Train Simulator series
Encyclopedia
Train Simulator is a Japan
ese train simulation
game series produced by Ongakukan. The game is significant as it is was one of the earliest of its kind since the series started in 1995. No versions were licensed outside of Asia, therefore all of Train Simulator games are only available in Japanese
, except Railfan: Taiwan High Speed Rail
which is also translated in Traditional Chinese and English
.
The original Train Simulator series (1995-2000) was designed from technology which was previously used to develop the Ongakukan product "Touch the Music by Casiopeia" which synchronized video with audio. With Train Simulator Ongakukan filmed video from the cab of a train on the desired railway and recorded sounds from that train. Later when the simulation had been completed and is running on a PC, the video would be displayed in a silver metallic box and the sounds would be played according to what is happening at that particular moment in the simulation. The video for the original Train Simulator series of games was 308 156 pixels at 30 frames per second using Intel Indeo 2
video compression and AVI
file container.
Each game contains Japanese lines and trains, with the exception of four episodes located overseas, in Germany
, France
, United States of America and Taiwan
. Video shot from the cab of the train synchronized with the computer is used as a basis for simulation. Ongakukan have endeavoured to produce true to life simulation with much technical details, and since 2005, Ongakukan has started producing professional simulators for driver training.
and Macintosh
systems.
while the last one was published by Ongakukan.
system.
system from 2005 to 2006 and available in Japan and Asia (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore). The first episode was co-developed with rival series Densha de Go! producer Taito
. (Taito by themselves have also released 4 editions of Densha de Go for PSP).
, it started in 2006 and was designed for the PlayStation 3
system. The first episode introduced in December 2006 was developed by Ongakukan and published by Ongakukan in Japan, by Sony Computer Entertainment
in Asia (Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore) and by Cyberfront Korea in South Korea. The second episode was designed by Taiwan-based developer Actainment and released in July 2007. It was first published in the Asian market by Sony Computer Entertainment, then it was later published in Japan by Ongakukan.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese train simulation
Train simulator
A train simulator is a computer based simulation of rail transport operations.-Industrial train simulations:Like flight simulators, train simulators have been produced for railway training purposes...
game series produced by Ongakukan. The game is significant as it is was one of the earliest of its kind since the series started in 1995. No versions were licensed outside of Asia, therefore all of Train Simulator games are only available in Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, except Railfan: Taiwan High Speed Rail
Railfan: Taiwan High Speed Rail
Railfan: Taiwan High Speed Rail is a July 12, 2007 train simulator co-developed by Ongakukan and Actainment for the PlayStation 3 system. The Asian market edition for Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore is available in Traditional Chinese and English languages...
which is also translated in Traditional Chinese and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.
The original Train Simulator series (1995-2000) was designed from technology which was previously used to develop the Ongakukan product "Touch the Music by Casiopeia" which synchronized video with audio. With Train Simulator Ongakukan filmed video from the cab of a train on the desired railway and recorded sounds from that train. Later when the simulation had been completed and is running on a PC, the video would be displayed in a silver metallic box and the sounds would be played according to what is happening at that particular moment in the simulation. The video for the original Train Simulator series of games was 308
Indeo
Indeo Video is a video codec developed by Intel in 1992. It was sold to Ligos Corporation in 2000. While its original version was related to Intel's DVI video stream format, a hardware-only codec for the compression of television-quality video onto compact disks, Indeo was distinguished by being...
video compression and AVI
Audio Video Interleave
Audio Video Interleave , known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback...
file container.
Each game contains Japanese lines and trains, with the exception of four episodes located overseas, in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, United States of America and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
. Video shot from the cab of the train synchronized with the computer is used as a basis for simulation. Ongakukan have endeavoured to produce true to life simulation with much technical details, and since 2005, Ongakukan has started producing professional simulators for driver training.
Train Simulator (1995~2000)
The original series, starting in 1995, these titles were all released on WindowsMicrosoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
systems.
