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No, that's not a typo. There really is a CTA video game. It's called "Railfan" and it's a Japan-only release for the Playstation 3. After a bit of digging, we discovered the game is actually two years old and was one of the launch titles for Playstation 3 in the fall of 2006. As train simulators are apparently huge across the Pacific, it's no surprise that the game wasn't released here as...it's a train simulator. Though we suppose there are some CTA history buffs and Metra-steering teens out there who'd dig it.
Chicago was the one American city offered in addition to the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Kyoto. A sequel was developed allowing the user to steer high speed trains in Taiwan. One more quirk: the Chicago edition appears to only offer the Brown Line. Sorry, South Siders.
A few things we hope the game includes:
- Drunk college kids
- Chads and Trixies talking way too loud on their cell phones
- A bonus game where you decided whether or not to kick homeless people off the train
- Clean the cars so they don't smell like urine
- Going Express at will
- Doing that thing where the train slows to a stop so everyone gets up to get off the train, and then it lunges forward another 20 feet making everyone who stood up fall over
If you're the kind of tech geek that has the equipment to crack region-restrictions or play region-free games, you can find copies of the game online for your enjoyment. As for now, we're left the following riveting videos that also demonstrate the PS3's Blue-Ray capabilities by capturing the Chicago cityscape in pretty nice detail. [via the-jet-set]
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You've got to be kidding me.
That's fucking awesome. Nice find, Marcus.
that's one...umm...exciting game.
the graphics look impressive. the gameplay... uhh.
Not to be "that guy" but this was a tip I sent in to Margaret back in the day.
She probably ignored it, in favor of a puppy with a sweater on or some other shit.
Maybe Gmail released a new feature that day.
Man, that's dope. I worry about replay value though. I'd LOVE to play that, but it'd get really old really fast.
At first I thought this had to be fake, but then I clicked the links to some of the other videos and rode from Armitage to Fullerton in about a minute. No Brown Line train I've been on has ever gone from Armitage and Fullerton that fast.
@ BlueFairlane: Its a Public Transit simulator. The few people that actually had interest in this game would shoot themselves if they had to [i]play[/i] at the speed of smell too.
I love in the last video how they made the trains seem like they were a dangerous, unpredictable adrenaline rush. Beginning around 1:15 (especially at 1:30 when they use slo-mo to punctuate the trains passing each other), they start using all sorts of video editing tricks to make it seem edgy, but when you think about the subject, it has to make you laugh.
@ BlueFairlane: Its a Public Transit simulator. The few people that actually had interest in this game would shoot themselves if they had to play at the speed of smell too.
I love in the last video how they made the trains seem like they were a dangerous, unpredictable adrenaline rush. Beginning around 1:15 (especially at 1:30 when they use slo-mo to punctuate the trains passing each other), they start using all sorts of video editing tricks to make it seem edgy, but when you think about the subject, it has to make you laugh.
"Doing that thing where the train slows to a stop"
The one time I've played a train simulator -- at London's transport museum, where you can "drive" your choice of underground lines -- I did this all the time. Trains don't brake very quickly, so stopping in exactly the right place is more of a challenge than you might think.
Still sounds like a boring game, though.
Japan is very foreign, even for another country.
I want to see it pull into the terminus at Kimball though.
Thank you for adding the worry that japanese film crews are taping my commute to my 700 page list of fears Marcus. Right under "Snorkelers with ill intent" and above "Hairless Cats"
I have to point out a few things: 1. Rob - our film guy - gets the kudos for stumbling across this via the-jet-set link; and 2. An article I read in doing a bit of background work about the game said one of the lines featured on the Tokyo version is one of the most well-known points for people to commit suicide via throwing themselves in front of a train...which begs the question, is that actually part of the game? dodging jumpers?
i think this is rad. but i *am* confused about how this is a game. what is the game part? trying not to drive like a dick? learning how to drive? i mean is there some sort of mechanism that tells you you've effed up to the point where you've "lost a life?"
i'm from the ms. pac-man generation (yes, i just said that). so i need a translation here.
It's a simulator; the point is just to drive. It's not any different from Microsoft Flight Simulator or especially Microsoft Train Simulator. This is meant for train buffs, the type of people who read chicago-l.org and go to the train museum in Union.
Quit complaining about the cars smelling like urine, Marcus. You can't smell!
Damn. And once again my past comes back to haunt me.
That is some of the funniest shit I've ever seen. Thank you Marcus.
oh, okay. cool. i've been to the train museum in union, so ...