Paperboy is an arcade action game developed and published by Atari Games and Midway Games, and released in 1985. The player takes the role of a paperboy who delivers a fictional newspaper called The Daily Sun along a street on his bicycle. The arcade version of the game featured bike handlebars as the controller. The game was ported to many home systems beginning in 1986. A sequel for home computers and consoles, Paperboy 2, was released in 1991.
Paperboy (NES version)
The player controls a paperboy on a bicycle delivering newspapers along a suburban street which is displayed in a cabinet perspective (or oblique projection) view. The player attempts to deliver a week of daily newspapers to subscribing customers, attempts to vandalize non-subscribers' homes and must avoid hazards along the street. Subscribers are lost by missing a delivery or damaging a subscriber's house. If the player loses all of their lives, or runs out of subscribers, the game ends.
The game begins with a choice of difficulty levels: Easy Street, Middle Road and Hard Way. The object of the game is to perfectly deliver papers to subscribers for an entire week and avoid crashing (which counts as one of the player's lives) before the week ends. The game lasts for seven in-game days, Monday through Sunday.
Controlling the paperboy with the handlebar controls, the player attempts to deliver newspapers to subscribers. Each day begins by showing an overview of the street indicating subscribers and non-subscribers. Subscribers and non-subscribers' homes are easy to discern in the level itself, with subscribers living in brightly colored houses, and non-subscribers living in dark houses.
The player scores points for each paper delivered successfully, either at a subscriber's doorstep or inside their mailbox, the latter of which awards more points, as well as breakage points by damaging the houses of non-subscribers. A perfect delivery, with all subscribers get their papers, and none of their houses are damaged, results in all the points being worth double for that day, and an extra subscriber is added. At the end of each stage is a training course with various obstacles to throw papers at which gives bonus points and to jump over, and the player scores a bonus for finishing the course. Crashing on the course ends the round, but does not cost the player a life.
When a player fails to deliver a paper to a house, or damages a subscriber's house by breaking their windows, the resident will cancel their subscription, and the house turns dark. The player can regain subscribers by getting a perfect delivery, which adds one extra subscriber.
The paperboy can hold no more than ten papers at once, although refills can be found throughout the level. The papers can be used to stun enemies, with the exception of cars.
More details about this game can be found on
Wikipedia.org.
Find digital download of this game on
GOG
or
Steam.
Game controls:
The NES version of Paperboy was originally controlled via the NES controller with a cross-shaped joypad and two action buttons. The basic description of game controls is summarized in the table below. Detailed description of how to play this game can be found a in the attached game manual. Please note that individual
gamepad buttons are emulated by different keys on your PC keyboard depending on the settings of your online emulator (see the table next to the game).
Press up or down arrow to accelerate or decelerate. Press left or right to move in corresponding direction.
Press the A (or B) button to throw a paper.
The same function as the A button.
Press Select on the title screen menu to select between a one or two player game.
Press Start to begin a new game or to pause the action mid-game.
Videogame Console:
This version of Paperboy was designed for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), which was an eight-bit video game console manufactured
by Nintendo in the years 1983 - 2003. In that time, it was the best-selling video game console for which more than 700 licensed games and a number of non-licensed
games were created. Worldwide, approximately 62 million units of this console were sold at approximately price $ 100 per unit. More information about the
NES console can be found here.
Recommended Game Controllers:
You can control this game easily by using the keyboard of your PC (see the table next to the game). However, for maximum gaming enjoyment, we strongly recommend using a USB gamepad that you simply plug into the USB port of your computer. If you do not have a gamepad, buy a suitable USB controller on Amazon or AliExpress or in some of your favorite online stores.
Available online emulators:
6 different online emulators are available for Paperboy. These emulators differ not only in the technology they use to emulate old games, but also in support of various game controllers, multiplayer mode, mobile phone touchscreen, emulation speed, absence or presence of embedded ads and in many other parameters. For
maximum gaming enjoyment, it's important to choose the right emulator, because on each PC and in different Internet browsers, the individual emulators behave differently. The basic
features of each emulator available for this game Paperboy are summarized in the following table:
If you like Paperboy you'll probably like also some of the similar games in the overview below. The games you see here
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This version of Paperboy was designed for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), which was an eight-bit video game console manufactured
by Nintendo in the years 1983 - 2003. In that time, it was the best-selling video game console for which more than 700 licensed games and a number of non-licensed
games were created. Worldwide, approximately 62 million units of this console were sold at approximately price $ 100 per unit. More information about the
NES console can be found 
