RetroGaming Radio September 2005 Episode now available!

**Shane R. Monroe** · 09-30-2005, 07:44 PM

September 2005's show is now up! This episode we feature an interview with the man behind the Fairchild Channel F, Jerry Lawson (a great interview!), a new editorial commentary about the origins of innovation and its future, a new 8-bit Flashback look at some cool, unusual demos for the C64, discuss the new Year 6 DVDROM, an unbelievably HUGE Bits & Bytes section, and TONS more!

**Darksol** · 09-30-2005, 07:54 PM

Yes, my digital crack has been delivered

**GrilledMonkeyFat** · 09-30-2005, 08:30 PM

I was looking at the links featured on the show. Shane, tell me what's wrong with this picture.

# Shadow Warrior Expansion
# Retrogamer T-s*it (shirt)
# NESCafe

Unless I'm wrong, and such a thing does exist, then I apologize.

**Shamus** · 09-30-2005, 08:47 PM

I believe the "D" in D-pad (cf. NES) means "direction." Could be wrong, though.

**Shane R. Monroe** · 09-30-2005, 09:10 PM

Its funny ... the D pad thing ... they always showed a picture of the pad, with a D over the 4 way ...

Fixed that link ... THANKS!

**Shane R. Monroe** · 10-01-2005, 12:09 AM

I put up a page full of some of the demo files I mentioned on the show this month ...

http://www.retrogamingradio.com/misc/C64Demos/

**crv** · 10-01-2005, 01:52 AM

An ocarina is a musical instrument, not some Japanese word. You blow into it. Do a Google search.

**B_Rik_Schitthaus** · 10-01-2005, 03:18 AM

Interesting editorial commentry, Its interesting what you said about Nintendo's overall strategy.

If you watch Iwata's Keynote speech from the Tokyo Game show you'll see thats pretty much what thier strategy is.

Just a quick comment on the Dreamcast as well, I think there was more innovation there, first console with truly accessible online accses and features (now a major strategy for the Xbox), new storage medium, the VMU which was never fully exploited, analog triggers and some pretty innovative games (jet set radio, crazy taxi and I know your not a fan but I felt shenmue had at least innovative elements)

Also just one more innovation for the N64, I believe it was the first console to have 4 controller ports (please correct me if i'm mistaken) which was then adopted by the dreamcast, xbox, gamecube etc.

Great show as always at the moment i'm listening to the very interesting feature about C64 demo's, some very impressive stuff there.

**ArcadeNut** · 10-01-2005, 04:34 AM

Originally Posted by B_Rik_Schitthaus

Also just one more innovation for the N64, I believe it was the first console to have 4 controller ports (please correct me if i'm mistaken) which was then adopted by the dreamcast, xbox, gamecube etc.

The Atari 5200 came in two varieties... 2 port and 4 port.

PrinceGaz · 10-01-2005, 05:50 AM

Apologies for creating a seperate thread, but there doesn't seem to be a general thread for the Sep 2005 show yet. Just merge this post into it please when it is created.

First thanks for yet another great show, as always I really enjoyed it.

You commented in Bits & Bytes about not understanding Train Simulator (2h26m50s into show) and what people see in it, and what Route Control for Train Simulator is for. I think your misunderstanding is what Train Simulator is basically about; it is not mainly a product where you build your own railway line and run trains on it. Instead it is more like Flight Simulator, but driving trains instead of flying planes.

Train Simulator comes with six routes from around the world, some modern-day and some historical, all complete with a selection of representative locomotives, coaches and frieght-wagons. Each route is supplied with a number of Activities (missions if you like) that use those locos and stock, which set you the task of driving a train and completing the activity. A typical passenger-train activity would require you to keep to the timetable as best you can, whilst obeying speed-limits and signals, and of course stopping at the required stations. There are also freight activities, shunting in marshalling-yards etc, depending on what you feel like doing. At the end of the activity you are given a report on how well you performed. That might not sound like much fun to you, but for people like me who are railway enthusiasts but don't work as a train-driver in real-life, it is a very enjoyable experience.

Train Simulator comes with six routes and each route has about a dozen activities included, with activities lasting anything from about 15 mins to over 2 hours (you are told at the start how long it will probably take, and can save at any point if you have time to complete it in one session), so there is plenty of content included to keep many people happy. It also comes with an Activity Editor so you can create new activities, and as the activity files it creates are relatively small, there are tons of user-created activities available on rail simulation websites. It also comes with a Route Editor for those feeling ambitious enough to create a whole new route themselves, but the vast majority of people who want more variety buy commercial third-party add-on routes (which of course include all the necessary locos and some activities for the route). There have probably been over fifty commercial route add-ons released since Train Simulator was launched back in 2001, and development and publishing of new routes continues as fast as ever by several companies.

The problem with add-on routes is that after installing about ten or so, Train Simulator becomes unstable and prone to crashing. I believe that is where Route Control comes in as it manages all the extra files installed with routes in such a way that Train Simulator runs properly. At least that is what I think Route Control does, though if that is all it does then it is probably not worth buying as the freeware 'Train Store' does the same thing

Hopefully that has cleared up any confusion about Train Simulator. Like I say it's not everybody's cup of tea, but there are plenty of us that do enjoy driving trains using it.