Trans-Pennine Express (Amiga) - Prototype FMV train sim.

Introduction

The idea for this game came before Jari-Matti Rally, but at that time, I did not know how to make it. Then a breakthrough, when I discovered how to make the footage run at one frame every 5 seconds, and also a way to slow it down by half, and this was enough to start my train game. I cant display any controls on the screen, so I decided to make the sound effects do this, so players can hear which gear they are in, and when to speed up and slow down. Now, just the hard part of coding it all in!

At first I wanted to cover several different railways, but in the end, I found a nice stream of the Trans-Pennine Express, from Burnley, through my home town of Accrington (over the world famous Nori red brick built Accrington Viaduct), and on to Blackburn. It contains the speed limits already on the screen, so that solved that issue.

Aims:

1. To make a 4 stop train sim, covering three sections of Lancashire Railway; Burnley, Rose Grove, Accrington and Blackburn.

2. To make it so that the player can get some stats and score.

Requirements

• Any PAL Amiga with Kickstart 3.0+  (does NOT work with KS2 roms).
• ?.??MB spare memory.
• Any CPU, but 030+ is recommended.
• ?.??MB free disk space.
• Optional: A way to copy the files onto a real Amiga hard drive.
• (Optional: H/V Centering on?), (Filter:Auto-scaling??).

Features:

• 3 Digitised FMV videos.
• 4 Digitised HAM-6 images.

Install and Loading

TBA

Bugs list

• Train not stopping at all stations.
• Sometimes goes fast after stopping.
• Platform info broken
• Train whistle too loud
• Voice feedback for gear 6 too slow (now different but still broken)
• scoring broken
• no gear maps/ so no stutter or x2 speed
• Quit button in wrong place
• Rating broken
• Check for End of Line broken.
• Gear 1 isn't spoken when starting up.
• Section 2 is boring, needs more speed changes.
• Needs AWS prompt
• Pulling back to start train still happens on menus
• Controller must be pulled back twice to start the game from stations 2, 3.
• Fire on end screen can force restart the train.
• Bug with gear code on menus
• Station code needs to stop the audio to auto creep??
• Instructions page? and title page?
• Station backdrops are not true black,  except for the 1st one.
• Penalty system needs work
• third gear not spoken on down shift

Development Diary

V0.1 - 13 March 2024 - Initial Demo. Plays one section of line.

V0.2 - 21 March 2024 - Video now stops, and stutters, with the joystick.

V0.3 - 29 March 2024 - Added variables and Time routine.

V0.4 - V0.4C - 30 March 2024 - Added Gear voice speech effects. Added the second and third section of line, and images of the 4 stops/stations. Some very basic track mapping for track 1.

V0.4D to G - 1 April 2024 - Timer now fixed to be closer to accurate seconds. Added the stats code for the stations, and a quit button. Developed a way to move to the next station with Stop and Fire, when close to the end of the line. Some Debugging.

V0.5-E - 3 April 2024 - More debugging. Fixed the stop routine. Fixed the 'end of line' checker to avoid using the Fire button, and moved it to a different routine; may have to re-write it. Stage End stats now working better. 'Press Fire' text and Title Music added.

V0.5F - 4 April 2024 - Rewrote time, now uses system clock. Partly working.

V0.5G-H - 5 April 2024 - More Debugging. Reactivated the fire button to move the train to the next station. Accidentally discovered a way to play the footage at X2 speed, but no idea why it does it, or how to trigger it.

V0.5I-J - 10 April - Success! I can now make the footage play X2 speed on demand. Now the issue of putting that into the game somehow, as it alters the track timings. Title page image now zooms out, and title music now includes a whistle sound.

V0.5K - 15 April 2024 - Another bug fix update. The old clock timer routine is back in as well as the new one; so one is real time, and the other is track time for the gear maps.

V0.5K-L - 16 April - Endless bug fixing. Train still not stopping at all stops!

V0.5M-N - 17 April - Some bugs fixed. The train finally stops at all stations.

V0.5O - 19 April - Added arrival time info to stations, and made a nice pretty colour routine, so I can see the HAM palette I can choose from. Time routine fixed (again!) (I took a new screenshot which shows the time still broken).