Nintendo games "Lionel Train"?

[Boyd]

I just saw this listed on craiglist and never heard of it before. What is it like? Do you make a layout or what goes on. Can you blow up trains like on the Adams Family?

[msacco]

Now I've never played it before but my son has tried it and he says it's pretty bad. I also read a bad review of it somewhere on the internet. Also, I've seen it pretty cheap at either Walmart or Target on closeout. Like 10 bucks or so if I remember correctly.

    I think it's like a bad version of rollercoaster tycoon.

 

Mike S.

[Anonymous]

That game is for the handheld Nintendo DS.

I play Railroad Tycoon 3 on my computer. this game is awesome! it has the stock market, Tons of engines, and the cargo loads and where they have to go are very true. Lots of fun!!

http://poptop.com/rt3info.htm#Gallery

 

[envfocus]

I have to agree with Mike's experience.  I got this Nintendo DS game for my son and he does not like it.  Graphics pretty poor, game is slow, and not very exciting.  I have not played it, but from my 11 year old boy's perspective, he did not like it.

[dbaker48]

My son has it, pretty much the same reaction.  Boring.  I tried it, there are various modes, I went with the easiest.  You select a region of the country and then begin to build a route connecting 2 cities, then select an engine.  All this deducts assest from your available cash.  Then you select loads to run between the cities and earn revenue.  You may then add trackage, engines, and continue to grow your empire.  And reroute your trains.  So so.  Not impressed.

[kpolak]

I play Railroad Tycoon 3 on my computer. this game is awesome! it has the stock market, Tons of engines, and the cargo loads and where they have to go are very true. Lots of fun!!

I have Railroad Tycoon 3 too...a bit of a learning curve...very interesting to play.  Focuses on the business of running trains.  You need to make money to make your investors happy.  Highly recommended.

Kurt

[Brutus]

I've got the RR Tycoon games and they are excellent and fun.

I had Lionel Trains on Track for my DS -- got it for Christmas.  You connect cities with track, buy locomotives like a docksider or J, later diesels, and try to move freight in to cities that want it.  You combo freights - for instance, move trees to a city that makes lumber, then move lumber to a city that makes furniture.  It is really a hard game to win due to the time limits and it's important to invest in the right research to get the faster locomotives and increase profits early.  In regular mode, I never managed to win on any map and got tired of the game.  I traded it in at Gamestop.

The graphics are really super bad, as a puzzle game is either too hard or lacks that interest-factor that would have kept me going at it.  Oh, and the icons for the goods are really small and hard to keep straight.

I just picked up SimCity DS and have only played it a few hours, but you can put trains in your city - need to play it some more and see how that works.  I played the original PC SimCIty and this is similar but has some differences.

Games I really liked on the DS: Super Mario (port of the old N64 game), a Star Trek ship combat game, Harvest Moon (got boring after a while though), and a game called Slime Knight or something?  You get to build wacky tanks and there is a quest game that was entertaining with a few good puzzles.  Oh, and I really liked Mario Kart DS!

DS Games I really didn't like: Animal Crossing Wild World, Resident Evil (It was just the old PC game, except so small you couldn't see the same game sparkles etc), Diddy Kong - I liked the different craft (plane/water/car) but not as good as Mario Kart and some of the races are too difficult as you have to use the stylus to rev up the car or something - not a very good one.

[cnw1995]

I have an ancient Lionel-branded game that is still a blast on an older PC - I have to look up the name. Lots of puzzles and engine-driving. Mostly for little ones. I especially like the one where you have to keep building your raillines while flying saucers zap holes in it.

I've always wondered what the computer rail sims are like - they look an entire world unto themselves.

[dbaker48]

I've always wondered what the computer rail sims are like - they look an entire world unto themselves.

[Dave Farquhar]

I've always been a fan of the Railroad Tycoon series--well, at least for as long as I've had a computer powerful enough to run it. When Sid Meier's original first came out I still had an 8-bit computer. :)

I bought RT2 and RT3 within days of their release and spent WAY too many hours playing them. They deal more with the financial end of the trains than with operations, but I like that aspect a lot too.

I liked using the multiplayer option to team up and drive competitors under. You each start companies, invest in them, then one of you runs your RR into the ground while the two of you short the stock. Then resign, destroying all company assets just before you leave. Then the other player repeats with his RR, then both of you are extremely wealthy and can start your real RRs. Hopefully you managed to attract some investments from the computer players before you tanked the companies, so now they've wasted lots of money. The tactic is totally illegal in the real world under today's laws, but not all that different from how the real railroads operated in the Robber Baron era.

Sometimes the initial railroads manage to recover from the scam somehow and actually operate, albeit usually on a very small scale out in the middle of nowhere.

[Brutus]

RT4 came out renamed as Sid Maier's Railroads, but it is too power-hungry to run right on my PC and from the time that I have put in on it, I would say that they changed too many of the good things, not necessarily for the better.  One good change is that when you construct your station or other stuff, including track, the computer generated city buildings move out of your way and you don't destroy them!  Also, when you build track, signaling is involved and you actually have to double track or provide sidings etc for traffic to move.  I played it a few times and then never went back to it though....