- 1995.08.19: Train Simulator JR East Chūō LineChuo Main LineThe , commonly called the Chūō Line, is one of the major trunk railway lines in Japan. It runs between Tokyo and Nagoya, although it is the slowest direct railway connection between the two cities; the coastal Tōkaidō Main Line is slightly faster, while the Tōkaidō Shinkansen is the fastest rail...
201 Series|Nakano]] - ToyodaToyoda Stationis a railway station on the Chūō Main Line of East Japan Railway Company in Hino, Tokyo, Japan.-Layout:- Adjacent stations :...
) - 1995.09.21: Train Simulator JR East Tōkaidō Main LineTokaido Main LineThe is the busiest trunk line of the Japan Railways Group , connecting Tōkyō and Kōbe stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities...
211 Series|Kamonomiya]] - TotsukaTotsuka Stationis a railway station on the East Japan Railway Company located in Totsuka Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is served by the Tōkaidō Main Line, Yokosuka Line and Shōnan-Shinjuku Line and is 40.9 kilometers from the terminus of the Tōkaidō Main Line at Tokyo Station.- History :Totsuka...
) - 1995.05.21: Train Simulator JR East Tōhoku Main Line 211 Series
- 1996.07.19: Train Simulator Odakyu Railway Odawara Line 5000 Series
- 1996.11.21: Train Simulator Sagami Railway Main Line 9000 Series
- 1997.03.21: Train Simulator German Railway Rhine River Left Bank Line Hauptbahnhof|Bingen]] - KoblenzKoblenz Hauptbahnhofis the Hauptbahnhof for the city of Koblenz in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is the focal point of rail transport in the Rhine-Moselle-Lahn area. It is a through station in southern Koblenz built below Fort Großfürst Konstantin and opened in 1902 in the Neustadt , which was built...
) - 1997.05.16: Train Simulator Nanbu Jukan Railway (Also released as a collectors edition)
- 1997.06.18: Train Simulator Keihin Kyuko Railway Main Line, Kurihama Line
- 1997.09.19: Train Simulator JR Shikoku 1
- 1997.12.17: Train Simulator Seibu Railway Shinjuku Line
- 1998.04.17: Train Simulator Nagoya RailwayNagoya Railroad, often abbreviated as , is a railroad company operating around Aichi Prefecture and Gifu Prefecture of Japan.Some of the more famous trains operated by Nagoya Railroad include the Panorama Car and the Panorama Car Super, both of which offer views through their wide front windows...
- Nagoya Main Line, Inuyama LineMeitetsu Inuyama LineThe is a Japanese railway line operated by Nagoya Railroad that runs from the Biwajima Junction in Kiyosu, Aichi to Shin-Unuma Station in Kakamigahara, Gifu.- Stations :● ● ● ● ● ● ●...
(KanayamaKanayama Station (Aichi)is a train station partly in Naka-ku, and partly in Atsuta-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. This station is a concentrated terminal of JR Central, Meitetsu and Nagoya Municipal Subway...
- Shin-Unuma), Hiromi LineMeitetsu Hiromi LineThe is a Japanese railway line operated by Nagoya Railroad that runs from Inuyama Station in Inuyama, Aichi to Mitake Station in Mitake, Gifu. From 2007, all stations from Inuyama to Shin Kani accept the Tranpass prepaid magnetic card.- Stations :● RLE: ● LE:...
(Inuyama - Shin-Kani), HSST-100 Test Track http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr25/f58_tec2.html (Ōe - Higashi-Nagoyakō)- 1998.07.17: Train Simulator Hanshin Electric Railway
- 1998.09.18: Train Simulator JR Hokkaidō (1)
- 1998.12.18: Train Simulator JR East Yamanote LineYamanote LineThe is commuter rail loop line in Tokyo, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company . It is one of Tokyo's busiest and most important lines, connecting most of Tokyo's major stations and urban centres, including the Yūrakuchō/Ginza area, Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Ikebukuro, with all but two of its...
