Midway Games are gone but not forgotten. They gave us many classics, including titles such as Smash TV, Mortal Kombat, Root Beer Tapper and of course Paperboy.
Paperboy was an arcade game that I'd spend many hours playing on my dad's Amstrad CPC 464+ but it has hit other platforms. It made an appearance in the Midway Arcade Treasures collection on Playstation 2 and XBOX and at one point was available on the XBOX Live Arcade Marketplace.
The premise was incredibly simple, you play as a paperboy who has to deliver the daily paper to subscribers while damaging non-subscriber's property in the hope that you've coaxed them into a sale. The more houses you can deliver too, the more points you gained to beating the games high scores.
It wasn't all that easy however, as the people that didn't want your paper would do everything in their power to prevent you from making your daily rounds. Such hazards thrown at you included cars, cats, dogs, burglars, hobo's and much more. Needless to say, it was a very competitive street.
The game had three modes of play, you could choose from Easy Street, Middle Road or Hard Way. Each one was progressively harder than the last, leading to some zany going's on in whichever street you chose to deliver on.
Upon almost completing a level, your tasked with undertaking an assault course where you can gain extra points by hitting targets and surviving all the way to the end. Finishing the training course and delivering all of the papers can often lead to new subscribers.
I played the game when I was quite young (around 8 years old) so my memory of the Amstrad version is quite hazy but when I seen the game for sale on XBOX Live I had to grab it as it's a slice of nostalgia for me.
I was always rubbish at the game but that wasn't the point. It was just plain fun and the prospect of smashing up people's windows was an intriguing idea at the time. I'd spend countless hours playing Paperboy (after the 40 minutes loading from the tape) and it's still one of my favourite games. Midway were on to a winner when they made this game and I'd always been left wanting more.
It's just a shame that it's no longer available on the XBOX Live Arcade Marketplace. There's always the possibility of picking up the original arcade cabinet if you're lucky or you could opt for finding a copy of Midway Arcade Treasures.
