Watch: ‘Special Delivery’ Brings Atari Classic ‘Paperboy’ Style Action to VR

By
Paul James
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6

Classic 80s Atari arcade game Paperboy is to get a spiritual (albeit commercially unrelated) successor in the form of a new Oculus Touch and HTC Vive title Special Delivery from developers Meerkat Gaming. Here’s what it looks like in action.

An original Paperboy arcade cab, complete with handlebars.
An original Paperboy arcade cab, complete with handlebars.

A stalwart of the 80s gaming scene, Paperboy will be fondly remembered those old enough to have frequented the murky world of arcades back in the day. Developed by Atari, Paperboy was an isometric action game which had you play as the titular hero, frantically delivering his payload to customers through an a series of ever more hostile and precarious environments. It was fun, funny and actually pretty tricky to master. It was a huge hit, even featuring a saddle and BMX handlebars on the larger arcade cabinets.

Warp to the future (that’s where we’re living folks) and virtual reality is now promising to push and perhaps redefine the boundaries of traditional gaming. It’s somewhat interesting (if perhaps entirely expected) then that developers are turning to the past for inspiration of what to build in VR. Rebellion recently demonstrated just how well a retro game can be updated and refactored to become compelling (Atari too as it happens) VR gaming prospect and now developer Meerkat Gaming is doing the same with a title which is heavily inspired by Paperboy, called Special Delivery – revealed recently via the company’s twitter feed.

You can see the game in motion in a trailer for the title (at the top of this page) and it’s shaping up nicely. From what we can ascertain, motion controls are used to control both hands which can independently steady and steer the handlebars or lob papers from the bike’s basket at roadside targets. It’ll be interesting to see how motion sick prone people fare with the bike in motion.

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No word yet on a release for the title, but the developer says it is being built for both Oculus Rift (with Touch support) and HTC Vive. We’ll let you know when we hear more.

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Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • DiGiCT Ltd

    For sure i remember paperboy , rofl
    This project looks amazing and might be even more fun in VR.
    Hope the devs will upgrade their art t, as for high end the game looks to simple as it is now, making a redo in vr of an classic game does not mean it needs also that kind of art.

    For the gameplay it looks a lot of fun to me, I enjoyed paperboy myself a llot, but rather on a C64 that time.

    • I agree, when I read paperboy it dragged up lots of old fond memories. As for the graphics. I think the idea at this early stage is to get as many people into VR as possible which I would agree with (from a profit point of view). Once the VR market establishes itself then it will ALL be about ultra realism.

      • DiGiCT Ltd

        Cartoon art can be awesome in VR, it just needs to be a little more high poly and not too much square.
        I upgraded to a 1070 gtx from my 970 just to avoid my devlopment results needed to be squeezed.
        Therefor i would say for good games 1060 gtx and higher needed, forget about the ones lower, it will become more like amobile vr then lol.

      • Get Schwifty!

        I for one don’t want ultra-realism except in certain titles…. there’s a lot of fun in not having everything “look realistic”. Think of the immersion of animation… the Simpsons wouldn’t be half as funny portrayed by real people. Style in art has everything to do with conveying the proper tone and atmosphere… ultra-realism… ain’t gonna happen outside of VR movies and porn.

        • From a purely graphics point of view, I agree (and still play one game daily from 1999) The big money earners are usually the ones with the most eye-candy even if it is special effects rather than photo-real textures. It takes exceptional gameplay to sell at lower graphics or a different art style (e.g. World of Warcraft / borderlands / Minecraft) but titles like Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, EVE etc are all graphical powerhouses. Also, when I say ultra realism, I mean other aspects too, ones that make you feel you are really there and push the realism and immersiveness to the max.

  • Looks like a level in Job Simulator.