(also released as Train Simulator DVD 1999.12.17) - 1999.07.07: Train Simulator South France (also released as Train Simulator DVD)
- 1999.09.17: Train Simulator Kintetsu Minami-Osaka Line & Yoshino Line
- 2000.03.17: Train Simulator JR East Keihin-Tohoku LineKeihin-Tohoku LineThe , is a railway line in Japan which connects the cities of Saitama, Kawaguchi, Tokyo, Kawasaki, and Yokohama. It is part of the East Japan Railway Company network. The line's name is derived from the characters for , and the...
Train Simulator Plus (2000~2001)
The Train Simulator Plus series was designed for the Windows system and its releases were limited to Japan. The first episodes were published by Pony CanyonPony Canyon
is a Japanese company, established on October 1, 1966 , which publishes music, DVD and VHS videos, movies and video games. It is a subsidiary of Japanese Media Group, Fujisankei Communications Group.-History:...
while the last one was published by Ongakukan.
- 2000.07: Train Simulator PLUS: Keihan Electric RailwayKeihan Electric Railwayis a Japanese railway operator in Osaka, Kyoto, and Shiga Prefectures. It is known as , or .-History:Keihan started its operation between Osaka and Kyoto in 1910. It was the first electric railway to connect these two cities, and the first line on the left bank of Yodo River...
- 2000.10: Train Simulator PLUS: East JREast Japan Railway Companyis the largest passenger railway company in the world and one of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo....
Chūō LineChuo Main LineThe , commonly called the Chūō Line, is one of the major trunk railway lines in Japan. It runs between Tokyo and Nagoya, although it is the slowest direct railway connection between the two cities; the coastal Tōkaidō Main Line is slightly faster, while the Tōkaidō Shinkansen is the fastest rail...
2 - 2001.02: Train Simulator PLUS: Odakyu Electric RailwayOdakyu Electric Railway, or OER, is a major railway company based in Tokyo, Japan best known for its Romancecar series of limited express trains from Tokyo to Odawara, Enoshima, Tama New Town, and Hakone....
Odawara Line 2 - 2001.12: Train Simulator PLUS: Kyoto Municipal SubwayKyoto Municipal Subwayis the metro network in the city of Kyoto, Japan. It is operated by Kyoto Municipal Transportation Bureau. It has two lines.-Lines:- External links :**...
Karasuma Line & Kintetsu Kyoto Line
Train Simulator Real (2001~2002)
Released on PlayStation 2PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
system.
- 2001.10: Train Simulator Real: THE Yamanote LineYamanote LineThe is commuter rail loop line in Tokyo, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company . It is one of Tokyo's busiest and most important lines, connecting most of Tokyo's major stations and urban centres, including the Yūrakuchō/Ginza area, Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Ikebukuro, with all but two of its...
- 2002.10: Train Simulator Real: THE Keihin Electric Express RailwayKeihin Electric Express Railway, also known as or, more recently, , is a private railroad that connects inner Tokyo to Kawasaki, Yokohama, Yokosuka and other points on the Miura Peninsula in Kanagawa Prefecture. It also provides rail access to Haneda Airport in Tokyo. means the Tokyo - Yokohama area. The company's railway...
Train Simulator (2003~2005)
Released on PlayStation 2 system.- 2003.10: Train Simulator: Midosuji Line
- Osaka Subway (Nakamozu - Senri Chūō)
- 2003.12: Train Simulator ＋ Densha de GO!: Tokyu Line
- 2005.08: Train Simulator: Keisei, Toei Asakusa, Keikyu Lines
- 2005.10: Train Simulator: Kyūshū ShinkansenKyushu ShinkansenThe ' is a Japanese high-speed railway line between the Japanese cities of Fukuoka and Kagoshima in Kyushu, running parallel to the existing Kagoshima Main Line and operated by the Kyushu Railway Company . The southern 127 km opened on 13 March 2004...
