anyone out there know anything about the MS simulator. vic
- posted
17 years ago
anyone out there know anything about the MS simulator. vic
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Here's a bit of info about MS Train Simulator:
Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad:
It sucks.
After one, perhaps two patches to fix the numerous bugs, M$ abandoned it months after it was released.
-- Cheers
Roger T.
Home of the Great Eastern Railway
I'll sell you mine. In the box, with all materials. $10 plus postage. (US destination)
fl@liner
It was kind of a mess. Numerous bugs that the two patches never fixed. Sound was ok, but on one of my PCs and on a friends, the horn was distorted to the point where it was almost painful to listen to with any volume. There were plans for a sequel, but MS killed it. I think it could have been great, if they really did it right.
On top of everything else, it was boring. Traffic that you could run into would have helped spice it up.
BDK
I have one, and it's pretty good: I stalled a heavy BNSF train on a 1% grade because I hadn't mastered the throttle. However, the software was made when 500Mhz machines were the fastest available, few machines had more than 64MB RAM, video cards with 16MB were cutting edge, etc. So it is inherently limited. For example, you get a nice interior view of the Orient express cars from your own POV, and hear the conversation of fellow passengers, but you can't see any of them. Sound is good, graphics are adequate. IMO, it has been overtaken by Trainz, which does require much greater resources.
MS abandoned the software, but the ideas behind it were sound. The simulation of train acceleration and braking, for example, is accurate. It's easy to overshoot the end of a platform until you've mastered braking. You can break a drawbar. Etc. There is some capacity for adding trains and routes, and there are websites from which you can get such add ons. If MS had decided to develop it for faster, more capable machines, it might have become a serious competitor to Trainz.
So, if you have an older machine, and find a cheap copy of MS's Train Simulator at a yard sale or flea market, I think you will find it worthwhile. It will run on Win9x, but runs better on Windows 2000/XP.
HTH
MS abandoned it a few years ago. There are a lot of addons from 3rd parties for it. You may find some in computer stores @ the $10.00 bin. You may like Trainz better. Be sure to check if your computer has the HP to run it. Simulator is meant to operate like the real thing. It can get boring fast, not an action-adventure like some posters seem to want. You're not supposed to hit any cars, pedestrians, etc. Just get your train over the line. To look good, your computer needs a lot of HP to look good in the scenery dept.
GW: Somebody should program a patch to give this game a WRONGFULLY ACCUSED - style first-person Leslie Nielsen chase mode.
Cordially yours: Gerard P.
From:
Maybe they will get it right this time..
Just perfect for that locomotive in the end credits of "Back to the Future III"
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