I took a chance on it on the theme alone and didn't bother reading any reviews. I've never regretted buying it tons to do and some of my favorite pinball sounds.

The main thing that drives me nuts about Popeye is the left inlane/outlane area with that solid blue plastic animal return ramp hovering over it. How am I supposed to be able to nudge a ball into the inlane if I can't even see it? I wish someone made a clear replacement for that animal ramp, as I think that would correct that issue, but that's notgonnahappen.

The second thing I don't like is the shots to the left and right of the rollover lanes/pop bumpers being obscured with only the indicator lights to tell you where to shoot.

Other than that stuff, I really don't have too many complaints. The boat look is neat, and the Popeye theme is cool as I grew up watching those cartoons.

My review:

"So much push and pull in either way. Popeye, I bet, cost more to make than TZ, and I bet was the single most expensive machine to produce. The hidden shots are a nuisance. Despite what you might think in aiming at the inserts should suffice, it doesn’t, and about 4 shots, all important, are kind of a pain.

The theme is unanimously agreed upon as flat out stupid. It should have just been Popeye. Why we are helping Popeye save endangered animals while collecting wrenches and baby bottles as a theme for Popeye is beyond me, and everyone else.

The skill shot is a nice idea, and cool at first glance, but is really a lot of wasted space and a waste of a very expensive and complicated toy. I would have preferred after the choice is made, that you have to hit a ramp or the scoop or something. Given the deep rules, which I will get to, that would have been a nice addition.

The overall designed is one of the few games where it feels Williams just did not put this thing through QC and rushed it out the door. The ramp alone has two major issues, in that balls fly off the rear when they enter fast (needs a clear cover) and the ball gets stuck in a common spot on a back left rear corner (needs a post), and secondly the exit from the ramp to the wire ramp is not smooth and does not transition well (raise the union screw with a spacer). Neither of these issues are seen on any other Williams machine, and this alone tells me that this game was not manufactured in the same manner, which is a rarity from Williams, even until they closed.

The entrance to the escalator causes bounce outs, and needs dampening foam all around both sides. The ramps in the upper PF are hard to aim (Clay recommends moving the lightning flippers up there, and I wish I had seen that before I sold mine). The ramp itself is too steep, and hard perfect shots will often fly into the PF glass and back out. The ball will even, once into a shot/door in the ramp, sometimes roll to the right and activate the wrong door, despite making the desired shot. The entire animal ramp/plastic thing should have been in a clear plastic at the least, and really isn’t pinball and is a lot of action for little fun.

The outlanes are horrendous. Even if you install bumper posts where they should be (factory only put a screw in the PF to the under PF rail supports), and lower the side star posts to the lowest setting, the opening to the outlanes is still larger than any other machine with the posts to the highest point. When this is how it was factory, the game is virtually unplayable, and balls drain faster than pinbot, A LOT faster.

Everything Steve Ritchie posted about this machine in his rant one time on RGP is bang on. The game was a complete and utter disaster, given the height that pinball was at, and this thing should never have been produced.

Having said that, we are now in the home use environment where we can alter/mod and appreciate in a new light. Once the changes are made, and the game becomes playable, we can begin to review the rules - and the rules in this machine were IMO **ground breaking, deep and as a whole impressive**.

In the time of mode mode mode, this game was the first to start an objective completion type of play, similar to AFM, MM and other later wpc95 machines. You have to save all the animals, collect all the (stupid) items, start the 3 ball MB, complete the 4 mini modes, and then starts another MB, where you have to make most of the shots in the game. There is a 4 and 5 ball multiball as well, and once the objectives are complete, and some other things to complete, and then you can attempt to save olive, which utilizes all of the main shots in the game and is a 6 ball mulit, and is very hard and challenging to get to. I only beat the machine once. I beat TZ almost every night I play it, and AFM once a month in relation.

The skill shot comes back into play big time in the objectives, as you can basically get a free whatever you need towards starting these objectives here, and this is a great idea.

As well, the finding sweat pea is I believe the only pinball play/vid mode interactive thing in pinball. It is very hard, and I have only completed this once as well. I believe this to be the greatest vid mode in pinball, as you not only have to keep the ball on the upper PF, which in itself is very hard, but you have to aim at the right doors, get ready for the ball to return fast, and keep your eye on the map on the screen as well. Why oh why could more vid modes not be like this?

Call me crazy, but this idea was a theme and vigorous testing from QC away from being one of the best machines of the 90s. Instead, most consider it a joke.

My rating is hard to complete, as this depends on if you take the time to make the changes noted, as such I averaged out some things. 1 out of 6 for theme is even too generous.”

I love mine & always have. I put in a pinball pro sub a while back & now it really booms at the end when it plays the theme song!

Popeye sucks... End of Story... And I have owned it in the past. Just could not get into it at all. I could not get rid of it fast enough.

I like the game and the theme- the save the wildlife.
Animals were put on earth for food and my amusement.
I would own one at least for a while.

Arrghgugggarrrr I'm Popeye the sailor man toot toot!!!!

I really enjoy playing it. I would pick one up for the right price. I think when it is lit properly it is a very attractive machine.

