Announcing the Sky Skipper Project!

Nintendo has the most fun art on their cabs, puts you in a good mood just looking at it.

I generally dont get all that jazzed about restores or "rare" stuff but this is one of the cooler things Ive seen anyone do.
 
Well I was at the panel and Whitney showed off a prototype of an add in board to convert Popeye to Sky Skipper. I would assume the art would be sold after that is available. Richard Lint of this old game is the one who helped reproduce it.

If you want to try to find one of the eight lost boards you are looking for the code TNX-01 screen printed on the board set. Since the originals were factory modded to run Popeye it's time to look at those.
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Been following this and just finished watching John's video. Great job Whitney and Alex. that board is crazy. Looks like first ever nintendo harness pin to card edge adapter.
 
It was very cool to see this machine in person and have the opportunity to play it out on the show floor. That said, I was awful at it. I'd love to have had more time to figure out the gameplay and try to put up a decent score.

Congrats to all involved with pulling this off. It was impressive!

Steve
MM
 
Awesome job guys! But I wonder why the insert coin sticker above the coin door is missing on the reproduced Sky Skipper when it is present on the upright cab shown on the flyer?

LOL see I told you Whitney!
course the other little detail which isnt seen was there ;)
 

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LOL see I told you Whitney!
course the other little detail which isn't seen was there ;)

Thats pretty cool!

The Insert coin sticker in question looks a little more narrow then usual. Almost like its the Japanese one...

Any thoughts on maybe that Nintendo Japan might have the one(s) shown in the flyer?

The instruction card on the flyer doesn't match the one Whitney found at NOA. Much like when you compare the NA and JAP art packages for other Nintendo games.

There's gotta be more of these out there. Especially those 3 Japanese ones on the flyer.
 

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LOL see I told you Whitney!
course the other little detail which isnt seen was there ;)

Looks great, although, that damn rounded uppercase 'A' in the Pretendo font drives me crazy! One of these days I'll modify that font!

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Looks great, although, that damn rounded uppercase 'A' in the Pretendo font drives me crazy! One of these days I'll modify that font!

You noticed that too eh? I just hate how the structure of some of the characters in Pretendo "fail" after a certain font size. Like the lowercase "c" "e" and "a".
 
Hey everyone - many thanks for all the kind words of support of the work Alex and I put forth on this! The overall sentiment across the 'net has been overwhelmingly positive and it's great to see the community excited about what we've done.

I've published a US reveal event recap on the project website - https://www.skyskipperproject.com/us-reveal-recap/

Over the next week or so, I'll publish a blog post with the details on the cabinet/game restoration, along with the info on the laminate I used for the game. I've had no less than 30 people contact me wanting to know about the laminate, so I'll happily publish that info in a restoration post.

Please subscribe to the site as we'll have more to say in the coming months about how we are planning to preserve the Sky Skipper hardware, as well. I talk to this a bit in the last segment of John's video where he interviews Alex and I about future plans, etc.

Responses to everyone's questions above are inline in the next reply (I tripped over the 10,000 character limit in a single post...go figure...)
 
Responses to previous questions are all inline below!!

---------------------------------------

Congrats to Whitney and company. You nailed it

Thank you Jon! Glad you enjoyed the game and it was good to see you in Atlanta!

Congrats on the unveiling, looks like the cabinet came out great!

Thanks man! It was months and months of work to get it looking the way it did, but yeah - it came out great and lots of folks at the expo thought the same, so I think we did good!

BTW - I did use the TPG when I was rebuilding both the primary monitor and the backup monitor (for the expo, in case the primary monitor gave out at some point over the weekend) and it is one awesome piece of hardware. LOVE IT over and over again.

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This is so awesome. Cool to see mitchel in this reveal too! This story is so cool, awesome work!

Billy was a big help to us in getting to NOA and starting the conversation with them. Knowing what I know, I doubt it would have worked out any other way, tbh.

Who actually needs Billy Mitchell there.
A cardboard cut out would do for pics,since he always wears the same tie and clothes.
Also the same stupid thumbs up.

See previous reply. He's a solid guy and was great to work with. He took interest in what we were doing and kept his word through the entire process. I've never seen him not stop and sign an autograph or talk to a child. To me, that's a class act.

