
The Incredible Machine - doppp
https://www.filfre.net/2018/06/the-incredible-machine/
======
FrozenVoid
You can play it online [https://classicreload.com/dosx-the-incredible-
machine.html](https://classicreload.com/dosx-the-incredible-machine.html)
[https://classicreload.com/the-even-more-incredible-
machine.h...](https://classicreload.com/the-even-more-incredible-machine.html)
[https://classicreload.com/the-incredible-
machine-2.html](https://classicreload.com/the-incredible-machine-2.html)

~~~
tehlike
Or archive:
[https://archive.org/details/the_incredible_machine_1992](https://archive.org/details/the_incredible_machine_1992)

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deckarep
I loved Sierra’s games: it was my gateway into the world of computers and was
my inspiration for being a software engineer. I still have all my Sierra
games, original boxes, documentation, and disks.

I also have a few—around 24 issues of InterAction magazine.

Incredible Machine was different than most other of Sierra’s point n click
adventures but still inspired nonetheless.

My plan at one point was to move to Coursegold California and contribute to
building the next Sierra adventure...

Oh well...I’m older now, and just hack on distributed systems...but thank you
Sierra for allowing me to be inspired and intrigued of what it means to
create...

Okay I’m getting cheesy now...

~~~
megaman22
Sierra was just so great, particularly their Impressions Games group. Lords of
the Realm, Civil War Generals, Caesar, the Dr Brain games

Sierra even published Half-Life

~~~
jeff_petersen
The Caesar series was my favorite growing up. And the other city-building
games that followed, like Zeus, Pharaoh, and Emperor.

There have been a handful of indie games lately doing things in the same
style, but nothing that seems quite polished enough yet.

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brylie
For anyone interested, please consider contributing (time) to an early effort
to build an open-source contraption game, using the Godot engine:

[https://github.com/GodotGarden/contraption-
game](https://github.com/GodotGarden/contraption-game)

Here are the upcoming tasks:

[https://github.com/GodotGarden/contraption-
game/issues](https://github.com/GodotGarden/contraption-game/issues)

Pull requests, ideas, and feedback would be really appreciated.

~~~
gitgud
What tech stack is this implemented in?

~~~
homarp
>using the Godot engine

it's at [http://godotengine.org/](http://godotengine.org/)

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stared
And it still inspires! A year ago I released (open source) "Quantum Game with
Photons": [http://quantumgame.io/](http://quantumgame.io/).

I pretty much make it explicit:

"Wave optics and quantum mechanics as a game. Play for fun! Learn quantum
mechanics as a side effect. It’s a puzzle game, heavily inspired by The
Incredible Machine and Chromatron."

~~~
IIAOPSW
Hey I've played that before!

I really liked it. Great game. Thanks for making it and sharing it with the
world.

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IndrekR
The same team who was behind TIM has created a recent version called
Contraption Maker: [http://contraptionmaker.com](http://contraptionmaker.com)

~~~
lolive
Any info about Wine compatibility?

~~~
IndrekR
I have only used it on Win 10, yet on Steam they claim OS X and Linux
compatibility:
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/241240/Contraption_Maker/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/241240/Contraption_Maker/)

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k__
I found TIM and TIM2 in 1996 on a compilation CD. First I was after Warcraft,
Command and Conquer and Dune, but when you don't have an Internet connection
or money to buy games, you try out every last game on every CD you find :D

It was basically the Minecraft of that time. I played this game in sandbox
mode only, didn't even realize it had a puzzle mode, because I didn't speak
English at that time.

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smsm42
TIM was one of my favorite games of all time. One of the nicest features of it
is that for more complex puzzles, there were so many different ways of
achieving the result, sometimes in very strange and peculiar ways. Most games
at the time did not allow such freedom to the player.

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goda90
As a child I played a lot of the "toon" version they came out with. I wonder
if that helped foster my love of programming now.

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gjsman
The modern, truly amazing unofficial "remake" of this game would be
<strong>Crazy Machines 3</strong>. [http://www.crazy-
machines.com/](http://www.crazy-machines.com/)

Crazy Machines started in 2004 with the same idea as the Incredible Machine,
but the company behind it never disappeared and just kept going and going...

