Sky Skipper

Sky Skipper (スカイ・スキッパー, Sukai Sukippā) is a 1981 arcade game by Nintendo R&D1. Some sources assert that Ikegami Tsushinki also did design work on the game. The game's look and feel is very similar to Popeye which was released the following year, suggesting that the same development team were involved in both releases. It was released in three types of arcade cabinets: Up-right, Small Up-right/Cabarat and Cocktail. It was later ported to the Atari 2600 by Parker Bros. in 1983. The arcade version was rumored to be released only in Japan but cannot be proven and is now speculated was never released, while the Atari 2600 version was released only in North America.

Today, this is a rare cabinet, as many of the original Sky Skipper boards were converted into the better selling Popeye game. Recently, there was success in un-modding these back to the original game. The story of this project, and footage from the game is online. Additionally an attempt to recreate two entire cabinets (one in the UK and one in the US) using the boards is underway.