Early graphics based train sims.

It is commonly believed that MSTS was the first graphics based train sim, (it probably was on PC) but there were others available on different platforms

My first train sim was "Train driver for Amiga" written by retired train driver "Paul Robins" it represented a class 87 on the WCML from Euston to Glasgow, the graphics were very primitive by MSTS standards , but were good for the time and a huge improvement on text based train sims.

Here is a short video of Train driver...................
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvU8UHd6h8k

Does anyone remember this? it will be interesting to see other examples of graphics based sims that were around before MSTS

Hi Mark,

I have never seen "Train Driver for Amiga" but it does remind me of a few of the earlier games such as "Densha de Go!" (a Japanese train driving game) and "MECHANIK" (a Polish game). Both were early games with very blocky graphics.

From what I remember from 21 years ago, it wasn't so much that MSTS was a graphics based "game", it was more that it was an actual "simulator" that was capable of realistic handling of trains. I remember a few different railways around the world were actually using it to train their drivers. Not to mention that it was an open ended program with "no limits" to what could be added to it. Back then, most of the programs were limited to what was provided to you. With MSTS being open and community development was encouraged in the programs official documentation, it was a vast departure from what had gone before.

Justin

I remember "Southern Belle" for the Sinclair Spectrum... In fact I think that I may still have it (along with the ZX!) stored in the loft.
Very, very basic graphics and sound. Just the one route.. Brighton to Victoria.
I reckon that was around 1980! Got me into the whole TrainSim thing...
T

Thanks Justin and Terry, there's more of these old sims than I thought.

I've seen the modern incarnation of "Densha de Go" on youtube, it looks quite good.

Actually it was a bit later later than I thought... 1985!
https://archive.org/details/zx_Southern_Belle_1985_Hewson_Consultants

1985 probably still precedes most of the others though

Hello All

I would like to add a DOS program which I used a lot pre-msts. It is called, quite simply, "Steam Locomotive Simulator", by Brian Attewell. No eye candy but this is a serious simulator based on sound physics and thermodynamics. It comes with quite a large variety of routes and locomotives. Driving in the simulator is far from trivial. It dates to the beginning of the century. It is preserved at the webb archive

https://web.archive.org/web/20160725071415/http://www.battewell.freeserve.co.uk/#Down_Load

Maybe I'll do some comparisons with locos on Open Rails.

The introduction reads

"About the simulator

The program simulates the thermodynamics of a steam locomotive, including the engine, boiler, and all major controls. It allows the user to "drive" a simulated locomotive over a nominated route. Controls available include regulator, brake, cut-off, damper, injectors, blower, firing rate, sand, and water scoop. Gauge information includes boiler pressure, water level, speed and superheat temperature. Over fill the boiler, let the fire go out, forget to open the cylinder cocks, or exceed the speed limit, and your journey will come to an abrupt end."

"The route simulation comprises distances, place names, gradients, speed restrictions and water troughs. You can modify existing routes or design new ones."

Only for hard-core enthusiasts I would say - but in its day it seems to have had quite a following judging from the number of contributors.

Regards

Tony

Hi Tony,
Thanks for that heads-up!
It sounds interesting, but, unfortunately, it won't run on my PC!!  I've tried all the compatibility settings down to Windows 95 without success.
Trying to run loco.exe from a Commend Prompt results in an error indicating that it can't run in a 64bit OS!!

Cheers,
Ged

This got me interested! I've got several pc's and laptops accessible , one with 32bit  XP (none are connected to the internet). I'll download and copy the files over via flash drive and take a look! Failing that I've got an ancient IBM desktop with Windows 3.1 O/S up in the loft somewhere! I'll pluck up courage to go and retrieve it if need be
Cheers
T
<Edit> loaded it onto my old 32bit XP Dell laptop and all appears to be ok. Will definitely be having a serious play with this in the future....

Slipperman wrote:Trying to run loco.exe from a Commend Prompt results in an error indicating that it can't run in a 64bit OS!!

64 bit OS's were still in the future! so no surprise there. If you can get your hands on a 32 bit OS machine I'm pretty sure you would enjoy it. I have an old Dell (which is in regular use) which has 64 bit hardware but came with a 32 bit Win 7 OS - now upgraded to Win 10 so I suppose 64 bit - I haven't tried SLS on it since upgrading, but I do also have an ancient black box that originally came with XP and  now runs Win 7 32 bit, which will run it. The program was written in Pascal, so it would need to be recompiled using a 64 bit compiler to work on modern equipment.

As an aside, when MSTS came along there were rumours that Kuju had used Brian Attewell's program as the core of the simulation! Untrue I'm sure, but Kuju would have done well to use it. There was another program being developed at the time the "Black Five Project". I seem to recall seeing a Black 5 going round a track, but then it was superseded by MSTS. There was also a Win 3.1 program that I recall, written by an American Driver, that simulated a heavy goods going up the Horseshoe Bend (is that right?). It was very good on the physics, but no eye candy.

The popularity of these early programs illustrates that just the challenge of driving a simulator was sufficient to keep people interested, and I suppose was enough to show that there was a desire for a fully fledged graphics simulator.

We can consider ourselves fortunate now to have available a number of graphics rich simulators which allow the very important facet of modelling, one part of which is the challenge of researching and constructing accurate models. Then of course we have the aspect of modelling operations. It continues to amaze me how a team of talented enthusiasts has been able to collaboratively build such a superb simulator as Open Rails - but I digress...

I'm glad that my post was of interest, but sorry that Ged was unable to run the simulator.

Regards

Tony

There was also another sim on the Spectrum called Evening Star. Same graphical appearance as Southern Belle.

Regards

Brian