Railroad Empire
In 1992, Maxis published A-Train, a railroad management simulation by Artdink,
a developer of some renown in Japan but virtually unknown anywhere else. A-
Train was the third episode in Artdink ‘s Take the A-Train series, which
dates back to 1986. An earlier installment of the series had been
internationally published three years prior to Maxis ‘ A-Train by Seika
Corp., under the name of Railroad Empire , with little to no public
recognition.
In a goal-oriented approach, your task as a railroad tycoon is to build a
trans-continental track that connects New York with California in the US
scenario, England with Turkey on the (considerably more challenging) Europe
map. With transportation service limited to passengers only and scheduling
options minimized, creating smoothly running train lines is comparatively easy
– just make sure that trains don’t collide on the single-track lines. The main
focus is on efficient track building using the A-Train, which you control
directly. A limited supply of rails and geographical barriers such as rivers
with few pre-constructed bridges make careful planning essential. Optional
cargo trains help distributing building materials to the station closest to
your A-Train. In a unique feature, days pass in an accelerated real-time
day/night cycle, with track-building only possible during daylight and changes
to train schedules and switches only allowed at night.