The first iteration of the A-Train series was released in December 1985 for the FM-7, NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-9801, X1 Turbo, MZ-2500, Nintendo Famicom and MSX2. A Windows 95/98 port followed in April 2000.

This version should not be confused with the third iteration, which was marketed in the 1990s under the name A-Train.

The second iteration of the A-Train series was released in July 1988 for the NEC PC-9801 and Sharp X68000. In the USA, it was released under the name Railroad Empire.

Take the A-Train III (known internationally as "A-Train") is the third game in the A-Train series. It was originally developed and published by Japanese game developer Artdink for Japan, and was later published by Maxis for the United States. It was originally released in December 1990 for the NEC PC-9801, FM Towns Marty, Sharp X68000 and TurboGrafx-16. The USA version was release in October 1992, and the Japanese version was re-released in March 2000 for Windows 95 and 98.

Overview

The game places players in command of a railway company. There are no rival companies; the player controls the only one in the city and the game is resultingly fairly open-ended. A-Train III is the first game in the series to use of near-isometric dimetric projection to present the city, similar to Maxis's SimCity 2000. There are two types of transport that the player's company can take: passengers or building materials. The former is more likely to be profitable, but building materials allow the city to grow.

Wherever the building materials are delivered, they can be taken and used to construct buildings for the city. These start with houses, but eventually, as an area grows, roads, and shops and other buildings are built. These can provide extra revenue for a passenger service, but also allowing the city to develop and grow can be seen as a goal in itself. As well as the buildings built by the computer, in response to the materials being present, the player can construct their own buildings, such as ski resorts and hotels, and make profits from them if the conditions are right.

Artdink ported the A-Train III along with the editor to Windows 95, and published both titles as a package as the 3rd ARTDINK BEST CHOICE title in Japan.

Editor

A.III. MAP CONSTRUCTION, known internationally as A-Train Construction Set, is an editor that can change existing saved games, or to build landscapes from scratch. It comes with 6 sample maps. Maxis also published A-Train Construction Set with A-Train as a single package in Europe, without the Ocean Software label.

Maxis distribution and ports

The game was tremendously popular in Japan, thus motivating Maxis to license it for US distribution as A-Train, available for DOS, Macintosh and Amiga platforms. It was released in October 1992, though it sold poorly. Even the release of an add-on pack for the game failed to stir up any real support amongst the gaming community. The game was the first major failure from Maxis.

In spite of the PC version's commercial failure in the US, Maxis later released a PlayStation version in 1996, based on Artdink's AIV: Evolution Global. The PlayStation was a relatively new platform at that point and the game suffered many limitations, such as requiring an entire memory card (expensive at the time) to store a single map. Like the PC version, it proved unsuccessful.

Reception and legacy

A-Train's isometric, tile-based graphics and animated elements inspired the visual style Maxis went on to adopt for Simcity 2000 in 1993.

The game was reviewed in 1992 in Dragon #187 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.

A Ressha de Ikou MD (Ａ列車で行こうＭＤ, "MD A-Train") is a simulation game involving the construction of a railroad in order to boost the city's mass transit system. The game was released to an exclusively Japanese market; with no release ever being attempted for the North American or European markets.

The player must use the resources at hand to build a railroad connecting the two ends of a map in each scenario. A train can be controlled throughout the day (05:00-17:00) while building new tracks and stations. Nighttime activities (17:00-05:00) involve changing train schedules to better suit the needs of the player's growing mass transportation hub. New developments will spring up around the tracks and stations. This permits the player to increase the amount of money that can earn; resulting in the increased ability to build railroad tracks and stations for the growing city.

Five scenarios offer a tutorial mode for first-time players, an extremely hard scenario for veterans, and three more scenarios for players in between the two extremes in difficulty levels. Players can play using speeds that range from slow to normal to fast.

Released in December 1993 for the NEC PC-9801, FM Towns Marty, Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. It was later re-released on March 17, 2000 for Windows 95 and 98 under the title A-Train 4 15th ANNIVERSARY, and again on March 26, 2004 under the name A-Train 4 XP, this time including support for Windows 2000 and XP. Related versions include the Japan-only release AIV EVOLUTION released in December 1994 for the PS1 and AIV EVOLUTION GLOBAL, released in December 1995 outside Japan, also for the PS1, and re-released in January 2007 for the PSP and PS3.

Famitsu magazine's Reader Cross Review gave the Japanese PlayStation version of the game a 9 out of 10, and on release, Famitsu scored AIV Evolution a 31 out of 40.

Released in December 1996 for Windows 95. The first A-Train game to use 3D graphics based on the PowerVR game engine, and also the first to be numbered under the Arabic numeral system instead of the Roman numeral system as were the previous 4 games. It was re-released in December 1997 under the DirectX and Direct3D APIs for the Windows release, and at the same time saw its debut on the PS1. The PS1 version was re-released in April 2007 for the PSP and PS3.

