The History of Paperboy - Arcade Console documentary

happy happy little games hey everybody just a quick reminder that if you enjoy this content or any of my videos be sure and leave a like it helps support the channel and allows my videos to move it on up with YouTube's algorithm thanks again let me just say growing up during the Golden Age of arcades was a fantastic time arcade Gam were literally everywhere from gas stations to laundromats to carnivals looking back on that era brings a tear to my eye in a great big dose of nostalgia that runs from my head to my virtual toes it was basically the Wild Wild West when it came to video game design and usually there were no limits designers were Taking Chances and the creativity was off the charts all you had to do was walk into an arcade back in the day and you would see not only visually pleasing games but also some pretty unique controls for example you had the beer sing game Tapper which used an actual beer tap to dispense drinks and the various driving games that used a wheel and foot pedals such as APB if there was ever an arcade title that encapsulated the 1980s that looked no further than the game paper boy this fantastic isometric paper delivery game had incredible ly detailed pixel art iconic audio and an actual handlebar that you use to serve as many houses as you could the game proved to be a classic which is why we are still talking about it almost 40 years later what arcade game inspired the design of this game why did the game take two years to complete so grab your BMX and get ready to Pedal faster than you ever have before because this is the history of paper boy the year is 1982 and Atari game designers John salwitz and Dave Ralston are hard at work at atari's weekly beer party after coming into work the next day they discovered a Tapper that was not quite tapped out after dispensing a few tasty beverages they did some brainstorming it was at this moment that everything clicked Ralston had produced a number of storyboards that showed a projection of an entire street that very same day they ended up literally populating around 60 to 70% of where all the characters and objects in the game would end up the original design and perspective came from the isometric game zon which Ralston recalls had a fresh and unique perspective this helped it stand out from all the other arcade games at the time the idea for using the paper delivery Motif came from ralston's real life portrayal as a real life paper boy he had grown up as the baby of a family of five where each of the five boys all were paper boys according to Mr Ralston the one thing I can remember about those days is driving around as a family and seeing newspapers on roofs and bushes and stuff not everyone was a good paper boy in real life and I think that was at the heart of the idea I just thought it would be an interesting twist for a game while they had a great idea and a cool fresh take it couldn't be conceived until a couple of years later the extra time proved beneficial to the actual game itself since during that time a number of extra enhancements came along including the introduction of the system to board this particular board also played host to a number of other classic Atari games such as super Sprint 720° and APB despite the graphics and animation being created with very primitive tools everything came together and looks great each little object seems to have their own unique personality and one of the cool aspects of the game especially back in the day was seeing how far into it you could get and what new objects you could discover despite it looking like a mishmash of things thrown together the developers were very deliberate when and where they put these objects you had everything from a hearse oncoming traffic dogs burglars break dancers bone boxes drunks the Grim Reaper and more originally though things were a bit more bizarre the first few iterations of the game saw a number of things such as runaway pianos giant snails and even speed boats going down the road with these bizarre characters there was one in particular that the test Market absolutely loved the testers were a bit lukewarm to the random obstacles but were drawn toward literally an old woman pushing a shopping cart according to Mr Ralston one thing we observed from sitting in the test arcade for hours on end watching players was that everyone was lining up to go for granny that was the one character that everyone wanted to nail once you started dropping in more real characters bullies wos burglar Etc the game really took off thanks to the multitude of interactive objects it was always a blast seeing what you could tip over or break with your weapon of mass destruction thanks to the 2year development time the game was Focus tested numerous times before it was eventually revealed to the public originally the game used a standard eight-way joystick controller but the general public did not like it at all it was at this point they decided to try something a little more unique and that came in the form of actual handlebars Mr Ralston thinks it was the unique perspective that confused players when using the joystick Atari games were known for its non-standard control system such as the track ball for marble Madness the Yol controller for Star Wars and of course the steering wheels for all the various driving games the handlebars were basically a Star Wars Yol controller that was modified for paper boy and was designed by melt Loper who worked for atari's mechanical shop the handlebars themselves had to be strong and resistant in order to put up with the constant pounding that any snotty 12-year-old kid would give it after a few iterations of the controller it was good to go one person who was often forgotten in the success of this game was atari's marketing rep Don Trager he understood the game and helped the team realize