Paper Route - Paperboy

Paper Route

Composer Hal Canon Released 1984-??-?? Title Origin Game Location

Paper Route plays while the titular character is on his paper route delivering papers in Paperboy. The song was written by Hal Canon. Many home console adaptations of the game use this song.

Games

Paperboy (ARC)

Paperboy (ARC)

Arranger Hal Canon Programmer Russell Dawe Released 1985-04-?? Length 2:16 Format VGZ Loops Yes

The song switches between the keys of C and F, then D and A later on. The chord progression then repeats and an organ solo is played. The song is known for its use of a cowbell every beat.

The song was written by Hal Canon in RPM, the main sound driver at Atari, which utilized a custom form of Music Macro Language called Music-V Language.

Paperboy (C64)

Paperboy (C64)

Arranger Mark Cooksey Programmer Mark Cooksey Released 1986-1?-?? BPM 282 (title), 94 (in-game) Format SID Loops Yes

While the Commodore 64 doesn't use the original arcade version's music, the in-game tune is reminiscent of the song. The title sequence plays the same song thrice as fast, making it sound like a different song. Mark Cooksey wrote the tune, and explained it on his website:

“

We had this coin op in the office at elite and we spent many an hour "researching" it. The music however used many channels and didn't have a particularly catchy theme so I did an original composition. The tune is a bit on the weird side but I thought that it went quite well with the fairly slow pace of the cycling round the streets bit of the game. On the coin op there were a number of speech samples and some of these were put into the Amiga version of the game which did have the original music.

„

While Cooksey wrote an original tune for this version, he arranged the arcade original's soundtrack for both the Amiga and Genesis/Mega Drive versions, also ported by Elite Systems.

Paperboy (NES)

Paperboy (NES)

Arranger Nick Eastridge Programmer Unknown Released 1988-12-?? Length 1:09 Format NSF Loops Yes

The song was watered down for the 2A03 and only uses the first part of the song after the intro. The NES version transposes the tempo of the song from C to G, and plays at 128 BPM. It was arranged by Nick Eastridge, the game's programmer, and implemented into his sound driver, which was tuned at approximately 450Hz. Due to a programming error in the song, one of the square channels slightly goes off sync more and more with each loop of the song.

Paperboy (AST)

Paperboy (AST)

Arranger Mark Cooksey Programmer Unknown Released 1988-??-?? Format SNDH Loops Yes

The song plays pretty close to the original, though the intro is slightly different and the organ solo was omitted. Mark Cooksey went on to arrange the Amiga and Genesis versions.

Paperboy (AMI)

Paperboy (AMI)

Arranger Mark Cooksey Programmer Unknown Released 1989-??-?? Format MC Loops Yes

The song plays pretty close to the arcade original, except the intro is played a little differently. The song plays at about A=450Hz, much like some of other Mark Cooksey's work. Mark Cooksey later went on to arrange the song for the Genesis version. The game credits the audio coding to Richard Frankish, so he may have been responsible for the sound driver rather than Cooksey.

Paperboy (GB)

Paperboy (GB)

Arranger Nick Eastridge Programmer Unknown Released 1990-07-?? Format GBS Loops Yes

Similar to the NES version, Nick Eastridge, the game's sole programmer, arranged the Paper Route theme from the arcade original for the Game Boy. However, it is a different arrangement than what is heard in the NES version, but still plays the same portion of the song that the NES version does.

The song has not yet been ripped in the GBS format.

Paperboy (GEN)

Paperboy (GEN)

Arranger Mark Cooksey Programmer Unknown Released 1992-??-?? Format VGM Loops Yes

The song plays pretty close to the arcade version, although the intro was arranged a little bit.

Paperboy (GBC)

Paperboy (GBC)

Arranger Kevin Choong Programmer Unknown Released 1999-??-?? Format GBS Loops Yes

Because the Game Boy Color was developed by Digital Eclipse and not Eastridge Technology like the Game Boy original, the game, and thus, the music is a completely different arrangement. The Game Boy Color version's arrangement is closer to the arcade original, and plays the whole song, but still had to be watered down for the Game Boy's DMG-CPU-B. The game's soundtrack was arranged by Digital Eclipse programmer Kevin Choong, which appears to be one of his few credits for audio.

Lyrics (Unofficial)

Brentalfloss wrote these lyrics for his album What If This CD... Had Lyrics?

[Spoken intro]

Don’t you know me? I’m your paperboy.
Throwing bundles of newspaper joy,
This neighborhood’s a loony bin
I’d rather throw the news in Compton
If you live here, you’re probably crazy
Lock your dog up, stop that baby!

I’m on duty, it’s all about discipline
Please don’t strike me with that rolling pin
I sometimes miss when I throw
Sorry I broke your window

Can’t maneuver on a drainage ditch
Cars don’t stop here, they’ll just hit a bitch

[Instrumental break]

Can’t stop riding, it’s just what I do
My bike pedals are glazed with superglue
I’m on my bike, perpetually
I lay in bed, bike lays with me

On this side street, rules are strict and tight
New subscribers, paint your house white
I have nightmares, shaking at the wheel
Then I wake up and do it for real

Now faulty aim may occur, sorry I threw
The paper at a car and killed your father

Now it’s Sunday, I am done, I’m out
Fuck these nutbags, fuck this paper route
I’m gonna get a job at Wal-mart.

Links

• youtube.com/watch?v=SYe0pfRzRRs - Remix by Grospixels.
• youtube.com/watch?v=B8wfkhl-64k - Remix by supersane101.
• youtube.com/watch?v=8qXuxhHBLzk - Remix by BillyMaysIsMyHero.