I first became aware of train games when Japanese Rail Sim was actually brought over to the 3DS in America. And before the store shut down I bought all of them. Since then I’ve bought Densha De Go and Rail Sim for Switch, and even the very awesome Densha De Go train controller for Switch (I lived in Okinawa for 3 years).
Some time ago, I played A-Train on PS1. Had to spend first two days just reading the manual and trying to figure out how the game works. On the third day it became fun. Since then, I can say, I like trains.
Interesting. I gave one a go and it seemed simplistic and also impossible to stop in the tiny zone. Think I played one with a bad intro or had no idea what I was doing and needed the manual 😂
Congratulations on completing another daunting but fascinating project. That LCD game on the right at 1:46:22 is how I first played Densha de Go! as a kid, in a Narita terminal on the way home. It was surprisingly fun and intuitive; a testament to the solid game design principles of the series. I remember SCEI making a big deal out of Railfan at TGS 2006 and all the way until the console’s first Christmas. Possibly the strongest sign that Sony had lost the plot early in that generation. Seeing T.R.L. mentioned made me realize I believe Momotarō Dentetsu technically fits your own criteria for a "train game" set at the beginning of the video. Where’s Momotetsu? This sugoroku denigration needs to stop! Finally, from my own experience with the topic, I certainly would not want to deter you but the PocketStation video retrospective is a wonderfully terrible idea. There are way more Pokesute-compatible games than one would initially surmise, but many of the later ones integrate the PocketStation in a disappointingly superficial way, and recording PocketStation footage will be a huge pain in the Tomy developer.
You should also check out the Air traffic controller simulator games for the DS and 3DS. They fit into this criteria I've come to define as "dad games" along with the train sim games, and they are very good games too! (They're called "I am an air traffic controller - AIRPORT HERO OSAKA-KIX/HAWAII/NARIBO)
This video going live on the same day as the Steam Planes, Trains and Automobiles Fest is a hilarious coincidence. Great video as usual, makes me want to pull out my old Train Simulator Real and Railfan discs!
I love X-Treme Express (Testu One World Grand Prix)! Have had so much fun doing the challenges learning how to knock off other trains etc. You can also use walls to keep your train on the track while going at a crazy corner speed. To me it is the true hidden gem of the PS2 library.
Very happy with this. I am two hours into the video as I am doing chores and exercising. While I am not a "train person" either I do like weird and unique controllers. Those funky controllers are what got me into the Densha De Go (and other train sim) series.
Just finished watching, you covered pretty much all my favourites! One big omission though, developed right around the Microsoft Train Simulator era, and also huge in the modding community, was BVE - Boso View Express, originally conceived as a free, amateur version of DDG for PC, since adapted into the open source OpenBVE. So many fan-made lines from all around the world!
@@RndStranger No worries, this was a really interesting videos! Next time I’m in Japan I now have a shopping list of games to buy! And you made me think about doing some kind of documentary on Sonic Powered’s other big series, the “I’m an Air Traffic Controller” series… 👀
Well BVE is really more spiritually akin to Ongakukan's Train Simulator than DDG, since it's focused on realism, and the Japanese community mainly use BVE 5 and BVE 6 rather than OpenBVE.
But watching the view constantly pull forward is so relaxing, I can set aside my angry American attitude of "Why would you want to simulate a vehicle you can't even steer? Boring!"
Wonderful video! Many of the station jingles used in Tokyo (although I'm not sure of the exact subset of ones heard in this video) were composed by Minoru Mukaiya. He's founder of Ongakukan, director of the Train Simulator series (his name is on the front of the box at 17:38), and former keyboardist for the legendary Jazz Fusion band Casiopea! There's some interviews with him about his train work if you look around, but I'm not sure how RUclips treats external links these days. I was really glad to see Power Shovel and Super Locomotive mentioned as they're both excellent games (even if the latter is only a train game by association). If you want a terrible train game for some reason, check out Time Tunnel, a mess of an arcade game from 1982 made by Taito before they figured out how to make a good game about trains.
As much as you went into a lot of detail about what makes these games fun or not fun, I still didn't understand how "go and then stop" could be entertaining or challenging in any way. So I just tried out the first Densha De GO! on PS1 and WOW! This game clicked with me way more than I expected to -- it really does strike that perfect balance of accessibility and challenge just like you described. And this isn't even the best one! I am excited to eventually try Densha De GO! Final, since that one apparently has an English fan translation. Thank you for introducing me to this series!
