ScuzzBlog: Diaries December 2021
Entry 15th December 2021: Post 1: Paperboy on Easy Street.
Paperboy on Easy Street.
You may have noticed on an inlay card for the image of MusicMaker
a promotion for the game Paperboy. The image was actually taken
from the original advert for the arcade cabinet version. This got
me thinking about all the games I have that I have truly never
gotten into. Paperboy has to be one of the most prolific games I
have here spanning so many platforms and yet it was never appealing.
The original game by Atari and Midway games in 1985 was designed
for the Arcade cabinet machines. It would have included a pair of
handlebars on the cabinet to give the feel of riding a bike. Whilst
the joy of delivering newspapers on a bike whilst avoiding obstacles
on an arcade machine may have been appealing, I really never found
the video game as fun to play. I wouldn't have gone as far as Amiga
Format's comment ' Mindless gameplay is about as challenging as
sitting down. Just ' [ Paperboy 2 ], but it was not a game that I
felt warranted porting to so many platforms.
Interestingly the various ports are not the same and the graphics
vary quite considerably with each rendition. I was quite fascinated
by the differences and played it on Amstrad Green and full colour
and C64 black and white and full colour on the 1701. I really was
so bored at the close that I resisted playing on the Amiga. And I
was only playing on Easy Street.
If you don't know the game then this features a boy delivering
newspapers to homes of subscribing customers whilst avoiding all
hazards whilst vandalising none subscribing homes. The game lasts
for seven days Monday to Sunday. Each time you crash you lose a
life. And there are three levels of difficulty, Easy Street,
Middle Road and Hard Way.
In 1989 Elite released a version of the game for the Atari ST and
the PC and then later the next month on the Amiga. It was also
released on the Famicom by a company called Altron in 1991. It
also features on the PlayStation 1 Arcades Greatest Hits which I
have for the Atari Collection. It even found its way onto the
Game Boy Color.
In 1992 Paper Boy 2 was released to which Amiga Format asked ' But why?'.
Interestingly the game can be accessed via Lego Dimensions' Arcade Dock.
Anyhoo got me thinking about all those games I bought that for one
reason or another I never played so tomorrow I'll go dig some out.
May take me a while !!
Paperboy on Easy Street.
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