''The Incredible Machine'' (''TIM'') is a series of video games in which players create a series of Rube Goldberg devices. They were originally designed and coded by Kevin Ryan and produced by Jeff Tunnell, the now-defunct Jeff Tunnell Productions, and published by

Dynamix Dynamix, Inc. was an American developer of video games from 1984 to 2001, best known for the flight simulator Red Baron (1990 video game), ''Red Baron'', the puzzle video game, puzzle game ''The Incredible Machine (video game), The Incredible Mach ...

; the 1993 through 1995 versions had the same development team, but the later 2000–2001 games have different designers. All versions were published by

Sierra Entertainment Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher founded in 1979 by Ken Williams (game developer), Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is ...

. The entire series and intellectual property were acquired by Jeff Tunnell-founded PushButton Labs in October 2009. PushButton Labs was later acquired by

Playdom Playdom, Inc. was an online social network game developer popular on Facebook, Google+ and Myspace. The company was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area by University of California, Berkeley graduates Ling Xiao and Chris Wang and Swarthmore Colle ...

, itself a division of

Disney Interactive Disney Interactive is an American video game and internet company that oversees various websites and interactive media owned by The Walt Disney Company. History 1995–1996: Formation and beginnings In December 1994, Disney announced that it w ...

, so as of now the rights are held by

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

. A new game by Jeff Tunnell, called '' Contraption Maker'', is the spiritual successor to the ''Incredible Machine'' series. It was produced by Spotkin Games, a company founded by Jeff Tunnell, and features the same developers of the original ''Incredible Machine''. The game was released through Steam for Windows and OS X on July 7, 2014.

Gameplay

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, such as "put the ball into a box" or "start a mixer and turn on a fan". Available objects range from simple ropes and pulleys to

electrical generator In electricity generation, a generator, also called an ''electric generator'', ''electrical generator'', and ''electromagnetic generator'' is an electromechanical device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy for use in an extern ...

bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

balls, and even

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

s and

mice A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

to humans, most of which have specific interactions with or reactions to other objects: for example, mice will run towards nearby cheese, and light sources placed next to a

magnifying glass A magnifying glass is a convex lens—usually mounted in a frame with a handle—that is used to produce a magnified image of an object. A magnifying glass can also be used to focus light, such as to concentrate the Sun's radiation to create ...

will ignite

wick Wick most often refers to: * Capillary action ("wicking") ** Candle wick, the cord used in a candle or oil lamp ** Solder wick, a copper-braided wire used to desolder electronic contacts Wick or WICK may also refer to: Places and placenames ...

s. Levels have a set of fixed objects that cannot be moved by the player, and the player must solve the puzzle by carefully arranging a provided set of 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. Notably, the games simulate not only the physical interactions between objects but also ambient effects like varying

air pressure Atmospheric pressure, also known as air pressure or barometric pressure (after the barometer), is the pressure within the atmosphere of Earth. The Standard atmosphere (unit), standard atmosphere (symbol: atm) is a unit of pressure defined as , whi ...

and

gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...

. The

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...

does not use a

random number generator Random number generation is a process by which, often by means of a random number generator (RNG), a sequence of numbers or symbols is generated that cannot be reasonably predicted better than by random chance. This means that the particular ou ...

in its physics simulation, ensuring that the results for any given machine are

deterministic Determinism is the metaphysical view that all events within the universe (or multiverse) can occur only in one possible way. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes overlapping mo ...

Titles

The series includes four core titles and a "Toon" spin-off, with multiple iterations published of the earliest titles: *'' The Incredible Machine'' (

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

DOS DOS (, ) is a family of disk-based operating systems for IBM PC compatible computers. The DOS family primarily consists of IBM PC DOS and a rebranded version, Microsoft's MS-DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible syste ...

3DO 3DO is a video gaming hardware format developed by The 3DO Company and conceived by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins. The specifications were originally designed by Dave Needle and RJ Mical of New Technology Group, and were licensed by third ...

) **'' The Even More Incredible Machine'' (

, DOS/

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, Macintosh) *'' Sid & Al's Incredible Toons'' (

, DOS) *'' The Incredible Machine 2'' (

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

, DOS/Windows, Macintosh) **'' The Incredible Machine Version 3.0'' (

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

, Windows/Macintosh) *'' The Incredible Toon Machine'' (

, Windows, Macintosh) *'' Arthur to Astaroth no Nazomakaimura: Incredible Toons'' (

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it is the successor to the succes ...

) *'' Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions'' (

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

, Windows/Macintosh) **'' The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions'' (

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

, Windows/Macintosh/

Palm OS Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) is a discontinued mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996. Palm OS was designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. ...

) *''The Incredible Machine'' (

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, Apple iPad) A compilation called ''The Incredible Machine Mega Pack'' was released in 2009 on GOG.com for Microsoft Windows. It included ''The Even More Incredible Machine'', ''The Incredible Machine Version 3.0'', ''Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions'', and ''The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions''.

