History VideoGame / Paperboy

* MinusWorld: There is a GoodBadBug in the version 1 [=ROM=] of the coin-op game. After playing the training/obstacle course, exiting at the exact right edge of the fence instead of across the finish line, starts an inverse video rerun of the training course, with insane poi9nt values. While a typical high score for the entire game might be 600,000, a few plays on the inverse training course alone can rack up over a billion points. Here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1YizVyVUd4

* MinusWorld: There is a GoodBadBug in the coin version of the game. Ater playing the obstacle course, exiting at the exact right edge of the fence instead of the finish line, starts an inverse video rerun of the obstacle course, with insane poi9nt values. While a typical high score for the entire game might be 600,000, one play on the inverse obstacle course alone can rack up over a billion points.

* GameOver: Lose all your lives and the front-page story on the next newspaper is "Paperboy Calls It Quits!", with accompanying articles bearing similarltthemed headlines ("Accused of negligence, vandalism", "Daily Sun now hiring").

** However, if you do enough damage to non-subscribers' houses, they'll become subscribers. See VillainProtagonist.
* VillainProtagonist: You are rewarded for destroying non subscriber's houses - with a subscription. Clearly you are running some kind of racket.

* GoshHornet: The killer bees that later appeared in ''720º'' make an appearance if you go too slowly for too long.

* NobodyHereButUsStatues: One house owner paints himself white, stands among the tombstones and fountains, and then runs at you. He's a little ''too'' white, which also make this character a ConspicuouslyLightPatch.

The result is a hilarious NintendoHard game that is also effectively a RailShooter, even if it doesn't look much like one. It's '''far''' BetterThanItSounds.

-> ''([[DeathByIrony run over by a Hearse]])'' "Looking for a passenger?"

The result is a hilarious NintendoHard game that is also effectively a RailShooter, even if it doesn't look much like one.

It's '''far''' Better Than It Sounds.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: Both the Paperboy and the announcer sometimes make comments aimed directly at the game player.

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Or at least trying to make you crash. Cars pulling in and out of driveways, kids on tricycles, construction workers, small RC cars, cats that jump out in front of you at the last second....

* TheGrimReaper

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Subscrubers' homes are bright and colorful, while non-subscribers' homes are ominous and dark.

* AngryGuardDog: Break the window of a house where a dog lives, and he'll start barking furiously and chase after you

* ConvenientColorChange
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: And how!

* GoshHornet: The killer bees that later appeared in ''720Degrees'' make an appearance if you go too slowly.

* IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels

* NonstandardGameOver: You'll receive a different ending if you lose too many customers over the course of the game[[hottip:*:the newspaper headline will read "Paperboy Fired!" instead of "Paperboy Calls It Quits!"]].

* RewardingVandalism: Defacing the homes of non-subscribers earns you points. Doing the same to your customers costs you their business.
* SheetOfGlass: In the second game
* ShoutOut: In the original arcade version, one of the comments the Paperboy makes when he throws a paper in a mailbox is, "Now you have a friend in the paper business." This references American jewelry retailer The Shane Company, whose commercial slogan is, "Now you have a friend in the diamond business." Also, there is a street sign on Middle Way that shows PacMan crossed out by a red [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_symbol "No" symbol]].

* ShoutOut: In the original arcade version, one of the comments the Paperboy makes when he throws a paper in a mailbox is, "Now you have a friend in the paper business." This references American jewelry retailer The Shane Company, whose commercial slogan is, "Now you have a friend in the diamond business." Also, there is a street sign on Middle Way that shows Pac-Man crossed out by a red [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_symbol "No" symbol]].

The result is a hilarious Nintendo Hard game that is also effectively a Rail Shooter, even if it doesn't look much like one.

* WorstNewsJudgementEver: Your progress is shown on the front page of newspapers.

* GoodBadBugs: In one timed contest in the coin-op version, you're supposed to cross the finish line to end the mission, but cross just past the finish line but before the hedge blocking the edge, the mission you just played starts over, in inverse mode, and the scores for each item you get through are mulitiplied by fantastic values. A normal mission giving perhaps 50,000 points turns into one in which your score can reach over 9 figures.

In this neighborhood, even on Easy Street...[[EverythingIsTryingToKillYou everything is trying to kill you.]]

* GoodBadBugs: In the arcade game, if you rode your bicycle through the skill contest, then aimed for the far right edge of the finish line, just off the line but not crashing into the hedge, it did a rerun of the contest with everything in reverse video and the scores were astronomical. The skill contest would get about 40,000. This troper was in an arcade and the kid playing bet him a quarter that he could do more than 1000 times that. He did; when he exited the second contest, the machine's score was over a billion. Best quarter I ever spent; just watching what he did was amazing.

* VideogameCrueltyPunishment: Your customers will cancel their subscription if you break their windows more than once.