Of course as a lifelong railway enthusiast who's written an article on Japanese train sims, I definitely have a long list of nitpicks and things you've overlooked, as well as some game recommendations (some I'm surprised you left out). This was still a worthwhile video though just for its scope, I learnt about a lot of obscure games. 8:36 Trains looks very similar to the later 3D Lionel Traintown, which is definitely a very fondly remembered title by those who played it as children (a category that does not include me). 11:21 Southern Belle seems to have been fairly influential, at least in the UK, and is cited by the developers of the recent Train Operator 377 as an inspiration (though Train Operator 377 is much closer to the Ongakukan Train Simulator series in style, being an FMV sim focused on electric trains). - Also during the 1990s there were some titles released in Continental Europe that seem to have done well, though they're practically unknown in English-speaking countries, so I'm not sure precisely how accurate it is to say that Ongakukan made the first really successful train sims. 23:55 Can you give a name for these non-Ongakukan FMV train sims? I haven't heard of them before. 24:55 Well, to nitpick, it informs how other Japanese train games behave. 32:40 The one-lever controller does not replicate the controllers of high-speed trains, but those of more modern commuter trains. 35:10 Note that you'll generally only see yellow signals if you arrive at stations too early; this is how Densha de Go punishes you for arriving too early and is one of the many areas where it is criticised from a realism standpoint. 38:05 The budget rerelease of the PC port was also based on EX, it just didn't have EX in the title. 39:40 Densha de Go 64 added a secret route (the Tohoku Shinkansen), but it also added two new non-secret routes, the Tokaido Main Line and Yamanote Line (different sections of them than the ones in 1), and unlike the Tohoku Shinkansen these routes does not appear in Professional. 40:05 You are confusing Densha de Go 64 with Densha de Go Final here; the voice mode in Densha de Go 64 is intended to be used by one player, the same one driving the train, and replicates the "point-and-call" system used by real-life Japanese train drivers to stay focused. 42:55 You can't drive in the opposite direction in Professional. That wouldn't be added until later. 43:22 The indicator appearing or not has nothing to do with the age of the train (obviously these trains don't have such indicators in real life) but rather whether the route uses regular signals or cab signals. If it uses the latter, the indicator doesn't appear, since in theory you don't need it. 45:45 By this point in time JNR had been privatised, so the JR lines in previous games were also technically private. 49:55 I'm fairly certain that Densha de Go 3 doesn't use the exact real-life timetables, since the routes in it have their distance compressed as with the other games in the series. 50:25 I doubt very much that Densha de Go 3's stricter enforcement of schedules has anything to do with them being real-life timetable (if they are real-life timetables). 53:10 The arcade game was actually released not under the Densha de Go name but was rather named Ganbare unten-shi!!. Ryojo-hen also adds a lot more content. 53:30 The gallery of locations along the line is also present in some other Densha de Go titles. 53:58 A lot of brakes on the trains in previous Densha de Go games are air brakes as well, they just use a more modern method of control. 57:40 I don't believe there is a JR East training section in Sanyo Shinkansen. 59:40 Automatic Train Control, not Active Track Control. 1:01:55 Professional 2 is actually a lot less strict than previous games in the series about schedules - it takes being several seconds late before it starts penalising you, for instance. 1:03:30 Or you could play the Windows version, which is generally bug-free from my experience. 1:05:30 I have not heard that the store demo kiosk version actually had exclusive routes. I heard that it did show the Chuo-Sobu Local line as an option, but that it was unselectable. Announcements and other leftover data from the Chuo-Sobu line can still apparently be found in the files for the PC port. 1:06:55 Actually the leeway you get for arriving early or late depends on the difficulty of the specific schedule you're playing. - Props for digging up Densha daisuki, there's barely anything about it online even in Japanese. 1:16:50 You can actually do this trick with Densha de Go Professional 2 as well. 1:19:25 N scale is 1:150 in Japan only. In most of the world it's 1:160 and in Britain it's 1:148. 1:22:30 Actually some of the games in the series do have a decent number of differences - at least differences on the same level as the differences between some of the Densha de Go titles. 1:26:15 Actually Train Simulator + Densha de Go includes three different lines, they're just all part of the Tokyu Railway. 1:27:25 There is a scoring element, but you can't fail. -Personally I find the best Train Simulator PS2 title to be one you didn't cover, that being Keisei Toei Asakusa Keikyu. 1:31:20 Actually in the PC days Ongakukan released Train Simulator titles set in France and Germany. 1:36:10 The tutorials are only forced if you want to play the "Densha de Go" mode with scoring. If you want to play the regular Train Simulator mode without scoring you can go straight to that. 1:43:05 I mean, they did sell it overseas... 1:53:20 This was actually an entirely new Densha de Go game developed by Ongakukan. 