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| Blast from the past 07/04/2015 at 22:41 #70855 | |
belly buster
368 posts |
I was just chatting with Tony on multiplayer message, and it got me thinking back to the early days of SimSig. Maybe there are some historians out there that can help plug the gaps, but I remember playing some very early SimSigs - I think Liverpool St was the first (maybe in 2001?), also Westbury, Bristol and Kings Cross - all paged. Kings Cross was definitely "upside down" compared to today (.e. cross was on the far left panel). Also I recall Westbury being "upside down" compared to the modern sim but I might be wrong on this. I took a ~ 10 year hiatus so the memory is fuzzy. There was definitely an old forum, possibly more than one. Does someone want to provide a brief history of SimSig? Log in to reply |
| Blast from the past 09/04/2015 at 00:04 #70903 | |
Mattyq
259 posts |
I've been playing Simsig since before it became freeware. I can confirm that KX, indeed, was back-to-front and took some getting used to when it was corrected (more on this later). I am unable to recall Westbury ever being back-to-front from what it is now. Waterloo was there when I first started playing, as was Didcot and (separately) Swindon. Speaking of back-to-front layouts, this happened in real life in Queensland (Australia) when the Brisbane Near North Coast CTC board was moved to the suburban control centre. The layout was reversed so it was contiguous with the existing workstations. Took a LOT of getting used to!! Not fat ..... fluffy!! (G Iglesias) Log in to reply |
| Blast from the past 09/04/2015 at 03:32 #70906 | |
GeoffM
6377 posts |
1999: I no longer had a life. Fenchurch Street was the first but only as a demo I think. Liverpool Street probably was the first proper simulation. Originally the sims did cost money, then went free (after a 6 month warning) as I couldn't support them. Then many years later, obviously, some simulations became payware (virtually all new sims, I think), because I could work on them for maybe 75% of my working day (varies, depending on other work), and believe it or not I have a mortgage to pay and family to feed. A select few seem to think I should work for free for some reason :blink: - same people also said nobody would ever buy the sims. Ho hum. Here I still am. But thanks to the majority I am grateful I am still here! I don't recall Westbury being upside down at any point but I could be wrong - a long time ago, and several updates since. Coventry Westcad was originally installed in WMSC with London to the left but was later flipped to have London to the right. And recently I saw a sketch version of Birmingham NS which was most definitely upside down in my head! :silly: We went through a couple of forums I think. And is this the third web host? Tempting fate here but Memset, our current provider, have been fantastic, especially their tech support. Pickaweb were ok until we got too much traffic, then they couldn't really cope. SimSig Boss Log in to reply The following users said thank you: Hawk777, ozrail, belly buster |
| Blast from the past 09/04/2015 at 05:42 #70908 | |
clive
2789 posts |
" said:King's Cross was originally based on a signalling scheme plan I obtained from someone working at the PSB and sent out to various of my contacts, including Geoff. That plan had the Cross at the left hand end (it also predated Cambridge PSB, because it had semaphore signals after Royston). It was going to be two sims but then got combined into one (this was before I was involved in SimSig myself). Some years later Geoff decided to reverse it to match the panel. I hacked together a program to reverse the data, though I think it didn't reverse all the internal logic and some of it is still backwards. Log in to reply |
| Blast from the past 09/04/2015 at 11:22 #70918 | |
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nnr
170 posts |
I think I still have the original Liverpool Street lurking on a hard disk somewhere! If I recall correctly, it came with a disclaimer that there were no instructions and no support (see GeoffM's post) but it was quite fun working everything out! Log in to reply |
| Blast from the past 09/04/2015 at 11:50 #70919 | |
jc92
3690 posts |
" said:" said:Is that why Royston sim faces the wrong way compared to the Panel in Kings Cross?King's Cross was originally based on a signalling scheme plan I obtained from someone working at the PSB and sent out to various of my contacts, including Geoff. That plan had the Cross at the left hand end (it also predated Cambridge PSB, because it had semaphore signals after Royston). It was going to be two sims but then got combined into one (this was before I was involved in SimSig myself). "We don't stop camborne wednesdays" Log in to reply |
| Blast from the past 09/04/2015 at 11:50 #70920 | |
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AndyG
1842 posts |
I recollect that the first sim I used was Didcot (sans Swindon), it was free at that time and in the help file Geoff was living in Trowbridge I think. The help file also had a summary of SimSig itself and how it spawned TREsim, also Westbury was also available but not sure if KX predated it. Maybe we ought to have a WIKI page to record SimSig's ancestry before we forget it all? I can only help one person a day. Today's not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look too good either. Log in to reply |
| Blast from the past 09/04/2015 at 12:03 #70921 | |
Splodge
720 posts |
I recall purchasing Stafford once upon a time, obviously as a paged sim. I think Waterloo was available at the same time but everything was payware then, other than Westbury which got a demo version if you bought a sim.
