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The Incredible Machine (series)

The Incredible Machine
The Incredible Machine 3.png
Screenshot from The Incredible Machine Version 3.0
Genres Puzzle
Developers Kevin Ryan
Publishers Dynamix
Creators Kevin Ryan
Platforms DOS, 3DO, Windows, Macintosh, iOS
Platform of origin Mac OS
First release The Incredible Machine
1993
Latest release The Incredible Machine
2011
Aggregate scores
Aggregator Score
GameRankings The Incredible Machine
65.00% (iOS)
The Incredible Machine 3
70.00%
Return of the Incredible Machine Contraptions
78.33%
The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions
76.00%
Metacritic The Incredible Machine
71/100 (iOS)
Review scores
Publication Score
IGN 8.4/10 (Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions)
Gamezebo 4/5 stars (The Incredible Machine, iOS)

The Incredible Machine (aka TIM) is a series of computer games that were originally designed and coded by Kevin Ryan and produced by Jeff Tunnell, the 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 entire series and intellectual property were acquired by Jeff Tunnell-founded PushButton Labs in October 2009. Pushbutton Labs was later acquired by Playdom, itself a division of Disney Interactive, so as of now the rights are held by The Walt Disney Company.

In 2013, Jeff Tunnell announced a new game, called Contraption Maker, that would be the spiritual successor to the Incredible Machine series. Contraption Maker was produced by Spotkin Games, a company founded by Jeff Tunnell, and featured the same developers of the original Incredible Machine. It was released through Steam for Windows and OS X on July 7, 2014.

The general goal 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 (e.g., "put the ball into a box" or "start a mixer & turn on a fan"). Available objects ranged from simple ropes and pulleys to electrical generators, bowling balls, and even cats and mice to humans, most of which had specific interactions with or reactions to other objects (for example, mice will run towards nearby cheese). 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.


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Wikipedia

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