Narrow Boat Simulator

Soldato
Joined
29 Mar 2007
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Swindon UK
After a walk by Caen Hill the other week, purely by chance I turned up this for the Android (there's also PC and Mac versions):

https://sites.google.com/view/narrowboat-simulator

It's actually quite addictive but best of all totally free and no pop up adverts or paywall, at least for now. Graphics are so, so but when you're trying to turn a 72ft canal boat in the winding hole, looks are the least of your worries.

In the main game if you need more XP to unlock the later challenges, just repeat one of the earlier ones.

Playing this has also piqued my interest in the RL canal and narrow boat scene, though I doubt I could convince SWMBO to spend a week travelling at 4 MPH...
 
Soldato
OP
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Swindon UK
Yes the price is quite steep - ~£150 for a day boat or getting up towards £1k for a week's hire for a reasonable boat and reputable hirer. Guess a fair bit of that is insurance to cover first timers pranging the boat or leaving the back end over the cill at a lock. Also not sure SWMBO would be quite into the slow pace - taking all day to travel 20 miles.

For now I will probably stick to gongoozling!
 
Soldato
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14 Sep 2007
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West Yorkshire, England
I don't play mobile games but I just had to give this a go! Always wanted to go on a canal boat, they look super fun.

I wish there was a more realistic looking canal boat game on Windows that mapped out our canal system that you can freely roam, with people walking along the canal and other narrowboat users you share the canal with... if only I could code. :p
 
Soldato
OP
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Yes that would be brilliant! One of the train sims (Trainz) does have some pieces that allow you to build a rudimentary working canal but you are tied to running on a fixed path along invisible track. I'm guessing the big sim developers see any market for boating products as being in yachts or ocean going craft, not 4mph barges. Since finding this game I've become very interested in the UK canal scene and there are certainly some fascinating and scenic stretches - the Llangollen, Caldon, Crinan, North Oxford and of course the tunnel network around Dudley in the West Midlands.
 
Soldato
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Wetherspoons
Did you go over one hell of an aquaduct? Did some walking near there and there was a monster.

2 actually, the pontcysyllte (yea good luck pronouncing that one) might be the one you are thinking of.

On the left side as you go towards Llangollen, there is about 6 inches of metal, if you lean out a bit, you can literally look straight down. You wouldn't want to fall off your boat on that side lol.

We also more recently did Northwich (anderton) to Chester, that wasn't quite as scenic, although it was quieter.

I can't recommend it enough though, slow pace of life, and although it's probably illegal we did have a cheeky beer or two at the end of the afternoon before mooring up.
 
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