Billy Mitchell wasn't at the expo specifically or for the sole purpose to be a part of the reveal. It is my understanding that his connections with Nintendo helped to get access to Sky Skipper 0001 which was vital to recreating the artwork and certain other parts of this project. He and Walter Day had some very nice things to say about the efforts that went into this build and I thought he definitely added to the presentation far more than a cardboard cut out would have.

I saw him interact with the kids and fans for 3 days straight over the course of the expo, and I bet he stuck that stupid thumbs up HUNDREDS of times as kids and adults (including my 11 year and myself) stuck the same stupid thumbs up beside him to have their picture taken with someone who really is a gaming legend and supporter of our hobby. Pretty sure he had a different tie and suit on each day.

He really is a class act and great guy. He is very self confident and outspoken, and that along with the way that he was portrayed as a bad guy in certain documentaries has earned him quite a few undeserved haters.

Sky Skipper looked FANTASTIC... enjoyed getting an opportunity to play this piece of history.

Thank you very much - the support means a lot. You are spot-on about everything, as I see it the same.

Awesome job guys! But I wonder why the insert coin sticker above the coin door is missing on the reproduced Sky Skipper when it is present on the upright cab shown on the flyer?

The insert coin sticker on the flyer is definitely Japanese (I've blown it up from a 1200 dpi scan of the flyer) and we don't have access to a recreation of it. To add to that, Alex and I discussed this at length and decided to leave it off to preserve the clean looks of the cabinet. To be blatantly honest - I don't like them and don't use them on any of my restores. <flame suit on>

Very cool good work guys!

Is the plan to make the art available for purchase at some point or not?

Thank you! Yes - once we have a way to preserve the hardware, then we hope to share the rest of the package with other collectors so they can do the same. Please be patient, as we have no plans of releasing any of it ala-carte for other reproducers to profit from, etc. We want to help others preserve the entire game and its history, and piecing something together from others looking to turn a profit is not how we want to see this go.

Well I was at the panel and Whitney showed off a prototype of an add in board to convert Popeye to Sky Skipper. I would assume the art would be sold after that is available. Richard Lint of this old game is the one who helped reproduce it.

If you want to try to find one of the eight lost boards you are looking for the code TNX-01 screen printed on the board set. Since the originals were factory modded to run Popeye it's time to look at those.
e656da296bb4351bb0f085748fd11f5f.jpg

Correct - we are working on a way to preserve the game for future generations to enjoy without having to resort to MAME. We feel this will better honor the intent and spirit of the game and keep the hardware alive since there are so few working examples today.

Nintendo has the most fun art on their cabs, puts you in a good mood just looking at it.

I generally dont get all that jazzed about restores or "rare" stuff but this is one of the cooler things Ive seen anyone do.

Thanks so much man - we (I) feel the same way! Looking at the Sky Skipper art (especially) makes me happy because it just feels 'fun'! I appreciate your sentiment, as restores are a pretty common part of the hobby but we really wanted the restore to share something unique and I think we did that.

Been following this and just finished watching John's video. Great job Whitney and Alex. that board is crazy. Looks like first ever nintendo harness pin to card edge adapter.

Thank you my man! Yes - we believe that to be the case as well - first ever factory harness pin to edge adapter for sure.

I'm going to be the first one to say (if it hasn't yet) that the gameplay looks terrible. No wonder it's a hard to find game. :D

It's actually quite a fun game, and I think it to be LOADS better than Popeye. You can play it any of several different ways, and you are in control of the strategy, as it doesn't wear you out right up front. You can approach it at your own pace, but the fuel supply adds a 'hurry up' aspect to it that makes it fun. By level five (the first level repeated after the first loop of the four different levels) the characters all change places and the difficulty ramps up. IMO, it should have been released.

It was very cool to see this machine in person and have the opportunity to play it out on the show floor. That said, I was awful at it. I'd love to have had more time to figure out the gameplay and try to put up a decent score.

Congrats to all involved with pulling this off. It was impressive!

Steve
MM

Thank you Steve - 'appreciate the kind words!

