 |
| |
News from S I A M - Spring 1999 |
|
| |
News from S I A M - Spring 1999 |
 |  |
NEWS
The main news is that we have a new steam era simulation set at Weymouth in Dorset. Weymouth 1955 is Gold, and includes the station, shed and yards, with connections to the Quay and Portland branches, and both weekday and Saturday schedules.
There is also a new modern image simulation, Liverpool Lime Street 1998, with a full day's schedules and appropriate colours for the trains of the various Train Operating Companies.
We also have another main line Driver, for the long-requested Midland Main Line. This version covers 1971, with the added opportunity to drive the "Midland Pullman" on a 1961 schedule; before long we plan to add a version with more recent schedules, speed restrictions and signalling (1986).
Our full list is available on out World Wide Web site (see below); when asked for a list we now send a full price list without details, plus full details of simulations announced in the last year or two. On request we can supply on disk the complete list as a zipped HTML file, or in Microsoft Word 97 format.
Watch our regular ads in Rail for further announcements. There may well be more new simulations before our next newsletter.
Tim Bourne.
NEW since our last Newsletter!
The following new simulations are available now for the PC. The Driver and Liverpool 1998 (only) will be available from Tuesday 4th May for the Amiga.
NEW Traffic Control programs
NEW! Gold Series - Weymouth 1955 - The simulation starts at 6 am and runs to 10 pm, and is set in 1955 before the arrival of any BR diesels in the area. Both weekday and Saturday schedules are provided; effectively this gives you two very different simulations. All main line services are steam-hauled, and they include a number of excursions and reliefs at higher difficulty levels. Freights serve the yard and branches. As in other recent simulation, more detailed freight shunting is included. Bonus points are available for allocation of locos from the correct depot and of the correct type, and for correct placement of incoming freight. (Difficulty ####) Price £36
NOTE: THIS SIMULATION WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR THE AMIGA
NEW! Liverpool Lime Street 1998 - Even busier now at this busy terminus on two main routes, with frequent local services and many longer-distance routes. Apart from local services, you can gain bonus points by using the platforms the passengers expect for each Train Operating Company - and to help you, units and engines are displayed in the appropriate TOC colours. (Difficulty ##) Price £18
NEW Driver Simulation
GRAPHICS ONLY - NOT AVAILABLE FOR PC WITHOUT EGA/VGA GRAPHICS
NEW! Driver : Midland Main Line 1 (St. Pancras to Derby, 1971) - You are in charge of your selected train (from a choice of 9) on this much-requested line, in the days when signalling was mostly by semaphores, with areas of colour-lights at the beginning and end of the run. You have a choice of schedules for loco-hauled services over the entire route, with a choice of classes 45/1 or 47/4; to add variety, you can also drive the diesel-electric Midland Pullman set on a 1961 schedule to Leicester, or a Bedford DMU on a choice of suburban schedules to Luton or Bedford. (Difficulty ##) Price £18
Order delays
Though our target is to despatch orders within two working days of receipt, we cannot guarantee this. Please do not phone or fax to ask about the progress of an order until at least a week has elapsed from the time we should have received it. Please order in good time for birthdays or other special occasions.
In the next six months holidays or absence abroad may cause delays between 18 and 31 May, also between 4 and 26 August; the backlog should be cleared by 3 June and 29 August respectively.
Help with future projects
We would be interested to hear from any customers with programming experience, particularly in Pascal or Delphi, who would be interested in helping with future projects, as Phill and Brian have been doing. We can not afford to pay at normal programming rates for this, but we do provide help in getting started, guidance on design and testing, and a royalty on sales which can at least help to pay for your hobbies. We look forward to announcing in our next newsletter at least one simulation from a "new recruit".
Amiga support
Amiga orders have decreased markedly in the last year, and if this decline continues we shall have no option but to cease Amiga support. Our new Drivers and Liverpool 1998 will be available for the Amiga, but the Weymouth 1955 simulation will not, and conversions in future will depend on the response to these. All out existing Amiga simulations will continue to be available until further notice.
Simulation speed on PC
All our current programs should run on any PC processor. If you have problems with running too fast, please check the program date (file date on the original disk) - if it is older than 1994 and you are using a 486 or faster processor, you need an update, provided free on return of your original disks, or with a new order. If you have a Pentium II or later running at 266MHz or faster, you may find that older simulations (earlier than 27th November 1997) do not run at all, due to a bug in the Borland Pascal system we use to develop the programs; again, if this happens please send us a list of those affected and we will replace them.
PC Disk Size
Due to the growing size of our programs, we are now using high density 3½" PC disks (holding 1.44Mb each). If you have an older machine that can not accept these disks, please ask for the 720k variety. Sorry, but we can no longer supply 5¼" disks.
