The "other" Paperboy

[scruss]

I remember being sent a disk (either from my magazine folks, or through Nemesis) a version of Paperboy that's quite unlike the version in the archives. Instead of blocky Mode 0 graphics, it had almost b&w Mode 1 graphics; pretty much a straight ZX Spectrum port, though the gameplay was a tonne better than the official release.

I remember being under strict warning not to spread it. It may have appeared a year later or so in a compilation ('Hit Pak'? 'Six Pak'?). Anyone remember it? Anyone have a copy?

thanks,
Stewart

[TFM]

Well. Is it this one ...

[scruss]

not really, no ...

[arnoldemu]

I remember being sent a disk (either from my magazine folks, or through Nemesis) a version of Paperboy that's quite unlike the version in the archives. Instead of blocky Mode 0 graphics, it had almost b&w Mode 1 graphics; pretty much a straight ZX Spectrum port, though the gameplay was a tonne better than the official release.

I remember being under strict warning not to spread it. It may have appeared a year later or so in a compilation ('Hit Pak'? 'Six Pak'?). Anyone remember it? Anyone have a copy?

thanks,
Stewart

Seen it.

Normal:
http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=1598

Mode 1:
http://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=3629

Don't suppose you have a review copy of chase hq 2 on cart that we could dump?

[scruss]

That's the one. Now to find an image ...

Carts? What are they? The Plus range appeared after I'd moved on.

[arnoldemu]

That's the one. Now to find an image ...

Carts? What are they? The Plus range appeared after I'd moved on.

follow the link and click on "files" on the left or "Fichiers".

there will be various images here. Some from originals, some hacks.

[Gryzor]

Huh, what do you know, I never knew of this version. Cool! I loved this game, gonna play it.


TFM, awesome vid

[scruss]

there will be various images here. Some from originals, some hacks.

Yeah, the one I downloaded had broken sound and some graphics glitches. But even so, it played like I remembered, and I even did the little wheelie bit at the end of the day so that your player stayed in that "cool" pose while the end music played.

[Gryzor]

Anyone tried the CPC Power dsk? Did you run it fine? No matter what the CRTC, in Winape it looks really screwed up...

[Axelay]

Anyone tried the CPC Power dsk? Did you run it fine? No matter what the CRTC, in Winape it looks really screwed up...

You'll need to adjust the v-hold setting, as they modified the CRTC settings and left the screen significantly off spec.

[TFM]

Problems with WinCPC too... (pic jumps).

[Nich]

I remember being sent a disk (either from my magazine folks, or through Nemesis) a version of Paperboy that's quite unlike the version in the archives. Instead of blocky Mode 0 graphics, it had almost b&w Mode 1 graphics; pretty much a straight ZX Spectrum port, though the gameplay was a tonne better than the official release.

I remember being under strict warning not to spread it. It may have appeared a year later or so in a compilation ('Hit Pak'? 'Six Pak'?). Anyone remember it? Anyone have a copy?

I have known about this other version of Paperboy for a long time, but its origins always mystified me. Some people seemed to believe that it was a Spanish version, but the text is in English!

However, I recently uncovered an interview with the late Mark Haigh-Hutchinson on the old TACGR site, and he mentioned that "apparently the guys who did the Spectrum version attempted to do a CPC version, but it was a real mess." I looked through the code of the alternative version of Paperboy (which looks very Spectrum-like!), and found the text "PAPERBOY WROTED (sic) BY LAMBO AND THINGY". According to World of Spectrum, a certain Steve Lamb wrote the Spectrum version.

Based on this evidence, I believe that this alternative version of Paperboy is an early (and ultimately aborted) attempt by Steve Lamb to convert the game from the Spectrum to the CPC - although I have absolutely no idea who originally leaked the game to the CPC emulation community! Graphically, it looks a real mess, but it plays much faster than the official CPC version, and it also has music and sound effects!

[scruss]

...  I have absolutely no idea who originally leaked the game to the CPC emulation community!

I'm pretty sure I got it through my editor at ACU, now I think on it. Review games came from odd sources (quite often from cracking crews, sometimes even with official sanction), and sometimes companies included "extras" to keep us amused. The game also appeared on an Elite compilation a while afterwards.