Update: July 12, 2007
«©NCSX» Twenty seven years after the concept of the Taiwan High Speed Rail twinkled in its creators' collective eyes and six years after construction started, the new railroad system opened on January 5, 2007. Spanning eight cities across western Taiwan from Taipei to Zuoying, service to five additional cities is planned in the next few years including Changhua and Yunlin. The first Railfan game for the PS3 has sold well to a contingent of devoted train-game fans and the second Railfan gives players the reins of a Shinkansen Super Express on the Taiwan HSR. The video used in Railfan was captured with a stationary high-definition camera mounted behind the windshield of the Super Express which spooled in 700 km of footage as the train ran through the entire HSR line both ways. In other words, if you're an aficionado of trains and Taiwan in general, you'll get to see the geography, sights, and landscape of Taiwan as it appears from the vantage point of a conductor who motors along at 290 km/h. Similar to the Densha de Go! games from Taito, players take control of a train and manipulate the virtual levers to accelerate between stations and decelerate when entering a platform. The key to success in conducting a passenger train is perfect braking so that the train fits neatly alongside each station platform. Once the train is sidled properly against the platform, the passengers can step off without falling into the tracks. That would be a bad thing.
Jan Code: 4948872960182 View the back cover and screenshots for this item on the main NCSX website.
NCS Game Notes
» Before the Taiwan HSR opened up, the press and the public in Taiwan had fatalistic views of the train system's debut and operations. At one point, we heard ruminations of a 50-50 chance of a derailment on the first day of service. There were some ticket sale problems and little glitches at the launch but otherwise, the fears and malfeasance that festered in the years before the opening were largely unfounded.» On the game screen, the left side shows a schema of the moving track with the train on the bottom and on the upper right corner is the time, the name of the next station, current speed, and distance to the next station. The control panel is shown on the lower portion of the screen and takes up a good chunk of the display so that the "visor" of the train that you peer out of is fairly constrained and cramped. The dashboard can be toggled off so that the full view of the oncoming tracks and the surrounding area is shown. » The Stations on the HSR Line are currently: Taipel
Banciao
Taoyuan
Hsinchu
Taichung
Chiayi
Tainan
Zuoying » The signage in the stations along the THSR, on the backs of the chairs, and pretty much everywhere throughout the stations is bi-lingual - Chinese and English. To match the bilingual nature of the actual Taiwan HSR, the interface in the Railfan game can be played in Chinese or English. » In addition to the game itself, the Sony team added a sort of digital travelogue in Railfan: HSR which shows notable sights, neighborhoods, tourist attractions, and landmarks along the train line as well as examples of the local cuisine at various eateries that may be savored if you're planning on taking a Railfan-inspired tour of Taiwan. » The seats in the THSR Economy Class cars are colored blue. This may indicate the western ideal of "blue collar" where blue uniforms denoted the working class. The Business Class car seats are colored red. In Chinese culture, the color red is indicative of good fortune and luck. A little bit of extra trivia: Contrary to the Western stock market where losses are shown in red and gains in green, gains in Asian stock markets are displayed in red and losses are displayed in green. » The THSR uses the Japanese Shinkansen trains and the UrEDAS earthquake detection system. This document is ©NCSX 2007. All rights reserved. No reproduction in whole or in part of this document may be made without express written consent of National Console Support, Inc.
|
