Includes Even More Incredible Machine, The Incredible Machine 3 (contains all levels from The Incredible Machine 2), Contraptions and Even More Contraptions; Solve wacky puzzles with even more wacky solutions, using absolutely crazy contraptions; Countless challenges to keep you busy for many days to come. After my hubby told me about a game he had liked which had been on the first computer he ever purchased, I ordered 'The Incredible Machine: Even more Contraptions' for him as one of his Christmas gifts. He was happily suprised that I found a version of the old game. The Even More Incredible Machine - DOS, Macintosh, Windows (1993) TEMIM is more of an expansion pack to the original TIM than than a full-fledged sequel. It has the same graphics as nitpicks as the original did, only now there's 150 brand-new puzzles to solve.

The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions. After my hubby told me about a game he had liked which had been on the first computer he ever purchased, I ordered 'The Incredible Machine: Even more Contraptions' for him as one of his Christmas gifts.

Back before Sierra became whatever ungodly combination of corporations they are now, Sierra made a ton of games. Mostly well-liked adventure games, like the Quest series, but every once in a while, they'd do something new, like publishing Japanese PC games for the American market. Sometimes, they'd try things besides adventure games, too. They published a few strategy and simulation titles, and occasionally an action game. One of these ventures, developed by a company called Dynamix who were known for games like Rise of the Dragon, ended up being pretty successful.

Ever seen a movie or a cartoon where a character makes a huge, incredibly complicated contraption with lots of little parts to do some simple task? That idea came from a cartoonist from the early to mid 1900s named Rube Goldberg, and The Incredible Machine ('TIM') games are pretty much an interactive homage to him and his cartoons.

The goal of every Incredible Machine game is pretty simple. You're given certain objects, which you have to rotate, place and sometimes program to complete a series of events to solve the level. Fail, and all you have to do is stop the puzzle and work on it some more. You don't have any time or retry limits, unlike a lot of puzzle games that just don't work with those kinds of mechanics.

Every level has a different goal for you to complete. Some are about getting an object to a certain point on the screen, like putting a basketball through a hoop, and others are about destroying or activating them, like turning on a can opener so a cat can get the food in it. You're given all kinds of things to use, like balloons, buckets, ropes and pulleys, and even a few animals. And to mix things up, occasionally the gravity and air pressure will be altered, too.

The Incredible Machine / Pala Rancho (パラランチョ) - DOS, Macintosh, 3DO, FM Towns, PC-98 (1992)

American 3DO Cover

Aside from a few annoyances that wouldn't be ironed out until later games in the series, the first game plays pretty much like the rest of the games. There's only 65 puzzles in the game, not counting 22 skippable tutorials. Your progress is kept through a password like 'fish' or 'calculator', instead of being saved to disk like most computer games. There's also a sandbox mode called 'Freeform Machine', which gives you an unlimited supply of parts to place on the field to see what happens. You can save and load your creations, but there's no way to give them a winning condition, so it's only a curiosity.

If you can get past those few nitpicks, it's just as good as the newer games in the series. They never remade the puzzles in this game and its 'expansion', so if the password system and running the game from DOS doeesn't bother you, it'll probably just as good of a starting point as any other in the series.

The Incredible Machine (IBM PC)

The DOS version is the weakest of the versions, with Adlib quality music. The Macintosh version looks about the same, and doesn't have any real difference besides sounding better. The 3DO port is actually quite a bit different from the other ports. The graphics have changed and are lower resolution, and you have to scroll the screen in some of the puzzles to see everything, which is a pain. The puzzle set is a mix between the original DOS version and its expansion, with a CD soundtrack and voice acted goals. Controlling the game is a lot harder to do with a controller than a mouse, and the cursor's hard to move around. You also have to deal with the CD loading times. It's an OK port, but it'd be a lot better if the controls were smoothers and without the scrolling.

