First of all this is a big program. 50+ megs to download the demo which was compressed. It took about 4.5 hours on my 56K phone modem so be patient if you want to try it out. Second, don’t think you will get a free program by downloading the demo. Several of the features are disabled and the rolling stock is very limited in the demo version. And third, this is not TRAIN SIMULATOR and is no more comparable to it than, say, RAILROAD TYCOON. With that said, the program is more of an attempt at a computerized version of a scale model train layout than an attempt to duplicate a “prototype” train experience. There are three sections or parts to the program.
The most basic section is an interior shot of a maintenance building where the rolling stock can be looked at. Now, I am a nut about collecting train stuff, so to me this was great. You can look at each car individually through a 360-degree camera and just “show off your stuff” so to speak. Each piece of equipment is listed on a sidebar type of menu and when you choose a particular piece by pushing buttons next to it, the piece shows up in the maintenance barn for you to inspect. If this is an open architecture program so that third party developers can add to the stock, this will really show off some of the artistry out in cyber land. I can imagine a beautifully detailed steamer by Train Artisans or one of Mark Toland’s cute little switchers in this barn! And, we can criticize the heck out of every detail from every angle!
The second part of the program will be the meat and potatoes for most people. It is the “driver” section or the man-with-the-hand-on-the-rheostat section, if you are a H.O. fan. Here the train, you make up your own consists, goes around one of several layouts. These are more like a layout that we built in the good ol’ days in that the train goes round and round the countryside that you or someone else developed. It is not a point-to-point prototype rail operation. The graphics were superb on my computer, which, by the way, is almost the exact definition of minimum by Trainz' standards; Pentium 2, 400 MHz, 32 Meg video card. You can have one or several trains running at the same time and apparently can operate from a rheostat like controller or from the cabin of the train (I could only operate from the rheostat as the inside the train operation seemed to be disabled in the demo).
There were several vehicle crossings with moving vehicles on model roads, model towns, model people, yep really neat! The one criticism I had was the darn cars drove on the wrong side of the street! When are those folks on the other side of the ocean going to learn the right way to drive? The audio, in my opinion, was not so great. I love my room shaking Dash 9 roaring in the middle of the night keeping everyone awake with Microsoft Train Simulator, but again this program is much more like a model railroad--read that quiet. The two engines provided in the demo were nice, not perfect but nice. The rolling stock, limited as it was to one boxcar and one passenger car were equally nice and actually pretty detailed.
The last part of the program is the surveyor section, or the build it/modify it yourself section. I have done some modifications to Train Simulator but let me say right now, I am not (in big capital letters) an artist. I can lengthen track, add buildings and some other basic stuff, but route layout and that are beyond me. This was my favorite part of this program. I could actually work it, without a help file! I could make little mountains, change the concrete to grass, add and move buildings around (and they fit the contours of the ground), I was impressed! Some of you out there will no doubt think this too simple, but for me it had great potential. It may well turn out to be the best part of the program.
I’m sold. When it comes out I will have one. It will not replace Train Simulator in my house; it is a different type of program. I hope the real version comes out loaded as promised. As you exit the demo it lists the things that the retail program will include, several locomotives, worldwide liveries and other stuff that went by too fast for me to read, even after several attempts, but what I read sounded great. The demo is very easy to use even without a help file, the graphics were great and the program is plain fun to goof around with.
The system requirements:
Minimum
Recommended
Recommended requirements are pretty tall, but if you have a system that is within 3-5 years old it should work fine. Again my system meets just the minimums and the program worked fine for me. I have my display set for 1024x768 16-bit resolution and I had no complaints at all about the graphics. I think this will be a great program. Try it.
M.P. "Pete" Higginbotham
Links:
Auran, Trainz' designer:
Strategy First, Trainz' publisher; go here to download the demo:
donnaandpete@sierratel.com
www.auran.com
www.strategyfirst.com
Copyright © 2001 by
Nels Anderson.
All Rights Reserved.