The Incredible Machine (game)

The Incredible Machine (1992 game) is a point and select puzzle game developed by Jeff Tunnell Productions and published by Sierra On-Line on November 19, 1992 for Macintosh. It was then ported by Dynamix onto DOS in 1993, with Cybelle publishing the FM Towns and PC-98 a year later for the Japanese market. The game was the first release in The Incredible Machine series. It contained 87 puzzle levels, dozens of parts and the freeform machine, allowing player to do completely own contraptions in the game and save them.

An extended version called The Even More Incredible Machine was released in 1993. The Incredible Machine was expanded even further by Dynamix for the 3DO in 1994.

Description
The Incredible Machine consists of a series of puzzles with simple objectives such as "put the baseball into the basket" or "turn on the fan". The player is given a limited number of parts to arrange and connect them on the playfield to complete objectives. These parts include balls, girders, rope, balloons, seesaws, cats or monkeys. Clicking the "start puzzle" button activates the whole contraption.

For added difficulty, some puzzles have different gravity or air pressure from that of Earth. There is also a freeform mode where the player is given an unlimited number of parts to construct a machine of his own invention. The machines created this way can be saved to disk.

Parts of The Incredible Machine

Credits

 * Producer: Jeff Tunnell
 * Design: Kevin Ryan, Jeff Tunnell
 * Programming: Kevin Ryan
 * Art Director: Brian Hahn
 * Graphics / Artwork: Dennis Clevenger
 * Puzzlomaniacs: Kevin Ryan, Richard Tunnell, Matt Unre
 * Music / Sound Effects: Christopher Stevens
 * Playtesting: Jan Carpenter, Jeanne Rubinstein
 * Mac Programmer: Glenn Sugden
 * Windows Programmer: Bruce Von Kugelgen
 * Mac / Windows Artists: Nina C. Gentule, Mike Hales, Michael P. Kennedy
 * Mac Music: Matt Bernardo, Joey Edelman
 * Windows Music and Sound: Matt Bernardo, Beth Michaels
 * Manual Writing: Shawn Bird, Richard Tunnell, Michael Waite, Bob Lindstrom
 * Manual Photos: Dale Tendick, Barbara Ray
 * Manual Production / Design: Shawn Bird, Jenny Gray
 * German Project Lead: Norman Nelson
 * German Translation: Elfie Friedrichs
 * German Programming: Steve VanDevender
 * French Project Lead: Norman Nelson
 * French Translation: Agnès Massion
 * French Programming: Steve VanDevender

Reception
Computer Gaming World in 1993 praised The Incredible Machine, stating that while the 80 puzzles "are a blast" the Free Form Mode was the game's best feature; "the curious, tinkering 10-year-old is re-awakened, given a digital toy box and set loose in the backyard of his or her mind". The magazine concluded that the game was "one of the most innovative and deceptively addicting products to pass this way in quite a while ... a well-oiled imagination machine with a very broad appeal". In 1993, Dragon gave the game 4 out of 5 stars. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the 3DO version a 7.25 out of 10, saying that its controls are too slow due to the lack of mouse support, but that it is nonetheless better than the PC version due to the dramatically improved graphics and sound.

The Incredible Machine was nominated for an award at the 1993 Game Developers Conference, and was the winner of several prizes due to its innovative style and simulation abilities. It was innovative enough that Sid & Al's Incredible Toons earned Jeff Tunnell and Chris Cole a patent for the game concepts.

In 1996, Computer Gaming World named The Incredible Machine the 62nd best game ever. The editors summarized it as "fresh in concept and long on gameplay."

The Incredible Machine for iPad/iPhone also won Best iPhone/iPad Game and was nominated for Best Puzzle Game at E3 by IGN.