Description
You play the part of the head of a railroad company, with the aim of creating your own railroad empire, providing a successful mass transit system that will be an inspiration to the rest of the world. Another goal is to provide the impetus for your chosen city to develop. There are a number of different places to set up business each with different layouts and existing houses and businesses.
The main money earners are passenger trains, that can be scheduled to pick up passengers at the times of day when the demand is high. However, in the long term you need the city to develop. This requires setting up trains that transport resources to where they are needed. These resources are used to build houses, and other buildings, increasing the number of passengers for your commuter trains.
As the city develops, new businesses will spring up, such as stadiums, high rise office blocks, and ski resorts. You can also build your own businesses, the success of which will depend on the local population, the presence of competing businesses, and even the changes of the seasons, among other factors.
The stock market is also another way of making money. You can also watch the seasons come and go, with snow visible in winter, and fireworks displays celebrating the new year.
Alternate Titles
- "Take the A-Train III" -- Original Japanese release name
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Trivia
Some historical notes, from the manual:
A-Train was created in Japan by Artdink, and is the first game that Maxis has published that was developed outside of the company. (We have huge egos and think we're pretty good game designers, so if we publish someone else's game, it means we're really impressed.)
This game is actually Artdink's third complete version of A-Train, which was released as Take the A-Train III
in Japan.
The first version of A-Train was released in Japan in April 1986 for the Fujitsu FM-series computer. It was later available for all the major home computers in Japan.
A-Train II was released in Japan in July 1988, and was published in the U.S. by Seika Corp. under the name Railroad Empire.
Take the A-Train III
was first released in Japan in December 1990 and since then has been a consistent top-ten seller, winning the Best Simulation of the Year Award from Login
magazine (well, actually it tied for first with SimCity), and winning reader polls as their favorite simulation game.
Take the A-Train III
, under the name A-Train (we dropped the 3 since there was never a 1 or 2 released in this country), is now published by Maxis.--
There are lots of cool things to see and discover in this game. Here's another quote from the manual:
Depending on the map, and what you've had for dinner, there are some interesting items in the skies. During the night of December 24, Santa Claus is flying across the map. UFOs may appear on summer nights, and there are firework shows on Saturday nights in August at the amusement parks.--
The
A-Train Construction Set was released in 1992, allowing you to create your own maps or edit existing ones.
