So, with Railway computer games having been around for a few decades now in some form or other. What was yours? And on what console? Mine was X-treme Express on PS2. Bought a second hand copy from Game back in 2002, basically it was a racing game where you'd race other trains on various courses, using crossovers to jump ahead of other trains or knock them off. the majority of trains/locos were based on real world trains, including my favourite one based on a Southern region EMU. Was great fun at the time. So what was yours.
Oh, I remember this game too, had some of my favourite moments on PS. But my first real train game was either Lego Loco or Chris Sawyers Locomotion. Obviously I didn't know about management and signals, so I always built one track railways with one train. Edit: in X-Treme Express my favourite train was either the trolley( I believe Canadian) or the Greek locomotive similar to the BR 185 from TSW. What was yours?
LokSim3D (Freeware) in the early 2010's. It had real german safety systems (Including the custom PZB for the AVG). I wasn't interested in trains before, thinking this could never be interesting to simulate as I can't steer. Loksim didn't feature AI (only stationary trains off your path), and only had one perspective. Back then, it was graphically better than Zusi2 which at that time was a pure simulator not featuring textures. It is pretty much dead now, only a handful of players, and hasn't evolved since then. Very toxic community. It does have an easy to use editor though. The scenery is purely loft based, everything is track related, no free placement of objects. (If you change curvature of the track, all houses and mountains will move with it.) It supports modular route building, combining modules to form a line (Kursbuchstrecke). Wanting real 3D cabs and more routes made me change to Train Simulator in 2015. (And a letdown in terms of broken PZB/LZB there... while Loksim was graphically simpler, it tried to be as accurate as possible in terms of the rail network and safety systems.) Gernsbach was my home back then, and I could drive a section of my local Murgtalbahn in Loksim. (MSTS was far inferior back then, with its simple controls and no PZB.) My cousin was a driver and dispatcher on that network, he told me how PZB works (especially the unique AVG PZB "Gleichblinken" restrictive 65 km/h mode). Real life:
I played Highbrow Interactive's Euro Train Sim. Then they made Indian Train Sim with a brand new feature - you could change tracks using points that the signaller would set for you! Then they made Indonesian Train Sim. Then they made Euro Train Sim 2. (Actually, this eventually got an update shortly after TSW2 came out which updated the HUD to look more like TSW2's!) They were terrible, but given that I hadn't heard of PC gaming and was playing on my phone, I had a blast!
Hard to say. Pure driving simulation was either the SIAM games (though they focused more on their very expensive traffic simulations) or Paul Lee’s Simudrive. Both text based and no sound. Both of those around 1993 on the Amiga, First cab view sim was the indie Railsim from German developer Jens Schubert, with German and North American versions. This in 1995 after buying my first PC. Also same time as getting the original Transport Tycoon, followed by TTDLX and Railroad Tycoon 2. The latter always frustrating due to the constant economy crashes which wrecked your chance of just building a network. Train Driver 3 came along later. Originally developed for the Amiga it ran very well on PC under the emulator and had rudimentary cab view and sound. Quite advanced for its time. Also various other minor sims come to mind, BVE, Mechanik, Loksim. First US driving sim was Trainmaster 3 with its unique side scrolling viewpoint. Again mid to late 90’s. Signalling/traffic sims, well SIAM were king followed by a bit of PC Rail. I also got a bit of fun out of Jan Bochmann’s Bahn software.
Southern Belle on the original Spectrum, 48k of London to Brighton loveliness! Look at those graphics A nice representation of Victoria.....but at least the steam physics worked......
Train Simulator *distant shouts of "boring"* and WOS3, at not far off the same time, both over a decade ago now. Those and TSW are my only Train Simulation experiences; well, and Minecraft
My first train related game was Trainz railway simulator ultimate collection. This was part of a 3 disc collection called Trains Deluxe which also included Create your own model railway and Trains from the lineside DVD. It was released by Focus Multimedia around 2002-2004.
I had Southern Belle on Spectrum as well (and Evening Star). Before that though, I had a “simulator” which was a type in program from a magazine which was basically a straight line along which you had to “drive” a train feeding it coal and water at strategic points without running out of either. I also had a game called Flying Train which was one of three ZX81 programs on the B side of the single “Camouflage” by Chris Sievey of the Freshies (and later Frank Sidebottom). You basically had to land a flying train on a target and my ex wife was much better at it than me!
I must also mention Densha de Go, imported from Japan legally but had to rip the front of the PS1 in order to jemmy the regional protection in play the game. Sony and Taito were very parochial about not sharing games they regarded as for the Asian market only, with the rest of the world. DTG could clean up if they worked with UW to bring all the old DDG routes into TSW.
Initially, was never into trains or train simming having been obsessed with Flightsims, but was a bit bored one day and thought I'd try out the free OpenBVE (with Network West Midlands and XCity). Then the bug bit. Still fantastic routes and rolling stock to this day. Shame they didn't continue their work, I would have gladly paid for it. After that, bought Railworks and became a bit obsessed with route building.
