Inglenook puzzle

[danoh]

Not sure where to post this, so I'll post this in my favorite part of Railwire, and let the Mods move it if needed.

Discovered an online Inglenook puzzle. Found here:

https://beaver.games/shunting/#4481

This guy has made available this as a downloadable app for Apple Phones. (free)

Alas, those with Android software are S.O.L.

It's pretty basic. But if you want a thinking puzzle, it will do nicely.

[learmoia]

This is great - He even included the coupler magnets that don't work half the time

Very fun..

I've played a few 'switching puzzle' games and it's a great concept for a puzzle game.

I've always wanted someone to develop a more robust version that has:

Hump Yard: where your sorting out a train that is constantly moving and you have to control switches (easy), add retarders (for Normal difficulty) and add Pin Puller for Difficult.

Flat Switching: where you can kick cars and you could have point multiples for simultaneous moving cars.

And Industry Switching puzzles that are time based..

[dnhouston]

There is an app available at the apple store called John Allen's Timersaver (they have a Free [lite] and a full version) that gets more complex as you play through levels

[learmoia]

There is an app available at the apple store called John Allen's Timersaver (they have a Free [lite] and a full version) that gets more complex as you play through levels

Well that is great for apple users 

[nkalanaga]

~Ian:  The Hump Yard sounds interesting, but requiring the player to run both the retarders and the pin pulling would probably be too much.  My father was a retarder operator (NP,BN Pasco, WA) and he never worried about the pin pulling.  The "Crest Operator" had their own switch list, later a computer screen, and a radio to tell the actual puller when to pull the pin.  All the retarder operator had to worry about were the switches, the retarders, and making sure the tracks didn't get too full.

Pre-computer, he could just change to an empty track if one got full.  After the computer was installed, shortly after the BN merger, he had to tell the computer to make the change.  After a couple years of that, my father retired - on disability, with ulcers, diabetes, and "stress issues".  Working with a computer was too much for him.  Of course, he was born in 1913, and never fully accepted that TV wasn't some kind of magic!  He actually enjoyed doing the job manually.

[learmoia]

~Ian:  The Hump Yard sounds interesting, but requiring the player to run both the retarders and the pin pulling would probably be too much.  My father was a retarder operator (NP,BN Pasco, WA) and he never worried about the pin pulling.  The "Crest Operator" had their own switch list, later a computer screen, and a radio to tell the actual puller when to pull the pin.  All the retarder operator had to worry about were the switches, the retarders, and making sure the tracks didn't get too full.

Pre-computer, he could just change to an empty track if one got full.  After the computer was installed, shortly after the BN merger, he had to tell the computer to make the change.  After a couple years of that, my father retired - on disability, with ulcers, diabetes, and "stress issues".  Working with a computer was too much for him.  Of course, he was born in 1913, and never fully accepted that TV wasn't some kind of magic!  He actually enjoyed doing the job manually.

It's a video game... It's not supposed to be easy... 

[nkalanaga]

OK, I can accept that.  Especially since I don't, and have never, played video games!

Retarder operator, especially with the old analog controls, isn't an easy job either. 

And then there was the maintenance headaches.  Pasco Yard had a basement under the yard office, half-full of relays, just to control all of the switches, retarders, and everything else.  The other half was batteries to power them, recharged from the local grid, and with a diesel generator for backup.  It could run for an entire shift just on the batteries.

The computer also ran through that, making it even more complicated, but that was the programmer's problem.

[dem34]

It's a video game... It's not supposed to be easy... 

Using the Touhou of Rhythm games as an example is cheating.