Keen readers of Nintendo Life may remember our report on the Sky Skipper project, an ambitious quest by UK-based Alex Crowley and US-based Whitney Roberts to save an almost lost piece of Nintendo arcade history.
That piece of history is Sky Skipper, one of a number of arcades planned to arrive after the DK success story. It was play-tested and marketed in the US but ultimately dropped in 1982, making it immediately fascinating to retro arcade enthusiasts. Though ROMS have found their way online and the game actually has an Atari 2600 iteration, no complete cabinets are known to exist along with only a very small number of PCBs.
Whitney gained access to the only Sky Skipper arcade ever made, which is hidden away in the vaults of Nintendo of America. The Sky Skipper Project team were able to spend several hours taking scans and photos of this prototype cabinet.
Then it was a simple case of locating one of the only four known arcade circuit boards (PCBs) in existence, which were converted to run Popeye instead. Alex managed to get two of these, one found in the UK and another in Sweden. The serial numbers confirmed that these were the real deal and with support of the retro arcade enthusiast community it was possible to convert them back to play Sky Skipper once again.
Using these detailed photos and scans the dynamic duo managed to reproduce the arcade marquee artwork and convert a Popeye cabinet into a Sky Skipper cabinet that was 100% faithful to the prototype in the vaults at NOA.
The grand unveiling happened this weekend at Southern-Fried Gameroom Expo in Atlanta, GA, where the restored Sky Skipper arcade cabinet was on show to attendees. Alex and Whitney got to meet a whole host of retro gaming alumni including none other than Walter Day and Billy Mitchell. It looks like a great time was had by all.
We have to say it's a truly impressive feat that Alex and Whitney were able to achieve this restoration, along with support from lots of people in the arcade enthusiast community. Let us know what you think about this epic achievement with a comment below.
Comments 17
Awesome project,been following it for last 10 months,glad you've mentioned it on here.
Why Billy Mitchell though?
No thanx. Already got one.
@Exy helped them get into NOA to see the last remaining one.
@timson72 I thought Donkey Kong was his only wheelhouse. Good on him.
Any reason to get Billy Mitchell some more air time/press is fine by me.
Amazing feat! They should pat themselves on the back for restoring a lost classic
I believe that game had one of the very few examples of casual swearing in a Nintendo game.
(I think it was D*** IT, I'LL ESCAPE!)
@Exy had some contacts from his world record days
Feel-good story of the year. Very cool project and that they got to see the original to use as a reference.
Billy Mitchell rules!
I'm glad this is getting John's Arcade some more exposure. Great channel.
And it's not coming to the switch. We can never get a break.
As I understand it there is a second reproduction Sky skipper that will live in the UK and will be at Replay Expo in Manchester later this year.
Good to see Billy Mitchell again... much more interesting than the other personalities in his universe.
I have a Popeye machine and love the Nintendo arcade classics. This is just completely amazing!!
I was able to play it at SFGE and it was really fun. I was even able to get a picture with my 1st place High Score.
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