How to play. Passengers appear on the three platforms in the colour of the train they want. Route your trains with the lettered points and press the train's number so it stops at the next station: everyone of that colour gets on and pays. Leave passengers too long and they turn white with rage — they hijack the next train that stops there, pay nothing, and leave that train's own passengers behind. Collect 25 passengers to clear a stage. You lose a train if one derails (points set against it), points are thrown under it, two trains collide, a platform overflows, or one of your trains goes into the tunnel at the bottom right. All the other tunnels are loops or underpasses: a train that goes in comes back out of its partner. On some stages an express or a goods train comes out of the bottom-right tunnel — send it back in the way it came. Every fourth stage ends with the Turntable Bonus: press 0 or 1 to turn the turntables and get the train to the buffers. 1983 is the original, rule for rule, from its own code. On normal difficulty there's room for error: trailing points spring over instead of derailing, trains are slower, passengers are more patient and spread across the platforms, a nearly-full platform flashes, an overflowing one just sends up to three fed-up paying passengers home (the angry ones stay put, so letting people rage won't clear a platform), and you get a few seconds to set the points before the trains start.

Never driven a signal box? Press T on the title screen for Training: one slow blue train and a step-by-step tour of stopping, passengers, points and tunnels. Crashing just restarts the step, so go ahead and break things. Then press 0 for three beginner levels (0-01 to 0-03) that roll straight on into 1-01. Neither was in the 1983 original — they're extras for anyone who fancies a gentler start. They always run on Track A with normal rules; from 1-01 your difficulty and track buttons take over. A game that ends in the beginner levels goes on the scoreboard as level 0.

Two tracks. The original came on two tapes: Track A and Track B. Same rules, same levels, completely different railway — Track B has 19 points instead of 25, a double bridge and just the one loop tunnel. Flip the track button to swap. Both tracks share one scoreboard, so a Track B score sits right next to the Track A ones.