Great looking, great sounding, terrible playing. That was my experience when I owned it.

Great Widebody Bally for the price. Popeye is in a whole different class of its own. Hard to explain but it is a good bang for the buck. I miss mine.

Hey, I know someone who has this as his grail pin, everyone has different tastes.

IMO, Popeye is one of those games that looks good at first glance, but then sort of dulls you down when you play it after a while. I've never played it, but watching videos, that's what I felt

Link for this?

Here's the link. Don't ask me why, but when I cut and paste it, it doesn't work correctly when you click on it. Only half of it is underlined for some reason. If you cut and paste this full link in your browser, you'll get there. You're looking for the post by "Steve" on 9/19/10.

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.games.pinball/Brmc4Jdbn3s

Taken from that link:

"Some Popeye Facts and My Opinions and Recollections:

Barry Oursler designed the game, but it was Python's theme, including
the weird euphorics-influenced eco-connection.
Python was not, and never will be a game designer. He will SAY
anything, truthful or not. This is not to say that he didn't come up
with many good ideas for the games he worked on, but he never drew
anything more than sketches except when doing the artwork for the
playfield, back glass and plastics. A pinball designer makes a full
scale drawing of his games with all components shown. He does the
fitting of components and at least some of the mechanical
engineering. A pinball designer chases down and looks after every
component and mechanism on his game. He deals with a BOM, management,
and other members on the team. Barry was the designer of Popeye.

The game designer was not always the team leader of the pinball teams
at W/B/M. If another member of a team was more suited to carrying the
vision and dealing with other members, then he would take the reins
with the designer's permission. Barry liked to let others on his team
lead things. Steve Kordek, Chris Granner and Python were probably
the most influential on Barry's teams to my recollection.

Popeye was the game that followed ST:TNG. Popeye didn't make money on
the street. The theme was stinky and the geometry was funky, chunky
and clunky. No real players liked the hidden shots and generally poor
visibility that allowed function to follow form. Its hard-to-play
upper playfield didn't win it any friends. Graphics and art were just
nasty, and speech, sounds, script and music were less than stellar.
Popeye was expensive to build and carried hefty tooling and mold costs
that were never amortized. Williams lost money on Popeye, something
that hadn't happened for many many years prior.

The real reason that Popeye is/was universally despised was that all
of the Williams/Bally/Midway distributors were signed up to take
minimum amounts of every run of machines we manufactured. They were
not upset when they had to buy minimum quantities of ST:TNGs and other
titles, but they were very angry that they had to take a minimum # of
Popeye machines. To make matters worse, Willy raised the price of
Popeye! The theme was ridiculous. Who cares about Popeye? Popeye
was nothing in Europe (our second through fourth ranked markets) even
when it was fresh. Not one distributor cared for the license. We who
were in charge should have stopped the game, because we all knew that
it was a steaming pile well before it was released. There were
politics involved, and I seem to recall that we couldn't get anything
on the line quickly enough if we did not release Popeye to production.

The distributors were screaming and making threats of lawsuits and
dumping Willy as a represented manufacturer. Eventually Williams
canceled the minimums clause in their contracts with distribs. Popeye
had a very bad stigma attached to it for a long time which, of course,
was played up by our competitors. Some people say Popeye was "the
beginning of the end" of pinball at Williams. It was hard to sell
large runs of games after Popeye. The failure of pinball cannot be
blamed on Popeye, but it sure didn't help our business.

I do not agree that less people like wide bodies than regular width
games. They were harder to design because of the slightly larger
spans of time required for the ball to get to the targets. The worst
wide body width was Stellar Wars/Superman/Pokerino. Until I/we moved
the flippers and slings into the same familiar location as a narrow
body, they were really horrible in my mind. Some designers went crazy
with more flippers and more drain space between them! The outer orbit
shots were actually miserable to make because the ball was so far down
the flipper end in order to hit them. The ball doesn't carrying much
speed or power at that angle. The widest games are the ones that I
never want to make again. The Superpin width was/is much better. I
can design in at least one more shot in a Superpin width, and more and
larger toys can be utilized.

I do have to admit that my favorite playfield size to play and create
within is the standard 20-1/4" X 46" I would like to make a longer
(48") game someday, but it is not a high priority.

I don't enjoy dumping on others games, but don't try to tell me that
Popeye was a good game. If you enjoy playing it, that's certainly
your prerogative. Most Williams engineering/management folks don't
want to think about Popeye. It was an awful time in Williams
history.

Regards,

Steve"

.....ouch..... That should drive the price down another $500

Just got my Popeye up and running.

It fits good in a larger collection. I can see it getting old pretty fast in a smaller collection.

Does anyone happen to have a Popeye ramp for sale? Mine in broken at the opto bracket.

I still think it is the greatest vid mode ever, given this is interactive with upper pinball play, the four environment modes also have a pinch of vid mode interaction to them as well. The only other interactive play vid mode I know of is in JD.

The final mode was very hard to get to, and luckily I did this just before selling and won it. I would buy my machine back if I had the chance. It was sold in a one of my small purges solely due to space, and like a couple others I have bought back after I have done one of these, I would take this back as well.

