Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users

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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 16/05/2010 at 18:45 #1270
GeoffM
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6274 posts
Out of curiosity, did Microsoft ever publically announce roughly how many units of MSTS they shipped? Or Kuju, Trainz, etc?

Just wondering because Kuju said a long time ago it was their best selling game, and they'd done some big titles.

SimSig Boss
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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 16/05/2010 at 18:45 #9205
GeoffM
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6274 posts
Out of curiosity, did Microsoft ever publically announce roughly how many units of MSTS they shipped? Or Kuju, Trainz, etc?

Just wondering because Kuju said a long time ago it was their best selling game, and they'd done some big titles.

SimSig Boss
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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 16/05/2010 at 19:32 #9207
nroberts
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227 posts
Quote:
"Microsoft's Train Simulator has never the less sold over one million units worldwide." according to one "TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT".

See: http://www.dancewithshadows.com/tech/microsoft-train-simulator.asp. However I must point out the doubtful authority of the site.

Another "source": Quote:
Microsoft's
prestigious Train Simulator product, which sold a million units worldwide.
See: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Don-t-Take-the-Train-Take-TrainMaster-3488.shtml

Actually wonder how and if they managed 1 million. I'm sure there's a lot of "closet" railway fans, but that many??? ::

I got mine as a gift from our Microsoft Rep just before public release so I guess it doesn't count for a unit "sold" :cool:

Regards,

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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 17/05/2010 at 15:57 #9227
GeoffM
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6274 posts
Interesting... thanks.
SimSig Boss
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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 24/05/2010 at 22:09 #9368
Lardybiker
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771 posts
I've got Railworks so chalk one up for the RailWorks user count!
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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 24/05/2010 at 22:16 #9369
Sacro
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1171 posts
Me too, as has Welshdragon, so that's now 3 of us!
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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 25/05/2010 at 12:53 #9372
MJD
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149 posts
MTS, Railsimulator and Railworks as well. makes 4
Mike.
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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 26/05/2010 at 09:00 #9374
razgriz33
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42 posts
MTS, Railsim and railworks makes 5? i was hoping that one day SimSig could be used alongside a railworks simulation, if only it were possible!! that and a multiplayer feature on railworks
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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 26/05/2010 at 10:16 #9377
GeoffM
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6274 posts
Was kind of hoping for total figures rather than "me too"s. :: But anyway, since Daniel has mentioned improvements, what are the good and bad points of each? What do none of them have?
SimSig Boss
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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 26/05/2010 at 23:03 #9386
razgriz33
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42 posts
MSTS (MicroSoft Train Sim) - This old game has loads of addons, the graffics are really grainy and controll input is really shoddy, very much so an outdated simulator, the only thing it has going for it is the addons. The people that play MSTS are A LOT like the flight simmers, in the sense that they stick to the older sim because of their computer specs and the addons however they need to realise that MSTS is hindering progression to new and better things. If you have a poo pc or a small buget perhaps MSTS is a good place to start

RailSim came next with its revolutionary graffics after much delay this simulator came out, most people stuck with MSTS though because of hte addons. Note that the people that made MSTS in association with micrsosoft were KUJU also made this simulator. Track IR (head trackign software) became available and apparently talks of a controller (such as an xbox or joystick) are lurking around somewhere. It Boasts it's complexity and simplicity at the same time, it features AWS, TPWS all the jingles and whistles even littel passengers on the station which msts did not have

Railworks now and this is again made by kuju and is basically an improovbed version of railsim, you can in fact trade your rail sim in for rail works at the moment, railworks is available for download off of steam. it features all of the above and more, the downloadable content is good for this, i have all sorts too long to list and keep you interested, the route that is of interest to SimSiggers is oxford - paddington via didcot as i think that is in the bristol SimSig? not sure but something like that.

none of them have multiplayer but they do have a latitude and longitude and height (X,Y,Z) and heading so it is possible as long as you can grab the data out.
None of them have very good custom route planning apart from MSTS where you select a start and a finish.

i hope these answer your questions .