2:05:20 Reverser or cutoff, throttle or regulator, and air brake, not valve gearing, steam intake regulator, and pnemuatic brake. 2:07:40 And also, of course, from a realism point of view Kisha de Go fails severely as well... 2:23:25 Well, Microsoft published it. It was developed by Kuju. 2:24:15 None of this extra content was published or endorsed by Microsoft, mind you. And there's definitely a lot more than 34 pieces of German payware for MSTS... 2:26:50 Microsoft did make several attempts at an MSTS 2, but none came to fruition. 2:28:05 Of course, for all the many, many flaws of MSTS (that OpenRails inherits when it runs anything made for MSTS originally), there is a lot of stuff for it that hasn't been replicated in other sims... 2:30:20 Well, unless you crash. 2:30:50 Well, that depends on the route. There are routes where you'll be stopping every couple of minutes. 2:31:50 Well, not every single system. Not everything is simulated. 2:33:05 Except when they're not! There are quite a few trains with very serious errors that have never been fixed. 2:41:50 JR East Simulator is actually significantly less gamified than previous Ongakukan titles, since there's no scoring or progression systems at all. 2:42:10 Well, technically you get one full line and short sections of six of the DLC lines. 2:43:00 You can at least, however, buy Real Pro Nagoya outside of Japan on Steam. For some reason it's very cheap as well... 2:45:20 Though that's probably being unkind to the level of realism in Euro Truck Simulator 2... 2:46:30 Derail Valley is generally agreed upon to be a more successful (and more realistic) attempt at translating the gameplay loop of games like Euro Truck Simulator 2 into a train sim. 2:51:00 However on the accessiblity front, there is an English fan translation for both the PC version of Densha de Go Final and the plug-and-play version. -As far as games missing in this video, aside from ones others have mentioned like BVE I think the most glaring omission on the Japanese front is Train Crew. It's an early access title on Steam that plays very much like a more simulationist take on Densha de Go. Outside of Japan, in addition to the games I've already mentioned like Derail Valley, there are quite a few Early Access titles that get a lot of buzz in the train sim community, like SimRail, Hmmsim Metro, Railroader, Railroads Online, and Diesel Railcar Simulator.
Nice, my first Densha de Go! game is the Plug n Play version (a.k.a. Final). Started with the best according to your opinion. Additionally, as a fan of racing games citizen of 🇨🇭, I am a big fan of trains in general. So I instantly loved X-treme Express Besides that, you didn’t mention that racing train games but really won’t blame you because it is an unknown PAL exclusive Wii games (and once on iOS). The very Arcadey "Turbo Trainz". A surprisingly wacky and fun game in my opinion. Thanks for this video, love your channel in general. So niche but so much for me.
I like trains as a European - hey, they are decently viable here - but I gotta say, I mostly just played Railroad Tycoon games. This genre otherwise never interested me that much, but I knew about Densha De Go! and a couple other series. You definitely forgot a very important game - Choo-Choo Charles - but other than the video has been great so far, a lot of interesting info!
Ah ha! Elevating your video from a hobbyist niche to an educational and meditative piece on the contradiction inherent between static art and moving metal. Well done, I say, well done!
@@neinjunge5560 It's "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis" by Ralph Vaughan Williams. A bit cliche to use it like this, but I wanted something straightforward.
A game I had a ton of fun with many years ago when I found it on Arcade Archives was **Time Tunnel**. It's a fairly simple golden age maze game where you move forward or backwards and hold a button to change the path of the upcoming section of path, but besides making you plan ahead in a way that few games from the era do, the theming is very strong and graphics aside it feels like it could have been a Famicom game from 1986 or 1987 or so and been right at home.
Congratulations on completing this big project, learned a lot. Love playing Densha De Go when I was in Japan in the arcades, the train station jingle between the segments bring me so much nostalgia for my trips to Japan. Its hard to describe how relaxing and intense at the same time these games are, and learning about the other games in the style only made me appreciate the genre more.
A couple you missed: Chicago ticket inspector (2004) although it is more of a beat-em-up than a train sim. It's sequel Chicago ticket inspector 2: the quest for crack (2005) has you taking the role of a homeless person and you have to hide from the ticket inspector - a big inspiration for the game Alien Isolation
fantastic video! i loved trains as a kid, and while i did grow out of it, i've never tired of watching one go by. a game that predates super locomotive, and meets your definition of train game, is exidy's 1979 game side trak. i wonder how the jet de go games compare to taito's prior "flight sim" arcade games... also, shoot, how did i not know that square enix now owns taito?!
Side Trak is a good one that I missed! When I was searching game databases I was looking for every train related word I could think of and I must have missed them because of "Trak".
I think Hassha Ourai Gatan Goton's use of physical model sets makes it appealing for those who wanted to roleplay being the Isle of Sodor trains from the classic TV episodes! (I'll have to wait and see if any of the actual Thomas & Friends games were any good.)