their vision and also turn it into the fun game that we know and love today something else that people fondly remember in this game are the number of voice samples provided by our paper boy and total there are over 2 minutes of voice clips from our freckle-faced hero oh wow that's right yes that's so good whoa where am I in actuality The Voice belongs to marketing rep Don Trager as development progressed on the game the team realized they had a hit on their hands because during lunch other Rari employees would drift over and play the game often times interrupting their work just so they could have one more play one thing the devs wanted to include was the ability to play as a paper girl unfortunately at this point they were out of memory so they were stuck with only one playable character the team struggled with certain aspects of the game including getting paper boy throwing animation just right other things that couldn't be included were proper physics and motion that would see newspapers bounce off walls despite numerous months of play testing a bug was discovered that allowed massive points to be obtained if you move on the right side of the screen at just the right point you can totally bypass the obstacle course allowing you to Rack a point of [Music] Mundo the original mockup for the arcade cabinet look quite a bit different than what we eventually received one of these even survived as you you can see in this photo the actual cabinet itself looks to be a bit generic as the Prototype has nice graphics and color of our Freckle faed hero also thanks to the 2-year development process was the innovation in its display technology at the time typical raster-based arcade games used a resolution of 320x 240 pixels Hardware engineer Doug Snider created a new medium resolution monitor that could display pixels at a resolution of 512x 384 nothing groundbreaking by today's standards but at the time is what helped atari's Graphics look so much better than everything else another cool feature is that the player does have a choice you are allowed to either be a good paper boy who makes all of his deliveries and doesn't smash anything or a r paper boy that knocks over tombstones and breaks Windows this was also one of the first games that had an actual ending which did not go over too well with the higher ups at Atari paper boy was delivered into the arcades by Atari in 1984 as The Story Goes you are a young paper boy living in the Blissful town of Suburbia the object of the game is to deliver copies of the newspaper the Daily Sun to the various customers on the street using your bicycle the game starts off with you having the option of choosing from three different streets all ranging in various levels of difficulty they are Easy Street which is where I met my wife Middle Road which is the medium difficulty and hard way which is the most difficult as I mentioned the goal of the game is to deliver as many papers as you can to all your various customers you control your paper boy with the provided handlebar steering left and right and adjusting the speed by pushing forward and back you have a fire button to launch them which requires you to hit either the door mat or throw it directly into the mailbox for a nice little bonus littered throughout the streets are black non-customer houses which do not require any deliveries with these houses comes something else that was truly a stroke of Genius and that is you can do an excessive amount of damage to these properties whether it's breaking glass or knocking over tombstones the more damage you do the more points you receive you have to be careful though because if you accidentally damage one of your customer's properties then they will cancel their subscription subscriptions can also be cancelled if you fail to deliver a paper keep in mind though you can only hold 10 newspapers at a time but there are stacks of extra newspapers lying around which will replenish your stash as if properly delivering these newspapers weren't hard enough there are a number of obstacles that you have to avoid anything and everything you would expect from strolling down a busy Suburban Street will be in your way including some rather peculiar Oddities you have everything from radio controlled cars men on unicycles burglars shopping carts Volkswagen bugs a hearse the Grim Reaper men fighting break dancers and more something else to keep in mind is that if you ride too slow a swarm of bees will chase you forcing you to ride faster each day is split into two sections and at the end of the second part you will head straight into the obstacle course you have to hit a number of targets with your papers jump ramps avoid holes and cross the finish line Before Time runs out if you crash your bike or time Runs Out you do not receive any bonus points however if you do cross the finish line you'll receive a bonus and proceed to the next day keep in mind that if you are at the bottom of the rung in terms of delivering papers and all of your customers are cancelled then the game is over if you successfully manage to deliver a paper to each one of your customers you are awarded a bonus if all of the papers are delivered perfectly to each house the player receives double points for each subscriber for each Street there are seven pages one for each day of the week on Sunday the last day the newspapers appear to be heavier and do not travel as fast when thrown if you successfully deliver all the papers on all seven days a special feature pops up with a headline that reads paper boy wins award for outstanding paper delivery at which point the game is [Music] over [Music] wow that's [Music] red the pixel art is fantastic and the game just oozes with personality the game play is fast and Incredibly intense especially the later into the game you get objects will pop up without much of a warning either crashing into