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Digital Plarail Track Packs
First written March 2025Digital Plarail (ミニミニプラレール) was a series of computer-simulated Plarail (and Tomica) building games released by Tomy for Windows 3.1, 95, and later NT in the later 1990s and sold into the early 2000s. The base games includes only a few pieces of track - R-01 Straight Rail, R-03 Curve Rail, R-11 Turnout Rail, and a stop rail attached to a J-22 Elevated Station - and shortly afterwards track packs began to be released.
Digital Plarail Special Scenery Set 01 Additional Rails & Floor Paper Tool (1996)
The first scenery pack for the Digital Plarail system was the Special Scenery Set 01 Additional Rail & Floor Paper Tools (追加レール&床紙ツール特景セット 01). The title for the disk is PLARAIL4, placing it between the first two train packs. The finalized files on the disc date to November 1996, so it was probably released in very late 1996 or early 1997.
These earlier expansions come in slim flip-open cardboard sleeves, with the disc coming in a mesh CD bag. This pack includes the R-02 Half Straight Rail, R-14 Crossing Point Rail, J-02 Block Tunnel, J-17 New Railroad Crossing, and Row of Trees.
In addition to the new track, this pack also includes a new sample map and a utility that allows you to make floor papers to display behind your layout from an image file. Installing this expansion upgrades the game to version 1.40.
This update actually breaks compatibility with older track files in many cases, and opening the "Plarail Saver" demo map gives a message that someone has rewritten it for the new version and it uses the new accessories in the pack.
Digital Plarail Special Scenery Set 02 Additional Rails & Connection Change Tool (1997)
The first train pack for the Digital Plarail system was the Special Scenery Set 02 Additional Rail & Floor Paper Tools (追加レール&床紙ツール特景セット 02). The title for the disk is PLARAIL6, placing it after the second train pack, although Digital Tomica seems to have come out in between. The finalized files on the disc date to April 1997, so it was probably released mid-year...
I think this was the first expansion pack to come in a cardboard box instead of the flipup sleeves, and the disc comes in a plastic jewel case with a foldout manual. I suspect that parents may have complained that the other packs did not include a sturdier plastic case to hold up to children's use. This pack includes the R-05 Double Track Curved Rail, R-13 Single/Double Point Rail, R-15 Double Track Point Rail, and fictionalized versions of the J-06 Double Track Tunnel (now as a single track tunnel).
Installing this track pack upgrades the game to version 2.0, the same version that Digital Tomica will install. It uses the updated track format like the first scene set so maps made on earlier versions before 1.4 may break.
Also included is the connection change tool that allows you to set each train car to allow or disallow connections on either end. This lets you couple up Shinkansen trains or, if you just allow everything, make weird mixed-up trains.
Digital Plarail and Digital Tomica Common Parts Set 01 (1997)
The first and only combined Digital Plarail and Tomica accessory pack before the release of the combined DX pack was the Common Parts Set 01 (共通部品セット01). The title for the disk is PLARAIL7, placing it after the second scene pack, with Digital Tomica having come out around the same time. The finalized files on the disc date to April 1997, so it was probably released mid-year...
This pack installs version 2.0 of the game, and can be used with either or both of the base games, although with only one or the other no other pieces or vehicles will be available.
The pack includes two houses, a hospital and police station, a Tomy building that has an integrated road-rail crossing, and a version of the J-13 Cross Drawbridge with trees.