is a side-scrolling

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...

action video game An action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes a large variety of sub-genres, such as fighting games, beat 'em ups, shooter games, and platform gam ...

developed by

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

and released for arcades in 1982.

Gameplay

The objective of the game is to guide a train from one station to next. Along the route, the player must avoid obstacles such as other trains, planes, red signals, trucks crossing intersections, and guide the train along multiple routes by changing tracks en route. The player is armed with a steam fire bullet for destroying airborne targets, and a temporary force field which protects the train for a limited period of time. The use of the bullets and shields rapidly deplete an energy bar which must be maintained between levels by picking up oil items en route. Upon completion of a level, a bonus stage is played which involves the train attempting to shoot as many airborne enemies within a finite time period. The bonus awarded is dependent upon the number of enemies destroyed. The game then resumes on more challenging levels.

Soundtrack

The game's soundtrack features a

chiptune Chiptune, also known as chip music or 8-bit music, is a style of synthesized electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. The t ...

rendition of

Yellow Magic Orchestra Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO for short) is a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, vocals). The group is conside ...

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

hit " Rydeen" (1979) playing throughout the main gameplay. The same tune later appeared in several

personal computer games ''Personal Computer Games'' was a multi-format UK computer games magazine of the early/mid-1980s published by VNU. History ''Personal Computer Games'' was launched in July 1983. The magazine was part of VNU and had its headquarters in London ...

, including

Rabbit Software Rabbit Software was an England, English software company which produced video games for home computers such as the ZX Spectrum, VIC-20, and Commodore 64 in the early to mid-1980s. Rabbit's later software packaging was slightly different from that ...

's ''Trooper Truck'' (1983) and

Superior Software Superior Software Ltd (also known as Superior Interactive) is a video game publisher. It was one of the main publishers for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers in the 1980s and early 1990s. It currently releases games for Microsoft Windows ...

's '' Stryker's Run'' (1986), and as the

Ocean Software Ocean Software Ltd was a British software development company that became one of the biggest European video game developers and video game publisher, publishers of the 1980s and 1990s. The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and wa ...

loader theme for ''

Daley Thompson's Decathlon ''Daley Thompson's Decathlon'' is an Olympic-themed sports video game developed and released by Ocean Software in 1984. It was released in the wake of Daley Thompson's popularity following his gold medals in the decathlon at the 1980 and 1984 O ...

'' (1984). The Sega Genesis Mini 2 version replaces "Rydeen" with the song "Ryzeen" by Oriental Magnetic Yellow, a YMO parody band led by composer

Shinji Hosoe , also known as Megaten and Sampling Masters MEGA, is a Japanese video game composer and musician most famous for scoring ''Ridge Racer'', ''Street Fighter EX'' and many Namco arcade games between 1987 and 1996. He also runs the music production ...

Reception

Computer and Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...

'' magazine reviewed the game in its September 1983 issue. They said it is an "enjoyable romp" with "a good setting" and "a marvelous rousing tune that adds immediately to the action."

Legacy

The game was sold in Japan and Europe. In the UK, a machine was sited in a small arcade in a wooden building next to a small funfair in the seaside town of Morecambe. The arcade and funfair shut down in the 1980s and the site is now a car park, behind and to the left of the Johnny's Fun Factory arcade. While no official conversion of the game existed until 2022, the computer games ''Trooper Truck'' (1983) and ''

Loco Loco or El Loco may refer to: Places United States * Loco, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Loco, Oklahoma, a village * Loco, Texas, an unincorporated community * Loco Mountain (Labinero, Montana), a mountain peak of the Crazy Mountains ...

'' (1984) are heavily inspired by ''Super Locomotive''. In 2022, Sega released the Sega Genesis Mini 2 (also known as the Mega Drive Mini 2), which included a Genesis port of ''Super Locomotive'' developed by M2. The game is considered one of the earliest train video games, making it a precursor to

train simulator A train simulator (also railroad simulator or railway simulator) is a computer based simulation of rail transport operations. They are generally large complicated software packages modeling a 3D virtual reality world implemented both as comme ...

video games such as Ongakukan's ''Train Simulator'' series (1995 debut) and ''

Densha de Go! is a Japanese train simulation game series originally produced by Taito and more recently by Square Enix (who purchased Taito) and Railfan Holdings Co., Ltd. The series started with a 1996 arcade version and was first released in a home versi ...

'' (1996 debut).

Notes

References

External links

*{{KLOV game, 9910, Super Locomotive 1982 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Sega arcade games Railroad games Video games developed in Japan