Popeye

Popeye (Japanese: ポパイ) is a fixed-screen platform action game developed by Nintendo. It was released on July 15, 1983 as one of the Famicom’s launch titles, ported from the 1982 arcade game and adapted from the classic Popeye comic. Players control Popeye the Sailor, climbing ladders across four stacked dockside platforms to collect items thrown down by Olive Oyl. Stage 1 requires collecting hearts, stage 2 musical notes, and stage 3 letters spelling HELP. Collect all required items to clear each stage. Popeye’s rival Brutus chases relentlessly, throwing bottles and leaping to ambush. Popeye’s punch cannot hurt Brutus normally; it only breaks bottles and projectiles. Touching Brutus costs a life. Punch and open the spinach can to activate temporary super strength. Powered-up Popeye can knock Brutus off the screen, and falling collectibles freeze temporarily with doubled points. If Olive’s items sink into the water before collection, you lose a life. Starting from the second loop, the Sea Hag appears and throws skull projectiles, raising difficulty significantly. There are three fixed-screen stages, which repeat endlessly with faster enemies after completion. It supports two-player turn-based gameplay and two difficulty settings Game A and Game B. It features simple pixel art and soundtrack inspired by the cartoon. Widely bundled on Subor multicarts in China, the iconic spinach power-up makes it a memorable Famicom classic for retro gamers.

These are the default keys. Click the gamepad icon 🎮 in the player’s bottom toolbar to rebind them. Gamepads are detected automatically. On phones you get on-screen buttons.

1P

2P

The NES was always two-player — 2P uses the numeric keypad, and NumLock does not matter. No numpad? Rebind 2P to other keys in the 🎮 panel.