model trains
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TUAW's Daily App: Trainz Simulator
I got to see the Trainz Simulator in action at GDC this year. The Trainz series of software is extremely popular on the PC, and the company released an iPad version a little while ago to pretty high acclaim. I will admit to knowing nearly nothing about trains, either the real or the miniature kind (though I did have a small set as a kid), but I have to say I was impressed by the variety of the options available on the iPad version -- you can create a full virtual train set, from locomotive to caboose and even the buildings and scenery around it, completely within the touch interface of the iPad. It's pretty impressive. If you're not already schooled in the way of the model train, you might even be a little overwhelmed with all of the options available. But it is a fun way to play around with model trains without spending a ton of money on actual train items, and since the new version is coming out soon on the PC (Trainz 12 is due out in mid-April), the iPad version is on sale this weekend for just US$0.99. At that price, it's cheap enough to just download and see what you think of all the tools available for building up your own train set.
What Itagaki's been playing: 400 hours of Dragon Quest IX
After taking the past two years off from game development following a messy breakup with his old employer, Tecmo, Tomonobu Itagaki is back in the game (biz) as chief creative officer of Valhalla Game Studios. But what was Itagaki up to in those two years? Speaking with Famitsu (translated by 1UP), the Dead or Alive creator explained, "I spent the days doing anything I felt like, researching whatever kind of technology struck me, playing whatever games piqued my interest ... for example, I wound up playing Dragon Quest IX for about 400 hours." That's alotta slime! In fairness, the developer wasn't exclusively sinking hundreds of hours of his free time into a single DS game -- he also spent quite a bit of time traveling to game studios around the world and doing R&D work for Valhalla's next (read: first) project, claimed to be "way outside the scope of our company" by Itagaki. According to him, that next game "will earn Valhalla Game Studios its place in history," and he intends it to sell at least four million copies. But for now, he's got a model train set to build with some of his friends. "I'm planning to rent out some space and build a seriously big train layout, 7 or so meters (23 feet) in length. There are some professionals in that field among my friends, so I'm thinking about building something really decent together with them and having people come over and play with the results. It'd be a business, though I'd make it free for children -- kids are pretty rough with model trains, but I'll just have to deal with that." Kids these days.
