A downloadable game

Long time ago, in April 1990, Yugoslav computer magazine "Svet Kompjutera" wanted to print several game reviews of fake games, all with very good scores, for its humor column "Cvet Kompjutera".

But somehow, fake game reviews ended up with regular game reviews, and humor column header was missing.

During that April, local pirate sellers were overwhelmed with requests for those games, but they were nowhere to be found. One of those games was a Commodore 64 game called:

"Popeye In Space".

Now, 35 years later, it is time to finally play it!

About the game

Popeye in Space is based on fake game review printed in "Svet Kompjutera" in April 1990. The idea to make the game came sometime in 2024, but development started for real on January 1st 2025. I gave myself time until April 1st 2025 to finish the game, to the best of my C64 coding abilities (which are not great, to be honest, especially compared to amazing quality of games released for C64 in the past decade).

The game is written using Turbo Rascal, a tool that enabled me to significantly cut down development time (compared to writing the entire game in assembly). Most of game graphics were pixeled by me, except title image (combination of images form internet), design of Bluto's ship and letter sprites. As I have zero talent for music, I borrowed SID tunes from HVSC, mostly made in 80's ans 90's.

I am aware that many things could have been better given more time and more people involved (a real graphics artist, dedicated musician, better programmer), but this is my first Commodore 64 arcade game and I wanted it to be released on 35th anniversary of fake game review. It certainly does not deserve 83% rating, but I hope it will be fun small shooter for at least some people. One less item on personal bucket list - making an arcade C64 game!

The game is PAL+NTSC compatible and consists of 6 relatively short levels, each with increased difficulty.

Credits for used assets and tools

HVSC Music used in the game

Drunken Sailor by Spider Jerusalem
Fake Rave by Nebula
Slow Techno by Surgeon
Oh No-Techno by Genius
Popeye Remix by Compod

Graphics used in the game

Foundry 255b by ChristopherJam
Spiked Ship 3 by Skorpio

PC and online tools used for the game

TRSE
Retropixels
SpritePad
CharPad
cc1541+TransWarp
GIMP
Inkscape
PNG2PRG
SidReloc
petscii.krissz.hu

C64 tools used for the game

Hires on Multi Sprite Editor V1.0
SFX Anywhere V0.2
SCRAPWRITER 64

Translated fake game review from 1990

Popeye in Space, rating 83%, Svet Kompjutera April 1990, page 56.

Long time ago, someone made a Popeye game made for Commodore 64, based on the arcade. Some nostalgic programmer made a new one, this time not based on the arcade, so a completely new idea.

To make story interesting, this time Popeye is in a spaceship, sailing through the sea of stars. Bluto has kidnapped Olive, put her on the rocket and sent her to space. West military bases thought that it was an attack from the East, and East military bases did not care, but fired some missiles just in case. So, Popeye entered his spaceship and went to save Olive, before missiles make a mincemeat out of her (no matter that with Olive there ins't much to mince anyway).

You are flying a nicely drawn anchor-like spaceship, trying to save her. But, no matter that Popeye found Olive's rocket quite fast, he cannot save her until the end of the game (when Olive's rocket crash-lands on Moon made of cheese). Popeye's task is to protect Olive from anything going her way. And not only that, he must protect himself and not hit her with his spaceship, which takes away two out of initial six lives.

Besides missiles, that fly straight to Olive, Popeye must also take care of meteors, comets, asteroid fields, and the rest of space stuff. His ammunition is, what else, spinach cans, that he fires from his ship.

But, this is not all. Some additional details make the game more interesting. From time to time, satellites show up. If Popeye hits TV satellite, screen flashes and it is instant game over. And of course, there is Bluto waiting at the end of each level in his heavily armored spaceship that must be hit exactly 17 times to be destroyed.

More information