Anyway, as is my wont, I read the manual (what a concept, eh?) and discovered that this engine has some of the newer operating features such as velocity control, warning systems, etc. So I thought I'd see if a tutorial was available and, sure enough, there it was (after a bit of awkward digging through through this year's counter-intuitive interface, of course): "Training: BR 189 Advanced controls". I quickly discovered, not at all to my surprise, that this should have been subtitled "pre-Kindergarden version": this is a HUD, these are the cute little controls on the HUD, let's try ... slamming on the throttle at 50% followed by slamming on the brakes at 50% or even 75%, complete with little red boxes and ... Sheesh! Okay, an absolute newbie might find this stuff useful. I mean, it even includes coupling! What more could a budding engineer desire?
Something about the "advanced features", perhaps? Not on your life, buster. Although I tend to shy away from such debates, this junk brings up the game vs. simulator issue all over again. Perhaps I'll put my money where my mouth is (well, actually, I already did that, no?) and write a tutorial myself . . . yes, right after I try stuffing one more AI train into the switching scenario I'm writing for the new version of VNHRR.
Oh, but look! I just achieved another achievement! Life is good, after all.