your paper boy or forcing you to crash into something else with that being said the game is still a lot of fun to play and very addicting the music and sound effects are great and I was amazed to learned that there were over 2 minutes of voice clips in the game I knew there were quite a few but I didn't realize how many until I actually sat down and listened to them I'm going to include these since many of you may not have heard heard these especially without the music in the background there are even a couple of cool Ghostbusters and punchout references feel free to fast forward if you like you realize of course this use War okay now I'm mad I been sliming uhoh oh wow that's what I get that's so good who where am I boy what a headache just one of those days sometimes I hate this job what a jerk I am oh no that's no fair that's not my fault oh man that's gous I live a life of danger no oh wow awesome toss what a great toss now you have a friend in the paper business that's rad am I great or what that's casual got it right in the mailbox delivery with a smile all right I need glasses sorry about that one last customer send me the bill does this mean no tip don't tell my boss sorry it's sliit I didn't mean it not again oh it's you again there I go again I knew that would happen what a surprise I can't believe I did that whoa I think I got to change my shorts hey be get off my face does this mean you don't love me anymore I think she's mad try that again and I'll fight you nice Dy bad dog that's kind of big isn't it hey I know that dud let's see a hang I hate that kid got any cookies in there man that guy is wasted hey nice M hey are you busy yet right blow body blow uppercut uppercut looking for a passenger don't you add some milk to deliver baby drivers back off you're fired the game proved to be a huge success for the company selling 3500 cabinets at a cost of just over $2,500 the home conversions were also extremely profitable with just the NES version by itself selling 2 million copies these messages we'll be right [Music] [Music] back warning such behavior is irresponsible mature and very foolish we recommend you try it at home paper boy from mindscape for your Nintendo entertainment system with the phenomenal success of the original paper boy on all platforms it was almost a 100% Bonafide guarantee that there would be a sequel paper boy 2 skips arcades completely and was released on a number of home computer platforms and conso the original developers were not involved with this game as this one was brought to us by tingan and released by mindscape this time around you can play as either a paper boy or a paper girl although both characters play the same the game play has been expanded to allow you to deliver newspapers to both sides of the street however this does make the game play a bit more difficult the 16bit versions also allows your character a jump which does come in handy a neat little addition is the two-player mode in which both players take turns on each day and then compete against each other at the same time on the obstacle course there are brand new obstacles and although they have increased in variety most of the charm that was found in the original arcade game is missing the graphics are merly adequate with the 16-bit versions turning out the best the Title Character apparently has had his tongue ripped out because he no longer speaks the game is extremely difficult as the AI is just brutally unfair you have very little time to react when things pop up on the screen however as far as sequels go if the original paper boy was breaking then this game is breaking to Electric bugaloo [Music] a new and improved version was released for the Nintendo 64 in 1999 this takes the tried and true 2D pixel art and transforms it into an ugly 3D monstrosity the develop ERS tried to keep the game playay as true to the arcade original as possible but it just doesn't work in the 3D format the goal is still to deliver papers while avoiding all the various obstacles but it's let down by the horrendous Twitchy controls not only do we have some butt ugly Graphics we also have some rather uninspiring music as well they try to Jazz up the game play just a bit by adding bonus levels and obstacle courses but it's like putting lipstick on a pig this game received merely average reviews by the critics when it was released and rightly so an even uglier and skanker version was due to be released for the original PlayStation but it was cancelled at the last [Music] minute [Music] the original arcade game was released in the compilation Midway Arcade Treasures which was released for the GameCube PlayStation 2 Xbox and windows in 2003 it was also released as part of Midway Arcade Treasures extended play for the PSP in 2005 a two pack was released for the Game Boy Advance which featured paper boy and Rampage while Rampage turned out okay paper boy did not the graphics do not look too shabby but the controls are what lets it down your paper boy kind of scats all over the place making those Precision throws much more difficult than they should be the music is pretty good and some of the paper boy voice samples are present although sometimes he will say the wrong thing even though he successfully makes a delivery very odd indeed the controls in this version are absolutely horrible with your character constantly being pulled to the right also the Collision detection is way off and a lot of times you'll pass right through objects and other times it will say you hit something when you clearly didn't when the game was released it was a budget title for only $20 I guess it's the old adage of you get what you pay for [Music] that's not my fault the arcade game was released on Xbox Live arcade in 2007 paper boy wheels on fire was released for mobile phones in early 2009 this game was incredibly difficult to play due to due to having to