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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 27/05/2010 at 00:19 #9387
Danny252
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1461 posts
The one thing keeping me with MSTS and avoiding Railworks is the sheer cost of it and all the DLCs - which, when I last checked, were often required components for other addons. When you've got a 9F addon going for £14, Class 45s for £12, and Class 37s for £8, you may as well get a proper model railway for that money!
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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 28/05/2010 at 00:27 #9397
Danny252
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1461 posts
Well, I bit the bullet to see if it was as impressive as you said it was.

On the graphics front, sure, it's shiny.

But the fact that even on "expert" mode, everything plays like a model railway, and there's silly features that even MSTS got right, convinced me I don't want to try it again. For example, 3 of the default routes are fictional (developers can't be bothered to do some field work?) and the dynamic brakes on the US models lock up the wheels the second they're touched (hence making them unusable). And yet they keep spamming loco packs for £10? They spent far too much on the useless details (passengers walking out of trains) and forgot the trains themselves.

Back to MSTS and Simsig it is!

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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 28/05/2010 at 00:37 #9398
Lardybiker
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771 posts
The DLC are not a requirement as far as I can tell (though to be fair, I do actually own the vast majority of them). The game works quite happily without it though. The DLC content just adds extras.

As for the cost...The cost of the models of the trains you talk about are likely to put you back a couple of hundred quid. Not exactly cheap!

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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 28/05/2010 at 01:11 #9399
canaderyn
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8 posts
not quite what Geoff had in mind when he started this topic but you might like to look at http://www.openrails.org/
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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 28/05/2010 at 10:52 #9403
Ray
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211 posts
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I used to enjoy the BVE routes a few years ago. The dynamics of the trains and the sound was very impressive and many developers produced routes with superb scenery. It was also freeware although it was always a bit of a pain to install on your PC. With more developments added to BVE, I feel sure that it could beat all the other trainsims hands down. It's a pity that the BVE program does not work with the latest versions of windows otherwise I would go and have another look at it.
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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 28/05/2010 at 11:18 #9404
lpeters
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160 posts
Ray said:
I used to enjoy the BVE routes a few years ago. The dynamics of the trains and the sound was very impressive and many developers produced routes with superb scenery. It was also freeware although it was always a bit of a pain to install on your PC. With more developments added to BVE, I feel sure that it could beat all the other trainsims hands down. It's a pity that the BVE program does not work with the latest versions of windows otherwise I would go and have another look at it.
It worked fine for me on Vista and works fine on 7 for me now.

To be honest, I think MSTS is likely to be the biggest as it's the one that everyone knows about; I can't honestly say that i'd heard of any of the others that have been said until I joined these forums.

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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 29/05/2010 at 06:16 #9411
MichaelBolas
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5 posts
There is an alternative to BVE4 called OpenBVE which works with the latest MS systems including Windows7. Many of the trains for BVE4 have been modified to take advantage of the increased facilities (like an outside view of your train), unmodified trains will still run.
Have a look at openbve.trainsimcentral.co.uk

I hope this helps

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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 01/06/2010 at 20:09 #9452
UKTrainMan
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1803 posts
First started out on MSTS and it was great (Class 50 - enough said :cool: ) but then moved onto Trainz and that too was alright but I've now got BVE4 running perfectly on my laptop and it's lovely stuff - first train driving simulator I've played with actual working and realistic AWS / TPWS / DVD (Driver Vigilance Device) so I haven't looked back since. In MSTS if you SPAD the 'activity' ends immediately, in Trainz you can just SPAD freely (I think) but in BVE4 you'd have to actually disable the TPWS to SPAD as your train would either end up stopped by the OSS* loop or by the TSS* grid (* = where present on the route) so this is obviously highly realistic of real train driving.

I've not had to pay for an add-on for BVE4 and I've got plenty of trains to drive and routes to drive them on - ranging from one or two real UK routes to a number of fictional and semi-fictional ones, a couple of London Underground routes and even a small handful of foreign routes for something a little bit different.

