'Train Game' suggestions?

[CaptainBreakout]

Plays it’s own library as the Pinout is different.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

See... Wonders never cease. About 12 years ago I went to great lengths to get the Watara Supervision to work on my emulator cabinet (through a DOS version of Mess no less), and it looks like this Mega Duck thing is another Thin Chen Enterprises product that I might be able to force-feed into my old rig.

 

So neat, more roms to hunt down for an ultra obscure system. Then build menu and control configuration. This makes me happy... Hope I can do it.

[Iwantgames:)]

I know wonderswan, but what the **** is Mega Duck?

 

Also called Cougar Boy in certain areas of the world

[Tanooki]

Try researching this old Konami game. The wiki article gives an idea, but it's bad as far as referencing all the various releases as it doesn't mention the Gameboy/Gameboy Color release of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loco-Motion_(video_game)

 

Basic little puzzle, move the tracks around, so the train can make its run without a crash. I've known it as Guttang Gottong but Locomotion makes more sense.

[Iwantgames:)]

Try researching this old Konami game. The wiki article gives an idea, but it's bad as far as referencing all the various releases as it doesn't mention the Gameboy/Gameboy Color release of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loco-Motion_(video_game)

 

Basic little puzzle, move the tracks around, so the train can make its run without a crash. I've known it as Guttang Gottong but Locomotion makes more sense.

This is the game Railway on Mega Duck copies one of the few games I actually play on mine

[Tanooki]

This is the game Railway on Mega Duck copies one of the few games I actually play on mine

That's cool, probably lots of variants of it out there people are unaware of as it's so easy anything could run it in concept well, even Mega Duck level stuff.

 

Also in the UK (likely Japan too) Mattel with Konami put out a LCD version of the game too.

[CaptainBreakout]

This is the game Railway on Mega Duck copies one of the few games I actually play on mine

Happy to say I played a Mega Duck for the first time tonight (emulation... Old school DOS MESS for that matter).

 

Yay Railway. I was very confused. Took me a minute to get the gist of it, then before I could make the big realization connection, my wife pulled me away to discuss current evemts. I donno if my three year old could get any kind of grip on it... Maybe if daddy played it in front of him for a good amount of time. Like lots. The Mega Duck version sure had choppy audio and video. Could be the emulator, but also could be Sanchen... It's what anyone would come to expect from them. I don't know anyone who would call their games 'slick', but at the the same time I don't know anyone who wouldn't call their games 'interesting'.

[Iwantgames:)]

Happy to say I played a Mega Duck for the first time tonight (emulation... Old school DOS MESS for that matter).

 

Yay Railway. I was very confused. Took me a minute to get the gist of it, then before I could make the big realization connection, my wife pulled me away to discuss current evemts. I donno if my three year old could get any kind of grip on it... Maybe if daddy played it in front of him for a good amount of time. Like lots. The Mega Duck version sure had choppy audio and video. Could be the emulator, but also could be Sanchen... It's what anyone would come to expect from them. I don't know anyone who would call their games 'slick', but at the the same time I don't know anyone who wouldn't call their games 'interesting'.

On an actual mega duck railway runs quite well tho the screen is harder to see than most handhelds

[carlsson]

Have you tried Moon Patrol? There may be variations thereof which replaces the buggy with a train.

 

Ah, I found one for the ZX Spectrum (so you'd have to emulate that one as well): Casey Jones

 

There ought to be more games like that one, games with big, bright graphics and reasonably easy controls.

 

Back to the Future Part III (Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, C64, DOS, Genesis, Master System, ZX Spectrum) involves four minigames of which one takes place on a train. Note though that the NES got a combined BTTF II + III game that is entirely different than the computer/Sega version, and the SNES only got a Super (of course!) BTTF II which should be train free.

[ComputerSpaceFan]

A local YouTuber here in Vancouver just did a review of The Train: Escape to Normandy on the C64 .... thought it was worth pimping his channel for you guys....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9-hdHu1ntE

[Tanooki]

Since I reminded myself of that one game I've been thinking about it and a sorta like it car game (you have a square puzzle and have various car sizes you have to move to get them off the grid from 1 exit. Both games you can get physical, lcd, or as a real video game too.

 

I know it's not likely for any release translated into english, but if it were, Densha de Go would be a good one.

[CaptainBreakout]

These are all great responses. I really like that I get to dig around on the C64 a little bit.

 

Also weird that I'm responding to my own question, but if any other dad is in the same situation I have one to add to the list. Mappy Land for the NES features a big train in the first level. It's mostly background and my son is always asking me to "try and make it move"... But anyway he's more interested than he otherwise be.

Edited August 9, 2018 by CaptainBreakout

[carlsson]

Now I remember a VIC-20 game with trains on multiple platforms. Dirt appears on the tracks and it is your job to remove the dirt before the trains arrive, at the same time you must not be hit by the trains. I remember it as "Panic Stations" though I find absolutely zero for that title, so it might have been known under a different name or is a so obscure public domain or type-in game that nobody else knows it. I've got a home recorded tape in front of me though, perhaps I should preserve it as PRG.

 

And no, I'm not talking about Bahnhof a.k.a. Railway Station.

 

Oh yes, BAHA SOFTWARE released a game for the Atari 8-bit computers this year called TRAIN, if you're up for more systems to emulate.

Edited August 9, 2018 by carlsson

[carlsson]

So here it is! I had to patch it slightly in order to load from any device and get the joystick to work properly. Still a little surprising if it hasn't been documented before.