Despite being pretty into the obscure and retro game scene I haven't really even seen more than a few seconds of Densa De Go game play. Time to get educated I guess.
had to laugh at the art tangent during the railfan segment of this one, hahaha! well this is definitely more than I ever thought I'd need to know about train videogames! not gonna lie I was a bit curious to try densha de go on PS2... wonder if i should go for a full size controller or try to find of those dual-shock sized ones? that and DDG final would probably be where I'd start. maybe that and one of the tetsu-one games? those sound ridiculous and fun!
There's an English Real Pro game up to pre-order on the Switch Nintendo Shop right now! I'm actually surprised there's virtually zero games based on the London Underground though, considering it was the first and world's oldest subway system.
@@RndStranger I know someone who saw me watching some of your videos and now I can't watch RUclips without them teaching me about watching "Kermit the Frog". Now I know it's not just her.
One thing worth noting about the Wii verison of Bakusou Dekotara Densetsu (Zenkoku Dekotora Matsuri) is somewhat notorious for actually being extremely technically impressive for the console, mostly notably by having sphere maps generated during gameplay, which the Wii should straight up not be able to do. There's a Dolphin blogpost where they talk about the game and how it broke in the emulator and their response to it was pretty much "What the fuck?" Anyway this does have the side effect of making the game pretty much run like trash so there's that.
If you are a sicko with a Playdate, Zero Zero Perfect Stop is a good, cheap, portable introduction to the genre. Only one line is in the game, but it's pretty good! And yes, I have played it while on a train. The graphics aren't bad for the Playdate, and the audio announcements are fun. Controlling the speed and brake via the crank is a clever use of the hardware.
Yep. It's part of the Train Simulator series. There's two other PS2 release in the series I just rushed past because they were too similar: Train Simulator: Midosuji Line and Train Simulator: Keisei, Toei Asakusa, Keikyu Lines. Ongakukan was very consistant with their games.
Absolutely. The scene at the Art Institute is one of the best scenes about the connective nature of art in film, and the Art Institute is my favorite art museum in the world so I couldn't resist the homage.
As a companion piece, may I recommend Patrick H Willems' most recent video entitled "Why are movies so obsessed with trains?" I am yet waiting for a GTA x train driver simulation crossover game, by the by.
There was one of the early GTAs that let you drive a train and I tried to get footage of that to include it as a "drive a train but not a train game" example, but I couldn't find it after a while of searching.
@@RndStranger funny enough, I actually grew up with a Thomas the Tank Engine game that I enjoyed playing as a kid, it was the plug & play unit called Thomas & Friends Right on Time I guess you can say it was one of the first ever train video games I ever played, it probably isn't notable enough to be talked about in a video like this but looking back on gameplay footage its an interesting curiosity at least
Yes, RUclips, I need to know about the existence of every obscure retro game. Even ones about trains.
DENSHA DE DENSHA DE DENSHA DE GO! GO! GO! GO!
I was not prepared to have Yellow Magic Orchestra earworm its way back into my brain with this video. Darn you Sega and RndStranger!
I first became aware of train games when Japanese Rail Sim was actually brought over to the 3DS in America. And before the store shut down I bought all of them.
Since then I’ve bought Densha De Go and Rail Sim for Switch, and even the very awesome Densha De Go train controller for Switch (I lived in Okinawa for 3 years).
Some time ago, I played A-Train on PS1. Had to spend first two days just reading the manual and trying to figure out how the game works. On the third day it became fun. Since then, I can say, I like trains.
Interesting. I gave one a go and it seemed simplistic and also impossible to stop in the tiny zone. Think I played one with a bad intro or had no idea what I was doing and needed the manual 😂
Congratulations on completing another daunting but fascinating project. That LCD game on the right at 1:46:22 is how I first played Densha de Go! as a kid, in a Narita terminal on the way home. It was surprisingly fun and intuitive; a testament to the solid game design principles of the series.
I remember SCEI making a big deal out of Railfan at TGS 2006 and all the way until the console’s first Christmas. Possibly the strongest sign that Sony had lost the plot early in that generation.
Seeing T.R.L. mentioned made me realize I believe Momotarō Dentetsu technically fits your own criteria for a "train game" set at the beginning of the video. Where’s Momotetsu? This sugoroku denigration needs to stop!
Finally, from my own experience with the topic, I certainly would not want to deter you but the PocketStation video retrospective is a wonderfully terrible idea. There are way more Pokesute-compatible games than one would initially surmise, but many of the later ones integrate the PocketStation in a disappointingly superficial way, and recording PocketStation footage will be a huge pain in the Tomy developer.
You should also check out the Air traffic controller simulator games for the DS and 3DS. They fit into this criteria I've come to define as "dad games" along with the train sim games, and they are very good games too!
