A-Train III, known internationally as A-Train, is a 1990 business simulation video game and the third game in the A-Train series. It was originally developed and published by Japanese game developer Artdink for Japan, and was later published by Maxis for the United States.
Gameplay
The game places players in command of a railway company. There are no rival companies; the player controls the only one in the city and the game is resultingly fairly open-ended. A-Train III is the first game in the series to use a near-isometric dimetric projection to present the city, similar to the later SimCity 2000 by Maxis.
There are two types of transport that the player's company can take: passengers or building materials. The former is more likely to be profitable, but building materials allow the city to grow.
Wherever the building materials are delivered, they can be taken and used to construct buildings for the city. These start with houses, but eventually, as an area grows, roads, and shops and other buildings are built. These can provide extra revenue for a passenger service, but also allowing the city to develop and grow can be seen as a goal in itself.
As well as the buildings built by the computer, in response to the materials being present, the player can construct their own buildings, such as ski resorts and hotels, and make profits from them if the conditions are right.
Economic model
A-Train contains a very challenging economic system that includes a 5% land tax on all property owned, and a 50% income tax. The economic model however fails to capture realistic land prices, which adds a major flaw to the game's design. Certain buildings the AI is not allowed to build, such as the Amusement Park, Golf Course, and stadium. These buildings cost a relatively similar price no matter where they are placed, however, if placed in a thriving city, they can be sold for up to $6mil. This bug completely circumvents the difficulty inherent in the highly restrictive economic model.
Editor
A.III. MAP CONSTRUCTION, known internationally as A-Train Construction Set, is an editor that can change existing saved games, or to build landscapes from scratch. It comes with 6 sample maps.
Maxis also published A-Train Construction Set with A-Train as a single package in Europe, without the Ocean Software label.
Ports
Artdink ported A-Train III along with the editor to Windows 95, and published both titles as a package as the 3rd ARTDINK BEST CHOICE title in Japan.
The game was tremendously popular in Japan, motivating Maxis to license it for US distribution as A-Train, available for MS-DOS, Mac, and Amiga. It was released in October, 1992, and sold poorly.
Even the release of an add-on pack for the game failed to stir up any real support amongst the gaming community. The game was the first major failure from Maxis.
In spite of the PC version's commercial failure in the US, Maxis later released a PlayStation version in 1996, based on Artdink's AIV: Evolution Global. The PlayStation was a relatively new platform at that point and the game suffered many limitations, such as requiring an entire memory card (expensive at the time) to store a single map. Like the PC version, it proved unsuccessful.