There are two additional programs you can download for free (one called BVE Route Randomizer and the other called BRR.NET) which work with BVE4 to make things even more interesting (signalling delays, station delays, poor rail adhesion, etc). I will admit that I have SPADed a couple of times in BVE4, one time in particular which was a real close call was driving on a route called Network West Midlands and I'd used BVE Route Randomizer to add heavy signalling delays for a change. Doing something like 125mph in a Pendolino and had double yellow so started slowing down but I thought I'd had double-yellow there before so I guessed at where I thought the red was but this time around it was actually before the station I was approaching and not after it - anyway passed the single yellow a bit too fast and as soon as I saw the red I whacked on the emergency brakes and literally within reaching distance of the signal it went single yellow but my gosh was my heart racing.

Anyway BVE4 really is great although I've downloaded so many excellent trains and routes it is taking up over 2GB of space.

Any views and / or opinions expressed by myself are from me personally and do not represent those of any company I either work for or am a consultant for.
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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 02/06/2010 at 09:16 #9458
Underwood
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746 posts
razgriz33 said:
MSTS (MicroSoft Train Sim) - This old game has loads of addons, the graffics are really grainy and controll input is really shoddy, very much so an outdated simulator, the only thing it has going for it is the addons. The people that play MSTS are A LOT like the flight simmers, in the sense that they stick to the older sim because of their computer specs and the addons however they need to realise that MSTS is hindering progression to new and better things. If you have a poo pc or a small buget perhaps MSTS is a good place to start

RailSim came next with its revolutionary graffics after much delay this simulator came out, most people stuck with MSTS though because of hte addons. Note that the people that made MSTS in association with micrsosoft were KUJU also made this simulator. Track IR (head trackign software) became available and apparently talks of a controller (such as an xbox or joystick) are lurking around somewhere. It Boasts it's complexity and simplicity at the same time, it features AWS, TPWS all the jingles and whistles even littel passengers on the station which msts did not have

Railworks now and this is again made by kuju and is basically an improovbed version of railsim, you can in fact trade your rail sim in for rail works at the moment, railworks is available for download off of steam. it features all of the above and more, the downloadable content is good for this, i have all sorts too long to list and keep you interested, the route that is of interest to SimSiggers is oxford - paddington via didcot as i think that is in the bristol SimSig? not sure but something like that.

none of them have multiplayer but they do have a latitude and longitude and height (X,Y,Z) and heading so it is possible as long as you can grab the data out.
None of them have very good custom route planning apart from MSTS where you select a start and a finish.

i hope these answer your questions .
Sorry but I am quite offended by your post, people play it because they have low spec??

Excuse me but I only play MSTS and BVE4 at the moment, but I can play Trainz and RW if I want, I just don't as I hate them, though I might go back to RW once theres more things out. I didn't like the scenario creator though, having to fly around the layout every time, I prefer the MSTS activity creator, can see it all on one screen.

Yes RW has some more realistic features, but I can't afford all these add-ons when theres some cracking free ones on MSTS (and a million routes to boot).

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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 08/06/2010 at 15:57 #9539
Insulfrog3
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13 posts
Trainz Railway Simulator is the better rail sims I played due to easy route building, train driving, point switching and even easier to add custom content. Auran (the makers of Trainz) has been making their software since 2001 and they are still creating new Trainz software to this day. From their main releases of Trainz (Trainz, UTC, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2010) to spin-offs (Trainz Classics 1/2/3, Train Driver (West Somerset Railway), Trainz Driver, My First Trainz) to tons and tons of freeware and payware custom content. From Trainz 2006 and onward, you can even send trains to other players with the use with the I-trainz system. With over 500,000 registered users (including myself), its quite a large railway sim to get into.
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Number of MSTS/Railsim/etc users 11/06/2010 at 02:40 #9583
northroad
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870 posts
I take it that you like TRAINZ

Geoff

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