Released in May 1999 for the PS1. It was re-released on the PSP in June 2006.

Released in March 2000 for the PS2. Features improved graphics over A-Train 5 and A-Train Z.

Released in May 2001 for the PS2. An improvement over A-Train 6, the game and its dependencies can be installed and stored in the PlayStation 2 Expansion Bay. Also, for the first time, people were featured in the game. An expansion pack was released in 2002, and continues to boast a strong fan base as of 2011.

Released on June 19, 2003 for Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, and XP. It was basically a Windows port of A-Train 2001.

Released on the DoCoMo 504i/505i/506i/900 mobile phones as a service planning game and distributed by Hudson Soft. Players had to pay a monthly fee of ¥315 to access the game. The said game is now no longer available as of March 2012.

A-Train 7 is a railroad simulation for PC platform. It is the successor of A-Train 6. Marketed as the 20th anniversary title for the A-Train series, it revives the urban development game play that had been missing since A-Train 5. It was released on June 26, 2005 for Windows XP and Vista.

Expansions

Train, Map, Diagram construction expansions were separately released. Each expansion is sold separately, or all 3 bundled with the basic game. Train construction adds the ability to build custom trains, and included 62 pre-built real-life trains. Map construction adds the ability to build custom maps and terrains, and included pre-built cities Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe.

Diagram construction adds the ability to extensively customize train schedules, and included 4 pre-built train types. A7 Bench Mark Test is a benchmarking program based on A-Train 7, available separately on the official site.

Taiwan version

The international Chinese versions, released by Unalis Corporation, include postcards. In addition, the 'pure white limited edition' (純白夢幻限定版), available in 7-Eleven, includes 10 postcards of Taiwan and Japan railroad scenes, and A-Train 20th Anniversary clipboard.

Released by the mobile phone company au by KDDI on the BREW platform in January 2006 and distributed by Hudson Soft. Similar to A-Train i in that it is also a service planning game. A one-time download fee of ¥525 applies (incl. tax).

A-Train HX (A列車で行こうHX, A Ressha de Ikou HX) is a railroad simulation for the Xbox 360 and Windows. It was released on December 21, 2006, supporting high definition graphics (720p resolution) and Xbox Live support for uploading and downloading maps and leaderboards. It is also the first title published by Artdink under the A-Train name on the Japanese market.

Gameplay

The gameplay is similar to A-Train 7, but it has a full 3D view that was previously used in A-Train The 21st Century. However, it comes with map editor as a standard feature. Custom maps can be shared through Xbox Live. Additional Xbox Live features includes leaderboards which contain "Total Capital", "Population" and "Time to 1 Trillion Yen" categories for each map. The Xbox Live features can be used with an Xbox Live Silver account.

Artdink offered over 150 types of trains for sale in Xbox Live Marketplace, based on real-life Japanese trains. The game itself comes with the following trains designed by Artdink: AR3 (Commuter), AR4 (Express), AR5 (LimitedExpress), AR7 (LimitedExpress), ARX (LimitedExpress), U-Shape (Subway), DC4 (Cargo), EC6 (CargoExpress), 186Exp (SuperExpress), Linear (SuperExpress). Each additional train costs 50 Microsoft Points.

Achievement points features are also supported.

Windows version

The Windows port of the A-Train HX includes all the train types from A-Train HX (including Xbox Live Marketplace trains), plus new East Japan Railway Company trains (12 trains), Artdink trains (AR8), Europe trains (14 trains), for a total of 200 trains. There are 10 maps in the game.

Marketing

Before the release of Taiwan version, publisher TTIME Technology held a paper train model contest for winning the game.

Reception

Eurogamer reported that they liked the music in A-Train HX, but concluded that "A-Train HX is badly designed, poorly presented, overly complicated and utterly tedious" giving it a score of just 2/10.

Official Xbox 360 Magazine gave it a slightly better score of 3/10, however they still called it "The most confusing train wreck of a game ever".

Released on March 21, 2008 for Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Released on April 23, 2009 for Nintendo DS.

The latest iteration of the A-Train series, A-Train 9 was released on February 11, 2010 in Japan, and on March 15, 2012 worldwide by UIG Entertainment under the names The Train Giant in English and Der Bahn Gigant in German. It is compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 7, and is also compatible with the said 64-bit versions. Two Japan-only building kits were released, the first on October 8, 2010 and the second on December 23, 2010. The Japan version also includes a 3D patch costing ¥1050 that can be played using 3D glasses, and the German version includes an unofficial patch that adds 200 trains to the game on top of the existing 11 trains. A-Train 9 includes buses and trucks, grouped by distances they travel and the work they manage (e.g. intercity, local, heavy goods, etc.), power plants, Japanese castles and more authentic-looking Japanese buildings.

• Success Corporation - released A-Train IV