''Sensible Train Spotting'' is a

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

Sensible Software Sensible Software was a British software company founded by Jon Hare and Chris Yates which was active from March 1986 to June 1999. It released seven number-one hit games and won numerous industry awards. The company used exaggeratedly small sp ...

for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

computer. It is Sensible Software's last Amiga game and was available only on an ''

Amiga Power ''Amiga Power'' (''AP'') was a monthly magazine about Amiga video games. It was published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing and ran for 65 issues, from May 1991 to September 1996. History The first issue of ''Amiga Power'' was publi ...

'' cover disk from issue 53, dated September 1995. Because of this, it is not nearly as famous as some of Sensible Software's earlier releases, such as ''

Sensible Soccer ''Sensible Soccer'', often called ''Sensi'', is an association football video game series which was popular in the early 1990s and which still retains a following. It was developed by Sensible Software and first released for Amiga and Atari ST ...

'' and ''

Cannon Fodder Cannon fodder is an informal, derogatory term for combatants who are regarded or treated by government or military command as expendable in the face of enemy fire. The term is generally used in situations where combatants are forced to fight agains ...

''. ''Sensible Train Spotting'' is the world's first ever computerized

train spotting A railfan, train fan, rail buff or train buff (American English), railway enthusiast, railway buff, anorak (British English), gunzel (Australian English), trainspotter (British English) or ferroequinologist is a person who is recreationally in ...

simulator. The game takes place at a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

, with a view looking over the train platforms. Various

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

s pass through, each bearing a unique ID number. At the bottom of the screen is a checklist of train ID numbers, each of which must be selected by the player as the corresponding train appears. This must be done against a time limit, and attempting to record an incorrect number will result in a penalty. When all trains in the checklist have been spotted, the game moves on to the next level.

Controversy

In 2003, a PC games company called Demon Star released another train spotting simulator, called '' Train Tracking''. The company claimed their game was the first ever train spotting simulator, although the gameplay is nearly identical to ''Sensible Train Spotting''. British game journalist and former Sensible Software employee Stuart Campbell reacted to this by buying a fully registered copy of ''Train Tracker'' and making it freely downloadable from his web site, daring Demon Star to take legal action.STOP THE (RIP-OFF) EXPRESS
at worldofstuart.com.

References

External links

* * {{Sensible Software 1995 video games Amiga games Amiga-only games Sensible Software games Train simulation video games Rail transport hobbies Video games developed in the United Kingdom Single-player video games