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dsnuh
The makers have a new game called Contraption Maker, which I have yet to
download, as I feared it will consume me like TIM series did when I was
growing up. These are some of my favorite games of all time.

~~~
BalinKing
After just learning about Contraption Maker from the comments here, I couldn't
stop myself from buying it.... So far, I'm pleasantly surprised – it's close
enough to TIM that I'm happy! So, maybe being stronger than I was and holding
off instead is a good idea ;)

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megaman22
Quite possibly my favorite game ever, except one of the last levels stumped
me. Sierra had a hell of a run for a while as a producer in the 90s.

Now I'm going to have to go see if I can find it on gog or the few abandonware
sites that still exist

~~~
shakna
Last line of the article points to a complete set on GoG [1]

[1]
[https://www.gog.com/game/the_incredible_machine_mega_pack](https://www.gog.com/game/the_incredible_machine_mega_pack)

~~~
Joeri
Just bought myself a copy and took a walk down memory lane. My 6 year old also
thought it was a really fun game.

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qznc
Related by name: the incredible proof machine [https://www.joachim-
breitner.de/blog/682-The_Incredible_Proo...](https://www.joachim-
breitner.de/blog/682-The_Incredible_Proof_Machine)

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gboudrias
> One need only glance at a screenshot to be reminded of the old children’s
> board game cum toy Mouse Trap, a simplistic exercise in roll-and-move whose
> real appeal is the elaborate

Either I'm very tired or someone made a horrible typo.

~~~
_emacsomancer_
See:
[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cum#English](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cum#English)

But unfortunate still, I agree.

~~~
jfitzgerald
The Economist has a habit of using the phrase "militia-cum-party":
[https://www.google.com/search?q=economist+%22militia+cum+par...](https://www.google.com/search?q=economist+%22militia+cum+party%22&oq=economist+%22militia+cum+party%22&aqs=chrome..69i57.8335j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)

~~~
_emacsomancer_
That summons up quite an image....

~~~
failrate
It is my new band name.

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2bitencryption
also never forget Marble Drop, one of my childhood favorites!

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUE399XSoqE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUE399XSoqE)

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ppkao
The Incredible Machine was my favorite game growing up! My indie studio is
currently developing a similar chain reaction game called Ruberg but for VR:
[http://rubergthegame.com/](http://rubergthegame.com/)

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jmartrican
Just another "this is one of my favorite games growing up" post that have
popped up here. This is one of my favorite games growing up.

The version I owned had over 100 puzzles. After beating them all, to this day,
I lost the will to play any other similar puzzle games. I have this feeling
of, been there to Nth degree. Some puzzles were very hard and took many tries.

~~~
Fnoord
We had to play this game during math class (at age 12, approx '95), no joke.
Think it was like 2 lessons of 50 min each. Some people weren't familiar with
DOS. The first 5 min of the class was getting the game running.

I was already familiar with games such as Lemmings though. Puzzle games are
great for children. I'd love a more recent Steam port for my kid.

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qwerty456127
This was the most mind-blowing game I've ever seen, no other has ever made a
more strong first impression.

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tluyben2
This game I loved and played a lot. I liked puzzle games more than most other
genres besides horizontal shmups and I played a lot of them since the early
80s; this one stood out. I am reimplementing several other old ones to get
back into game dev (with the Godot engine).

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MisterTea
Wow, I remember playing Creative Contraptions on our Franklin Ace 1200. I also
loved the game mouse trap and had more fun playing with the contraptions than
the board game itself. I also later on bought the incredible machine for
windows. Good stuff.

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akurilin
Was fortunate to meet Jeff Tunnell a few years back at PAX West, shockingly
humble guy for someone whose work was a huge part of my childhood. It was
inspiring to see someone stick to that indie development mindset after all
those years.

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tonybeltramelli
Countless hours spent on this game on my parents' Windows 95 desktop!

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Polyisoprene
One of my favorite games as well. Pleasantly surprised when there was a
Swedish iOS app for kids with similar concepts, Pettson och Findus
uppfinningar, that my five year old nephew showed me.

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meuk
We had this on our primary school computers! Awesome stuff.

