Paperboy is one of those odd videogames from the 80’s that isn’t about aliens, vampires, monsters or mushroom kingdoms. This is a game about completing a week’s paper round. Of course there’s more to it, but that is the basic premise. In 1984 Atari created this arcade game where you guide a nameless paper delivery boy on his bicycle from one end of the street to the other end, avoiding hazards and striving for that perfect delivery, over seven days/levels.

Hi, I’m flyingdelorean81 (not my real name, just a callsign, although I realise it’s not quite up to Top Gun standard), I’m new to the site and looking forward to sharing some articles on retro gaming with you in the future. I’ve got a passion for the NES, SNES and Megadrive, so I’ll be poping up every now and then with a nugget or two of retro goodness. Here’s the first one ‘Paperboy’, hope you like it!

I never had a paper round as a kid. Maybe that’s why I’ve been drawn to this game – to increase my life experience and better myself as a person. When I first got into retro gaming, I was most interested in revisiting games from my youth. Paperboy was one such game; I remember playing it for hours with friends, and the simple but unique visuals have been imprinted on my brain ever since. I was never fortunate enough to play the arcade cabinet with the handlebar controls; I have only been able to sample a few console versions so far. My favourite version, by far, is the NES port (released in 1988). You may wonder why, as other systems were capable of better graphics. I may be biased, as I’m a big fan of Nintendo’s original Entertainment System, but the NES version of the game is so playable that the dated, simplistic graphics and music can easily be forgiven, and actually add to the charm of the game.

Ginger skaters… the bane of Paperboy’s life

The only problem with the NES version of Paperboy is the NES itself. The hardware hasn’t aged too well, and each time I want to load up Paperboy I can expect to spend a good 5 to 10 minutes taking the cartridge out of the load slot, re-inserting it in a slightly different way and hitting the power button in hopes of seeing that newspaper title screen, without any garbled text strewn across the screen. Like I said, this is not the game’s fault, it’s mainly down to the fact that I’m too lazy to get the cartridge connectors in the console replaced. I have this problem with most of my NES games, but for some reason my Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt cart always loads up first time, every time. Hmmm.

So once the chore of getting the game working is done, you feel like you’ve earned some quality paper delivery time and you’re literally aching to play it. Now you’ve got to decide on 1 or 2 players, but this should be simple once you realise everyone else is off playing PS3 and you’re the only nutjob playing 25 year old consoles! I’m just kidding, there are loads of us about, you just have to look for us in the darkest corners of the internet. The only other choice you have to worry about is the difficulty level: Easy Street, Middle Road or Hard Way. For me, the answer is always Easy Street, as the other two are pretty much IMPOSSIBLE. Hardcore gamers may disagree, but personally I’ve still not managed to finish Easy Street, so I’m sticking with that.

Beat Street: A common sight in the suburbs
- a man breakdancing on his driveway

Each level starts with a summary of houses in the neighbourhood: subscribers and non-subscribers. Or to you and I, friends and sworn enemies. Your job as the Paperboy is to distribute papers to the subscribers and vandalise the houses of the non-subrscribers, whilst avoiding numerous hazards. If you manage to deliver to all the subscribers (a perfect delivery), you will win over a non-subscriber who, having seen your sterling work, will become a subscriber. Despite the fact that you smashed all his windows with papers that day.

So far so simple. Unfortunately there are many obstacles for our fearless protagonist to overcome. There are obvious dangers that cyclists the world over can relate to – cars, dogs, drains and pedestrians for example. The genius of this game is that it isn’t afraid to shock you with things you wouldn’t expect a paperboy to encounter on a daily basis. Monday starts off quite tame, with little getting in your way, but by Wednesday you’ll be getting battered by tornadoes, go-karts, annoying ginger skateboarders, breakdancers (although with the limited NES graphics it just looks like a bloke on his back with leg spasms) and even the Grim Reaper. He’s probably the worst Grim Reaper ever though, as he just steps out in your path and is very easy to avoid. It’s those inconsiderate ginger skateboarders you need to worry about. Cars can also be troublesome, as the camera view doesn’t let you see them until the last second, and the paperboy has an annoying inability to get up kerbs. Well some would call it annoying, I call it a “quirk”.

If you manage to reach the end of a level, you’re rewarded with a training course. Traditionalists may prefer to train for an event before competing, but Atari have once more turned the rule book upside down with their post-delivery training method. I like to view this as just a wind down after a hard day’s work, where you get to throw papers at targets and make jumps to get extra points. If you crash here it doesn’t take a life away so go nuts with it. Go on!

Any unfortunate collisions in the main game however, will result in the loss of a life, which is hardly surprising since our hero thinks it’s cool to cycle on main roads and paths without wearing a helmet. Lose three lives and you’ll be presented with a newspaper with the headline “Paperboy Calls It Quits!” I find this amusing, as that was the most interesting headline they could think up in a neighbourhood that receives visits from tornadoes and Death himself on the regular.

Death: Overrated

Like I said, I’ve never completed this game. The farthest I’ve gotten is to Friday. The limited number of lives and the random nature of the obstacles can make the game frustrating, but it always leaves you feeling like you can improve on your last go, which gives it a lot of replayability value. The game has a high score table, but don’t bother taking the time to enter your name… the next time you hit the power button it will be wiped. Remember, you’re not playing Xbox 360 or PS3 now, you’re in 1988! There’s no battery backup on this cart for high scores, let alone saved games!

Paperboy 2 was later released on systems such as the SNES and Sega Megadrive, but didn’t add a great deal to proceedings other than improved graphics, a Papergirl (Paperboy with long hair), houses on the other side of the street (wow), the ability to jump (ok, that’s actually quite useful) and more bizarre obstacles (strange arm coming out of the drain anyone?). For me however, the original will always be best.