At times it seems this port shouldn't be nearly as much fun as it is. The graphics are claustrophobic compared to the arcade game's, the street's residents are invincible to thrown newspapers, there are so many tombstones that the neighborhood apparently doubles as a cemetary, and the houses change color with every new day, that is when they haven't been completely made over! All of these little quirks don't make the game less fun, however, they instead make this port of Paperboy its own interesting and entertaining little animal.
Of course it helps that the game gets the main details right. The player is still in charge of delivering papers to subscribers and vandalizing the homes of nonsubscribers, and there are plenty of obstacles to get in the way, from dogs to lawn movers to renegade tires. Subscribers will still cancel if you miss a delivery or break something. The difficulty ramps up nicely with each new day, making the game neither too easy nor too hard. Game control is tight and intuitive, even without the arcade game's famous handlebars. And the tunes, while only hinting at the original arcade music, are still catchy and perfectly suited to the game.
The only real things to complain about are the small number of programming bugs that sometimes cause the game to briefly pause or hiccup, and other times cause a subscriber to cancel even after a successful delivery. Thrown papers are also "lost" after they disappear off-screen, so subscriber porches and paperboxes, as well as all other targets, must be hit before the paper disappears. Fortunately the game handles its on-screen physics very well. Papers thrown from a faster bicycle will travel farther uproad than those thrown from a slow bicycle, and will keep their momentum even if the bike changes speed after a throw. This makes sense, of course, but not every home version of Paperboy does it this way.
Despite a lot of little differences and curious design, Paperboy for the Commodore 64 is an excellent game, and one of the better mid-'80s arcade adaptations released for the system. If you are a fan of the arcade game, this one is worth checking out.