- JR Kyūshū (Shin-Yatsushiro - Kagoshima Chūō, Kumamoto - Minamata, Kumamoto - Shin-Yatsushiro)
Mobile Train Simulator (2005~2006)
Released on PlayStation PortablePlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
system from 2005 to 2006 and available in Japan and Asia (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore). The first episode was co-developed with rival series Densha de Go! producer Taito
Taito
Taito may mean:*Taito Corporation, a Japanese developer of video game software and arcade hardware*Taito, Tokyo, a special ward located in Tokyo, Japan*Taito, also known as matai, paramount chiefs according to Fa'a Samoa...
. (Taito by themselves have also released 4 editions of Densha de Go for PSP).
- 2005.02: Mobile Train Simulator ＋ Densha de GO!: Tokyo Kyuko Line
- 2006.02: Mobile Train Simulator: Keisei, Toei Asakusa, Keikyu lines
Railfan (2006~2007)
The latest series was renamed RailfanRailfan
A railfan or rail buff , railway enthusiast or railway buff , or trainspotter , is a person interested in a recreational capacity in rail transport...
, it started in 2006 and was designed for the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
system. The first episode introduced in December 2006 was developed by Ongakukan and published by Ongakukan in Japan, by Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a major video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products & Services Group of Sony...
in Asia (Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore) and by Cyberfront Korea in South Korea. The second episode was designed by Taiwan-based developer Actainment and released in July 2007. It was first published in the Asian market by Sony Computer Entertainment, then it was later published in Japan by Ongakukan.
- 2006.12: Railfan: Chicago Transit Authority Brown LineRailfan: Chicago Transit Authority Brown LineRailfan: Chicago Transit Authority Brown Line or just is a December 20, 2006 train simulator co-developed by Ongakukan and Taito for the PlayStation 3 system...
- Chuo Main LineChuo Main LineThe , commonly called the Chūō Line, is one of the major trunk railway lines in Japan. It runs between Tokyo and Nagoya, although it is the slowest direct railway connection between the two cities; the coastal Tōkaidō Main Line is slightly faster, while the Tōkaidō Shinkansen is the fastest rail...
(MitakaMitaka Stationis a railway station in Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company .-Lines:Mitaka Station is served by the Chūō Main Line, acting as the terminus for all-stations Chūō-Sōbu Line services from , with Chūō Line limited stop services from...
~TokyoTokyo Stationis a train station located in the Marunouchi business district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, near the Imperial Palace grounds and the Ginza commercial district....
), Keihan Main Line (Demachiyanagi~YodoyabashiYodoyabashi StationYodoyabashi Station is a train station on the Osaka Municipal Subway Midosuji Line and the Keihan Railway Keihan Main Line...
), Chicago Brown LineBrown Line (Chicago Transit Authority)The Brown Line starts out in northwest Chicago, at the Kimball and Lawrence Avenue terminal in Albany Park, where there is a storage yard and servicing shop for the trains to the east of the passenger station...
(FullertonFullerton (CTA)Fullerton is an 'L' station on the Chicago Transit Authority's Brown and Red Lines. Purple Line express trains also stop at the station during weekday rush hours. It is an elevated station with two island platforms, located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. Brown and Purple...
, Loop, Fullerton)- 2007.07: Railfan: Taiwan High Speed RailRailfan: Taiwan High Speed RailRailfan: Taiwan High Speed Rail is a July 12, 2007 train simulator co-developed by Ongakukan and Actainment for the PlayStation 3 system. The Asian market edition for Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore is available in Traditional Chinese and English languages...
- 2007.07: Railfan: Taiwan High Speed Rail
Controllers
A number of external controllers with realistic controls have been manufactured for use with the games:- Train Mascon (uses serial port to connect to PC or Macintosh)
- Master Controller II for Trainsimulator (USB)
- Multi Train Controller (PlayStation 2)