fall inside a hole

Digital Plarail & Tomica DX

First written March 2025

Digital Plarail (デジタルプラレール) was a series of computer-simulated Plarail (and Tomica) building games released by Tomy for Windows 3.1 and 95. In 1998 the original Digital Plarail and Tomica base games were combined into Digital Plarail & Tomica DX for Windows 95 and NT.

Digital Plarail & Tomica DX (1998)

The UI has been updated to be more colorful and less basic and some menus like the track laying menus have been revamped.

The game includes the contents of the two base games plus the 500 series Shinkansen as a new train. The floor paper creation and connection adjustment tools from the expansion packs are also included. A "warp tunnel" is added and allows trains to teleport around to different sections of rail. The game originally retailed for 6000 yen.

A leaflet included inside the manual shows all of the expansions available for the series. The Tomica vehicle pack is the only one I don't have...

The hard plastic case also includes a gold Tomica D-51 steam locomotive. It originally came in a plastic bag inside an unmarked white box that fits into the plastic case.

I have two of these Tomicas from the two copies of the DX set I have ended up with in the pursuit of collecting these games and expansions.

I believe this Tomica D-51 tooling is fairly old... the D-51 isn't included in the DX game either, you need Vehicle Set 03.

The disc for Digital Plarail & Tomica DX.

Digital Plarail & Tomica DX Playing Book (1998)

Around the same time as the regular DX release, a companion player's guide with a demo of the DX version was released. As the cover suggests, the list price was 1300 yen with the rear revealing this is really 1238 yen plus tax.

In the back section there is a thicker cardboard sleeve holding a demo CD for Digital Plarail & Tomica DX. The title for this disc is , dating its mastering to around the same time as the Thomas the Tank Engine Parts Set 2. It installs version 3.0 of Digital Plarail & Tomica DX.

Included is most of the track and rail seen in the base game, with grey-out icons of the available expansions. The only available vehicles are the 100 and 500 series Shinkansens and the Nissan Fairlady Z. Expansions cannot be installed over this demo version.

Here is the disc for the demo version of Digital Plarail and Tomica DX, which I think has a neater design to it than the regular game disc.