Paperboy

Paperboy was published by Atari games in 1984. It began as an arcade game but over time spread to many other platforms. In the game, you play as a paperboy who delivers newspapers along a route through a suburban area full of obstacles.

Also:

• • Published by: Elite Systems, Inc.

  • Developed by: Atari Games

• Designer:John Salwitz, Dave Ralston, Russel Dawe

  • Platform:Atari System 2

  • Year Released:1984

  • Significant Contributors to Game Development: Doug Snyder, Hal Canon, Will Noble

  • Genre: Platform

  • Other Games in Series: Paperboy II, Paperboy (1999, Nintendo 64)

History

The games release to the arcades was marked by an inovative control system that allowed the player to use handlebars to control the bike. In 1986 Atari Games was sued by Mark Caesar and Robin Hallingstad, claiming that the idea had been stolen from them.

Game Design Elements

The game begins with ten subscribed houses and ten unsubscribed houses. Put simply, your goal is to deliver the papers to the subscribed houses and trash the unsubscribed houses. If you fail to deliver to any of your subscribers or damage your subscribers property, you lose that subscriber. In contrast, if you successfully deliver to all of the subscribers, one of the unsubscribed houses will subscribe. Be mindful about how you play though, losing your lives by hitting the many obstacles or losing all of your subscribers means game over.

Gameplay

As the player, you control the paperboy and his bicycle. Besides your trusty bike, you carry a payload of 10 newspapers which can be either delivered to the subscribed houses or used as missiles to break the many elements the decorate the unsubscribed houses. You are able to resupply your paper supply by running over stacks of bound newspapers.

Controls

The controls are simple. You can move left or right to avoid obstacles, accelerate and decelerate to line up shots, and you can throw newspapers.

Plot

Deliver newspapers

Characters

The paperboy is simply a paperboy; he does his job and "sells" the subscriptions. Besides the player character though, there's a cast of other characters including construction workers, skateboarders, people doing yoga (as far i can tell), and angry subscribers. Along with the human characters there are stray tires, dogs, cars, bees, drainage grates, fire hydrants, lawn mowers, drunks, forces of nature, and death himself.

Art

Visual

The game is played in a cabinet perspective in order to see the targets and obstacles somewhat ahead of the player, without limiting his vision of is paper targets. There are more than just one model of house, and the houses are colored by whether they are subscribed or not subscribed. the curb rendered in the game is functional; you either ride on one side of it or the other. Many of the decorative objects on the houses have states of repair and states of disrepair. The player character has several states and animations: turning left, turning right, throwing, pedaling, and crashing. All of the characters have their own animations. The start menu is made to be styled like a tabloid print. As well as the GAME OVER screens.

Sound

The game is a bit sparse when it comes to sound. There's a sound when you break something, deliver a paper, crash, and -in the case that you lose all of your subscribers- a voice that yells "you're fired".

In the arcade version, there are number of voice overs included in the game, several of them in response to the players actions and few voice over commentaries.

References

• "Paperboy - Videogame by Atari Games." KLOV. International Arcade Museum, Web. 23 Feb 2010. <http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8977>.

• Bousiges, Alexis. "paperboy video game, atari games (1984)." Arcade-History.com. 18 feb 2010. Web. 23 Feb 2010. <http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=paperboy&page=detail&id=1935>.

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