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Developer:	Jeff Tunnell Productions (IBM PC) Dynamix (3DO)
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The Incredible Machine (IBM PC)

The Incredible Machine (3DO)

The Even More Incredible Machine - DOS, Macintosh, Windows (1993)

TEMIM is more of an expansion pack to the original TIM than than a full-fledged sequel. It has the same graphics as nitpicks as the original did, only now there's 150 brand-new puzzles to solve. There are a few new parts this time around though, including a character that's the focus of a lot of the new puzzles, Mel Schlemming. True to his name, he'll usually walk forward mindlessly until he bumps into a wall or falls off the screen. Most of the time, you'll try to clear a path for him so he can reach his house safely, but sometimes they'll want you to just blow him off the screen, or feed him to an alligator. Once again, the differences between versions are pretty minor, although with a sound card, the DOS version sounds much, much better. The CD version for Windows also has a CD soundtrack.

Sid & Al's Incredible Toons / The Incredible Toon Machine - DOS, Windows, Macintosh (1993)

The original Incredible Machine was fairly grounded in reality, even if the situations you put the parts in got a little silly at times. But The Incredible Toon Machine gives the whole thing a cartoony look that's sort of like Tom & Jerry on a lot of drugs. All the puzzles are brand new, and are now broken into 5 difficulties. Your progress is also saved automatically, but you need a password to unlock each difficulty's hardest levels.

Sid & Al's Incredible Toons

The gameplay's the same as the original TIM, but a lot of the parts are all-new, and some of them would show up again in the later games with a less cartoony look. Two of the 'parts' that are involved the most puzzles are Sid E. Mouse and Al E. Cat. (Dumb names, yes, but considering the game's inspiration, they fit perfectly.) Al will chase Sid around, and if he catches him, he'll eat him. Some of the puzzles will want you to accomplish this, and sometimes they'll want you to knock one of them off the screen or into a certain area, among a lot of other things. Sid and Al have a lot of silly animations, and it's fun to watch them and their reactions to whatever they run into in the puzzles. You can't fast-forward the puzzle to see if you've got the right solution, though, so with enough time, so given enough time, they can be kind of annoying. The sound effects are just as silly as they should be, with lots of silly screams and voice clips. Even the menus share the same toony style the rest of the game has. The Freeform Machine returns, with the small addition of being able to set which parts go in the player's parts bin and which parts stay on the field, but there's still no way to set the victory conditions.

A Windows version, titled the Incredible Toon Machine came out a year after the DOS version. There's no real graphical or sound differences, but there's a head-to-head mode with 50 puzzles where you and another player take turns placing parts on the field to finish the goal first. This game was also planned to be ported to the Sega CD, but was cancelled due to the general failure of the system.

Quick Info:

Developer:	Jeff Tunnell Productions
Publisher:
Genre:
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Sid & Al's Incredible Toons (IBM PC)

Arthur to Astaroth no Nazomakaimura: Incredible Toons (アーサーとアスタロトの謎魔界村インクレディブルトゥーンズ) - Saturn, PlayStation (1996)

About a year after Incredible Toons, Capcom licensed the game from Sierra and made their own version, only releasing it in Japan. The puzzles and parts are the same as the original

The Incredible Machine / Pala Rancho (パラランチョ) - DOS, Macintosh, 3DO, FM Towns, PC-98 (1992)

Quick Info:

The Even More Incredible Machine - DOS, Macintosh, Windows (1993)

Sid & Al's Incredible Toons / The Incredible Toon Machine - DOS, Windows, Macintosh (1993)

Quick Info:

Arthur to Astaroth no Nazomakaimura: Incredible Toons (アーサーとアスタロトの謎魔界村 インクレディブルトゥーンズ) - Saturn, PlayStation (1996)

Arthur to Astaroth no Nazomakaimura: Incredible Toons (アーサーとアスタロトの謎魔界村インクレディブルトゥーンズ) - Saturn, PlayStation (1996)

The Incredible Machine Even More Contraptions