I'm glad you guys like how it's come out, I'm happy with it, although of course I obsess over the small details which probably no one else would notice or even care much about, just me being crazy OCD.
A big part of the fun of the project was getting to know the Dev team and asking them questions about the game and life in general at Atari back in the day. They've shared some fun gems here and there along the way, here's a snippet from Don Traeger, he was the marketing manager for the Paperboy project, but something many people don't know, he is also the voice of Paperboy, so every phrase you hear spoken in the game, it's Don.
Don's answer when I asked about how they came up with the characters in the game...
"I remember some of the character stuff. Ralston, I also remember you drawing the concept of the game for me on a cocktail napkin at the old Prince of Whales pub. I wish I had kept that napkin!! You sketched out a Zaxxon perspective street with a PBoy riding along in 3/4 view.
The original (pre field test) characters were all or mostly crazy/abstract. Stuff like the crazy scientist playing a piano, giant ducks, ghosts.....stuff like that. The only "real" character that I recall early on was the granny with the shopping cart. When we put the game out on test, there were time issues and the usual stuff. However, I remember being dissapointed in the initial earnings, feeling they should be higher. Anyhoo.....one thing we observed from just sitting in the test arcade for hours on end watching players, was that EVERYONE was lining up to go for Granny. That was the character that everyone wanted to nail. Once you started dropping in more real characters (bullies, wino, burglars, etc.) the game really took off!! People wanted to knock of real characters and you made some great ones.
One other funny thing was my original Paperboy line for the wino staggering down the street was "Hi, Dad." But I think Mary or someone nixed that line as being too over the top, so we changed it to "Hey, I know that dude."
Another funny story then I'll shut up. Years and years later, whoever owned the Atari TM's did a really crappy sequel to Paperboy. I think it was Bally/Midway but I could be wrong about that. Anyway at the E3 show when it was on display I walked up to the kid
demoing the game in the booth and he looked at me and said, "Do you know Paperboy?" I looked at him sternly and said "Young man, I AM Paperboy." And turned and walked away! Pretty funny......"
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Topic: Restore: Paperboy: 'Exclusive!' - Restore with enhanced side art (Read 100778 times)
