A-Train (Game)

A-Train

GAME » on December 14, 1990

Amiga (Platform)FM Towns (Platform)Mac (Platform)NEC PC-9801 (Platform)PC (Platform)Sharp X68000 (Platform)Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Platform)TurboGrafx-CD (Platform)

The third installment of Artdink's A-Train series of management games, switching from transcontinental railway management to full-on business simulation and city-building with a railroad flavor.

Game Images Reviews A-Train ReleasesRelated Pages

EditHistoryPage info

Overview

A-Ressha de Ikou 3, also known as Take the "A" Train III, is a combination railroad management, city-building, and business simulation game developed and published by Artdink (Company) for the NEC PC-98 in Japan on December 14, 1990, with Sharp X68000 (Platform) and FM Towns (Platform) releases in 1991, a PC Engine CD-ROM² release on June 11, 1993, a Super Famicom release on September 29, 1995 (as A-Ressha de Ikou 3: Super Version), and a Windows PC release in March 2000. It also received an overseas release by Maxis (with Ocean co-publishing in Europe) for DOS PC, Macintosh, and Amiga (Platform) computers in 1992 as A-Train.

Unlike the original two entries in the A-Train series (A-Ressha de Ikou and Railroad Empire (Game)), A-Train reworks the game structure so that instead of expanding a transcontinental railway, players manage a local railroad company in a developing city and use their resources and expenses to expand both their profits and the city itself (similar to games like SimCity (Game)). Along with managing the rail lines, players manage subsidiaries and real estate, and can make financial decisions such as playing the stock market. While the original games are presented in a top-down perspective, this game is presented in an isometric perspective with a point-and-click interface.

The game included six maps (or "Scenarios") to start with, and some versions of the game had a map editor expansion (known as A-Train Construction Set, or A-III Map Construction in the Japanese version). Some releases of the game are bundled with the editor expansion.

While Maxis published a PS1 game in the series with the same name, it is instead a release of the series's revised fourth entry.

Gameplay

The goal of the game is to build a railroad company and make as much money as possible. To do this, the player can either choose to ferry passengers around for a lot of cash, or they can choose to ship building materials instead which can be used to build structures on the map to entice more passengers to use the trains to get there. These include houses and restaurants to larger projects like holiday resorts. The player can let the computer decide what to build with the resources available, or they can start a construction project for a building of their choice and the materials will automatically be allocated to the project.

Similar Games

SimCity 2000 (Game)

31 December 1993

SimCity 2000 is a city simulation game where players can build cities from small and neat to large and dirty, or anything in between.

AMI GBA PC +5

Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon (Game)

1 September 1990

Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon is a railroading business simulation game designed and created by Sid Meier. The object is to build and run your own railway company.

AMI PC AST +3

Microsoft Train Simulator (Game)

31 May 2001

Microsoft brings the immersive sim experience of their Flight Simulator series to the wide world of trains, featuring authentic re-creations of real rail lines, along with their corresponding electric, diesel, and steam locomotives.

PC

Sid Meier's Railroads! (Game)

17 October 2006

Sid Meier's Railroads! is a tycoon simulation game which allows you to play 19th-20th century railroad baron and become the captain of industry while enjoying the great playground that is unfettered capitalism and vertical monopoly.

PC

C.E.O. (Game)

31 December 1995

A localized overseas revision of Artdink's 1993 simulation game A-Ressha de Ikou IV, tasking players with managing the local transportation infrastructure while watching their investments in the stock market.

PC

Super Momotarou Dentetsu DX (Game)

8 December 1995

A board game based around trains and railroads and part of Hudson's long-running Momotarou Dentetsu series.

SNES

Tokio 2: Kaitaku Imin Maku Shuuchuu! (Game)

14 September 1995

The 24th ward of Tokyo, floating in space, is now its own independent nation! Manage the space metropolis while working with immigration and foreign relations in this sequel to Artdink's comical city management game.

PC PC98

Tokio: Tōkyō-to Dai 24-ku (Game)

11 December 1992

A comical city simulation game from Artdink, set in the futuristic space colony Tokio (which happens to be Tokyo's 24th ward).

PC PC98 FMT