The Incredible Machine
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The Incredible Machine is a series of computer games originally designed and coded by Kevin Ryan and produced by Jeff Tunnell, developed by now-defunct Jeff Tunnell Productions and published by Dynamix; the 1993 through 1995 versions had the same development team, but the later 2000-2001 titles had different designers. All versions were published by Sierra Entertainment.
The general objective of the games is to create a series of Rube Goldberg devices: arrange a given collection of objects in a needlessly complex fashion so as to perform some simple task (for example, "put the ball into a box" or "light a candle"). Available objects ranged from simple ropes and pulleys to electrical generators, bowling balls and even cats and mice. The levels usually have some fixed objects that cannot be moved by the player, and so the only way to solve the puzzle is carefully arrange the given objects around the fixed items. There is also a "freeform" option that allows the user to "play" with all the objects with no set goal or to also build their own puzzles with goals for other players to attempt to solve.
The series featured the following versions:
- The Incredible Machine (1992, MS-DOS / Macintosh)
- The Even More Incredible Machine (1992, MS-DOS / Microsoft Windows, Macintosh)
- Sid & Al's Incredible Toons (1993, MS-DOS)
- The Incredible Toon Machine (1994, Microsoft Windows)
- The Incredible Machine 2 (1994, MS-DOS / Macintosh)
- The Incredible Machine 3 (1995, Microsoft Windows / Macintosh)
- Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions (2000, Microsoft Windows / Macintosh)
- The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions (2001, Microsoft Windows / Macintosh)
The Incredible Machine, the first game in the series, was originally going to be developed for Electronic Arts for the Commodore 64 in 1984, but Dynamix worked on Arcticfox for the Amiga instead and work didn't start on The Incredible Machine until the spring of 1993. The Even More Incredible Machine was actually an extended version of the original The Incredible Machine and had around 160 levels, about twice the amount of levels in the original game, and also had quite a few more parts.
The Incredible Machine 2 introduced new levels, an extended assortment of parts, a new interface, significantly improved graphics, sounds and music, and two player hotseat play. It also improved on the "freeform" mode, allowing players to create completely playable puzzles by defining not only the participating parts, but also the set of circumstances under which the puzzle will be considered "solved". In terms of gameplay, this version provided the biggest addition to the series, while subsequent updates were basically only ports of the game to newer operating systems with updated graphics/sounds and sometimes new puzzles, but no new parts.
The Incredible Machine 3 contained the same levels as The Incredible Machine 2, but had a new interface, as well as compatibility with Windows 95. It also allowed the player to build backgrounds for the puzzles and to scale the playing field.
In the next two versions, Return of The Incredible Machine: Contraptions and The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions, the game interface was updated again with new graphics, music, and sounds. They featured mostly new levels, except that Return of The Incredible Machine: Contraptions contained many levels (including most of the tutorial levels) from The Incredible Machine 3. The custom backgrounds and variable sized playing fields were also removed.
Even More Contraptions started an innovative service allowing players to share their homemade puzzles using a service called WonSwap. However, due to the age of the game, this service is now defunct. No service for swapping TIM puzzles exists today.
The developers of the series have been criticized by fans for recycling content, specifically all the games after TIM 2, rather than creating new additions to the games.
Sid & Al's Incredible Toons and The Incredible Toon Machine were not an official part of the series, but are essentially a cartoon version of the same concept that were created by Chris Cole.
Notably, the games simulated not only the physical interactions between objects, but also ambient effects like varying air pressure and gravity. The engine does not use a random number generator in its simulation of physics, assuring that the results for any given "machine" are reproducible.
The Incredible Machine was the winner of several prizes due to its innovative style and simulation abilities. It was innovative enough, in fact, that Sid & Al's Incredible Toons earned Jeff Tunnell and Chris Cole a patent [1] for the game concepts.
Some games from The Incredible Machine series are now very difficult to find, except from peer to peer networks, used software stores and online auction sites like eBay. The original publisher, Dynamix, was closed in 2001 by parent company Sierra, who was in turn scrapped in 2004 by its parent, Vivendi Universal. The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions, however, can be found via GameTap.
The original game has been announced for a download release for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade, but so far no price has been said and the only release date is 2007. [2]
