Crane Simulator 2009

Crane Simulator 2009 is a single player simulation that puts the player in the cabin of a crane in various real world type environments.

At its heart this is a very simple game. The player gets to pick things up from one place and put them down in another. However this is a simulation that requires patience and skill to master.

The crane is very simple to operate. The arrow keys slew the arm of the crane round from side to side or forwards and back while the page up / page down raise and lower the hook. The object to be picked up is highlighted and the player positions the crane over it and lowers the hook. If the hook is positioned correctly then when the hook reaches the correct height above the object an icon appears to inform the player that the object can be lifted. One key press and the hook is attached so all that remains is to lift it cleanly, swing it into its highlighted position and lower it until an icon appears saying that it's now OK to detach the hook.

There are three levels, each simulating a different crane. In level one the player uses a Leibherr LTM 1050-3.1 mobile crane to build a prefabricated house, lifting partition walls and ceiling elements from lorries and slotting them into place. In level two the player is operating a Lieibherr LTM 500 mobile crane in a container port to load and unload ships. Level three is set on the inner city building site of a shopping mall. Here the player uses the 80-metre high Leibherr 280 EX-H12 Litronic top-slewing crane and works at night. Each level has three sections or tasks, for example in level one, the prefabricated house, the player must build the ground floor, first floor and finally the top floor. Scores are recorded for each task
Levels two and three cannot be accessed until level one has been completed.

The player starts each level with a set number of points and loses one point per second plus points per collision e.t.c. so that the points remaining is the score for the level. Players can set up their own profiles so that each player's scores are recorded separately.

The game has three difficulty settings which require progressively more accuracy in positioning the load and has eight camera views of the lift.