LOL see I told you Whitney!
course the other little detail which isnt seen was there ;)

Truth Rich!! LOL! I'm standing by my decision on the coin sticker *AND* the serial number plate. You killed it on that!

I actually think it looks fun (and quite deep).

It really is!

Thats pretty cool!

The Insert coin sticker in question looks a little more narrow then usual. Almost like its the Japanese one...

Any thoughts on maybe that Nintendo Japan might have the one(s) shown in the flyer?

The instruction card on the flyer doesn't match the one Whitney found at NOA. Much like when you compare the NA and JAP art packages for other Nintendo games.

There's gotta be more of these out there. Especially those 3 Japanese ones on the flyer.

Hey Chance - you bring up the question we asked while at NOA... what about the game being released in Japan? We were told that it was not released. Now - that is just what we were told, but we have to take that answer as being fact based on source and authority. With that being said, that's not a guarantee that machines weren't manufactured, assembled and later destroyed (in Japan) once the word was handed down from high to scrap the game. Maybe those flyer machines do exist somewhere...maybe they do not... we'll likely never know unless they turn up.

All I can say is that in 35 years, only 3 PCB's have turned up (the two Alex found and the one sold on eBay months back) and no complete cabinets whatsoever. If anything to the contrary were to ever present itself - we will gladly stand corrected on any and everything!

Looks great, although, that damn rounded uppercase 'A' in the Pretendo font drives me crazy! One of these days I'll modify that font!

Thanks Tighe! I think the current state of the Pretendo font is such that it's as close as anyone can get right now to the real thing so until the font is edited (like you mention) - we run with it.

Rich did an amazing job on the serial number plates, and I was totally happy with them - 'a' included!
 
Wow. Whitney, Alex, and everyone involved, you guys have absolutely done the arcade community a huge service. My hats off to you guys for bringing what looks to me to be an absolute gem of a game that might have been lost forever. Look forward to all the good things to come from this project, and thank you again for bringing a great piece of nintendo history back to life.
 
There is another PCB that was in the UK. A guy on Jamma+ owned it in 2008 but he ended up selling it:

Link

Same markings on the board TNX1, TPP-1C
 
Who actually needs Billy Mitchell there.

A cardboard cut out would do for pics,since he always wears the same tie and clothes.

Also the same stupid thumbs up.



You know, one day i was playing pacman and i looked over at my little pacman figurine and then it hit me, the reason billy does the thumbs up

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Thanks man, we appreciate the support for sure. You are right - the game is a gem and it is an absolute shame it was never released for the public to enjoy the past 35+ years. Hopefully time will be on our side and we can help the dedicated collector help us to preserve this piece of history.

Subscribe to the website and news will flow from there.

Wow. Whitney, Alex, and everyone involved, you guys have absolutely done the arcade community a huge service. My hats off to you guys for bringing what looks to me to be an absolute gem of a game that might have been lost forever. Look forward to all the good things to come from this project, and thank you again for bringing a great piece of nintendo history back to life.
 
Correct - there's no way to know where that board ended up - it could be have eventually wound up being the Swedish board that Alex purchased or it could be in other hands altogether at this point.... I don't know.

Needless to say - it would be interesting to know for sure what its fate is/was.

There is another PCB that was in the UK. A guy on Jamma+ owned it in 2008 but he ended up selling it:

Link

Same markings on the board TNX1, TPP-1C
 
Best explanation I've seen to date, and I'm good with it. I've never seen him not stop for a picture or brush off a single fan, and I've spent some time with him at this point. He's a stand-up guy.

You know, one day i was playing pacman and i looked over at my little pacman figurine and then it hit me, the reason billy does the thumbs up
 
Well I was at the panel and Whitney showed off a prototype of an add in board to convert Popeye to Sky Skipper. I would assume the art would be sold after that is available. Richard Lint of this old game is the one who helped reproduce it.

If you want to try to find one of the eight lost boards you are looking for the code TNX-01 screen printed on the board set. Since the originals were factory modded to run Popeye it's time to look at those.

While it would be neat to find another board it wouldn't do you much good. It would still have to be deconverted back to Sky Skipper. And the one guy who knows how to do that said he won't.
 
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