Sky Skipper not on MAME

[Scott Stilphen]

It seems nobody has dumped the ROMS for this obscure 1982 Nintendo game yet. KLOV doesn't even have pictures of the cabinet, and the only home conversion seems to be the 2600 one. Has anyone ever seen/played the arcade game?

[liveinabin]

Sky skipper - that was the prototype for Donkey Kong wasn't it. I've had a look around, it only exists as a proto rom and not, unfortunately, in the public domain - I hope it's not owned by anyone from Nintendo, or it'll never reach the emulation community.

[liveinabin]

1982? Unless there is another Sky skipper, haven't played the VCS game.

[liveinabin]

Ah, there ARE 2 sky skippers, the Atari one was a Parker original. the Nintendo one was an unreleased 1981 rom.

Probably completely different games

[Inky]

I think the Parker one is the same as the Nintendo, as I recall the Nintendo copyright in the PArker Brothers ads.

[Scott Stilphen]

The Parker Brothers game is a port of the Nintendo game - note that it has PB's "Arcade Game Series" logo on it, and catalog entries (as well as the packaging) credit Nintendo Of America. Although PB's footnotes often list a ©1982 NoA date, I'm pretty sure that this game was made in 1981.

 

I saw someone else refer to this as a Donkey Kong "prototype", though I'm not sure what this means as it is nothing like Donkey Kong

. Maybe this was a limited-release game that, like Radarscope, was converted to Donkey Kong?

 

I'm curious to see what this game looks like. Early PB catalogs show a different screen arrangement, depicting the game as a horizontally-scrolling maze. I'm guessing this is how the arcade version is. According to KLOV, the game only has 2 mazes, just like the 2600 version.

[Tempest]

IF you also look at early Parker Brothers catalgos the box art is different than the final version. The Monkey in the proto box is holding a banana instead of a coconut (or whatever that is).

 

Jedi Arena also has different artwork.

 

Tempest

[Adrian M]

While this game came out much later after Sky Skipper's debut, I'm still surprised that the suberb Sega baseball game, CLUTCH HITTER still hasn't been dumped for Mame...

 

I've sent several requests and the answer I get is to find someone who has the game so the roms can be dumped.

[Albert]

Huh, I didn't even know Sky Skipper was derived from an (unreleased) arcade game, much less one created by Nintendo. Unfortunately, if it hasn't surfaced already I wouldn't hold out much hope of it ever showing up. Although, since Parker Brothers programmed 2600 version, they must have had access to the arcade game. I bet Nintendo was pretty good about getting back all loaned materials, unlike other companies we know and love (*cough*Atari*cough*).

 

As for released arcade games, are there that many that either haven't been dumped or don't yet work in MAME?

 

..Al

[Hakogame 箱亀]

Is THIS the site you were looking for, Scot?

I hope that someday soon somebody dumps the roms to UPL's Friday. I'd love to see

Bouncer too.

 

[ 01-30-2002: Message edited by: Raccoon Lad ]

[Scott Stilphen]

Thanks Raccoon, that's it. So much for the power of Google

[Scott Stilphen]

I never saw a Sky Skipper machine before, but until now I had no idea just how obscure this game really is. I did come across a site about "unMAMEd games - http://unmamed.unemulated.com/ - but it's down.

 

There is a letter at the Classic Gaming site from someone who claims to have worked at Nintendo of America years ago, and said they had one in their break room.

 

A list of arcade prototypes on this site lists Sky Skipper as the only Nintendo title, and simply says "prototype for Donkey Kong, 1981".

 

This article%20on%20the%20history%20of%20Nintendo%20confirms%20that%20this%20game%20was%20before%20Donkey%20Kong.%20%20According%20to%20them,%20Nintendo%20had%20produced%20a%20few%20arcade%20games%20(starting%20in%201980)%20before%20Donkey%20Kong-%20Helifire,%20Sheriff,%20Sky%20Skipper,%20and%20Radarscope%20(which%20later%20was%20converted%20to%20Donkey%20Kong).%20%20Here's%20another%20"history" target="_blank">article. Spies has a list of arcade games with release dates, though they list Sky Skipper after Donkey Kong, so I'm not sure if these are 100% correct.

 

It seems the only reason Parker Brothers did a home version was due to a deal they struck with Nintendo in order to get the home rights for Popeye.

 

I emailed Videotopia for any info. If I find out anything else I'll post it here.

[Scott Stilphen]

Another magazine mention - Video Games January 83, page 56. In an interview with Richard Sterns, he mentions that Nintendo decided not to produce Sky Skipper in the States, but PB decided to make the home cart anyway.

[Scott Stilphen]

Came across an article about Sky Skipper in Videogaming Illustrated, July 83 issue.