[citation needed] The first release in the United States was Take the A-Train II, published in 1988 by the Seika Corporation under the title Railroad Empire.

It was originally released in December 1990 for the NEC PC-9801, FM Towns Marty, X68000, and PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16).

There are no rival companies; the player controls the only one in the city and the game is resultingly fairly open-ended.

A-Train III is the first game in the series to make use of near-isometric dimetric projection to present the city, similar to Maxis's later SimCity 2000.

These start with houses, but eventually, as an area grows, roads, and shops and other buildings are built.

These can provide extra revenue for a passenger service, but also allowing the city to develop and grow can be seen as a goal in itself.

[citation needed] Computer Gaming World's reviewer stated in 1992 that while he enjoyed the financial and management aspects of A-Train, "many people will miss out on a fine program because of a steeply graded learning curve".

[12] The game was reviewed in 1992 in Dragon #187 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column.

[5] In 1993 the game received a Codie award from the Software Publishers Association for Best Strategy Program.

[11] A-Train's isometric, tile-based graphics and animated elements inspired the visual style Maxis went on to adopt for Simcity 2000 in 1993.

[4] In 1994, PC Gamer UK named A-Train III the 46th best computer game of all time.

The editors wrote, "Fascinating, absorbing and now quite cheap, A-Train is worth a place in any games collection—and don't be put off by the subject matter.

The player must use the resources at hand to build a railroad connecting the two ends of a map in each scenario.

Nighttime activities (17:00–05:00) involve changing train schedules to better suit the needs of the player's growing mass transportation hub.

[17][21] The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly were divided about the PlayStation version of AIV: Evolution Global; Andrew Baran and Mark Lefebvre described it as an addictive and pleasantly time-consuming simulation, while Mike Desmond and Sushi-X felt it to be dull compared to most simulation games, especially other Maxis titles.

[citation needed] The game and its dependencies can be installed on the system's hard disk drive.

Released on June 19, 2003, in Japan for Windows, this is essentially a rebadged PC version of A-Train 2001.

Released on the DoCoMo 504i/505i/506i/900 mobile phones as a service planning game and distributed by Hudson Soft.

Additional Xbox Live features includes leaderboards which contain "Total Capital", "Population" and "Time to 1 Trillion Yen" categories for each map.

Before the release of Taiwan version, publisher TTIME Technology held a paper train model contest for winning the game.

The game featuring touch screen controls and became the first handheld title in the series to have the 3D train view.

[31] A-Train 9 was released on February 11, 2010, in Japan, and on March 15, 2012, worldwide by UIG Entertainment under the names The Train Giant in English and Der Bahn Gigant in German.

This also includes a digital manual featuring how-to-play instructions on urban growth, development and financial management, which are the carried-over core game components.

A-Train 9 includes buses and trucks, grouped by distances they travel and the work they manage (e.g. intercity, local, heavy goods, etc.

On December 7, 2012, A-Train 9 Version 2.0: Professional Edition was released in Japan, supporting Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8.

Version 2.0 includes all content from the two expansion packs intended for the original A-Train 9 plus several new buildings and trains, as well as several bug fixes.

[citation needed] On October 21, 2015, A-Train 9 Version 4.0: Japan Rail Simulator was released on Steam, supporting Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8.1 and 10.

It was revealed that the game's official Japanese title is A-Train Hajimaru Kankou Keikaku, and it will come out in 2021 in Japan.