FRN » Computer Games

New Version of Microsoft Train Simulator Coming

Jonathan Crowe — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 13:49:44 +0000

Microsoft Train Simulator came out in 2001. Since then, other than some bug fixes, not much has happened: a planned sequel, Train Simulator 2, was cancelled in 2004, and the game was given over to Atari for publishing as a jewel-cased value game, no longer published by Microsoft itself. But the game itself is neither lost nor forgotton: third-party add-ons, such as new locomotives, rolling stock and routes, are apparently still being produced.

But on Friday came word that a new version of Train Simulator, based on the Flight Simulator X platform, is now under development. No word yet on features or a release date, but more information is promised later this year. In the meantime, its developers have started blogs to talk about their little project, and have posted “now-it-can-be-told” introductory entries. Mike Gilbert is the lead program manager for Train Simulator; he’d previously worked on Flight Simulator X. Rick Selby is the lead game designer and a certified (or is it certifiable?) train nut. Other blogs linked to from the new Train Simulator page: Sim Elations, TSEngineer and Mavyryk’s Place. So those of you with an interest in the new version of Train Simulator will have a lot to keep track of.

Via Scoble, who just outed himself as another train nut.

SteamTRAIN 2 Released

Jonathan Crowe — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 17:45:39 +0000

SteamTRAIN 2 is a Macintosh-only computer game that gives you control of a 19th-century steam train. It’s a small download (less than three megabytes), and you can play it for up to 15 minutes at a time unless you register (which is $20). It’s not very resource-intensive, and will run on Macs built within the last five years or so: the corollary of that is that the graphics aren’t much to write home about (you get a split-screen view with the map at top, the train at bottom). Also, the interface isn’t intuitive at all: in my five minutes of dinking around with it, I had to keep the help page open, with its list of keyboard commands, to figure out what to do. Very much an old-school computer game. Via Inside Mac Games.

Open Transport Tycoon

Jonathan Crowe — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 15:41:47 +0000

Speaking of old games, another game I spent too much time playing when I was younger was Transport Tycoon, a moneymaking game involving multiple forms of transit: trains, buses, planes, ships. I haven’t played it in years, and my current hardware wouldn’t let me play it again even if I could find the disks. (Nor did I ever see the sequel, Transport Tycoon Deluxe.) But there’s this open-source thing, OpenTTD, which seeks to clone, improve and extend the Transport Tycoon Deluxe game. It’s multiplatform (yay!) but there’s a catch: you have to have a copy of the original game. (Maybe I can find a jewel-case CD somewhere.) More information and documentation at the OpenTTD wiki. Via MetaFilter.

Original Railroad Tycoon Now Free

Jonathan Crowe — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 15:09:46 +0000

The original, classic version of Railroad Tycoon that caused me to lose so much sleep back in the early 1990s is now available as a free download from the Sid Meier’s Railroads! site. The 14.2-megabyte download includes the manual and reference card; the ability to run it in DOS is naturally required. GameSHOUT, GameSpot, Voodoo Extreme.

Previously: Sid Meier’s Railroads!

Train Cab Controllers

Jonathan Crowe — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 13:46:09 +0000

In the same way that flight sticks are preferred for flight simulators and steering wheels for racing games, there are specialized game controllers for train simulators. You knew about train simulators, right? There are, as far as I know, two of them: Microsoft Train Simulator and Trainz Railroad Simulator. I haven’t played either, because both are Windows-only (though a Mac port of Trainz is apparently imminent). Each simulator has a whole pile of expansion packs for new track and locomotives as well. Choose your poison.

Whichever one you choose, however, there’s a controller you can use for either one: RailDriver‘s Desktop Train Cab Controller, a scaled-down replica of a diesel engine cab — RailDriver also makes train simulator equipment — that connects via USB. (I seem to recall a review that said it could also be connected to a model railroad’s DCC system and be used to control model trains; if not, there’s at the very least an SDK.)

There are other simulators out there, but not necessarily for the U.S. market. Via Engadget yesterday comes word of a controller for a Shinkansen simulator called (confusingly) Streetcar GO!, a game for the Nintendo Wii platform scheduled for Japanese release in early 2007.

Though I have yet to try a train simulator, and will probably lay hands on Trainz when it comes out for the Mac, word from family members is that they’re not that playable: trains being somewhat less interesting to run than airplanes, I suppose. Simulators, not games. I’ll see.

Buy Microsoft Train Simulator at Amazon.com
Buy Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 at Amazon.com
Buy RailDriver Train Cab at Amazon.com

Sid Meier’s Railroads!

Jonathan Crowe — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 23:30:06 +0000

The original Railroad Tycoon was one of those computer games — most of which were designed by Sid Meier — which earned the label “insidious” from me. The kind of games that you kept playing because you had just one more thing to do, and then suddenly you looked out the window and the sun was coming up, and you realized that you’d just played the damn game all night.

Meier moved on to other projects, and Railroad Tycoon‘s sequels — RT Deluxe, RT 2 and RT 3 — had their plusses and minuses, but inevitably were variations on a theme, refinements rather than innovations. Mostly they improved graphics, added scenarios and maps, and added locomotives (not all of which were worth playing), but you could argue that the pure gameplay was never as good as it was in the original, for all its crude simplicity. One thing I miss, for example, was signal towers and rate wars: challenges without which certain aspects of the game were just too simple. (Yes, even RT 2 was simple in my books: I played it a lot.)

So in the last issue of Trains I notice an ad for a new game: Sid Meier’s Railroads! And I make with the “whaaaa?!” and investigate further, because I had not heard about this before. (I use a Mac and so am not up to speed on PC game developments.) So it turns out that Meier’s company has regained the rights to the Railroad Tycoon franchise and is putting out this game under a new name (whose exclamation point evokes Meier’s earlier Pirates!). You could, I guess, call it Railroad Tycoon 4, but in some ways it seems a spiritual successor to the original, rather than its sequels. It seems a good deal more whimsical, for example. And signalling is back.

So my father e-mailed today to report that his copy of the game just arrived. I look forward to his report with great interest, because I’ll probably pounce on the game when the Mac port is released. (I’ve heard nothing about such a port, but it’s all but certain. It’ll just come a few months later, is all.) But, ominously, the reviews on Amazon.com are not very positive: I don’t know whether that means that Meier fans have very high standards, or whether they’re fans of the sequels.

If you’ve got the game, let me know what you think in the comments!

Buy Sid Meier’s Railroads! at Amazon.com