Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions - 2000 - Puzzle - Do you remember the old cartoon concept of ridiculously complex machines that would use an exorbitant amount of parts only to accomplish the simplest of tasks? No? Well, here's an example:
From 1955. The most relevant part starts at the 5th minute mark but the entire thing is worth a watch because Tom & Jerry is timeless
And you have no excuse not to watch the series if you've never done so before now that Warner Bros started posting old episodes on YouTube. While that may have been young Clippy's introduction to the idea (I'm not that ancient, I grew up with re-runs) the concept itself is even older than that, with works of the likes of Rube Goldberg and Heath Robinson dating all the way back to the early 20th century.
Anyway, where was I? Ah, yes, would you like to play a game where you get to solve puzzles and create machines like this? Then you're in the right place! Use guided laser beams, anti-gravity pads, pool cues, untold amounts of rope, fireworks, missiles, cannons and whatever else it takes... To make fresh toast. It truly doesn't get any easier than that, trust me.
What, that's not how you usually make breakfast? Weirdo.
The game starts off with a massive tutorial that's 50 levels long. It's a very thorough and comprehensive primer on how each part works and what it does to make sure you're well-prepared for the challenges ahead. Given the amount of parts in the game and the fact that Sierra were shooting for an all ages rating I don't think you'll find it too surprising that some consideration was made for the younger crowd for whom a game like this, or even basic principles of physics for that matter, might be uncharted territory. For those of you with a fully-developed frontal lobe the tutorial can be skipped but I would nevertheless advise giving it a glance at the very least because for all the educational value the game might have it still takes a liberty or two here and there. Or, you can learn everything as you go through the actual levels, the choice is yours.
The boxing glove will push the kitty leftward once it's triggered. It won't break through the wall, it will phase through it. No kitties were harmed in the making of this demonstration and Curie here was rewarded with a can of delicious cat food you can see in the bottom left. I'm not a monster
From then on there are more than 150 puzzles for you to go through (plus another 50 designed for two players). They are neatly separated into four levels of difficulty - easy, medium, hard and expert. The gameplay is simple - you have the general playfield area where you can see an incomplete machine and the parts bin where the bits and bolts you're meant to use to make it work are stored. The only parts you can move, flip or program are the ones in your parts bin. Easy levels are sort of an extension of the tutorial and another nod to the youngins: They contain a lot of hints and are very simple; I highly doubt any of the puzzles in this category will take you longer than a minute or two to solve.
However, as you move on toward the later puzzles the game really starts to grow in complexity and it opens up a little. The designers begin to cheekily pad your parts bin with extra parts that are meant to throw you off but can be used to arrive at a solution they didn't plan for. As long as the level's objective is achieved the game doesn't care if you did it 'the right way'. As it should be in a title of this sort. Another thing that you will increasingly have to rely on is unconventional yet predictable parts' behavior. For instance, most of the time you will be able to use a candle, a match or some other relatively basic source of fire to light up a rocket's fuse but there will be times you have to rely on a crashing and burning blimp you just shot down to do the job. The game does a great job of teaching you these unconventional uses of certain parts and it's up to you to remember them and think a little outside the box when needed.
Recreating Hindenburg flashbacks wouldn't be possible without burning a few blimps
Here's a better example perhaps:
The puzzle
The intended solution
My solution
A lot of the puzzles here manage to straddle that line between having a singular solution and letting your imagination run wild. Perhaps the most interesting puzzles in that regard are the ones designed for two players. The way this mode works is that you choose the amount of contests you want to have and the length of your turn. You can pick anywhere between 10 and 90 seconds per turn but I would suggest at least 30. Once you're off to the races the game works the same way it does in the single player mode except you're only allowed to pick up one part from the parts bin during your turn. You can do whatever you want with that part, just make sure you don't put it back into the parts bin since that will be a waste of your turn. Once you've chosen your part and placed it in the main playfield it's time to see if you managed to solve the puzzle. If not then the other player gets their turn and the formula repeats from then on until the two of you manage to complete the level. As an element of competition, the player whose turn it was when the puzzle was solved gets a point and whoever has more points at the end of the designated amount of contests is declared the winner. There are no leaderboards and the mode is local-only so the only real prize here is that either you or your friend next to you gets bragging rights. If you're on your own or you think that turns and time limits are a hassle then there is a way to load the levels in single player mode and play them that way.
Team Red. Always Team Red
Finally, when you beat all the puzzles and think you're done with the game in comes the ultimate gameplay extender - the level editor. It comes with its own tutorial to make sure you know how to set up things like winning conditions, parts that go into the parts bin and so on. Given the multitude of parts available the only things that limit you are your imagination and the screen real estate. It's a recipe for endless fun if you have someone to share your puzzles with and who knows, maybe if enough people are interested we could make a little hub where we share our creations.
You've seen enough screenshots of the game to make up your mind as far as graphics go so I don't really need to go in-depth here. They're colorful and easy to read which is perfect for a game like this. The fact that the devs weren't taken by the 3D revolution that was in full swing at the time means that they aged incredibly gracefully and are still easy on the eyes.
Music, on the other hand, definitely deserves a mention. They went all out here and provided an excellent selection of songs that were composed specifically with the game in mind since this was still before the era of big publishers relying on licensed music. What you will find here is 27 tracks that encompass a large variety of genres such as country, techno, jazz, progressive rock, world music, reggae and a few others that I can't even hope to name. There's something here for everyone. On the off chance the level you're on plays a song you don't like you can easily change it to a tune you fancy in the preferences menu which also serves as a sound test. You can even go for a midi rendition of your favorite piece.
This one's my favorite of the bunch
And on that note, I think I've said just about every-
The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions - 2001 - Whoa, a double whammy. If Sierra could double dip then so can I. There isn't all that much to be said for this standalone addon. Same engine, same graphics, same physics. There are, however, two things of note to this expansion pack. One is that the OST has almost twice as many tracks the base game had. The other thing is that there are over 250 new puzzles for you to solve and since this is an expansion pack and the devs could therefore assume that you're familiar with the underlying principles of the game they went out of their way to include some real head-scratchers that go beyond what Return had to offer in terms of difficulty. Quite a few levels here will test how wrinkly your brain is.
They went pretty wild with some of these
Playing these two on modern hardware is simple. The original copies are easy to emulate with 86Box or maybe even one of the more advanced DosBox forks of your choice. For those of you who can't be bothered with any of that there's a very simple solution - GOG offers the entire mainline series in one cheap package that works reasonably well on Windows 10.
