"Paperboy" combined BMX biking with rampant vandalism and the sound of breaking glass.
As the paperboy, the player was supplied with an infinite number of newspapers, which were thrown, ideally, into the newspaper bins by the houses along the route. Bins of one color indicated subscribers, into which a newspaper had to be placed in order to successfully complete the level. All other newspaper bins indicated non-subscribers; their choice of which newspaper to subscribe to could be changed simply by delivering them a paper, which would also earn the player bonuses at the end of each level.
The paperboy would throw the newspapers at such a rapid-fire rate, it was easy to miss the newspaper bin entirely, and instead hurl the paper through living room windows or the rear windshields of cars in the driveway. This act was always accompanied by the sound of shattering glass.
What was so amusing was that some of the homeowners would become so enraged by having newspapers sent through the windows of their home or cars, that they would chase the paperboy in their bathrobes. They could be knocked out after being beaned by a few well-thrown newspapers, however. What I got a kick out of was that no matter how many acts of vandalism the paperboy committed or how many windows he shattered, he would never lose current subscribers and would always gain new subscribers as long as at least one paper landed in the bin. One would think folks wouldn't subscribe to a newspaper which was repeatedly delivered at a high velocity through large, plate glass windows, but this videogame apparently proved that theory wrong.
To add to the challenge, the player had to avoid obstacles: dogs in the road, open manholes, trenches cut into the street, construction horses, and the like. Boards were strategically placed which could effectively be used as ramps to jump over the obstacles.
"Paperboy" combined BMX biking with rampant vandalism and the sound of breaking glass, all of which together formed a surefire equation for success amongst the pre-teen young men that "Paperboy" was marketed towards.