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Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis
Date:         Thu, 7 Jan 1993 12:48:42 PST
From:         feuchtwa@SFU.CA
Subject:      Review: A-Train simulation software

The following (long) file is from     comp.sys.amiga.reviews
and, while it concerns "only a game," it should be of interest
to urban and regional planners and transportation geographers.
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PRODUCT NAME

        A-Train version 1.0.


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

        A-Train is a financial empire building game based on railway
building, train scheduling, land speculation, real estate management, city
planning, and stock trading. To put that into perspective (I can see
everyone saying "Uh... OK"), it can best be described as a cross between
Sim City and Railroad Tycoon. If that doesn't make any sense to you, take the
first sentence of this paragraph again real slowly. :-)

        This game was originally published as "Take The A-Train III" in Japan
for the FM Towns computers; but since none of the other versions of A-Train
ever made it across the Pacific, it got renamed.  Or so the manual tells me.


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

        The game is written by Artdink, Japan, and published by Maxis
Corporation for release in the United States and Canada.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

        Name:           Maxis
        Address:        Two Theater Square, Suite 230
                        Orinda, CA  94563-3041
                        USA

        Telephone:      (510) 254-9700

I suppose Maxis is doing the European version too, since on mine the box
says NTSC version.


LIST PRICE

        I paid $63.00 (Canadian) including the all-conquering GST tax. I
hope this is a representative price! I guess that's about $49.95 (US) retail
in the United States.


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

        HARDWARE

                A minimum of 512K of chip RAM and 512K of fast RAM is
                required. If you want to use interlaced screens, the box
                says that "1MB of RAM is required plus 512K of fast RAM."  I
                think this means 1MB of either chip RAM or fast/chip RAM and
                512K of fast RAM, since I think you could fit it into 512K
                of chip and 1MB of fast. Don't quote me on that, though. 2
                floppy drives or a hard drive are recommended. To that I add
                that a 68030 makes the whole thing more pleasant to play.
                It's extremely usable on a 68000, though.

        SOFTWARE

                It even works under Kickstart 1.2 (does anyone still use
                that?). It runs fine under Kickstart 2.04. There is an HD
                install program (the Commodore "Installer" program) provided.


COPY PROTECTION

        None. Nothing at all. And it's HD installable as I said above (the
program is provided with an Installer script and Installer itself).


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

        Amiga 3000/25Mhz, 2MB chip RAM, 8MB fast RAM.
        Maxtor 213MB SCSI HD.
        Commodore 1950 multisync monitor.
        Kickstart 2.04, Workbench 2.04.

REVIEW

        NOTE:  A-Train can be run in either Hi Res (640x400) or standard
(320x200), with the menus in 620x200 (I believe) in both cases. I have an
A3000 with a multisync, and I always play it in Hi Res. It gives 4 times as
much display area, and it's still fast enough on an A3000. The display is
good in 320x200 - the graphics are the same, only you can't see as much at
once.

        The first thing you notice about A-Train is the beautiful graphics
(in Hi-res, anyway ;-)). Everything is shown in an isometric perspective,
with beautiful little details such as trees and lots of different sorts of
houses and farms. There is a night/day cycle (which can be switched off if
you want) which starts to darken the landscape as the evening approaches.
After everything turns rusty red at sundown, the building and train lights
turn on. The grey of early dawn turns into the bright sunshine of the
daytime around 7am. Snow falls in winter, and you occasionally get other
little details like Santa Claus flying past on his sleigh and reindeer at
midnight on the 24th of December. There are UFOs (very occasionally), and
the amusement parks sometimes have fireworks burst above them on Friday
nights in summer. Skyscrapers under construction have hammerhead cranes (red
and white) on top of them, and the streets have streetlights. The commercial
buildings have neon signs, and so on. The attention to detail is incredible.

        There is a lot more to A-Train than just good looks, however.
There are six scenarios in A-Train, addressing different problems with
differing amounts of money. The most open is called "New Town," which
presents you with a small community with a rail line and station already
running through it. Passenger and freight trains (over which you have no
control) arrive and depart 24 hours a day. You get the profits from these
trains, however. The challenge is to build a feeder line to this town,
essentially causing other new towns to spring up. The rest of the map is
covered with scattered farms, with no real concentrations of settlements.

