LOST GAME! Nintendo Sky Skipper Arcade -The Full Story and Review

[@natehollingsworth1927]

3:03 rip popcorn machine, was wondering when it would finally happen

[@inceptional]

Looks gorgeous. Imagine if modern consoles had this much character and charm to them, and you could simply play whatever games you wanted obviously. There's just something far more magical about seeing an arcade like this with all that gorgeous artwork and color on it.

[@JRock424]

For those who don't know, Not only did Nintendo publically admitted the existence of SS at E3, they're releasing the arcade version on the Switch. I never knew of the game's existence until today. Methinks these guys were directly/indirectly responsible for this. I wonder how do they feel? Oh and the artwork on the machine? Drawn by Miyamoto.

[@nkr3982]

SS is sky skipper , but what is E 3 ?

[@gto8202]

Popcorn machine never had a chance.😂

[@Joliie]

he ded now.

[@bombdiggityarcade7089]

Do you think a capkit will fix it?

[@VAX1970]

Rebuild episode

[@silentbob151a]

and I liked that popcorn maker lol

[@eightbitwhit]

Thanks so much for the video John! Love the work and we really appreciate the partnership on this and you taking the time to help us tell the story and share the details. Lots of props my man.

[@lancairw867]

Whitney Roberts we all enjoyed watching ! Really interesting to watch and learn. Thanks for putting in the effort to restore and putting together the A Team of arcade 😀. Ok now find another lost one 😉

[@Johnsarcade]

+Whitney Roberts Thanks, Whitney. You guys deserve a lot of recognition. You and Alex knocked it out of the park!

[@ChezArcade]

Whitney Roberts such a great story!

[@datagod]

The game is getting love on Twin Galaxies too! Great job all around.

[@RotaryTurbo]

Such an amazing story, I've been following for a while. I want to congratulate you in person, but I'll likely not see you until Louisville Arcade Expo 2018...heh.

[@PMuis]

As soon as the popcorn machine fell I gave it a thumbs up

[@Huddison]

me too!

[@JackLucasCaffrey]

John, a hardcore Nintendo fan gets to see a rare Nintendo game Sky Skipper, well done. Also, RIP Popcorn Machine

[@16bitbrit]

Amazing story. The cabinet looks incredible. What an amazing piece of Nintendo history.

[@eightbitwhit]

Thank you - we worked really hard on it!

[@Fuzy2K]

49:25 -- Holy crap, I recognize some of that artwork from the Game Boy Camera! It's in the Link menu! :O

[@NukTap]

The popcorn machine's all like "dammit, I'll escape"

[@netropolis]

@3:07 Loved your "the show must go on" moment. in OUR defense we have been bugging you about that table for "literally" YEARS!

[@gb.recordings]

3:04 R.I.P to that popcorn Machine

[@HurrayBanana]

Thanks for documenting this John, such an important and amazing project

[@etchmfg]

Every. Single. Video. I panic as I wonder when the popcorn maker will fall off that wobbly table, lol. RIP Popcorn Maker June 12, 2017

[@TannerGremmert]

He will be missed

[@ukxvc]

My two favourite KZbinrs, John and Alex come together from thousands of miles apart along with Whitney who is so passionate about the project and an amazing guy.. This video showed just how amazing this community and hobby is. The hobby, the people and the subject matter is truly fantastic. Thanks to all of you for your efforts. I'll be thanking Alex on his channel too! PS, let Alex come do a game room tour!!

[@eightbitwhit]

+Djrouge - thanks for the good words! We were (and still are) so excited about being able to share all of this with the community!

[@delsarcade]

What Whitney says at 10:00 is how I felt about the DK Junior Remix PCB. Which is why we went all out at Zapcon with the unveiling of the entire custom cabinet with artwork. He hit the nail on the head when he made this point!

[@eightbitwhit]

Thank you!! Props!

[@SmokeMonster]

Incredible. A beautiful restoration, and what a story! :D

[@TheArcadeArchive]

SmokeMonster Thank you

[@phoenixbt]

Such a cool story and video. Great work John! Can't wait to see one in your basement :) Looking forward to the rest of the SFGE videos as well!

[@Duke_Togo_G13]

The animated characters on the game are drawn in the Popeye art style. So everyone that sees this video is checking their Popeye boards for the remaining 8.

[@mattress5340]

Great story John - thanks for capturing this so well on video - loved the way you got Alex & Whitney to tell the story and just let them talk. As I'm from the UK I've gone straight off to check out Alex's KZbin channel. Love your presenting style (i.e. just being John) and really enjoy this and John Sucks too. Can't wait to see the rest of Southern Fried Gaming & Brofest videos. Thanks for all your efforts. P.S. Love it when you drop in your British accent every now & then!