(They're called "I am an air traffic controller - AIRPORT HERO OSAKA-KIX/HAWAII/NARIBO)
This video going live on the same day as the Steam Planes, Trains and Automobiles Fest is a hilarious coincidence. Great video as usual, makes me want to pull out my old Train Simulator Real and Railfan discs!
A long RndStranger video to listen to while working on Monday morning?? God bless you!!
I love X-Treme Express (Testu One World Grand Prix)! Have had so much fun doing the challenges learning how to knock off other trains etc. You can also use walls to keep your train on the track while going at a crazy corner speed. To me it is the true hidden gem of the PS2 library.
I’m gonna watch this throughout the day; so impressive to see you make such a large single-video project like this!!!😎
Very happy with this. I am two hours into the video as I am doing chores and exercising. While I am not a "train person" either I do like weird and unique controllers. Those funky controllers are what got me into the Densha De Go (and other train sim) series.
i just realized this almost 3h long yt video is exactly what my life needs
Just finished watching, you covered pretty much all my favourites! One big omission though, developed right around the Microsoft Train Simulator era, and also huge in the modding community, was BVE - Boso View Express, originally conceived as a free, amateur version of DDG for PC, since adapted into the open source OpenBVE. So many fan-made lines from all around the world!
That did not come up in my research at all, so I'm really interested! Thanks!
@@RndStranger No worries, this was a really interesting videos! Next time I’m in Japan I now have a shopping list of games to buy!
And you made me think about doing some kind of documentary on Sonic Powered’s other big series, the “I’m an Air Traffic Controller” series… 👀
Well BVE is really more spiritually akin to Ongakukan's Train Simulator than DDG, since it's focused on realism, and the Japanese community mainly use BVE 5 and BVE 6 rather than OpenBVE.
Cant wait to go through all of this. Saw one of the fully enclosed Densha Go cabinets at Magfest and it was incredible.
Not only was I not already familiar with Densha De Go, I didn't even know train simulators existed until yesterday.
But watching the view constantly pull forward is so relaxing, I can set aside my angry American attitude of "Why would you want to simulate a vehicle you can't even steer? Boring!"
God I love train games. Haven't found any that can top Railroad Tycoon 3 or OpenTTD though, which is crazy.
Wonderful video! Many of the station jingles used in Tokyo (although I'm not sure of the exact subset of ones heard in this video) were composed by Minoru Mukaiya. He's founder of Ongakukan, director of the Train Simulator series (his name is on the front of the box at 17:38), and former keyboardist for the legendary Jazz Fusion band Casiopea! There's some interviews with him about his train work if you look around, but I'm not sure how RUclips treats external links these days.
I was really glad to see Power Shovel and Super Locomotive mentioned as they're both excellent games (even if the latter is only a train game by association). If you want a terrible train game for some reason, check out Time Tunnel, a mess of an arcade game from 1982 made by Taito before they figured out how to make a good game about trains.
As much as you went into a lot of detail about what makes these games fun or not fun, I still didn't understand how "go and then stop" could be entertaining or challenging in any way. So I just tried out the first Densha De GO! on PS1 and WOW! This game clicked with me way more than I expected to -- it really does strike that perfect balance of accessibility and challenge just like you described. And this isn't even the best one! I am excited to eventually try Densha De GO! Final, since that one apparently has an English fan translation.
Thank you for introducing me to this series!
Oh I'm definitely watching this right now
Densha de Go feels like a game that came because midnight landing did well
and jet de go is just another lander game
Of course as a lifelong railway enthusiast who's written an article on Japanese train sims, I definitely have a long list of nitpicks and things you've overlooked, as well as some game recommendations (some I'm surprised you left out). This was still a worthwhile video though just for its scope, I learnt about a lot of obscure games.
8:36 Trains looks very similar to the later 3D Lionel Traintown, which is definitely a very fondly remembered title by those who played it as children (a category that does not include me).
11:21 Southern Belle seems to have been fairly influential, at least in the UK, and is cited by the developers of the recent Train Operator 377 as an inspiration (though Train Operator 377 is much closer to the Ongakukan Train Simulator series in style, being an FMV sim focused on electric trains).
- Also during the 1990s there were some titles released in Continental Europe that seem to have done well, though they're practically unknown in English-speaking countries, so I'm not sure precisely how accurate it is to say that Ongakukan made the first really successful train sims.
23:55 Can you give a name for these non-Ongakukan FMV train sims? I haven't heard of them before.
24:55 Well, to nitpick, it informs how other Japanese train games behave.
32:40 The one-lever controller does not replicate the controllers of high-speed trains, but those of more modern commuter trains.