use the number pad to control your character it did offer a couple of different options including a challenge mode and a career mode both of them expanding upon the original [Music] concept [Music] paper boy special delivery was released for iOS in 2010 this is an excellent title which updates the graphics and also the controls there is an option to use the Tilt sensor to control your paper boy which works surprisingly well there is now a story mode in which your character has to complete a 20 Lev game in order to save money to buy a brand new game console a lot of the original op obstacles make their return but there are some new ones as well he'll also acquire different skills and abilities to further into the game you progress such as throwing multiple papers at once this was a fantastic update that unfortunately is no longer available the original arcade title could also be played in the video game Lego Dimensions it was also included with a number of other titles in arcade one-ups Midway legacies Edition arcade machine while this game is the actual arcade game running under emulation it is missing the handlebars while the overall arcade cabinet looks great the controls are terrible without the handlebars paper boy made his debut on the big screen in 2012's Wreck-It Ralph in a blink and you miss it Cameo he was also one of the antagonists in the movie pixels which was released in 2015 and of course you know you have a successful IP on your hands when Tiger Electronics comes a calling a number of unofficial remakes have been done over the years including a pretty cool VR version entitled special delivery now let's check out some of the home conversions these were released in 1986 by Elite software they were in charge of the home computer conversions and they ranged wildly from pretty good to pretty rank let's start by taking a look at the BBC version despite the action taking place in a small window the speed of the game is extremely slow I've said it before and I'll say it again it's slower than a turtle fart rather than peddling a fast BMX it feels like you are pedling a tricycle there is no music and very little action on screen in terms of obstacles due to the slow Speed the game play is extremely stiff there was also some weird twitching going on with the main paper boy [Music] [Music] Sprite sticking with british-based computers the Spectrum version is up next this version is similar to the BBC version although the color has been upgraded ever so slightly and our hero has apparently used the same vitamins as Lance Armstrong because the speed is extremely fast the scrolling is fairly smooth and the playability is really good despite only having mostly monochrome colors everything is nicely detailed and does not get lost in the background what is not quite so nice though is the sound there is no music but there are plenty of qu amundo with short sweet blasts at every turn the good old Commodore 64 version is up next and it's merely average at best the game features some rather unattractive expanded Sprites which did not look so great back in 1986 the color palette was also a bit of a faux paw in my opinion with plenty of Grays and Browns to go around certain levels even featured black sidewalks which certainly didn't turn out too well the scrolling though is smooth and the gamep playay is pretty good the iconic piger boy theme has been exchanged for some new Tunes which sounds pretty good but I would have preferred the original if you ever wondered why there wasn't a lot of variety in the obstacles then you wouldn't be the only one there were a number of Sprites that were created but were never used such as the breake dancers cars tornadoes and yes even granny and her shopping [Music] cart [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you ever wanted an uglier slower and choppier version of the commodor 64 Port then you will be pleased as punch to play the Apple 2 version this thing is an Abomination with its purple sidewalk and choppy choppy gameplay there is also absolutely no sound due to the slow scrolling the game play is extremely challenging if the name of your game is pain then this is the game for you sticking with the Apple line let's take a look at the Apple 2gs version this is a slightly more colorful version of The Commodore 64 which considering how much more powerful the system is it's quite the letdown the game features the same expanded unattracted Sprites and the sound is absolutely abysmal while the Commodore 64 is definitely a bit on the duller side when it comes to the pallet the music and controls more than make up for it the Commodore 16 plus4 version turned out absolutely terrible for starters your paper boy looks like he's riding a long neck Harley instead of a bicycle the papers themselves also resemble burritos so possibly he's taking a job with Uber Eats instead to be fair it is fast and it does control fairly well switching over to the PC side here is the amga conversion this turned out to be a rather slick conversion with Graphics that are much more in line with the arcade original the Sprites are nicely detailed and they feature plenty of color the animation is smooth along with the scrolling of the screen which is something other versions had difficulty pulling off the music is fantastic and while our paper boy doesn't have much to say there are plenty of other digitized sound effects straight from the coinops such as the glass breaking and a crazy dog who chases you it controls pretty well even if the handlebars are sorely [Music] missing the Atari St version is up next and it feels like a strip down Omega conversion even though it was probably the other way around the action takes place in a smaller window which was done to help speed up the game playay which obviously doesn't work the scrolling is extremely choppy choppy but at least it still plays pretty good