A-Train 9 release announced

[ali3nSXaddict]

Artdink announces the latest installment of the A-Train series for Q1 2010
Web site
Full story

There's to be a press conference on 10.12.09 for which there is an application form on the Cyberfront site. 150 lucky gamers will be chosen at random to attend the viewing of screen shots and in-game footage.

I'm a huge fan of these games and so I'm very happy about the announcement. No word on a Western release as yet - that remains to be seen. Hopefully it'll get the exposure it deserves this time around after the pityful effort they made to promote A-TrainHX and A8. Fingers crossed.

[Greybriar]

I hope A-Train 9 is available locally. I had to order A-Train 8 from Japan.

[baelthazar]

Greybriar, A-Train 8 is actually on Gamersgate now. I tried the demo, but couldn't quite "get it," but maybe that is because I wasn't 100% sure what I was doing. I like the idea of having a transport sim with a city-builder - in fact I play Open TTD quite often. Is A-Train 8 anything like that?

Bael

[Greybriar]

Greybriar, A-Train 8 is actually on Gamersgate now....

Thanks for the information, but I prefer retail boxed versions, not downloads.

[dbt1949]

I like the looks of it except there aren't any car or trucks or people. Are these robotowns or something?

[baelthazar]

That seems to be an opening for a joke about Japan... but I am not taking it.

I wonder what improvements A-Train 9 will bring? Or when it will be available in NA. I read up on A-Train 8 and think I might "get it" if I tried it a second time - but if 9 will be out here soon and a major improvement, it might be worth waiting.

Bael

[Zurai]

I remember loving the original A-Train, but that was back when I was a kid playing on my grandfather's computer; I loved Outpost too, so that doesn't mean much. I havn't played any version of it since then, but nostalgia might prompt me to start bargain bin/sale diving for a fairly recent version to catch up.

[ali3nSXaddict]

Greybriar, A-Train 8 is actually on Gamersgate now. I tried the demo, but couldn't quite "get it," but maybe that is because I wasn't 100% sure what I was doing. I like the idea of having a transport sim with a city-builder - in fact I play Open TTD quite often. Is A-Train 8 anything like that?

Bael

baelthazar

they pitched A-Train as railroad management/urban development and, in a Japanese way, that's very much what it is. My own feeling is that alot of people who try the game are either put off quickly because they don't, in your own words "get it", or else they can see the potential but give up in frustration.

It did take me quite a while to get my head around the concept. It isn't Railroads or Simcity but does have elemnts of both. Thing is, this game is so very Japanese. Almost too Japanese for us Westerners. They designed the game play around the Japanese railway conglomerate business model. That is, and excuse me while I go off on one here: After the Japanese railway was nationalised, the government put strict caps on how much money the numerous new operators could make from their train services. This prompted a diversifying of the businesses into other areas to supplement the rail expansion like hotels, entertainments, housing and suchlike. Some of the train companies became powerful conglomerates. In a few cases whole new towns grew up around a particular station with the rail company controling many local services and housing. In a way they created their own captive market.

A-Train is also about managing and organising scheduals. Everyone is familiar with the famed Japanese punctuality and service quality of trains. So in A-Train there are no actual signals to help co-ordinate the trains. You must rely on their punctuality in order to avoid clogging-up a line. You might spend a good half hour or so tweaking scheduals just to fit in you new Shinkansen, and find it has a cascading effect down through the schedual which must be addressed. Sorry, this might not make much sense....

So in A-Train you buy/sell shares, take out loans and buy low/sell high real estate in order to further expand your business. It's a time consuming, creative and very open-ended game. I loved it, as you might guess, but it isn't everyone's cup of tea, if you catch my drift. I still play both A8 & A-Train HX regularly and still notice little nuances here and there that just make the game better and better. I also love Japanese lanscapes and get a huge kick out of recreating them.

Why not give the game another shot. Take your time with it because it will take a while until you feel comfortable, and if you have a question just ask me or visit the fan site or forum which I will now shamelessly plug:

http://a-train.proboards.com/index.cgi

http://www.a-trainhx.com/index.html

[baelthazar]

Actually, I read your website and it made me re-DL the demo today! I now understand more of the principle here, although I think that some things are not as clear as they should be (I had huge trouble the first time telling what parts were profitable or having any effect at all). So some of my initial problem was UI based. I really like the principle, I was drawn to Open TTD for that great "watch the world grow" mechanic, something I see much stronger in A-Train 8.

I needed to learn how to better use the schedules and such, that was one aspect I was a little confused with. But it probably just means I needed to delve more into it! I'll read your tutorials again to see what I can come up with!

Bael

[ali3nSXaddict]

Details of the new game have been ANNOUNCED

[baelthazar]

Nice stuff, I'm going to imagine the North American release will be FAR in the future of that - probably a year or 5 months.

Bael

[dbt1949]

It looks like it's fairly complex. What kind of learning curve do these games have?

[ali3nSXaddict]

It looks like it's fairly complex. What kind of learning curve do these games have?

Depends, really....

If you're a fan of rail sims then you'll need to get over certain expectations and assumptions you might bring to it (like expecting signals and not expecting to create the city largely for yourself.)

If not then it's not as complex as you think. It doesn't need a 200+ page manual like Civilisation and doesn't have as many variables as, say, SimCity.

Japanese Tetsudo Otaku love this game, as do micro-managers and rail game fans. It's such a creative process to boot.

[hitbyambulance]

i've been keeping track of an open-source fan 'remake' underway called FreeTrain for the past few years, but the English translation seems to have stalled?

(i was tempted to purchase the Japanese release of the PS1 port of one of the A-Train titles, but... i can't read the language)

[ali3nSXaddict]

Only five years later...
A-Train9 fansite

I've put a lot of energy into this and hopefully it'll just continue to grow. An English-language guide has been badly needed for some time.

I'd really appreciate some feedback or suggestions, too.
regards

[noxiousdog]

Thanks for this. I was able to look it up and it was available on Steam via Amazon. (Might have been available on Steam directly).

I only got a few minutes with it, but I spent so many hours on A-Train as a kid, and 9 definitely looks and feels like it. Very much looking forward to playing.