Play Paperboy Online

Summary

The NES version of Paperboy arrived in December 1988, built by Eastridge Technology and put out by Mindscape after a last‑minute swap at Summer CES 1988. It later crossed the Atlantic in March 1991 for the UK market.

On screen you ride a bike through an isometric suburban street of twenty houses, ten of which are paying subscribers, and you must toss papers onto porches or into mailboxes while dodging cars, skateboarders, dogs, breakdancers and even rolling tires. Paper supplies are finite, so you pick up bundles on the ground, and after each route a training course offers unlimited papers and target practice. The game spans seven levels, each representing a day of the week, with the heaviest bundles on Sunday.

Audio was handled by two POKEY chips, a Yamaha YM2151 for music and a TI TMS5220 for speech; Hal Canon composed the tunes, while programmer Peter Thompson and Don Trager supplied the voice‑over.

Critics were split: Mean Machines slammed the graphics, sound and controls, whereas AllGame praised the control feel and sound effects but noted the music fell flat.

Storyline

In Paperboy you step into the shoes of a suburban newspaper carrier for The Daily Sun. Each day you ride along a typical American neighborhood, aiming the paper at bright‑colored houses that belong to subscribers. You must toss the sheets onto front porches or into mailboxes while steering clear of moving cars, skateboarders and rolling tires.

Points are awarded for every successful delivery, and you even earn bonus points for hitting non‑subscriber homes or striking obstacles with a paper. The game is divided into seven levels, one for each day of the week, from Monday through Sunday. On Sundays the papers are heavier and travel more slowly, making timing trickier.

Missing a subscriber’s house or damaging it can cause the resident to cancel their subscription, while a flawless route adds new subscribers and boosts your bonuses. The blend of precise aiming and obstacle avoidance defines the quirky charm of Paperboy.