Before I knew about A-Train I discovered another, pretty unique, Japanese train-themed game called Densha de Go!
The community for DDG was friendly and more established than it seems to be for our beloved A-Train (perhaps due, in part, to the pick-up-and-play-ability of the game – quite literally you can get the hang of it in minutes).
So I got hold of a copy, really, really enjoyed it, and lurked around the Densha de Go! forum occasionally. Then (I think this is what happened) some chancer bought the domain name that Butch had been using and made his own – completely crap – DDG site. Butch was rather irritated by this and disappeared in a cloud of red mist. The forum slowly died. Read more »
It’s taken a while to get comfortable with A9. Until last weekend I had mostly spent my time blinking at the numerous menus, experimenting with the schedule dialogue box, randomly building and just looking – It’s easy to get distracted and find yourself exploring the landscape via the excellent intuitive navigation control.
I awoke one morning determined to play a proper scenario – get a better feel for the flow of a game in A9. I chose the first scenario (the designated starter map of the game), consisting of a well-developed office district surrounded by three satellite towns – all eventually, I guess, to be swallowed up as the city expands. Anyway, my point here is that it isn’t until you begin to play for real that attention is drawn to the differences in game play, some subtle – others obvious, and how they’re combining to enhance the game overall.
So, starting today, and for the next few updates, I’ll be looking more closely at the gameplay features new to A9 that are making all the difference. Read more »
I’m busy exploring A9′s nuances. This weekend I’ll hopefully be in a position to share more detailed impressions from actual game play – really, there seems so much about this game that has been tweaked, improved and expanded. It’s such pleasure to sit down and play…
The other day I purchased a new graphics card for my gaming PC. It’s an ATI Radeon HD 5570 – a ‘low profile’ card to fit the small design of my Aspire X3810. It’s about the best LP card I’ll be able to fit into the casing and has pushed the frame rate whilst playing A9 up to a very steady 50 fps on 1600×1200, full AA. The only thing I find that’s killing the frame rate is shadowing which drops it by around 30 fps.
More soon…
What a start to the weekend! I’ve spent most of this evening toying about with my copy of A9. It’s almost bedtime now so I wanted to share a few initial impressions and screen shots of the full game before I turn in. Read more »
Since building my new site from scratch involves far more effort and time than anticipated I have re-opened A-TrainHX.com until I’m ready to go live with version II.
I don’t plan to update the ‘old’ site and the forum is now closed so the link for that will not work.
I was going to add the walkthrough here as a post but decided the more logical approach would be to simply re-open so that those who want to can browse for information.
It still hurts my eyes to look at it, however…
For just over a year now Mokku Company, purveyors of novelty drinks, assorted confectionary and miscellaneous goods, have also offered a brand of green tea contained within a E231-style container. Read more »
I’m gratified to announce my return to this blog (after an absence partly caused by the recent volcanic ash….) with a smile-inducing story involving a female train operator. Her name is Yukie Sakai.
Personally, the thought of which gender the driver of the train I was riding had never crossed my mind before. I suppose that, subconciously, I generally assumed the driver to be male and middle-aged.
JR East has appointed its first female bullet-train operator on the Tohoku Shinkansen line, it was announced on Tuesday, as Yukie Sakai boarded the Tokyo-bound “Hayate-Komachi” bullet-train at Sendai Station in front of reporters.
The 29-year-old Sakai was born in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture. According to JR East, she joined the company in April of 2001 and gained experience as a conductor and a train operator on non-bullet train lines. In October of 2009 she began learning as an apprentice on the Tohoku Shinkansen line, and on March 23 of this year she obtained her bullet-train operating license. She began operating on the Tohoku line by herself on April 9.
Sakai joins about 400 male bullet-train operators in the company. JR Tokai and JR West already have women actively contributing as bullet-train operators.
Original Japanese lanuage story HERE plus image of a smiling Yukie.
I’ll be updating my fan site progress – such as it is – in the next few days so do call back if interested.
A-Trainhx.com temporary closure and shift in emphasis for this Blog.
A week ago I took the A-Trainhx.com fansite off-line. With the release of the new game I decided it was the right time to re-think the site, design a new look and update all content therein. It was fun for the short time it lasted but I was growing unhappy with the blocky, functional appearance and some of the ropey content. Read more »
Gaming | MarkE231 | 
29/07/2010 01:21 | 
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