the music is also not as good and there are no digitize samples from the arcade game overall it's not too bad but it could have been a whole lot [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] better let's take a look at the very first Home console version which was released for the NES if you can get past a blocky simplistic Graphics this is a very good version of paper boy while the colors leave a lot to be desired the gameplay itself is pretty spot-on the music is good and it even features some digitized sound effects which always helps enhance the arcade [Music] experience [Music] sticking with the 8 Bits the Sega Master System is a masterpiece the Sprites are detailed and colorful and are animated quite nicely the scrolling of the street is very smooth and the game play is fast however there is no sampled sound as found in the NES version and the music is a bit iffy overall though for an 8bit system this turned out rather [Music] [Applause] [Music] well the Uber sexy Atari Links also produced another fantastic conversion the graphics are nicely detailed and the screen Scrolls at a fairly smooth Pace the music isn't too bad and there are some nice digitized sound effects litter throughout the controls are a bit sticky in spots but overall programmer Al Baker did a bang up job by the way he also converted pit fighter to the links which was another one that turned out really good [Music] as far as the 8-Bit computer ports the amstrad version is the best of the best the graphics are extremely colorful and detailed but unfortunately the camera is zoomed in a bit too close making things difficult to see the scrolling is also a bit on the jerky side but you do tend to get used to it as far as the audio goes there is no sound whatsoever there were actually two versions released for the amstrad with this one having only been released as part of a compilation in Spain supposedly this was the original version that was going to be released by Elite but they decided it wasn't good enough for the Home Market and commissioned a second conversion to be done by a different developer this version is fast and it does have sound it's just too bad your eyeballs will bleed from staring at all those nasty colors the MS dolls version turned out pretty good especially for PC conversions back in the mid 80s it features some colorful EG graphics and fairly smooth scrolling the only problem is that it zoomed in just a bit making things difficult to see it actually looks like a more refined version of the second amstrad version there is no music whatsoever with only PC speaker bloops and bleeps for the sound effects it also controls fairly [Music] well the Game Boy can version is based on the NES Port while the NES version played a pretty good game of paper boy this one does not while it looks okay for Game Boy conversions the controls are terrible with your paper boy shooting all over the road the Collision detection is also off at various points often times you'll throw papers that will go right through an object the music is decent with that catchy paper boy theme we all know and love [Music] the Sega Game Gear version looks to be a port of the Master System which is not a bad thing once again the graphics have that zoom in effect but other than that it's pretty faithful the music is butt nasty but it does control really [Music] well and the last portable version is the Game Boy Color port which turned out much better than the original Game Boy offering the Sprites are detailed with a fair amount of color and some smooth scrolling the sound effects of Music are good with your eard drums not being pierced in this version the same control issues found in the game boy version is also present [Music] here [Music] and finally we have the Sega Genesis version this conversion is extremely close to the arcade original with excellent detailed Sprites and smooth animation it also features some nice in-game music plus a lot of the arcade voice samples although they are a bit scratchy there are also some issues with the Collision detection but overall it's a great version of paper boy especially back in the [Music] day now you have a friend in [Music] theer paper boy is one of my alltime favorite arcade games I can still recall going into a truck stop with my parents in owana Minnesota and seeing it for the first time when I started this channel it was one of the first games I tried to tackle with my handheld mic and horrible editing skills the runtime of that original video was only around 10 minutes I wanted to give paper boy the treatment it deserved and hopefully you all enjoyed watching it as much as I enjoyed making it if you've never had the chance to head on over to Easy Street all the while being chased by a rabid dog and Granny's with shopping carts be sure and give this game a shot you'll be glad you did if you like this video be sure to like comment share and subscribe also if you would like to support me on patreon please click the link below if you would like to contribute but not sign up for my patreon you can always click the Donate button up above thanks everyone for watching

Channel: PatmanQC - History of arcade game documentaries

Views: 118,846

Keywords: NES, arcade, SNES, amputee, Xbox, PlayStation, Sony, Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft, retro, video, gamesAtari, Colecovision, Intellivision, Jaguar, entertainment, system, Game, Boy, Genesis, Mega, drive, CD, X68000, Amstrad, spectrum, MSX, 2600, 5200, 7800, 400, 800, 1200, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, 360, one, switch, GameCube, wii, wii-u, Elite, John Salwitz, Dave Ralston, Russel Dawe, Carl Bedard, Al Baker, Milt Loper, Don Traeger, Mindscape, System II, 720, APB, HandlebarS, bicycle, Tiger, LCD, Doug Snyder

Id: AiKoyslXICA

Length: 41min 40sec (2500 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 29 2023