Amazon.com Review: This fantastic program will have your brain working as hard as a mandrill on a conveyer belt with bananas dangling in front of it. Don't worry, we'll explain. The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions gives players dozens of tools that perform an action: balls that bounce, cats that chase (and don't bounce), pulleys, ropes, generators, and yes, mandrill baboons on conveyer belts, bananas a-dangle in front of them. Then players are given a problem to solve with all of this crazy energy. Here's an example: in one puzzle called "Wood is Good," players must get three balls into a box, make wooden toast, and wood-smoke a hunk of gouda cheese for a mouse. Among the tools available to accomplish this task are a bike pump and an antigravity pad. And this is one of the easy puzzles.
There are 250 gizmos to build here, some designed for single players and some designed for head-to-head puzzling competition. There is also a field where players can design their own Rube Goldberg Machine from scratch. The vast amount of projects and their complexity make this a program with staying power. Mercifully, there is a tutorial that takes rookies and right-brainers in hand. Players can choose four levels of difficulty: easy, which is quite challenging; to expert, which is insane. Mitigating the challenge factor is a function that turns the cursor into a question mark, and allows players to inspect gadget elements and get in-depth information about what each object and surface does.
This game does a great job graphically. The well-rendered objects all perform as they ought, and form never hinders function. A thoughtful extra is a place where mad scientists can mess with their invention's appearance and background music: nice final touches for folks who want to take their custom-built games online to challenge others who are addicted to The Incredible Machine. This program's biggest strength is that it manages to put a humorous and creative spin on physics and engineering. They're not just giving you levers and weights to work with, they're giving you bottle rockets and alligators. A final wonderful point: there is no "right way" to build your contraption. If you scrabble something together that achieves the goal, it's right, no matter if you used the antigravity pad on the cat or on the bowling ball. No age rating given; we recommend ages 8 and up. --Anne Erickson
Amazon.com Product Description: The award-winning legacy continues. The newest installment in the Incredible Machine series, The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions combines 250 brand-new puzzles, a more entertaining head-to-head mode, the ability to swap puzzles with the world over the Internet, and an updated easy-to-use interface.
Product Description:
Step into our lab, don the whitecoat, and join us for lots of outrageous, inventive, experimental fun.
In the Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions, you're the inventor asyou attempt to solve over 250 wildly imaginative puzzles. Create incrediblemachines out of a diverse assortment of crazy and colorful parts, ranging fromropes, pulleys, and bowling balls, to cheese driven mouse motors. And aftersolving the puzzles, make your own with the built-in puzzle editor!
Over 250 unique and challenging "Contraptions" to solve, most with multiple solutions!
Create and save your own puzzles to share with friends. Over 100 different parts to mix and match.
Certain Programmable Parts allow for truly custom puzzles. Accurate physics models create realistic interactions between parts.
Change the gravity and air pressure for each "Contraption" to simulate different worlds, or outer space. Go head-to-head with a friend in the two-player mode, and see who can solve the "Contraption" first.
An in-depth tutorial teaches you about the parts, and how they work.
Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP
Pentium 90MHz processor
32MB of RAM
50MB of Hard Drive Space
Windows-compatible Sound Card
4X CD-ROM Drive
Mouse
Keyboard
Software pictured here is represented by the packaging for easier viewing. You will receive actual software on CD.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Addictive
I haven't seen my son since he got this game for Christmas. I hear, "Mom! I made another gizmo!" all day long.
Rating: - Excellent Mind Bender
This is an excellent program to stretch the limits of your mind. The easy puzzles are okay for children, but the advanced are definitely for teen to adult. The graphics are a little retro. And the CD must be left in the drive while playing (there is a No-CD patch available at [...]).
Rating: - THE INCREDIBLE MACHINE IS INCREDIBLE!!
I found The Incredible Machine back in 1992 when it was first released. I was so disappointed when I ran out of new puzzles!! Then they brought out another pack of additional puzzles and I was off again! Very disappointed when I ran out of puzzles again! I just recently discovered that there was a NEW T.I.M. 3.0, so I purchased that also! It took me about a month of part-time play to complete the 166 puzzles in 3.0 and I was disappointed again because I had no more puzzles to solve. Then I discovered "T.I.M.~ Even more contraptions". I am in "Hog Heaven" again! This program is the best I've ever purchased! Great for kids and adults also. Great to work together with your kids too! Each player can have their own 'account' so you can compare each player's progress and share hints and tricks with your family as you move along. The puzzles teach a little bit of physics, a lot of logic and best of all, a LOT of FUN!! Besides the fun, it teaches the players how to USE THEIR BRAIN for something other than devising ways to KILL opponents. I rate this program 'GE' for Generally Everyone, 'GFF' for Great Family Fun and 'GBE' for Great Brain Exercise. Unlike most of the games written for the computer generation, this one has ABSOLUTELY NO BLOOD AND GUTS and nobody gets hurt or killed, unless you get a stitch in your side from laughing so much, or fall out of your chair from having so much Fun. I give Every issue of T.I.M. (5) STARS. There is absolutely no more FUN to be found in Computer Game Land. I suggest you get your own copy and find out for yourself, before they sell out! HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS of GREAT FAMILY FUN!!
Rating: - the incredible machine
the sixth graders really enjoy working with the program. They learn alot of problem solving. "Thinking outside the box" We will use it also with seventh and eighth graders as well.
Rating: - Not as good as the original.
I bought this game because I am a huge fan of the original game that came out in the 90's. Unfortunately it isn't as good as that one, and often times is much more annoying. It's not as hard as the original either. Also the music is terrible compared to the amazing tracks from the original game, and I wish I could turn off that guy's annoying voice.
What I really would like would be for this company to release the original game again in a way that is supported by the latest versions of Windows. I still have my old disk but it won't run anymore. Quite a shame. :(
- Addictive
- Not as good as the original.
