Windows 10: Train Simulator Content

Microsoft Train Simulator (MSTS) has been off the market for nearly a decade (since the Activision release disappeared) and closing in on two since MS itself stopped selling it, but it's still the basis for an active enthusiast community. It was the first and still, as a single program, most successful train simulator game, partly due to timing and partly to its relatively open attitude toward re-use of scenery and train objects in add-on content. Many add-on routes have been developed, and many (arguably, most) of the free ones make use of some objects in the default routes. MSTS provides, in effect, a standard library of objects and trains that are used in add-on content. That requires that one have MSTS installed, of course. To get a copy of MSTS these days requires getting either a used copy or a pirated copy.


That huge collection of community-developed add-on content for MSTS will never be duplicated in newer train sims, much like with Flight Sim, and some are true works of art. MSTS itself (if you have a copy) requires heroic measures to run in modern versions of Windows (especially after 7) - it can't be just installed with any expectation of working correctly, even if the old CDs (especially Disk 2) can be read, and necessary updates are no longer available - and simply doesn't work with certain combinations of hardware and Windows 8 or 10. Officially, it's unsupported in Windows after XP. So what's an alternative?


There are a few commercial train sims that don't use MSTS content and are not compatible with MSTS routes.There's also a open source simulator that runs well in current Windows, and can run most MSTS-based content and routes though moving in different directions regarding realism and presentation (new content is beginning to appear for it that is too complex to work in MSTS). In order to use older routes originally designed for MSTS, though, access to the underlying MSTS route and train object libraries is still needed; that's a severe limitation for people who only recently have become interested in train sims and can't (legally) get a copy of MSTS. Only commercial and a few recently-released free add-ons avoid MSTS object entanglements, and most of the older free content will never be updated.


What's needed (set up a petition? to whom?) to get MS to re-issue MSTS, or at least its underlying scenery and train object libraries, so new users who can't get a legitimate copy of MSTS can run the older add-ons that need them? After more than a decade without upgrades or patches, and having removed any support of it from the company website, MS appears to have abandoned this avenue of gaming for itself.

:)

 

MS Train Simulator won't open on Windows 10 64 bit

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Train Simulator

I have installed Train Simulator onto my laptop and it appears on my desktop but will not open. Can anyone help?

 

Microsoft Train Simulator

From Wikipedia:

"On January 23, 2009, Microsoft announced that it was permanently closing ACES Game Studios, the internal development studio responsible for both Microsoft Flight Simulator and Microsoft Train Simulator. As a result, all future development on Train Simulator
... was immediately halted."

Since the project ended long before Windows 10, there is obviously no support for MSTS on Windows 10 so it's not likely to work properly. You're on your own. Perhaps you can search the internet for a MSTS fan group that can offer ideas to help you.