35:10 Note that you'll generally only see yellow signals if you arrive at stations too early; this is how Densha de Go punishes you for arriving too early and is one of the many areas where it is criticised from a realism standpoint.
38:05 The budget rerelease of the PC port was also based on EX, it just didn't have EX in the title.
39:40 Densha de Go 64 added a secret route (the Tohoku Shinkansen), but it also added two new non-secret routes, the Tokaido Main Line and Yamanote Line (different sections of them than the ones in 1), and unlike the Tohoku Shinkansen these routes does not appear in Professional.
40:05 You are confusing Densha de Go 64 with Densha de Go Final here; the voice mode in Densha de Go 64 is intended to be used by one player, the same one driving the train, and replicates the "point-and-call" system used by real-life Japanese train drivers to stay focused.
42:55 You can't drive in the opposite direction in Professional. That wouldn't be added until later.
43:22 The indicator appearing or not has nothing to do with the age of the train (obviously these trains don't have such indicators in real life) but rather whether the route uses regular signals or cab signals. If it uses the latter, the indicator doesn't appear, since in theory you don't need it.
45:45 By this point in time JNR had been privatised, so the JR lines in previous games were also technically private.
49:55 I'm fairly certain that Densha de Go 3 doesn't use the exact real-life timetables, since the routes in it have their distance compressed as with the other games in the series.
50:25 I doubt very much that Densha de Go 3's stricter enforcement of schedules has anything to do with them being real-life timetable (if they are real-life timetables).
53:10 The arcade game was actually released not under the Densha de Go name but was rather named Ganbare unten-shi!!. Ryojo-hen also adds a lot more content.
53:30 The gallery of locations along the line is also present in some other Densha de Go titles.
53:58 A lot of brakes on the trains in previous Densha de Go games are air brakes as well, they just use a more modern method of control.
57:40 I don't believe there is a JR East training section in Sanyo Shinkansen.
59:40 Automatic Train Control, not Active Track Control.
1:01:55 Professional 2 is actually a lot less strict than previous games in the series about schedules - it takes being several seconds late before it starts penalising you, for instance.
1:03:30 Or you could play the Windows version, which is generally bug-free from my experience.
1:05:30 I have not heard that the store demo kiosk version actually had exclusive routes. I heard that it did show the Chuo-Sobu Local line as an option, but that it was unselectable. Announcements and other leftover data from the Chuo-Sobu line can still apparently be found in the files for the PC port.
1:06:55 Actually the leeway you get for arriving early or late depends on the difficulty of the specific schedule you're playing.
- Props for digging up Densha daisuki, there's barely anything about it online even in Japanese.
1:16:50 You can actually do this trick with Densha de Go Professional 2 as well.
1:19:25 N scale is 1:150 in Japan only. In most of the world it's 1:160 and in Britain it's 1:148.
1:22:30 Actually some of the games in the series do have a decent number of differences - at least differences on the same level as the differences between some of the Densha de Go titles.
1:26:15 Actually Train Simulator + Densha de Go includes three different lines, they're just all part of the Tokyu Railway.
1:27:25 There is a scoring element, but you can't fail.
-Personally I find the best Train Simulator PS2 title to be one you didn't cover, that being Keisei Toei Asakusa Keikyu.
1:31:20 Actually in the PC days Ongakukan released Train Simulator titles set in France and Germany.
1:36:10 The tutorials are only forced if you want to play the "Densha de Go" mode with scoring. If you want to play the regular Train Simulator mode without scoring you can go straight to that.
1:43:05 I mean, they did sell it overseas...
1:53:20 This was actually an entirely new Densha de Go game developed by Ongakukan.
2:05:20 Reverser or cutoff, throttle or regulator, and air brake, not valve gearing, steam intake regulator, and pnemuatic brake.
2:07:40 And also, of course, from a realism point of view Kisha de Go fails severely as well...
2:23:25 Well, Microsoft published it. It was developed by Kuju.
2:24:15 None of this extra content was published or endorsed by Microsoft, mind you. And there's definitely a lot more than 34 pieces of German payware for MSTS...
2:26:50 Microsoft did make several attempts at an MSTS 2, but none came to fruition.
2:28:05 Of course, for all the many, many flaws of MSTS (that OpenRails inherits when it runs anything made for MSTS originally), there is a lot of stuff for it that hasn't been replicated in other sims...
2:30:20 Well, unless you crash.
2:30:50 Well, that depends on the route. There are routes where you'll be stopping every couple of minutes.
2:31:50 Well, not every single system. Not everything is simulated.
2:33:05 Except when they're not! There are quite a few trains with very serious errors that have never been fixed.
2:41:50 JR East Simulator is actually significantly less gamified than previous Ongakukan titles, since there's no scoring or progression systems at all.
