train giant a-train 9 First Impressions

[Bergrar 9]

Hi

I have bought a-train 9 from gamersgate after i have seen a lot of video on youtube, i was fashinated from preview, i love micromanageing games and trains,and i play simcity4 from the first days thx to simtropolis and our great modders i play it even today , after the download i installed the game at 10 pm, and i have waited the first screen, and it was a really good sensation, good frames and nice cities.

The game looks well done and with great work on manageing trains bus and trucks, very similar to traffic giant.

But here come the pain, the game is so big, and the manual so little lol, no explanation at all J.

Build and add tracks and roads are easy, but after you need to make your trains running, no clues was given from the manual.

But so many years of simcity4 micromanageing and many tycoon and simcities games help me.

I choosed a map medium difficulty , a island and strated to place some trucks and buildings, in the meantime the game grows buildings and roads alone, but i am unuseful, all happens without my help, and i want control.

So at 11pm 9 i closed the scenario and i started a sandbox, and layed my first square of roads in a empty land,a material factory that produces containers that are needed from ai to build and for me to have resources then i added 2 bus and 2 trucks that are in the middle of nowhere, after 1 min a first building appears on the map and then a second, now i need to make developing zones so i added a warehouse in a side a my trucks started to bring resoueces there and i added my first power plant, a windmill, cost 3 resources produces1000kw.then i added a shop becouse now i have a flow of resources from my factory to my warehouse, but the game is not only a plop and wait game, i need to control where the trucks and the bus go, but no help or clues are in the manual or in internet, but in a japanese page of player i have found a clue, control your bus trucks and trains with timetables, traffic lights and operating mode so i clicked a little around and find them on my stops. now the problem was i have a warehouse on the left of street and on other on the right

and my trucks go both at right lol, and if you click on road junction and set left both trucks goes left, so i looked again in this so big menu and in the options i found graphs? option and there i are the timetables settings J now i can add numbers to trucks and busses, and i have a big menu on every traffic where i choose the number of truck,i choose direction and wonderful sight my 2 trucks choosed 2 different path J

i added more trucks and more developing zone was opened to AI colonization.

the first 2 screenshots.

Now all runs more smootly i can start to make more thinghs and my trucks are no more dumb, the i started to build my city,and played till 3 am lol and was really fun, is a good game and is moddable with a building editor that is already in game.

I will like to have all the 200 trains that are in the original game but are only for german version, and the patch that i downloaded from german site doesnt work on english version, there are 2 add on kits with hundreds of building in the japanese version but are only for that version i think.

I hope that some modders of simtropolis that will love it and add some new buildings.

My vote after 2 days of game is a 8-9, is a lot better of many simcity games that i played after simcity4, the graphic is good and there is a lot of space for micromanagement and control of trucks bus and trains

Now my sandbox city looks better and there are even some trains and i started a second district so i can make it grows fast

If you like this kind of game it worths the 30 euro and is for sure a new good addiction.

the other screenshots are of my city today

and here the trailer of the game, a must see J

if any1 will try the game and will need help i will try to give it

[Alejandro24 575]

Interesting, I always heard about A-Train since I play SC4, but I never played it. Firts because I don't know if my system can support it.

[glazert 89]

I played the original A-Train on the Amiga, but I haven't played any of the subsequent versions. Those screenshots look pretty impressive. If I tempted to buy it I don't think I am likely to stop with SC4.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

It is now available in English? Because I only have a very, very basic grasp on Japanese.

[Bergrar 9]

Train Giant is avalaible in german and english, the german community is very creative and they added a patch that frees all 200 trains but is only for german version, english version has only 20 types of trains.

The program runs fine on my computer, about 30-35 frames.

The program could be bought on gamersgate with direct download for the english version.

this is the link to german website that is readable with google translate. http://www.bahngigant.de/

i add 2 my videos that i did some days ago with my city.

the second video is a tutorial for bus and trucks lines

  Edited May 7, 2012 by Bergrar  

[glazert 89]

From what I saw here, I checked what it cost on amazon.co.uk and when I saw that it was just under £16 (UK pounds) I thought that it was worth trying and ordered it. Since then I found this site, which has lots and lots of screen images: http://secure.simmarket.com/the-train-giant.phtml

Some of the pictures look stunning. I could see a couple of things which I had already assumed from what I had seen: the building and road textures are just too "clean". Also the cities look like ghost towns with no people - even standing around in the stations. As far I can see the range of road types is limited - but they do curve. Despite the negatives, it looks well worth a go.

According to one of the posts at the simmarket site, the manual is now available on-line in English.

[Alejandro24 575]

...

i add 2 my videos that i did some days ago with my city.

the second video is a tutorial for bus and trucks lines

Wow, wow, wow, WOW!!! Its amazing, I love it. You should do a City Journal about your creations in this game!!!!

[glazert 89]

Anyone interested in this game might find it useful to visit http://www.atrain9.com/ . The "User Enhanced Game Manual" looks like it has a lot of potential. There are also some forums, most just getting off the ground. Don't worry, I will still be coming to Simtropolis!

[Simtopia23 0]

i've tried this 2-3 month ago, but i left this because it looks so difficult(my uncle lent it to me without manual)... and it didn't seem a japanese version of simcity, it was very similar to Cities in Motion.

[Sap59 3]

This game looks promising,

[glazert 89]

You certainly do need the instructions, even though the instructions are in places poor, since the controls are not standard. The game is certainly not a substitute for Sim City 4 and doesn't pretend to be; it is a train simulation with extras. There are some features which make it worth exploring: it is truly 3D and there is a sort of built-in draggable 3D Flexfly which enables you to draw overpasses and FLUP style underpasses. It seems that 3d spiral tunnels can be drawn, and you can travel through those as if in the driver's cab.

The complete absence of people - no pedestrians, no passengers waiting on platforms - makes it spooky. And no cars for that matter.

I expect to spend more time with it. However, I am less likely to spend time just running it in the background than with the original A-Train on the Amiga - in the English version released in the UK the music stops after a while.

[drunkapple 1,743]

G'Day,

If anyone is interested, I unwrapped the German patch for the extra trains, tossed the extra crap that was padding it up and re-wrapped it in a new installer (one that should find your Train Giant directory, if not you have the opportunity to point it at the directory.) It is now only 820KB instead of 340MB.

You can find it here.

Now you too can enjoy all 224 trains from Artdink's A-Train 9.

Cheers

drunk(always)

[glazert 89]

Thanks for that, drunkapple, I look forward to exploring what is available.

[CarrotCake07 3]

I've got this game and I could say, sometimes it's very cool but increadibly hard! And it's like: play play play play to learn. For me it's a 7/10

[~Dee~ 215]

I tried it but I didn't like the fact that there are no people, it's like a ghost city.

[drunkapple 1,743]

The third expansion will be available for the jap version in a week. ;<)

[totalplane 0]

You spent £30 on this? I got it for £4.87 on Amazon! Anyway, it ain't gonna arrive until Saturday so I downloaded the demo. Even with restricted features it is so EPIC!