Sack The Paperboy!

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Paperboy is the computer version of the arcade hit, but not a very good one.

The idea of Paperboy is to cycle along the road and fling newspapers into mail boxes, while at the same time avoiding all manner of things including dogs, bouncing balls, old ladies, C5s, racing cars, gutters, graves and brick walls.

Your aim has to be quite good, and while you are sighting up, you tend not to notice the plant pot in front of you, or the C5 on collision course from a side-street; you don't have much time to think.

You gain bonus points for vandalising non-subscribers' houses with your papers. If you accidentally smash a subscriber's window, you lose all your bonuses.

The 3D motion is very good, and Elite has overcome the problem of screen flickering very well. I'll give it originality marks for not giving a 'Game Over' message. Instead there's a newspaper with the headline 'Get well soon paperboy!' Unfortunately half the screen is used up for your score and bonus marks.

At the end of each day's round (if you complete it) you gain extra bonus by cycling round the track and making jumps over something totally unrecognisable.

The game is fun at first, but the more you play it, the more boring it becomes.

Sam Greenhill