Developed by Probe Software and published by Mindscape in 1992, the ZX Spectrum version of Paperboy 2 is not quite as bad as the terrible Amstrad version, which was written by the same two people (David Perry and Nick Bruty). That said: it’s not that much better either…

Both the Spectrum and Amstrad versions of Paperboy 2 are too fast, have too small a play window, and are missing many of the features most other versions of Paperboy 2 have.

While I can’t really blame Perry and Bruty for putting out an inadequate game, a few small tweaks could have improved the game no end. The way newspapers are thrown in the Spectrum and Amstrad ports just feels wrong – wrong angle, wrong speed, wrong timings… Also: I don’t understand why they decided to run the game at such a high speed… It’s just not in keeping with all the other versions of Paperboy 2, and it makes the game almost unplayable. Before you know it, you’ve zoomed past all the houses and not delivered a single newspaper… And then it’s game over. Not my idea of fun at all…

At least the Spectrum version looks better than the Amstrad version, and is slightly more playable. Both versions, however, feel like unfinished rush-jobs*, which is probably what Mindscape wanted. And that I just don’t like. Why go to the bother and expense of creating a game if you’re not going to make it at least some fun? Was it greed? Was it contractual? Was it just sheer sloppiness? We’ll probably never know.

*= If you play as a papergirl, when it’s game over it says “Paperboy fired!”, which demonstrates just how unfinished this game is…

More: Paperboy 2 on Wikipedia
More: Paperboy 2 on World of Spectrum