Train Driver 3 - A Playguide and Review - by LemonAmiga.com
43Train Driver 3 is a public domain game, first released in 1997, and continued until the year 2000, by Paul Robins. It is a relatively little known game, and one which definitely needed a play guide. Armed with some new information and a new approach to this game in 2024, I tried to fathom it all out and see what's what?
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Recorded: 18th and 19th February 2024
Narrated: 10th May 2014
Uploaded for Backers: 8th Sept 2024
Version: 2
I'd played various iterations of Train Driver over the years, but never understood any of it. This is yet another Lukozer inspired review, but this time based on a PC game. Lukozer demonstrated the latest PC train driver game at some point a few years ago, his first non space-based review in a while, where the audio was barely audible. But he shared a lot of tips on how to drive a train, including the mystery of electrics and their notches. So I went back to the Amiga game and tried out the tips, although I'm not very good with the game. When it came to line drops, I didn't know until after recording this that you have to turn off the power completely, and just cruise through them. So I made quite a few mistakes. The aim was to try lots of different journeys and locos, although I seemed to have had some issues with all of the journeys, which meant tons footage to edit, and lots of research online to look up the locos and add some history and stats.
After recording this in February, in March I got started on making my own train sim called Trans-Pennine Express, based on using real-time video footage. My experience with Train Driver 3 was critical to making my own game, by knowing about notches and gears and AWS noises and all of that stuff. My game was meant to be more like Denesha De Go or basically one of the PS2 train simulator games, which I reviewed and uploaded footage of them to my old Lifechool's Reviews channel. So all of this knowledge combined finally means I have some idea of driving a train, although I'm glad I don't have to do it in real life.
Danscore:
A public domain train driving simulator was a marvel to PD fans, and today it would sell at full price in a big box. Back then, it was difficult to understand it, even with the very handy key chart screen activated with the Help key., because players first need to know what all the buttons are for, and how to drive a train. All of the stats they you might need are displayed, including a line map, a live timetable, and even town names, so players always know where they are. Dead-man's Peddle and AWS are represented, and players can even marshall their own carriages and trucks. With a dizzying array of (41) lines and (39) locos, the whole thing can be quite bewildering, and I had to rename everything just to stand a chance of knowing what to pick. There is also a hidden track map maker and editor, although they was way above my head, it means the game is expandable. Audio is atmospheric, with digitised audio throughout, and quite a lot of those samples went into my own Trans-Pennine game. Graphics are as plain as can be, but they are filled-in wire frames and not just a side view or top view of the train on the track like with an arcade game. Speed is fine thanks to the ability to speed up the game by X4, X6 etc, so it rarely seems slow or boring. However, Train Driver 3 is also quite technical, and requires an almost expert level of knowledge to be able to driving a train from A to B, and a good deal of patience, and I've actually never managed to complete a single route so far. It also doesnt help that the final release of the game in the year 2000 contains a bug which affects the analogue brake dial, so the game does not feel 100% complete. Apart from the lack of a tutorial mode, I had a good time with it, so I'd give this a PD score of 9 out of 10 and a full price score of 6.5. There is a lot here for train nerds and stats buffs, but the general layout of the game means it will always look too technical and off-putting for casual players.