Cab Ride

February 1, 2021 9:31 AM

Drive a train, forever, through a dreamlike land.
posted by OverlappingElvis (15 comments total)

I cannot stress too much how great this is. It's perfect in every way. Works on phones too!
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:51 AM on February 1, 2021

Sorry, passengers, I can’t figure out how to brake! Honk, honk!
posted by Going To Maine at 9:59 AM on February 1, 2021 [6 favorites]

Much nicer and less terrifying than Snowpiercer, which is the first thing I thought of upon reading "Drive a train forever."
posted by scratch at 10:07 AM on February 1, 2021 [4 favorites]

I am a professional train data science person. I have forwarded this onto our development team.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 10:39 AM on February 1, 2021 [10 favorites]

This is lovely! Don't forget to slow down for signals!
posted by theodolite at 10:45 AM on February 1, 2021

how do i brake?
posted by sixswitch at 11:26 AM on February 1, 2021

ah. down is accelerate, up is brake,
posted by sixswitch at 11:30 AM on February 1, 2021

I'm trying to figure out how the station stop ratings work. I've stopped precisely on 0.0 a few times and gotten AAA, C, and E ratings in return, so I don't know much it has to do with the distance from the signal, although 0.2 seems to be a sweet spot. It seems like it might be giving more points for smoother stops?
posted by theodolite at 11:51 AM on February 1, 2021

Something in the air.... Just a month ago Techmoan reviewed a Japanese train simulator console.
posted by phliar at 12:59 PM on February 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

Can’t figure out where to stop to open doors. I always get “can’t open doors here” even when I’m right at the station.
posted by leotrotsky at 1:41 PM on February 1, 2021

leotrotsky, it looks like you need to stop less than .2 but greater than 0 of whatever the distance is measuring from the station signal.
posted by hanov3r at 2:09 PM on February 1, 2021

You might also enjoy this other pixellated train game: SOKO LOCO.
posted by kaibutsu at 4:03 PM on February 1, 2021

back in 2000, i went to japan and marveled at multi-story game stores in akihabara. several of them had these sections of large plastic consoles with handles an knobs. there were probably a dozen different types. my guide told me they were custom video game controllers, designed to mimic the controls of various real trains in japan. train simulation games, at the time, were one of the most popular genres.
posted by bruceo at 11:33 PM on February 1, 2021 [3 favorites]

Drive a train, for eight and a half minutes, through AMENRA's "Silver Needle, Golden Nail"
posted by FatherDagon at 1:27 AM on February 2, 2021

I want to play this with an Atari controller.
posted by eckeric at 9:26 AM on February 2, 2021 [1 favorite]