0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - A Train

  

       

Known as Take the A-Train III in its native Japan, and known as A-Train internationally, is the third game in the A-Train series developed and published by Artdink in its native Japan the game would later be published by Maxis for its American release.

The game was originally released back in 1990 on NEC PC-9801, FM Towns Marty, Sharp X68000, and PC Engine as well as having a 1992 release on DOS and Amiga, eventually getting a worldwide Playstation release in 1995 in Japan and a year later in North America and Europe.

A-Train puts the player in charge of a railway company, this is not competitive railway management as there are no AI controlled rivals, with the player controlling the only railway company in the city, as a result the game is very open ended.

A-Train III is the first game in the A-Train series that uses a near Isometric Diametric Projection to present the game world and city similar to Maxis’s later Sim City 2000, the player has two choices for their company either taking passengers or freight in this case building materials.

Wherever the building materials are delivered they can be taken and used to construct buildings in the city at first houses which increase passenger train users eventually moving onto other kinds of buildings and roads the AI uses the materials to build new buildings but the player is able to build themselves.

The game is open ended city builder/ mass transit management game.

Not a huge number of reviews for this fairly early Playstation1 game there are however a few, with a fairly close spread of scores EGM gave the game a 7/10 the highest score I have been able to find, PSM3 Magazine UK scored the game a 60/100 while IGN gave an equivalent score with a 6/10.

Even with this fairly average score their review roundup was quite positive with IGN saying Selecting icons and guiding pointers is handled via the joypad, and is probably not the most efficient way to handle a PC-style interface. However, the game is largely enjoyable and, should your passion be trains, or even management sims, you won't be disappointed.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit five online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com,  eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific but from a podcast I listen to and  I have heard they have a huge stock of older games, I will also be including Ebay.com as well

So lets get down to business with Gamedude who will buy your copy of A-Train for $12 if you are in the market for a copy of the game you are looking at around $24 for a copy from Gamedude, moving over the pond to Retrogames.co.uk, sadly they don’t stock the Playstation 1 version of the game they do stock a copy of the Amiga version for £5.

Moving to eStarland.com who have a used copy of the game available and like Gamedude a used copy will set you back $24 this is a complete copy of the game so case, manual, cover and disc, if you are looking to trade in your copy of the game eStarland will give you $14.

Amazon.com has a plentiful supply of used copies on sale the cheapest which are for the disc only in either acceptable or good quality you are looking at a $12 to $14 outlay, the next few copies on sale are the same just disc only if you are wanting a complete copy you are looking at a minimum of around $22 which is about £17 or €19, with prices for a used copy going as high as $45, there is only one new copy of the game on sale with shipping you are looking at around the $45 mark.

Switching to Ebay a used copy, disc only will set you back around $12, a couple of long box copies are available on Ebay a used copy will set you back $29.90, the other copy on sale is a brand new factory sealed copy which ships from the United States and will set you back $79.95.

Written by

P J Gibbon