2:42:10 Well, technically you get one full line and short sections of six of the DLC lines.
2:43:00 You can at least, however, buy Real Pro Nagoya outside of Japan on Steam. For some reason it's very cheap as well...
2:45:20 Though that's probably being unkind to the level of realism in Euro Truck Simulator 2...
2:46:30 Derail Valley is generally agreed upon to be a more successful (and more realistic) attempt at translating the gameplay loop of games like Euro Truck Simulator 2 into a train sim.
2:51:00 However on the accessiblity front, there is an English fan translation for both the PC version of Densha de Go Final and the plug-and-play version.
-As far as games missing in this video, aside from ones others have mentioned like BVE I think the most glaring omission on the Japanese front is Train Crew. It's an early access title on Steam that plays very much like a more simulationist take on Densha de Go. Outside of Japan, in addition to the games I've already mentioned like Derail Valley, there are quite a few Early Access titles that get a lot of buzz in the train sim community, like SimRail, Hmmsim Metro, Railroader, Railroads Online, and Diesel Railcar Simulator.
Nice, my first Densha de Go! game is the Plug n Play version (a.k.a. Final). Started with the best according to your opinion.
Additionally, as a fan of racing games citizen of 🇨🇭, I am a big fan of trains in general. So I instantly loved X-treme Express
Besides that, you didn’t mention that racing train games but really won’t blame you because it is an unknown PAL exclusive Wii games (and once on iOS). The very Arcadey "Turbo Trainz".
A surprisingly wacky and fun game in my opinion.
Thanks for this video, love your channel in general. So niche but so much for me.
I like trains as a European - hey, they are decently viable here - but I gotta say, I mostly just played Railroad Tycoon games. This genre otherwise never interested me that much, but I knew about Densha De Go! and a couple other series. You definitely forgot a very important game - Choo-Choo Charles - but other than the video has been great so far, a lot of interesting info!
Every time you played one of those station jingles I got a big rush of nostalgia from my time in Japan.
Holy shmoly RndStranger train movie
1:33:49 this is the part everyone everyone is wanting to see.
Sometimes I just have to amuse myself.
Ah ha! Elevating your video from a hobbyist niche to an educational and meditative piece on the contradiction inherent between static art and moving metal. Well done, I say, well done!
@@RndStranger can you please tell me the name of that music piece?
@@neinjunge5560 It's "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis" by Ralph Vaughan Williams. A bit cliche to use it like this, but I wanted something straightforward.
@@RndStranger thank you!
A game I had a ton of fun with many years ago when I found it on Arcade Archives was **Time Tunnel**. It's a fairly simple golden age maze game where you move forward or backwards and hold a button to change the path of the upcoming section of path, but besides making you plan ahead in a way that few games from the era do, the theming is very strong and graphics aside it feels like it could have been a Famicom game from 1986 or 1987 or so and been right at home.
One for the "trains on trains" section: I once played the Switch version of Densha de Go, with the controller, while on a Eurostar.
Congratulations on completing this big project, learned a lot.
Love playing Densha De Go when I was in Japan in the arcades, the train station jingle between the segments bring me so much nostalgia for my trips to Japan.
Its hard to describe how relaxing and intense at the same time these games are, and learning about the other games in the style only made me appreciate the genre more.
A couple you missed: Chicago ticket inspector (2004) although it is more of a beat-em-up than a train sim. It's sequel Chicago ticket inspector 2: the quest for crack (2005) has you taking the role of a homeless person and you have to hide from the ticket inspector - a big inspiration for the game Alien Isolation
Thank god you went to the art institute i was worried you wouldn’t.
Kaze no notam is worth mentioning for its amazing soundtrack too
Artdink's A-Train series counts as the simcity style simulator type
fantastic video! i loved trains as a kid, and while i did grow out of it, i've never tired of watching one go by.
a game that predates super locomotive, and meets your definition of train game, is exidy's 1979 game side trak.
i wonder how the jet de go games compare to taito's prior "flight sim" arcade games...
also, shoot, how did i not know that square enix now owns taito?!
Side Trak is a good one that I missed! When I was searching game databases I was looking for every train related word I could think of and I must have missed them because of "Trak".
I think Hassha Ourai Gatan Goton's use of physical model sets makes it appealing for those who wanted to roleplay being the Isle of Sodor trains from the classic TV episodes! (I'll have to wait and see if any of the actual Thomas & Friends games were any good.)
just finished the video. It was great! The station jingles were a nice touch and I figured they were the real jingles.
Despite being pretty into the obscure and retro game scene I haven't really even seen more than a few seconds of Densa De Go game play. Time to get educated I guess.
