Tetsudō Otaku

A-Train 9 details unveiled

UPDATE: My copy of A-Train 9 arrived the other day. A post outlining my initial impressions can be found HERE

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Yesterday, Cyberfront president Huzihara Humi and Artdink CEO Tatsuo Nagahama unveiled A-Train 9 to an audience of gaming journalists and specially selected members of the public. I would’ve loved to have been there. Sadly, I was here, in London.

A9 is looking and sounding really, really interesting. Visuals have been updated and gameplay, whilst retaining the familiar mechanics, has some great new additions. A selection of screen shots and promo videos have been made available. See for yourself….

So A9 was presented to the audience on a huge 21 metre Tokyo cinema screen. Apparently the game has had a 2/3 year development period during which a decision was made to make the graphics more realistic in presentation and scale.

From the videos and screen shots it appears that they’ve managed to strike a balance between sharper, detailed models and the trademark toy-like design. I think the new look is excellent. The buildings appear closer to their real-life Japanese counterparts than they did in A8 – they now have the colourful neon features seen on every metropolitan Japanese high street. Everything has a polished appearance including the water which finally has some animation to it, in contrast to the lifeless, dull blue of A8.

Naturally this all means that A9 is going to ask a little more of your PC performance. I’ve not seen any specs for it as yet, however, they’ve made the game scalable so that slower machines will still be able to run it. No doubt this’ll mean switching off the fancy shimmer on the water surface, playing without weather and settling for a much reduced draw distance.

Speaking of draw distance, the max viewing range is now 5KM which, they say, can be traversed in just one mouse drag. Map size will be upto 10KM square.

Artdink have fixed a few of the more annoying restrictions of the old games. For instance, you will now be able to rotate your buildings to face whichever direction pleases you. But it gets better still! You can also build on slopes, the AI automatically creating the foundations for you depending on the angle of the ground. These two features alone are liberating and timely for a game of the ‘next generation’.

Track laying is also more flexible this time around allowing a more natural appearance. The selection of trains has been slightly extended, too. You might recall that the Japanese version had over 200 to choose from. Here in the West we got rather short-changed, being given access to a poultry 50 vehicles. Well, there are now steam locomotives. Interesting, and not all that unusual – in Japan. Many scenic coastal routes have fancy ‘Romance’ trains and occasionally nostalgic steam engines.

The roads of A9 are now more brought to life with buses and trucks (from which you can ride and view your growing city). The rail conglomerate’s business interests extend to buses and haulage in Japan, so this is a good, realism-adding feature and should address the occasional complaint about the streets being dead.

OK, one of the more radical new features is the introduction of Power Plants. My initial reaction to this was concern, I mean, was A9 to become some kind of SimCity clone. The answer is ‘No’. It’s still very much the same A-Train you (might have) enjoyed in the past. So, what gives with the power?

You’ll need to construct Power Plants, the size and cost of which will be dictated by the scale of your city (do rail companies really involve themselves with building Power Stations?).

There are several ways to generate your power (thermal, geothermal, nuclear, tidal, wind, solar) and, again, your city will dictate the choice. For instance, in it’s early stages the emphasis might be upon cleaner forms of energy (an environmental concern). At last there is also real disadvantage to removing buildings: Removal of a Nuclear Power Plant will be 10 times it’s original cost! Careful forward planning is advised.

No word as yet on the Stock Market, Bank loans or other regular features.

Release is set for 29.01.10 (preliminary) and the cost will be in the region of ¥12,900 – a staggering £90 and the current rate.

So, what do you think?

16 Comments

By Richard, 13/12/2009 @ 05:06

I hope this comes to the U.K. It does look beautiful. So pretty that I stare at the screen in awe when the hot air balloons float across the sky. By the time it has been localised the price will no doubt have fallen in japan and this will reflect over here in the U.K. Anyhow the high price is warranted in Japan as this game will sell buy the ‘bucket load’ It would be commercial suicide to sell it for £90 over here. We need to get pester Bluestone interactive/DHM INTERACTIVE to bring version 9 to Europe
By Graham, 13/12/2009 @ 07:42

This is looking very promising my only concern is the very high price which could put a lot of people of including myself
By MarkE231, 13/12/2009 @ 09:06

I hope DHM does not get their hands on this game. When I last spoke to Yves Santelli from DHM he wanted to make the game more ‘European’ which is a stupid idea.

Yes £90 is expensive but it’s only because of the terrible exchange rate at the moment. It doesn’t equate to £90 of Japanese money.
By Richard, 13/12/2009 @ 22:49

well As long as they get ARTDINK to make the game more European and as long as we get it soon I am all for it. Overall it is great news that bluestone interactive/DHM Interactive are looking at publishing 9 in Europe!
By Richard, 13/12/2009 @ 22:50

On a side note how does one get the in game music to play in A-train 8??????
By MarkE231, 13/12/2009 @ 23:00

Richard: Overall it is great news that bluestone interactive/DHM Interactive are looking at publishing 9 in Europe!

Me: Eh? Source?
By Richard, 13/12/2009 @ 23:23

I think I miss-interpreted your earlier post. Oops. Well I hope somebody publishes it. It would be very disappointing if we have to miss out as A-Train seems to be published in Europe very haphazardly with us waiting years only to miss out on versions.
By Aleksander, 14/12/2009 @ 00:32

this is my fifth time in leaving a comment
I hope that game does come in the west but the way done in japan no chjanges
By MarkE231, 14/12/2009 @ 11:36

Richard: I think I miss-interpreted your earlier post. Oops. Well I hope somebody publishes it.

Me: I’m relieved. you made me spill coffee on my pants!

By the way, You can add any mp3 files you have to ‘music’ in the A-Train folder and have them played during the game.
By Richard, 15/12/2009 @ 06:43

Hahahaha hope the coffee was not to hot!Cheers for the music info. well we had ought to ask bluestone interactive/DHM Interactive what their plans are as one could hazard a guess as they published 8 they may publish 9.
By MarkE231, 15/12/2009 @ 07:31

Hey, Richard

I emailed DHM twice already: first time Yves Santelli thought I meant A8, second time he didn’t bother to respond (perhaps he already saw my comments…..)

I’ve just tried again. Will let you know.
By Richard, 30/12/2009 @ 23:35

Thank you for trying. I do hope they respond!
By MoJo, 07/03/2010 @ 14:48

Even if there is no official translation there might be a fan one. We can only hope.
By af oliver, 26/04/2010 @ 17:26

det er et fedt spil og kan ikke vente med at få det i fødseldags gave så glæder mig til jers cool´e spil XD
By Faisal, 23/07/2010 @ 17:21

Whoa! i hope i can get it soon! this ATR version is awesomely awesome! after playing atr6 and 8, i think this one is gonna blast!
but when it comes to the minimum computer used… Man i can only dream of it..
By Crishi, 23/08/2010 @ 12:43

Hi there from Germany
I´m a fan since A-Train on the Amiga and love A-Train 8, now I found your site and the Images of A-Train 9. Are there news about an english /european version? Is there a place where A-Train 8-Fans could meet and exchange their opinions like a forum?
Greetings!
Crishi