[@bleachgarage]

1:26:00 that is also how I came across my arcade game at a low price. I was searching for "CRT" and the listing said it was a vintage video game but never said the word arcade. The seller did mention there was something wrong with the CRT monitor.

[@binkman853]

Excellent video. Huge thanks!!! Wish I could have got down there to meet you. Been following for a several years now but sadly still no game of mine own. Take care.

[@Biscuit-Triscuit]

I love when I see Billy Mitchell, I met him once and one a trivia contest, so he and Walter signed my copy of King of Kong. Billy was extremely kind and talked with us for a bit as well

[@LetsPlayKeldeo]

Aged like Milk

[@darktetsuya]

I had heard that this was a project in the works.... had no idea it was already completed! awesome to see it up and running it definitely looks like it would've been in arcades in the early 80s! Also, RIP the popcorn machine, haha.

[@tomhertz1614]

Billys hair looks like hes wearing a Hoodie

[@thearcadeyears2148]

Thought that to... too funny!

[@andymiddleton5677]

Absolutely amazing!! Beautiful machine! Such work on this project. I'm blown away!!

[@friggthis333]

Please never fix or replace that wobbly table, it's caused so much entertainment over the years.

[@andrewwilliams5655]

Fantastic video and insights on Sky Skipper. Would love to see you create one of those in a series John.

[@PoisonPinball]

Thanks for the awesome video John. When they unveiled it, I was actually smiling for some reason.

[@CaptNRetro]

Super honored to have met and talked with ya.. Sky Skipper is incredible looking.. if you're at the Grand Ole Expo I'll hopefully see ya there!

[@Johnsarcade]

+CaptNRetro Thanks, man! Great meeting you!

[@tomhertz1614]

Sky skipper is on mame. I've had it for over a year

[@Okurka.]

+Tom Hertz For over a year? Really? Sky Skipper was added in Mame 0.62, released on 12 November 2002.

[@Nirotceh1]

Okurka He probably meant that he actually had since over a year regardless of when it came out lol

[@flcl64]

Popcorn John and No Popcorn John in the same video, a stark contrast... Popcorn John is a joy-filled carefree arcade collector, No Popcorn John is a broken shell of a man, someone who has seen the end and knows the terror. Tormented every waking moment by the futility of life...

[@Compucore]

All the hard work they put back into getting this one restored. An excellent job with only use of the flyer. Then going to nintendo for doing the scanning of the actual art work. Now that's blood sweat and tears.

[@jupreindeer9500]

While watching through Nintendo Arcade's footage of this event, I noticed something during the moment when you guys were talking about the PlayChoice 10's tiny joysticks. The owner had utilized the coin return's function into becoming a coin up button. That's amazing. (And makes a lot of sense, now that I've seen it.) Gets around the ugly business of drilling a hole through the cabinet for a new button or just leaving one hanging about on an unprofessional wire. Taking advantage of a factory created feature in such a stealthy, classy way. Now, I am wondering if there's somebody out there that specially designs coin mech's to function in this way or if that was a home engineered feature. Now that I've seen it, makes plenty of logic for getting around those games that have static free play mode screens or that frozen sentence of 'FREE PLAY' that slowly burns it's way into a monitor. And if I were to ever complete that Ms. Pac-Man cabinet project, that would be the way I would go about 'coining up', too. After all, the static pac 'coin up' screen is just no good.

[@jayhaas5766]

Rip popcorn maker

[@Flanneryshanedward]

this is amazing stuff great video John. wondering how many other games went out but just didn't quite make it to final production and mass sale. these stories are very interesting. Billy mitchell is an unbelievable arcade game player.

[@clutchkman]

Great video, Sky Skipper looks amazing!

[@Conkerscrib]

I was wondering when that popcorn machine would fall

[@HardyRyan]

This is absolutely amazing work. Walter was right when he compared this to archaeology/curation. Everyone involved should be very proud. Fantastic!

[@thicklyspread]

thanks john, another great video, one of the best you have done over the last few years, keep up the good work. You Rock!

[@lionneko]

I'm in the Front row when John pans the camera. 15 minutes of fame lol

[@chuck12-82]

Revenge of the Wobble Table!!! lol

[@jessedurgin6211]

Just a SUPER job guys! You guys nailed it! Looks like it just came from the Nintendo factory!

[@xaer0knight]

WHOA! These guys know there stuff. I love history channels. Reminds me of Gaming Historian, Daniel Ibbertson, or Classic Gaming Quarterly. Great job!