There's the right way, the wrong way and the railway. Log in to reply |
| Blast from the past 09/04/2015 at 13:17 #70924 | |
--miki--
68 posts |
Behold, the SimSig main page in year 2001 (earliest available from Wayback Machine): https://web.archive.org/web/20010715091112/http://www.SimSig.co.uk/ As we can see by clicking the links on the left side, simulations were payware (£20-30 each) and there were five of them available:
In year 2002, Swindon was released, Westbury in 2003, with King's Cross and North London Line in 2004. All of the simulations became free in May 2003, Westbury being free since its release. Log in to reply The following users said thank you: ozrail, belly buster |
| Blast from the past 09/04/2015 at 13:26 #70925 | |
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delticfan
476 posts |
I sort of came across Simsig only a few years back. I had built up quite a collection of sims from another well-known producer which were quite pricey compared with Simsig. I think I first tried Royston and Drain to get the feel of Simsig and then I think came Stafford paged and Pboro. I was soon aware that Simsig was so much more true to life, having worked in the rail industry for a few years. Since gone on to build a collection of sims where I know the areas and promptly ditched the other producer. Now safe to say I'm hooked. I do enjoy the single player ones as a bit of respite from the biggies. Thanks to all concerned, and I do enjoy the surprises which keep appearing. Mal. Log in to reply |
| Blast from the past 09/04/2015 at 17:56 #70932 | |
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belly buster
368 posts |
Thanks to that wayback link, you can see the old forums. Sadly not the messages, just the topics. There were a few from me, I see Guts posting there "wayback" as well :) https://web.archive.org/web/20030517045353/http://www.SimSig.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=general&action=messageindex&start=20 Log in to reply |
| Blast from the past 09/04/2015 at 19:16 #70933 | |
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Forest Pines
525 posts |
I first came across SimSig through Geoff's posts on uk.railway, around the time Liverpool St was first released. A small confession: as I was a very skint student at the time, I worked out how to hack the program so that it didn't time out when in demo mode. Although it still didn't allow me to save, it meant I could play it for as long as I wanted in a single session. When Didcot came out, I sent Geoff a cheque (a fiver?) and received it on CD in the post. Geoff also sent me some details of the internal binary format of .wtt files, which I used to create a program which would turn a Liverpool St timetable into LaTeX source code, which you could then use to produce a PDF version of the timetable. I think my PDF version of the default timetable was available for download on the original website for quite a while. I tried to get it to work with Didcot but, as I hadn't had any formal computing education, I couldn't work out how to get it to properly format the situation where one train overtakes another. I think the program was entirely written in portable C - I ran it on Linux myself - but I have no idea if I still have the source. I'm fairly sure that the released version of paged Westbury was the same way round as the current one: screen 1 was Aldermaston-Lavington with Aldermaston at the top left. Log in to reply |
| Blast from the past 09/04/2015 at 21:00 #70940 | |
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broodje
184 posts |
It was indeed, as that is the way the real panel is orientated too. There was a bit of discussion behind the scenes at one time though about the lines that belong to the Reading panel in reality. These are projected the other way around in the real world. But this was all when there was no scrolly option yet.
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| Blast from the past 09/04/2015 at 22:44 #70943 | |
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benstafford
88 posts |
I remember downloading them all using Dial up internet - it took well over an hour. That was back in the days when I actually had time!
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| Blast from the past 10/04/2015 at 08:11 #70949 | |
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clive
2789 posts |
" said:Partly. But also because Royston was coded to fit into SimSig Cambridge which is the correct way round relative to the panel. Log in to reply |
| Blast from the past 10/04/2015 at 09:57 #70950 | |
Guts
604 posts |
Jeepers. I remember that old Forum. Brought back memories that did :blush: Stafford was my baby back then. I'm a West Coast person, always have been. I was working in a teenie quiet manual box, so Stafford gave me much joy running the mainline. Last edited: 10/04/2015 at 10:01 by Guts Log in to reply |
| Blast from the past 10/04/2015 at 19:00 #70960 | |
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mfcooper
707 posts |
A couple of months ago was 9 years since I discovered SimSig. A lot has changed to that 19-year-old student since then!
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