        At the other end of the scale is the scenario entitled "Downtown
Reorganization," where you must make a stagnating urban commuter line in a
large city into a more dynamic operation. The other four scenarios fall
between these two extremes.

        I suppose I should start by explaining some of the ideas in A-Train.
The first is that you are dealing with urban commuter lines, not main lines.
One glance at the rolling stock for sale will show you that these are all
subway-style trains. Second, if a line runs off the map, it is assumed to
connect to a major city slightly off-map. Trains running off the map come
back bearing materials (on which more later) and passengers.

        Materials look like little off-white boxes which freight trains
carry in and dump next to your station, if you have land that you own within
a certain distance, on which the materials can be stored. An empty freight
train stopping in a station will remove materials if there are any nearby
and carry them to its next stop. Materials are used to build buildings.
Depending on what you're making, you need more or less materials available
locally. Houses built by the program also require materials. If there are no
materials available, growth stops (which can really ruin your day). Trains
are the only way to carry materials and passengers around and get them where
they're needed.

        This brings us to the trains themselves. There are five different
freight trains, with differing speeds (high/low) and different capacities (2
or 4 boxes of materials. There are about 18 different passenger trains,
either 2 or 3 car, and high or low speed. These trains may or may not be
able to pass through stations without stopping, which can be important. The
trains also cost different amounts to buy and to run.

        Every train must be scheduled. A small map is presented showing the
tracks available, where you decide what orientation you want the track
switches (points or turnouts) to have when the train goes through them. You
can then have a test run of this. Also, the departure times of trains must
be decided. By default, the train runs a shuttle service, stopping 1 hour at
each station on the route. However, for passenger trains it is more logical
for them to leave the suburbs at 8:00 in the morning and return from the rail
interchange in the city at 6:00 in the evening, to carry all the commuters.
Each station can have 2 tracks, and it's possible to time the trains so that
you can run 2 trains on a single track with a passing loop.

        When you've laid track and made stations and so on, you can turn
your attention to building apartment blocks to encourage commuters.  Later,
you can build lease buildings (5 to 40 stories), commercial buildings,
hotels, factories (which make materials), amusement parks, golf courses, ski
resorts, etc., to encourage greater profits. Other developers also build
these things, and occasionally these come on the market if you wish to buy
them.  These provide employment, accommodation, and create more activity for
your railway.

        There is a stock market with 24 different stocks for you to dabble
in, and a bank to make loans (up to 10% of your net worth). Both of these
are only open 9 to 5 weekdays, though. The interest rates change for loans
(there are 3 types of loan available), so it's best to borrow when rates are
low.

        While this might seem a bewildering array of options, everything is
easily accessible through a series of clear menus. After working through the
tutorial, I had a clear idea what everything was for. A bit more playing
around and I understood more or less how everything operated. Like many of
these kinds of games, a little experimentation can go a long way.

        The financial model in this game is very complex, coping as it does
with tax, corporate tax, capital gains taxation, land prices, building
prices and stock prices (which rise and fall depending what you do - if you
are building a lot, for example, you can expect steel company and building
company stocks to rise. As more lease buildings appear, management stock go
up.). At no time does this feel overwhelming, though, since much of it is
handled automatically by the computer. I've never encountered a strategy
game before that had such a feeling of authenticity in the way it worked.
There are balance sheets available instantly to give you an overview of
what's going on, hour by hour if you like. There is also a "radar graph"
which shows in what sectors the greatest growth is being experienced.
Stimulating this growth without going bankrupt is the challenge in this game.

        If you get an urban commuter network which you're really proud of,
you can print it all out through the program. I haven't tried this yet,
though.

        This is an extremely complicated and complex game, and I haven't
created a really successful company yet. There's a lot to this, and I
haven't really got a formula that works well yet. That doesn't mean I
haven't had a hell of a lot of fun trying, though, and I'm going to
continue. The clear menu system is a boon in this game because it makes what
is a very complex game easy to access at all times. Hats off to Artdink and
Maxis.


