paperboy

Paperboy is a classic arcade game originally released by Atari in 1985. The player controls a paperboy navigating a suburban street on a bicycle, delivering newspapers to subscribers' homes. The game is viewed from a top-down perspective, with the player steering the bike left or right while avoiding obstacles and managing the delivery of papers. The goal is to deliver as many papers as possible to subscribing households and earn bonus points for executing difficult throws or hitting targets.

Obstacles include various hazards such as roaming dogs, garden gnomes, lawn sprinklers, cars, and even skateboarders. Colliding with these obstacles or failing to deliver a paper to a subscriber results in a loss of points or lives. The game features a day and night cycle, with different challenges presented in each. Successful deliveries increase the subscriber count, while failures decrease it. The game ends when the player runs out of lives. Paperboy was praised for its innovative gameplay mechanics and challenging nature, becoming a popular title in arcades and later ported to various home consoles. Its distinctive gameplay loop of dodging obstacles while performing a timed delivery task set it apart from many other arcade games of its era.