I really feel people form too many opinions by memorizing the rankings. This game in the right light has a lot to offer.

Have to agree. Really, hard to find any redeeming qualities in this pin whatsoever.

Yes, it is.

I enjoyed the one I owned, not being able to fully see the shots just added difficulty to the game for me, not a bad thing. Love how the ship was incorporated into the whole pin, could care less/ didn't bother me that Popeye saved the animals. Call outs were cool. Agree with atomicboy.

"I still think it is the greatest vid mode ever, given this is interactive with upper pinball play, the four environment modes also have a pinch of vid mode interaction to them as well. The only other interactive play vid mode I know of is in JD.

The final mode was very hard to get to, and luckily I did this just before selling and won it. I would buy my machine back if I had the chance. It was sold in a one of my small purges solely due to space, and like a couple others I have bought back after I have done one of these, I would take this back as well.

I really feel people form too many opinions by memorizing the rankings. This game in the right light has a lot to offer. "

I admit I was against my roommate buying this pin several years ago, even at $1000. It barely got any play since we bought it. But a funny thing happened while all of our other machines were down - I started playing Popeye more, and I actually kind of like it now that I understand the rules better. I'm curious to see how much better it would be with the flipper swap mentioned above. It's very durable - no plastic ramps to break, balls rarely get airborne...I don't understand the comment from Atomicboy about quality issues with stuck balls...I've had far more stuck/lost balls with White Water, and also broken mountains, ramps, etc. I work in Quality Assurance at a microchip company, and I recognize quality when I see it - despite the cost to make the parts, this thing is durable. There are definitely far worse offerings from Williams/Bally (The Flintstones, Gilligan's Island, Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball, Game Show, Harley-Davidson, etc).

I just returned from the Pinball Hall of Fame and had a chance to play The Pinball Circus, which is an amazing game that is credited to Python, and you can definitely see elements of Popeye in it. If Python did design The Pinball Circus, Steve Ritchie is full of crap about Python as a designer because TPC has a very cool and innovative design. "Most Williams engineering/management folks don't want to think about Popeye. It was an awful time in Williams history." Hard to feel any sympathy when Williams gave it the green light to start with. If you want to really point fingers, maybe Williams shouldn't have bought Bally to begin with! Makes you wonder if we would have had 2 companies making pinballs (Stern & Bally) for these past 13 years.

I'm sure I will sell it someday to try something new, but it's not the Sea Hag that some make it out to be.

MY Popeye has a plastic ramp....

You need to take a second look.

You are right, but I think he was referring to the fact that they are VERY sturdy compared to the thin see through ramps usually found on pins.

I love my Popeye! Lightning fast. Better bring your sniper skills this pin can be very unforgiving. Deep rule set. The time limit battles with Bluto are very challenging. Collect the Items, Spinach, & save the Animals. Sweetpea is difficult to find. Do all of these to Save Olive for a 6 ball MB. I LED'd mine & it looks amazing. What a hansom Brute! Was offered twice what I paid for it by a dealer & turned it down. Very family friendly. Not leaving my small collection anytime soon. It's the wife's favorite pin. Can't go wrong with the original super hero.

Give it time, it will.

-Wes

It's the pin that has my curiosity peaked the most >How bad can it be?

So, the glowing review for Popeye is, it doesn't suck too much?

Keep in mind that Steve has personal issues with Python relating to their work on High Speed together. So take all his comments with a bitter grain of salt.

Python is a genius and actually he is a creator and a designer, if you see some of the storyboards and drawings he did for shots/toys in the games he worked on.

At least all Python's games were all very, very different and unique designs and didn't have the same basic layout recycled over and over....

Thats exactly how I felt when I got mine.

I found it not too bad....owned one for a while and had fun with it

There are a lot of pins that suck a whole lot more for twice the price. Fun pin for short money. Enjoy and move on. Popeye was a whipping post ten years ago, time to move on.

Shhh! Don't tell everyone it doesn't suck, it will drive up the price and I won't get one. LOL

I've been wanting to play one of these for quite some time now. I think it looks interesting, if nothing else. When can I drop by, dan?

Pinbal HoF in LV has both a Pinball Circus & Popeye. Unfortunately, Popeye was not on but TPC was and I played a few games. It's pretty obvious that TPC is a Python game. It's strange, unique, and artsy. I like it.
I wish they would bring him back to do some more playfield art. I'm not a big fan of the "photoshop" playfields and Python's playfields were always interesting.

I've had a fully refurbished Popeye for 7 months and it has become one of my favourite tables. Definitely underrated as all the complaints I hear are flat out wrong or at best over criticized. Definitely it being a home game allows it to shine with great looks, fantastic and complicated ruleset and a completely mental theme that just works for me as I like surreal.

Great underrated game. I have had mine for about 5 years. Its a keeper. Forget some of the silly bad reviews. I just think they didnt play it enough or it wasnt well lit. Try some LEDs.

I generally don't like wide-body pins. I think the whole animal thing is strange, but it was a Python concept. And many shots are blocked but you know where they are over time. The rules are just fine. For some of the harder modes / mission there are alternate ways to collect them.

I won't rate it as "A" list, but I would also say underrated.