''The Incredible Machine'' and ''Even More Incredible Machine''

''The Incredible Machine'', the first game in the series, was originally going to be developed by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

for the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

in 1984, but Dynamix worked on '' Arcticfox'' for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

instead and work did not start on ''The Incredible Machine'' until early 1993. Kevin Ryan programmed ''The Incredible Machine'', in nine months, on a budget of . ''The Even More Incredible Machine'' is an extended version with 160 levels, about twice the original, and has more parts.

''The Incredible Machine 2 and 3.0''

''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 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, and 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 Version 3.0'' (1995), on some releases titled ''Professor Tim's Incredible Machines'', contains the same levels as ''The Incredible Machine 2'', but with an improved interface and extra features like CD music tracks.

''Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions'' and ''Even More Contraptions''

''Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions'' was released in 2000. As a full 32-bit Windows 95 game, it has new 800x600 resolution graphics. Although it has a few new levels, the majority of them are levels from ''The Incredible Machine 2''. ''Even More Contraptions'' (2001) started a service allowing players to share their homemade puzzles using a service called "WonSwap". ''Even More Contraptions'' also came with a

Palm Pilot The PalmPilot Personal and PalmPilot Professional are the second generation of Palm PDA devices produced by Palm Inc (then a subsidiary of U.S. Robotics, later 3Com). These devices were launched on March 10, 1997. Accessories and pricing Pa ...

version of the game that contained its own unique set of parts and puzzles suited for a small screen.

''The Incredible Machine Mega Pack''

Released on GOG.com, ''The Incredible Machine Mega Pack'' includes ''Even More Incredible Machine'', ''The Incredible Machine 3'' (contains all levels from ''The Incredible Machine 2''), ''Contraptions'', and ''Even More Contraptions''.

''The Incredible Machine'' (2011)

Released on the

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

in 2011, the game features 64 levels (and 45 more as in-app purchases). It features a similar three-star system as ''

Cut the Rope Cut or CUT may refer to: Common uses * The act of cutting, the separation of an object into two through acutely directed force ** A type of wound ** Cut (archaeology), a hole dug in the past ** Cut (clothing), the style or shape of a garment ** ...

''.

Reception

Neil Harris reported in ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...

'' in 1994 that showing ''The Incredible Machine'' to an engineer friend caused "a chain reaction that brought productive work to a halt at a major naval yard".

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

described ''Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions'' as "a vintage blend of educational and entertainment software at their finest". By 2000, the series had sold over one million copies. During the

4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards The ''4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards'' was the 4th edition of the Interactive Achievement Awards, an annual awards event that honored the best games in the video game industry during the last ten months of 2000. The awards were arrang ...

, the

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain Summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...

honored ''Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions'' with the " PC Family" award.

Legacy

''The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions'' was included in the 2005 edition of ''Hoyle Puzzle Games'' as a bonus game. A mobile phone version was developed by Mobile Interactions Group and published by Vivendi Games Mobile in 2006. A new game was announced for a download release on

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (or XBLA) was a video game Digital distribution in video games, digital distribution service that was available for the Xbox (console), Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles. It focused on smaller downloadable games from both major publisher ...

, but was later canceled. ''The Incredible Machine Mega Pack'' (which includes ''Even More Incredible Machine'', ''The Incredible Machine 3'', ''Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions'', and ''The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions'') was published by

and released on GOG.com on October 1, 2009.

iOS

''The Incredible Machine'' for

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

is the first version in the series to be developed and released by Disney for the AppStore. This revamped version contains new art, sounds, and levels, as well as a redesigned user interface. Disney released ''The Incredible Machine'' on June 8, 2011, at E3 in Los Angeles, CA. The app has been retired from the app store as a decision made by Disney.

''Contraption Maker''

In 2013, Tunnell began the work on a new game, called ''Contraption Maker'', which is billed as a "spiritual successor" to the ''Incredible Machine'' series. Kevin Ryan and Brian Hahn, the other two developers on the original game, worked on ''Contraption Maker'' as well, along with other developers at Spotkin, a video game development company started by Tunnell. ''Contraption Maker'' features improved "HD" graphics, and has a robust physics engine. The game features over 200 official puzzles and over 100 different parts. It also has Steam Workshop support, so users can create and share their own puzzles. The game was first released on

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

through its Early Access program on August 28, 2013. Throughout its time in the program, ''Contraption Maker'' had 6 Alpha releases, adding features such as multiplayer and copy-and-paste, new parts, and new puzzles, followed by a Beta release in May 2014. The final (1.0) release was made in July the same year, and ''Contraption Maker'' left the Steam Early Access program.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Incredible Machine, The IOS games Puzzle video games by series Video game franchises Video game franchises introduced in 1993 Sierra Entertainment games Video games developed in the United States