[[caption-width-right:350:A CoolTrain roaming the glacial wastes of PostApocalyptic Earth during a new ice age.]]
->...''And the sun continued to shine its benevolent rays across the top of the opaque cloud layer, hidden from human eyes. The sun continued to shine.''

''Transarctica'' is a 1993 strategy/adventure game developed by the French software company Silmarils. It was released for the {{Amiga}}, AtariST, IBMPersonalComputer, and {{Macintosh}}. This game has a poor English translation, but that doesn't stop it from being enjoyable.

In the year 2022, the world was plagued by GlobalWarming. In order to cool the Earth, Professor John Merrick decides that [[DeusExNukina nuclear weapons]] are the solution. By detonating nukes at each pole, a huge cloud of dust and steam would form thick clouds that would block out the sun. And that's exactly what happened, except that the clouds were bigger than predicted and the Earth cooled down so much it brought about a new Ice Age. With the world in a deep freeze, civilization came to an end: [[NiceJobBreakingItHero nice job breaking it Merrick]].

By the year 2714, the world is still frozen, humanity is barely hanging in there, and the sun becomes a thing of myth. Oh, and woolly mammoths [[LamarckWasRight are no longer]] [[SomewhereAPalaeontologistIsCrying extinct]]. The only way to travel safely across the frozen wastes is by train, and only the [[MegaCorp Viking Union]] controls the worldwide railroad. A cult of sun believers, known as the Ambivalents, are convinced that there is a heavenly ball of light beyond the clouds, and will do anything to prove it. The leader of the fanatical sun cult, [[PlayerCharacter you]], has managed to take over a CoolTrain, the titular ''Transarctica'', and they set out to realise their dream of the sun's return. Except for the other {{Cool Train}}s still owned by the evil corporation.

!!This video game provides examples of the following:

* AfterTheEnd -- The whole world is in the grip of a new ice age caused by thick clouds, with the sun (and possibly the moon and stars too) becoming all but legendary.
* AnEntrepreneurIsYou -- Trading is a significant part of the game, and a good way to make money.
* ApocalypseHow -- Class 2.
* BaseOnWheels -- See CoolTrain below.
* BrokenBridge -- Unless you have the wood, the steel, manpower, or mammothpower, you're going to have to go all the way around.
* ChurchMilitant -- You play as the leader of one. Played with a little in that their crazy beliefs are actually ''right''.
* CoolTrain -- Where the majority of the game takes place. In addition to normal train cars, it can pull barracks, gardens, prisons, workshops, guns mounted on wagons, and a rocket launch pad.
* CoversAlwaysLie -- The box image you see at the top of the page isn't what the ''Transarctica'' looks like in the game, but it does [[RuleOfCool look appropriately cool]]. What it ''is'' is the image that inspired the whole game in the first place.
* DieselPunk -- The aesthetic is definitely there, along with hues of UsedFuture.
* EnergyEconomy -- Coal is the GlobalCurrency, because heating is a premium in the new ice age. [[Magazine/AmigaPower Tedious people constantly talked about their fortunes going "up in smoke." Until they were thrown out in the cold and froze to death.]]
* ExplosiveOverclocking -- A train's boiler can only take so much pressure. It isn't worth the risk.
--> "It was a splendid explosion. Debris spread over hundreds of meters. [[ItsAWonderfulFailure How could you be so incompetent as to let the pressure build up so high?]]"
* GenreBusting -- Even to this day, 18 years after its release, Transarctica remains a unique fusion of several different genres.
* GoneHorriblyRight -- They wanted to cool the Earth down, and they did.
* GoneHorriblyWrong -- Nuclear winter to stop global warming? Did they think this plan through?
* HaveANiceDeath -- There's a different GameOver message for each different game ending situation, but all messages end with the text at the top of this page.
* LamarckWasRight -- Woolly Mammoths came back because the elephants adapted to the cold.
* TheManyDeathsOfYou -- There are many ways to lose the game: you could run out of coal, overload the engine's boiler (making it [[ExplosiveOverclocking explode]]), lose an essential rail car in battle, or you could [[NonStandardGameOver just shoot yourself]] to end it all.
* MegaCorp -- The Viking Union owns all trains and monopolizes rail trade. They aren't particularly happy about the Ambivalents controlling one of ''their'' trains.
* NonstandardGameOver -- The button for 'Quit Game' is a revolver, and when you press it your character ''shoots himself in the head''.
* RealTimeStrategy -- During battles the game switches to a mode that is essentially this - especially notable because this game [[OlderThanTheyThink came out several years before]] TropeCodifier ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'', although it is substantially different than that game.
* TrainTopBattle -- Will happen during train-to-train combat.
* TheWarRoom -- One of the essential rail cars, complete with MissionControl radio (for dispatched spies), [[TheBigBoard map table]], and a guy who's in charge of sending self-powered handcars ahead of the train (for scouting purposes).