 

Panic Stations by R. Nevill and R. Browse. You play Bert, the Paddington Station doosbody (sic! *) removing litter from the platforms and rails.

 

panicstations.zip

 

(*) I believe that is a typo, should be dogsbody.

Edited August 10, 2018 by carlsson

[CaptainBreakout]

So here it is! I had to patch it slightly in order to load from any device and get the joystick to work properly. Still a little surprising if it hasn't been documented before.

 

Panic Stations by R. Nevill and R. Browse. You play Bert, the Paddington Station doosbody (sic! *) removing litter from the platforms and rails.

 

panicstations.gif

panicstations.zip

 

(*) I believe that is a typo, should be dogsbody.

Wow that's AWESOME! A custom patched and preserved little game. This is one of my favorite things about this hobby... I super jazzed this topic generated this. I'm adding this game to my system as soon as I can.

 

Major thank you! It will be fun explaining this to my son about how it's a special game.

[carlsson]

You're welcome! I had all but forgotten about my remaining old tapes until yesterday.

 

Here is yet one more, the infamous Psycho Shopper (also VIC-20) which has a railway stage:

[carlsson]

On 8/10/2018 at 5:34 PM, CaptainBreakout said:

A custom patched and preserved little game

4.5 years later, I just realized that one of the games in your Secret Santa package was a variant of the above VIC-20 game... entirely unintended.

 

So is your son still into trains, and perhaps plays some of the more complex games suggested?

[Tanooki]

Wow old topic, got to reading a few posts and saw that Railway came up for the Mega Duck.  Mega Duck games also were put on other formats, including the Gameboy.  Later last week I got a super unique and hard to find Sachen game in the mail, aussie version of the Super 31-in-1 called the Mighty Mix, and on there is Railway.  That game is pretty interesting, not bad, have to get used to how the tiles above slide in relation to those on the play field, it's like one off for placement, but once you do it's a fairly quite good game.  I've been slowly navigating the cart as 31 games give you some real choices.

[SlidellMan]

Seeing that someone mentioned Densha De Go:

 

[CatPix]

If the son grew up and is ready to tackle more transportation games, I can suggest OpenTTD; (and if we wanna keep in the old consoles theme, his spiritual parent, Transport Tycoon on Playstation 1 and PC)

(checking more, the PS1 port may be a PAL exclusive...)

 

OpenTTD will require a decently recent PC, but it's free and heavily customisable :

https://www.openttd.org/

In fact, it require the use to pick up and download mods (called NewGRF in game) to tailor your experience : antique British steam trains, heavy-freight US trains, Japanese metric gauge trains, etc... And road vehicles, and planes!

There's also Unrailed :

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1016920/Unrailed/

Which is more about co-op play (but it can be played alone with the help of a NPC).

 

[Cynicaster]

For train games there's Time Tunnel by Taito.  I'd be very impressed if a 3 year-old could play that game, so maybe being 5 years late is a good thing. 

 

 

 

 

[zzip]

2 hours ago, CatPix said:

OpenTTD will require a decently recent PC, but it's free and heavily customisable :

https://www.openttd.org/

considering the original is from 1995ish, it shouldn't need that strong of a PC

 

Chris Sawyer also did a an updated version of the game using his Roller Coaster Tycoon engine,  called Locomotion:

https://www.mobygames.com/game/chris-sawyers-locomotion

 

If you want a more modern version of the game with detailed 3D graphics,  I'd recommend Transport Fever 2:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1066780/Transport_Fever_2/

 

[CatPix]

OpenTTD looks like it's from 1995 but the size of some maps and the support of 900 vehicles (500 road vehicles + 100 boats/planes/trains (trains themselves being made of distincts engines, cars and wagons) mean that it won't run on older systems, even if the executable run on Win9X.

I tried to run OpenTTD on a computer from 1998 and the title screen ran at negative FPS

That being said any decent computer made in the past 10 years will do. You may notice FPS drops when dezooming on large maps (more than 1024 tiles) and long loading times.

[zzip]

6 minutes ago, CatPix said:

OpenTTD looks like it's from 1995 but the size of some maps and the support of 900 vehicles (500 road vehicles + 100 boats/planes/trains (trains themselves being made of distincts engines, cars and wagons) mean that it won't run on older systems, even if the executable run on Win9X.

I tried to run OpenTTD on a computer from 1998 and the title screen ran at negative FPS

That being said any decent computer made in the past 10 years will do. You may notice FPS drops when dezooming on large maps (more than 1024 tiles) and long loading times.

I see.   Well, I haven't played maps that large,  so if you use the defaults, it won't strain your PC

 

[CaptainBreakout]

Hahaha!!!  This is pretty fun seeing this come back from years ago.  My son might be into some of these.  He's gotten a taste for platformers recently.

 

Now that he can read, I think I'd like to throw something like Railroad Tycoon at him and see if that sticks.

 

Good suggestions, all.

[Tanooki]

18 hours ago, CaptainBreakout said:

Hahaha!!!  This is pretty fun seeing this come back from years ago.  My son might be into some of these.  He's gotten a taste for platformers recently.

 

Now that he can read, I think I'd like to throw something like Railroad Tycoon at him and see if that sticks.

 

Good suggestions, all.

Got a DS?  It's VERY crappily produced and published, the visuals are mid-tier GBA at best so for DS kind of trash too.  But, that said Lionel Trains on Track is basically a Lionel licensed re-branding of the original Railroad Tycoon for DS and it's ridiculously cheap to pick up.  I had it before in the past, first go around when it was new, even put a solid review up on it ages ago on gamefaqs too if you want details.