| Evening Star | |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) | Hewson Consultants Ltd. |
| Designer(s) | Mike Male, Bob Hillyer |
| Platform(s) | Acorn Electron, Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum |
| Release date(s) | 1987 |
| Genre(s) | Vehicle simulation game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Media/distribution | Cassette |
| System requirements
48K |
|
Evening Star is a vector graphics Train Simulation type game for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron and Amstrad CPC. This game is the sequel to Southern Belle.
Contents |
The idea of the game is to successfully get the "Evening Star" from Bath to its destination Bournemouth on the old Somerset and Dorset line. The objectives are keeping to the tight timetable, earning points for safety and economy, and obeying signals. Stops are made at stations along your route to pick up passengers.
Technically the game was an improvement on the sister game "Southern Belle". There were lots more curves included along the line, along with additional lineside buildings and features. Also, the steepness of the gradients was much improved, though this was only because the Somerset and Dorset line was much hillier than the Brighton line.
However, the gameplay remained pretty much identical to that of "Southern Belle", and the two games were similar enough for the casual gamer to mistake one game for the other. That said, the average railway enthusiast was able to see the improvements which were featured on "Evening Star".
The most notable programming error of both this game and "Southern Belle" was that the framerate was very slow, with the graphics updating only once per second. This was particularly notable when playing the game on "Fast" mode (speeded up x5).
Also, very often the engine would run out of coal about four miles from the end of the journey, when playing either the "Long Stopper" or "Pines Express" levels. This was because you were not given sufficient coal at the beginning of the game in order to complete the full route. However, this was less of a problem when you were only driving part of the route (e.g. Short Stopper and Signalling).