Paperboy (NES)
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Paperboy is an NES port of the arcade game by Atari Games. It was converted to the NES by Nick Eastridge of Eastridge Technology. As a result, it was the first NES game developed in the United States.
Paperboy is a bit of an oddity; it's kind of a mix between a scrolling shooter and a racing game with a theme that many kids can relate to. Peddling your bike down the street, you must toss newspapers onto the porches of your subscribers while trying to avoid the plethora of dangerous obstacles along the sidewalk. Barking dogs, crazy old ladies, break dancers, construction workers, skateboarders, RC cars, run-away tires, tornadoes, sentient lawn-jockeys, and even Death himself will hurl you from your bike onto the ground. You score points as you deliver papers and as you wreak as much havoc as possible onto the houses of non-subscribers.
While the premise of the game is pretty exciting, it is poorly conducted. Controls are downright annoying since turning occurs too slowly to avoid most obstacles, and stopping is impossible. Even the first stage is a chore unless you're an expert at the game. The music and graphics are pretty terrible, and much of the charm of the arcade game (e.g., the colorful graphics and speech) is lost in the downgrade to the Nintendo. While many people have fond memories of the game, once they try it again as an adult their burning hatred is rekindled.
Screenshots
Music
The game features a measly two dull tracks and a short ditty that is played at the end of the training stage--very unimpressive. Although Hal Canon composed the music for the Arcade game, the NES game seems to have a unique set of music. The Japanese version of the game and the game's manual do not have credits. Steven Samler did the NES version commercial's music. An "easter egg" so to speak, in the main in-game music is if you let it play long enough, the second square channel goes off sync with the other channels. This was probably because the music was sequenced. The DefleMask Tracker team managed to fix this issue, it was caused by a single note having a duration of 0 in the second square channel instead of 1 like the first square channel. Since the game lacks credits, we have asked a Mindscape staff member who confirmed that Nick Eastridge did the music. This was Nick's first work for a video game.
Recording
| # | Title | Composer | Arranger | Programmer | Length | Listen | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Paper Route | Hal Canon | Nick Eastridge | Nick Eastridge | 1:09 | Download | |
| 02 | Training | Hal Canon | Nick Eastridge | Nick Eastridge | 0:41 | Download | |
| 03 | Finished Training | Hal Canon | Nick Eastridge | Nick Eastridge | 0:02 | Download |
Credits
- Ripper: Unknown
- Recorder: Doommaster1994
- Game Credits:
- Not Credited Composer: Hal Canon
- Not Credited Arranger: Nick Eastridge
(Source: Arcade credits, verification from staff; Game lacks credits.)
Ken George, a former Mindscape employee verified Nick Eastridge's involvement with the game's soundtrack.
Game Rip
Ripping NES music is a very arduous process that is beyond the scope of this site.
Releases
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Links
- mobygames.com/game/nes/paperboy - MobyGames.
- gamefaqs.com/nes/563447-paperboy - GameFAQs.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paperboy - Wikipedia.
- [1] - Music fixed by the DefleMask Team.
- Nintendo Entertainment System Games
- Games Released In 1988
- Games Developed By Eastridge Technology
- Games
- Paperboy (NES)
- Games By Hal Canon
- Games By Nick Eastridge
- Games Without Credits
- Games That Use NSF
- Games Released In USA
- Games Published By Mindscape
- Games Released In UK
- Games Released In Japan
- Games Published By Altron
