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This game has to go down in history as being one of the most popular coin-op conversions, as well as being one of the longest awaited Amiga titles ever. Except, perhaps, for Starglider III.

But what is it exactly that thousands of Amiga owners, young and old have been crying out for? In time-honoured tradition we present - The Plot! You are Sammy Clyde, a young lad with not a lot to do in the morning before he goes to school, and so gets himself a paper round, delivering copies of the Daily Sun (the world's most throwable newspaper) to selected residents in one of three streets. At the end of each morning, he can unwind with a swift cycle through an assault course. Make it through a week, and you've finished the game.

Sounds simple enough? Then allow me to complicate things. First of all, the most important thing you have to remember when cycling along your route is not to go for bonus points, but to deliver the newspapers to the correct houses. Any house that doesn't get a paper automatically cancels the next day. Run out of subscribers and you don't have a round any more. However, should you be really lovely and deliver to all the appropriate houses on your route, the next day you'll be rewarded with extra subscribers.

So far we've learnt that you can lose your job through running out of customers. How else can you make the mystical message 'Game Over' flash up. Well, you could always run out of lives. How do you lose a life? Simple. If you crash your bike, you lose a life. And the only way to crash your bike is to run into an obstacle. This can be anything from a wall, a manhole or a house, right through to small children playing with remote control cars and yapping little puppies who know no better than to run into the path of an oncoming cycle.

Windows and gravestones (!?!) can be smashed and customers can be satisfied. All this from just one little segment of a tree. But be warned, it takes a good judge of distance and speed to aim the newspaper perfectly, so you might need practice.

So how does it stand up as a conversion? Remarkably well. Graphically, it's very close to its arcade counterpart, it's all there, right down to the VW Beetles. I'm not too sure about the collision detection, however. In some places it's overgenerous and in others it's too stingy. The houses and extra bundles of newspapers are very easy to avoid. Indeed, at times it looks like you're going through them and getting away with it. Enemy obstacles on the other hand, are very hand to get past. You have to give them a very wide berth indeed.

The sound is perfect, almost identical to the arcade, right down to the identical voices used in the identical in-game tune.

Paperboy is worth the wait. It's a shame they couldn't provide handlebars with the disk.