A-Train III

The game places players in command of a railway company. 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 use a near-isometric dimetric projection to present the city, similar to the later SimCity 2000 by Maxis.

There are two types of transport that the player's company can take: passengers or building materials. The former is more likely to be profitable, but building materials allow the city to grow.

Computer Gaming World's reviewer Stanley Trevena 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".

The game was reviewed in 1992 in Dragon #187 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars. In 1993 the game received a Codie award from the Software Publishers Association for Best Strategy Program. A-Train's isometric, tile-based graphics and animated elements inspired the visual style Maxis went on to adopt for Simcity 2000 in 1993.

In later years, development of the series continued on both console and PC platforms. A5, released for PlayStation and PC in 1997, introduced a totally 3D environment. A6, the first game in the series for PlayStation 2, was released in Japan in 2000 and later translated to English and released in Europe as A6: A-Train 6 by Midas Interactive Entertainment in 2004. A Ressha de Ikou 2001, a new version of A6 with online support, was released for PS2 in 2001 and followed by several expansion packs.

The most recently released game in the core series, A7, was released in 2005 for Windows-based PCs in Japanese. A Traditional Chinese translation was released in July 2006. However, the Chinese version does not include the original Japanese train, and some unrealistic fiction trains are added. A7 is advertised as an homage to the 10th anniversary of AIV and uses a trimetric interface, instead of the open 3D interface of A5 and A6.