Four things you possibly didn’t know about Hakodate. 1) It’s a port city on the island/prefecture of Hokkaido. 2) In 1934 it was devastated by a fire that killed 2166 people. 3) In 1976 a MiG-25 Foxbat piloted by Soviet defector Viktor Belenko landed at its main airport. 4) You can beetle through its streets in Tramcity Hakodate, a new £13 Early Access tram sim with old-fashioned graphics, great audio, decent physics, and unusually truthful traffic lights.
At present Tramcity Hakodate relies a little too heavily on those traffic lights for variety. Because you can’t alter the start times or the weather in the two available scenarios, and the sparse cars and pedestrians never do anything that necessitates emergency braking or bell use, just about all that stands between drivers and serious déjà vu is the line of code that selects a random start point in the authentic traffic light timing pattern when a scenario begins.
If the rich sounds and plausible physics didn’t gel so nicely, Version 1.0.2406.10.1’s lack of journey customisation options and driveable track* would be powerful purchase disincentives. If there wasn’t something decidedly OMSI- and BVE-like in the way this content-light streetcar sim tapestries audio files and wobbles cabs, dismissing it would be easy.
* The seven-stop stretch of line currently modelled can be traversed in around twelve minutes. Network expansion is planned.
Quirky/demanding ‘rules of the road’ also add to TH’s appeal. Whether you’re travelling east-west, or west-east, the speed limit changes come thick and fast, and there are several sections where coasting is mandatory. Patchy translation and a scanty six-screen driving guide mean I’ve yet to navigate the line’s most confusing junction without incurring a score penalty.
Is Early Access Tramcity Hakodate currently worth £13? That really depends on how fond you are of pantographed demi-trains, and what happens in your brain when you hear whining traction motors, rattling bogeys, and jaunty stop announcement chimes.