[@wildernessgames]

That is insane. All around incredible work and backstory and nintendo allowing scanning etc etc Incredible feat that machine exists; and so crisp! Fantastic honor to film it indeed. Everyone involved in the project deserves recognition for sure. I really hope they figure out how to create copies as they were saying to preserve it as well as being able to produce more. thanks, Mitch

[@arcadefever]

John what an Amazing story, thank you for sharing !!!!!

[@ChezArcade]

So awesome, enjoyed all the history in this very cool!

[@Phishkisses]

Lol you just reminded me that I have Sky Skipper for the Atari 2600, I bought it when I was a kid at a swapmeet back in 89-90, I was on a Atari game collecting frenzy. It was one of my favorite music and sound FX games for the atari. I thought it was a weird game but fun game, but now the game play makes sense seeing that it was a port, had no idea there was a cabinet game, and a good one at that, thanks for sharing

[@ArcadeFreak-gw5rp]

that cabinet looks like a laser disc horse racing game called quarter horse in my opinion

[@MrTBoneSF]

I remember back in the day, reading in Atari Coin Connection newsletter that Atari had some deal for Popeye arcade cabinets. Atari was licensing a ton of Nintendo stuff at the time (essentially making sure they could lock up any Nintendo properties so that they wouldn't lose another Donkey Kong to someone like Coleco). You can see Atari Popeye cabinets here archive.org/details/Atari_Coin_Connection_Volume_7_Number_2_February_1983

[@Bobbydog66]

7:32 Very interesting factor 5 had a hand in this, wonder if this leads to rogue squadron.

[@EdwinNoorlander]

Cool, I was right it's a Sky Skipper. Good video John. Nice to see you together.

[@Madmax23419]

Great video, love that cabinet looks. With those old pcb's you can read them also as a schematic, making a reproduction is easy as long they did not just any special custom made chips.

[@DMETS519]

So awesome you didn't reshoot or edit out the popcorn machine falling.

[@Okurka.]

That was the best part of the video.

[@sergiomeyer]

John, thank you so much for documenting this. What a great piece of history

[@chadtrips3203]

Another Sky Skipper found last night.

[@venom709]

I'm legit about to write, when well that Popcorn machine take a fall...seconds later...it falls.. Great video so far lol

[@bluebloodgaming614]

We had a Sky Skipper last year at the Louisville Arcade Expo. I didn't get a chance to play it sadly.

[@Riz2336]

Cool piece of Nintendo history man, glad to see it preserved.

[@ScarletSprites]

The Popeye mod discussion was interesting, thanks for sharing that. There just seems to be countless things in this hobby's past that I'm unaware of. Every day is a new and exciting discovery.

[@Hollyweirdification]

John I finally got to meet you at the convention and your such an awesome and genuinely nice guy. I was the guy with the Mohawk and the chromed out Metallica pinball machine Cliff. Thank you for an awesome video and your undying love of the gaming world. God bless

[@Johnsarcade]

+Cliff Edward Thanks, man! Your pin was bad ass. Great meeting you!

[@djsquibby]

John does your famous popcorn machine do their own stunts or did you use a stunt double? Cool video I was popping at the seams watching, I've played Sky Skipper on MAME and it's a fun game ;)

[@ModernVintageGamer]

Isiah Triforce confirmed 31:04

[@jmike2039]

Love your work

[@manicminer4127]

Amazing stuff, call Hollywood, it's that good.

[@ThunderFist1978]

I got to play Sky Skipper in all its arcade glory on my birthday!

[@masteric123]

This was really cool and interesting thanks for upload. I enjoyed allot.

[@bombdiggityarcade7089]

It needs the coin sticker lol. Just kidding looks good. Great work!

[@JLOCLamborghiniFan88]

3:05 I laughed hard! Poor popcorn machine

[@33kingnaz]

3:04 mark popcorn maker drop!!!

[@Johnnyafc]

Great video 👍🏻 When's part 1 of John fixes the popcorn machine 😂

[@Arcadehollywood]

Hey John, I saw that you got to meet my friend Arcade Jason!! Sky Skipper looks fun actually.

[@orionas8481]

Great to see you again ! Where is "Mortal kombat" cab ??

[@memyopinionsche6610]

that wobbling table . that popcorn popper will take a nosedive one day. I kinda Envision it.

[@adamcartermi5]

So i lived in worcester, ma for 4 years. Been following this channel for awhile. Decided to visit the hangar bar... to see the arcade! And i find out now you sell wings over food!!! This is my mecca!

[@Johnsarcade]

+adamcartermi5 ha awesome. Jay and I just do the arcade. The Hangar and Wings Over is not our deal.