Woah. That's a lotta trains.
had to laugh at the art tangent during the railfan segment of this one, hahaha! well this is definitely more than I ever thought I'd need to know about train videogames!
not gonna lie I was a bit curious to try densha de go on PS2... wonder if i should go for a full size controller or try to find of those dual-shock sized ones? that and DDG final would probably be where I'd start. maybe that and one of the tetsu-one games? those sound ridiculous and fun!
"You want to see what happens when you tinker with the generator?" GET GENERATED
So yeah, I just pulled into Astroboy Station.
A 2 hours video with a whole section about the Taito Go! series, am I dreaming?! 👀
Trains is hard job
densha de go will always exist as japanese comedian nasubi's sole bastion of entertainment during his gruelling mail-in challenge to me
1:35:10 Wow I am suddenly overcome with the feeling to return my Dad's Ferrari
obligatory comment for le algorithm. thanks for the great vids dude
There's an English Real Pro game up to pre-order on the Switch Nintendo Shop right now!
I'm actually surprised there's virtually zero games based on the London Underground though, considering it was the first and world's oldest subway system.
Wonderful stuff, you *should* get paid for this!
damn I never thought I'd hear an 18xx board game referenced from a video game channel
I can do better than that since I own the 1830 computer game!
A missed opportunity not titling this Lots and Lots of Train Games
Has anyone ever told you that you sound like Kermit the Frog?
I mean that as a compliment.
Several people have said I sound like Jim Henson which I'll always take as a compliment.
I do a pretty good rendition of Rainbow Connection, too.
@@RndStranger I know someone who saw me watching some of your videos and now I can't watch RUclips without them teaching me about watching "Kermit the Frog". Now I know it's not just her.
You beat me to it, lol.
Very excited about this.
One thing worth noting about the Wii verison of Bakusou Dekotara Densetsu (Zenkoku Dekotora Matsuri) is somewhat notorious for actually being extremely technically impressive for the console, mostly notably by having sphere maps generated during gameplay, which the Wii should straight up not be able to do. There's a Dolphin blogpost where they talk about the game and how it broke in the emulator and their response to it was pretty much "What the fuck?"
Anyway this does have the side effect of making the game pretty much run like trash so there's that.
If you are a sicko with a Playdate, Zero Zero Perfect Stop is a good, cheap, portable introduction to the genre. Only one line is in the game, but it's pretty good! And yes, I have played it while on a train.
The graphics aren't bad for the Playdate, and the audio announcements are fun. Controlling the speed and brake via the crank is a clever use of the hardware.
Thanks youtube, gonna watch this later.
Is the cover of 風のノータム a reference (or same artist) as Eiichi Ohtaki's "A Long Vacation" album?
Spike is ex-HUMAN.
noticed The Keihin Kyuukou: Train Simulator Real not being included. but I did notice what I assume is another entry in the same series included
Yep. It's part of the Train Simulator series. There's two other PS2 release in the series I just rushed past because they were too similar: Train Simulator: Midosuji Line and Train Simulator: Keisei, Toei Asakusa, Keikyu Lines. Ongakukan was very consistant with their games.
Not surprised. Also didn't watch the whole video yet when I made that comment
i like trains.
Yay! Densha de go!
The zoom in on that child’s face in the mosaic during the art montage made me laugh; was that a Ferris Beuller reference?
Absolutely. The scene at the Art Institute is one of the best scenes about the connective nature of art in film, and the Art Institute is my favorite art museum in the world so I couldn't resist the homage.
@@RndStranger you are the coolest 😎
Choo-choo!
TRAINS???!!!!!!
TRAAAAAIIIIIINNSSSSS??!??!?!?!?!??
YEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
As a companion piece, may I recommend Patrick H Willems' most recent video entitled "Why are movies so obsessed with trains?"
I am yet waiting for a GTA x train driver simulation crossover game, by the by.
There was one of the early GTAs that let you drive a train and I tried to get footage of that to include it as a "drive a train but not a train game" example, but I couldn't find it after a while of searching.
Densha de Go! 2 dreamcast any good?
Check out Hmmsim metro ✌🏻
Casey Jones you better.... watch your speed.
Choo choo!
Where is Thomas the Tank Engine
Skipped over because it was one of the Sonic Powered 3DS games.
@@RndStranger funny enough, I actually grew up with a Thomas the Tank Engine game that I enjoyed playing as a kid, it was the plug & play unit called Thomas & Friends Right on Time
I guess you can say it was one of the first ever train video games I ever played, it probably isn't notable enough to be talked about in a video like this but looking back on gameplay footage its an interesting curiosity at least
This is a proof that you're ready for Super Famidaily 👀💗💎
1:33:50 I was listening to this entire video in the background, so hearing RND’s voice suddenly get louder actually spooked me, lol