Prepare to be amazed as fate, luck, and sheer determination collide in the most incredible quest to uncover the gaming world’s hidden treasure. Meet Alex Crowley, an ordinary retro enthusiast turned hero in the world of gaming history, as he stumbles upon the legendary lost relic: Sky Skipper, the rarest Nintendo game ever created.

Sky Skipper, a forgotten 1980s Nintendo arcade game, was the brainchild of none other than Shigeru Miyamoto, the genius behind Super Mario Bros., and hardware developer Genyo Takeda. Surprisingly, this game, now hailed as a collector’s gem, was a commercial flop for Nintendo due to its unclear objectives, confusing gameplay, and lack of fun.

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What’s even more astonishing is that Nintendo of America repurposed the game’s circuit board to create another title, Popeye, in 1982. Sky Skipper was seemingly lost forever until a mysterious ROM upload to MAME, an open-source arcade emulator, in 2002 breathed new life into this forgotten masterpiece.

The tale takes an unexpected twist in 2015 when Alex Crowley stumbles upon a Popeye circuit board at a Swedish auction, one that once housed the elusive Sky Skipper. However, with only one board in hand, reversing the engineering process seemed impossible.

But here’s where destiny intervenes again. Crowley’s quest leads him and his friends to explore old arcade warehouses, where they miraculously discover another Popeye board, bearing the enigmatic code TNX01, matching the Swedish find. With the help of engineer Mark Whiting, the duo embarked on an arduous journey, deciphering every chip’s function and bypassing security measures to resurrect Sky Skipper.

Crowley’s determination didn’t stop there. Using an old Popeye cabinet as a reference, he painstakingly recreated the original Sky Skipper cabinet, while also enlisting the support of American collector Whitney Roberts, who purchased the Swedish board. Fate intervened once more when Roberts crossed paths with Billy Mitchell, the legendary Donkey Kong champion, and a connection with Nintendo of America’s Don James was established.

By the end of 2016, Roberts was standing in Nintendo’s Redmond campus, gazing upon the legendary Sky Skipper cabinet. High-quality scans of the cabinet aided Crowley’s restoration project, and it was confirmed that both collectors possessed authentic artifacts.

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And the final twist in this extraordinary journey? Enter Julian Eggebrecht, a developer at Factor 5 and yet another retro enthusiast. While working on Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2: Rogue Leader for the Gamecube, Eggebrecht had borrowed the Sky Skipper cabinet from Nintendo back in 2001. Unbelievably, a chance discovery led him to Genyo Takeda, who possessed the original files for Sky Skipper, allowing Eggebrecht to restore the machine.

In a strange twist of fate, Eggebrecht also managed to download the Sky Skipper ROM, though he remains clueless about how it found its way onto MAME – in the very same year that he had the cabinet.

And now, for the grand finale – you can play Sky Skipper on the Nintendo Switch! Nintendo, in an unexpected turn of events, has packaged this lost treasure under the Arcade Archives brand, launching it digitally for the handheld platform in 2018.

Prepare to be astonished as this incredible journey unfolds, revealing the rarest Nintendo game ever and the extraordinary people who made it possible. Click here to witness the magic and play Sky Skipper on Nintendo Switch today!

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