DOCUMENTATION

        A-Train comes with a beautifully printed, well written and
informative manual. This manual includes a tutorial, a reference section,
and a history of commuter railways throughout the world. The documentation
is the same for the Macintosh and Amiga versions, but the differences are
noted where applicable. Thank God this is a well thought out, clear and
interesting manual. Getting into A-Train otherwise would be much harder than
it is, and less enjoyable.

        It's not often one can be so positive about a game's documentation.


LIKES AND DISLIKES

        Before I get increasingly gushing with my praise, I must say that
the sound is really awful, and I'm glad you can switch it all off. The music
is repetitive, and the "sound" (something that is meant to sound like train
wheels going over rail joints when your trains are moving) sounds like
someone firing a flintlock rifle. Apart from that, there isn't much I can
complain about. So here's the catch-all "like" section:  this is a really
prototypical, accurate, complex, and fun to play game.  I enjoy it
enormously.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

        OK. This isn't Railroad Tycoon ("RT"); the emphasis isn't as much on
railway building and freight carrying to make your profits. Unless you get a
huge railroading empire, most of your profits will come from stocks and
bonds or real estate. However, the track laying and station siting is very
important, just as in RT, and there's a bundle of trains to pick from. Don't
get me wrong; there are a lot of trains in this game.  It's just that A-Train
is much closer to what railway companies are really like. I like RT for the
sheer megalomania of building routes across continents and watching the
cities get huge; but in A-Train, your only opponent is your own lack of
business acumen, and, A-Train being that much more realistic in so many
other ways, I think that gives it the edge for the serious player (?) over
Railroad Tycoon.

        I mentioned Sim City earlier. Again, this isn't Sim City. You don't
have the control over the roads, the power stations, traffic, electricity
etc. etc. But then again, Sim City was never that prototypical -- no-one has
that amount of control -- and A-Train brings it down to the real level of day
to day real estate wheeling and dealing.  And what you build has a real
effect on how the city develops. Again, this is what it's really like.
That's not to say that Sim City isn't great fun; it is, and in its place it
can provide hours of fun. But now, after playing A-Train, I would go back to
it as relaxation from a hard day's A-Training.

        And on top of all that, A-Train is real, honest-to-gosh fun.

BUGS

        I have found no bugs so far, except that tall buildings (over 10
stories) sometimes lose the graphical representation of the building above
the 10th floor if you think about selling them but change your mind.
Everything is fixed up if you scroll away from the area, then scroll back,
though. I'm sending a message to Maxis about this -- but it's only a small
glitch in the display routine, after all.


WARRANTY

        The disks are guaranteed for 90 days, or 2 years if you send in
the registration card.


CONCLUSIONS

        This is a great game, and in my opinion the best thing to have come
out of Maxis since Sim City. I give it a 9.5 out of 10. The only gripes I
would have are that the sound is abysmal, and that it would be nice to be
able to speed time up even further at times. For sure, this is a game with
depth that no one is going to be able to throw off in a couple of extended
playing sessions. There is just too much that must be regulated and looked
after, and while everything is pleasingly logical and understandable, this
doesn't mean that if you have an MBA you'll toss this game off with ease.

        It's extremely addictive, complex, and fun to play. My pick for best
strategy game of 1992 (since it came out just before Christmas ;-).  It has
to be one of the most engrossing and prototypical strategy games ever. And
that's saying a lot.


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

        Copyright 1993 James Walker.  All rights reserved. This review is
freely distributable, so long as my name remains on it and the wording
remains unchanged and quoted correctly (that is, not quoted in such a way as
to give the impression that my opinion in this review was other than that
expressed above).

        I can be reached at jwalker@ac.dal.ca or egau0010@ac.dal.ca for
questions, comments, complaints or whatever. Discussions about A-Train would
be fun!

---

   Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews
   Send reviews to:     amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu
   Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu
   General discussion:  amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu

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                        Martin Feuchtwanger
Department of Geography
Simon Fraser University        internet:   feuchtwa@sfu.ca
Burnaby, B.C.                     phone:   604.291.4556
V5A 1S6          Canada             fax:   604.291.5841
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis