 6 months. And maybe more like 3 years. If we are lucky.

Yeah - just bright white so its nice and glossy. Maybe with a red stripe?

Me too!

Hi all just turned on Popeye and my left in-lane/out-lane, left slingshot & left bank GIs are all not working? Everything else is fine - I'm really stuck on this one.
Cheers

Blown fuse?

Thanks mate. All fixed..finally. It was a blown fuse. They looked fine so I went and put on a new connector for J120 still no lights went back changed the fuses - Bingo
Lesson learnt check fuses first even if they don't look blown

Hi All, Really need help on this one. Popeye has been playing fine but today mid game I kept getting callout "wimpy" and wheel would keep turning.
Its like the ball has been in the upper PF and left via wimpy shot/opto been activated. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Gav

You probably have a credit dot /slash error also. In menu go to switch edge test. Check the switch there on the upper play field that goes to ramp. The switch sounds like it is stuck on. May have to lift up upper play field to replace switch. I am not in front of my machine? Not as bad as it may seem.

Thanks heaps,
Will try that tomorrow. just spent most the night trying to figure it out.
Do you mean the right ramp exit or left exit (animal kicker) ?
When I put my finger over wimpy opto (right exit to ramp) it stops. So I was just looking at replacing this opto. I put tape over it to see if any other errors and now the animal kicker keeps going. Maybe all connected. hmm not too sure??
cheers Gav

Right ramp. That is wimpy ramp. I will look closer. Tonight, it is hard for me to picture it in my head. Anyway I am pretty sure it is the switch on right, upper playfield exit. That ramp leeds to the skill shot wheel that turns.

I have owned my Popeye for 10 years. I will try to good advice. I am not perfect.

Put a new opto in the upper playfield exit, did switch test and left jab Bluto shot was reading "exit to wheel"
Cleaned up the wires and soldered them (they appeared loose) and now its playing perfectly.
Thanks for your advice
Well Blow Me Down

Popeye is a great game. It will make everyone smile while they are playing it. The theme is s as spot on for the whole family.

I have mentioned before. This information is for everyone with a Popeye game. On the rubber rings. The book is wrong. Order extra 3 of 3” and 3 of 2.75”, rings. As for all games, if you are stretching the rubbers a lot to get it on. It is to small it will only break in a few months or so. Also pinball life has thin wall rubber sleeves for the sweet pee ramp. Otherwise it’s almost to narrow for the ball to fit through.

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How have I never posted this here before? It's Python's original story he wrote to go with the game (which got heavily altered from this concept, but helps explain a few things... while raising all sorts of other questions, like about Python's sanity!) It's a bit of a slog to get through. Compelling fiction it is not.

http://backglass.org/williams/kordek_archives/python_apopeyelypse_now.pdf

Happy member of Popeye club! Just picked up legs and armour from powder coaters yesterday. So happy with the white. Thought I would post a few pics. Added cool white lights and a few blue LED strips too. And my new highest score too! Adding Colour DMD a last week.

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Have you tried the switch test and see if the opto is locked on

Looks great ! I really miss my Popeye I had the chance to buy it back recently and I stupidly didn't

Thanks Ive, Yeah I'm really happy with it. I sold my TZ about 15 years ago when I moved states and have always wanted to buy another one. I won't even tell you what I paid for it 20 years ago
Popeye is the 4th pin I've owned and its definitely a keeper.
Replaced opto and its playing faultless (for the moment) haha

Hey there,

I was hoping to get some advice with my Popeye.

1st balls locks no problem, 2nd ball also locks no problem, then when I do JAB shots to re light look Bluto he flashes (very brightly might I add) until I lock the 3rd ball. Ive never noticed that before and its quite difficult to make other shots too with Bluto constantly flashing.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks Gav

Recently joined the club. Can’t believe I enjoy it more than Medieval Madness. Maybe just cause it is new to me.

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I think if Bluto nose is flashing. That means your bluto mec is trying to spit out a ball. There are several switches in that mec. More info please?

I’m in. LED’s and colorDMD incoming.

I know the game gets a bad rap but I was super impressed by the flip up upper playfield and the bluto nose flasher latch mechanism.

I was wondering how much disassembly was going to be required to clean/swap lights and was super happy to see that bit of engineering.

So, what are the production variations. I’ve see. Flat blutos and the machine posted above has a different animal ramp (orange transparent?)
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The animal ramp is a repro from pinballlife. There is a few colors they offer. One of the bad raps Popeye has is blind shots. The original blue ramp blinded your outlane on left making nudging difficult. I have a yellow animal ramp in mine and I can not be happier.

The only other production differences is the 3d Bluto face. You’ll notice when you do your led bulbs swap there is a few light holes ommitted from being drilled and a few added. The one that I wonder about, is the flasher sized hole under left guide by the flipper.

Do they do a translucent blue ramp?

Not only does that ramp block the lanes but it also blocks light

I think it’s red, yellow and smoke? No blue.

Check pinballlife website.

The upper left small feed ramp from mini playfield to animal ramp is metal on some machines, more commonly blue plastic.
I *think* possibly the first machines produced had the metal variant.

Hard not to love Popeye. It has a lot of the smile factor. Video and call outs. Hard to beat that.

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For anyone new to Popeye ... a few years ago at the height of my Popeye obsession I spent stupid time amount of time writing a guide to it . You can still find it here. Space forced me to sell a couple of years back, I still miss the game !

https://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/grizzs-ultimate-guide-to-popeye-the-good-the-bad-and-the-spinach.34036/

It was reformatted and hosted on Papa , but that link unfortunately seems to have disappeared now

https://replayfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/Popeye.pdf

Always found it more interesting to play than MM - more rules, more interesting layout, and overall more to think about

Guessing this is a common question but I’m joining the club in a couple weeks and am hoping to get the 3D Bluto mold. Anyone know where to find one or anybody have an extra?

Popeye offers more smiles per game.
Then any of the top 10 games can offer.

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Going too Pinfest this year ,I am looking for a Popeye

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“Stop rockin’ the boat!”

Any modifications to protect the bluto vuk?

Those edges sure are exposed to taking direct shots

Just thought I would mention. On eBay there is something like a Cliffy from Porchiego. It’s for the bluto VUK. I put one in my Popeye.

Thanks for chiming in, I got the same one. It seems very durable and has protected the Bluto VUK for me very well.

I was actually talking about the vuk itself and not the hole. The metal sides of the vuk can take direct shots from a pinball

Oh yes I do remember on my old Popeye the edges of the VUK were a little bashed. Not seen any kind of protection available. Anything substantial could risk interfering with the ball ? Suppose you could try putting something on the metal edges but not sure how effective that would be really.

When you install the hole protector, it does sort of help the sides to not “fan” out wider when they take blows from angles. It seems to protect them in that aspect. As for direct head-on blows, I suppose a snubber rubber / nub of death type application could work but like Ive said above, it could affect gameplay if something is there, potentially in the way.