[@adamcartermi5]

John's Arcade Game Reviews & Tech still it's everything i want. In one place. Soon as i finish my wings and beer, im gonna play every arcade game!

[@erickoren]

We need a Popeye / Sky Skipper multi board like remix!

[@MikesTOONTOWN]

Nintendo actually released this game under the Arcade Archives on the Switch a few months ago.

[@geekhype]

That strange "Bubble Bobble" cabinet has a bezel with what looks like Rally X artwork, but as far as I can tell, Rally X does not have a bezel that looks like that. Very weird...

[@thegamercube64show55]

I was there too its so cool to see a video and see yourself in it.

[@thegamercube64show55]

I heard the "turn it on!" I didnt know at the time it was you

[@joekenorer]

I know this is an old video, but bruh. They need to contact NOA about getting a legit serial badge and make it an official Nintendo cabinet, the only step higher than a master remod. That would be awesome. Great work tracking this down and amazing job cabinet matching.

[@petervachon6989]

John!, you need to make a separate blooper out of that. I'd suggest starting off towards the end before viewer mail with your comment that people telling you about your table and your machine's about to fall, then cut away to the machine falling with your reaction then at the end you going "I'm going to bed.." Put those 3 together and I think it will sound hilarious. lol

[@BloodyCactus]

wobbly table strikes back!

[@TorutheRedFox]

the deja vu with this cabinet is real

[@SionynJones]

Incredible video John tar very much

[@RalonsoF1]

Man I must say: YOU ARE THE BEST OUT THERE!! How you threw down the popcorn machine.. I mean: it's more than funny Man!! Pitty I'm not living nearside of your region, otherwise I would be there the whole time haha! Cheers, Man!! Great..!

[@Boomdiers]

3:05 At this moment pop corn machine knew that john screw up big time.

[@henryswanson5939]

45:00 my favorite part, "Oh my gawd"

[@525Lines]

Mad Planet, the only arcade game I can recall with a free demo you can play.

[@gb.recordings]

Hey John it was bound to happen one of those days R.I.P to that popcorn Machine it was bound to happen you need a bigger table

[@mathesar]

Is the Sky Skipper arcade wiki incorrect where it states the game was released in arcades but in Japan only, and in 3 different cabinet formats.

[@Johnsarcade]

+73mathesar apparently, yes.

[@electronash]

John's Arcade Game Reviews & Tech I might be able to help with the schematics, and probably an FPGA board version of the game. I'm looking at the MAME code for Popeye / Sky Skipper, and it looks fairly straightforward. I've only had a quick look, but didn't find any security stuff yet, but there is a function that seems to change the way the tiles are scrolled on SS. Very interesting vid. ;) RIP Popcorn Machine. 2008-2017.

[@enigma776]

Finally maybe you will get a table that don't move. I knew the popcorn maker will die a death eventually. That table looked to get worse every video.

[@joesmoe71]

Next these guys ought to try to reproduce a Monkey Magic game, which is an EXTREMELY rare Japan-only Nintendo release.

[@TheArcadeArchive]

Andrew Tornadoboy The cab already exists and was released,I would love to see a space launcher turn up next.

[@illegalpizza]

i cant be the only one who seen that one coming lol (talking about the popcorn machine)

[@GruntledGaming]

When I first saw the gameplay video it reminded me of a souped up version of Looping.

[@JustinSevenTwo]

Regarding that mystery cabinet from the viewer mail question, that bezel art looks like it's about Rally X to me. Maybe a licensed UK or Euro release of that game?

[@LetsPlayKeldeo]

Ah yes Billy Michell aged like Sour Milk

[@yorgle11]

Ideally, it seems that somebody needs to strip down a Sky Skipper PCB (documenting every component) and then do a hires scan of it. Then it will be possible for somebody to make accurate reproductions, if there's a market for them. Unfortunately if there's so few of the original PCBs in existence then the odds are against that ever happening. Nobody with a board that valuable is going to want to mess with it, and it's a ton of labor. There were only 12 completed cabs but is there any info on how many boards were made? I wonder if they manufactured a larger quantity of PCBs before cancelling the game and reworking them all into Popeyes. If there were really only 12 boards, it seems like they wouldn't have invested the man-hours to come up with a rework procedure.

[@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP9224]

R.I.P popcorn machine

[@kevlo9]

Awesome video! Very cool!

[@dvv45]

I have a similar cab looks like poker to me. mine has a pull out try too.

[@MrTBoneSF]

That mystery cabinet has a Namco Rally-X bezel.

[@branaa09]

This is kind of sureal, seeing Alex on your channel.