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 The Incredible Machine is a very important game for me. I don't know exactly when my parents bought it for me, but it was probably among some of the first video games I ever played, right there alongside Tetris GB, Donkey Kong Land, and Chip's Challenge. I remember sitting down at our family's recently purchased Windows 95 computer and loading in that CD only to be taken into a world of moving parts, colors and funny noises. The game was a fountain of creativity like the BRIO train tracks or marble mazes I used to make when I was younger. It's no surprise then that the series hooked me as much as it did. I never had the The Incredible Machine 2 or 3, but I did get The Incredible Toon Machine at some point and my brain struggled to get that drat cat and mouse to cooperate and solve the puzzles. Never did beat that one. A few years later, around the year 2000, I was gifted the latest game in the series: "Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions". I wasn't aware of it at the time, but this game was basically just a remake of the original with some puzzles from 2 mixed in but that didn't matter. See, the game looked great at the time. Gone were the more simplistic drawings--now the game sported lots of color, crisp music and was generally more fun (a good coat of paint went a long way here). I spent HOURS upon HOURS playing this game, eventually building somewhere around 50 of my own puzzles using the built-in editor. It was pretty much the perfect game for a ten-year old sciences-focused kid. So seventeen years later, I bought it again. And that's what we're playing today.  Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions is a puzzle game about using Rube Goldberg machines to solve objectives. If you don't know what a Rube Goldberg machine is, it's basically an extremely overcomplicated process to do something very simple, taken from the namesake of the man who used to draw cartoons of such scenarios throughout much of the early to mid 20th Century. You're given a playfield, an objective and a number of parts in a parts bin to use to try and solve objectives. Ostensibly an edutainment game, you'll learn a bit about fire, explosions, cause and effect, light, projectile motion, and more as you play. And when you're done with the nearly 250 puzzles that await you, there's a built-in puzzle editor for you to make your own devious contraptions for others to play!  This wasn't intended to be a full LP with a thread or anything when I started playing it. I just wanted to stream the game for some of my friends. But after posting the first video from my stream to my Youtube channel, I received a very positive response from people on Twitter and Youtube so I figured that maybe there was some merit to actually posting this on SA after all. As such, this is an extremely casual stream LP of the game where the only intention is to have fun and talk about the game maybe only 50% of the time at most. I'll be joined by Faerie Fortune and Quantum Fizz, aka May for the duration of the LP. Expect that people might drop in and out of the recording and please understand that since this is recorded as a stream I do talk to the chat on occasion, though a chat window is not part of the videos. Additionally, since we're still recording videos for it, I can easily drop a link in the thread when we go live if anyone wants to catch the live recording. I'll be playing through all of the puzzles in the game and taking a little time to mess with the editor. If anyone else owns this game and wants to make some puzzles for me to solve I'll do an episode at the end where I solve user-submitted puzzles. I might also look to download some random levels online if I can find any. By the way, if this is hitting any of you in the nostalgia right now and you want to play or make puzzles for yourself, you can buy it on GOG.com for $3.29 until the 20th of June as part of their summer sale. After that it'll go back to being $10, which is still a great price considering you also get Incredible Machines 1, 2, and 3 with it.  Episode #1: Tutorial Puzzles, Part 1 Episode #2: Tutorial Puzzles, Part 2 Episode #3: Easy Puzzles, Part 1 - with Krysmphoenix Episode #4: Easy Puzzles, Part 2 - with Krysmphoenix Episode #5: Building our own Puzzles, Part 1 - with Krysmphoenix and a surprise Tyty Episode #6: Medium Puzzles, Part 1 Episode #7: Medium Puzzles, Part 2 Episode #8: Medium Puzzles, Part 3 - with Krysmphoenix Episode #9: Building our own Puzzles, Part 2 - with Krysmphoenix Episode #10: Difficult Puzzles, Part 1 - with Krysmphoenix and Tyty Episode #11: Difficult Puzzles, Part 2 - with Tyty Episode #12: Difficult Puzzles, Part 3 Episode #13: Difficult Puzzles, Part 4 Episode #14: Building our own Puzzles, Part 3 - with PoorlyWrittenNovel Episode #15: Expert Puzzles, Part 1 Episode #16: Expert Puzzles, Part 2 Episode #17: Expert Puzzles, Part 3 - with PoorlyWrittenNovel Episode #18: Building Our Own Puzzles, Part 4 - with PoorlyWrittenNovel FPzero fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Sep 22, 2017 |
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Jun 17, 2017 18:04
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Lasers are definitely in this game. We'll be seeing them in the next episode.SirSamVimes posted:There's actually a new The Incredible Machine game on Steam. They no longer had the rights to the name so it's called Contraption Maker but it's straight up The Incredible Machine. I actually have this but I never really played too far into it. Then again I think it was still in Early Access when I played it last so I'm sure it's much more like what I was looking for at the time.
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Jun 18, 2017 02:13
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Episode #2: Tutorial Puzzles Part 2 - with guests Faerie Fortune and Quantum Fizz aka May. Wrapping up the Tutorial Puzzles and showing off the puzzle maker at the very end. I felt like getting the tutorial videos out of the way quickly. From here on out I'll post videos every few days or so. General reminder that if you'd like to send me any custom levels, feel free to post them here in the thread and I'll try them out at the end of the LP. All you need to do is go to your installation directory, find the folder marked "Homemade" and then upload the .tim files within.
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Jun 18, 2017 19:53
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Poil posted:I have this vague memory that defining the goal is done by clicking on a goal flag on the items you've placed and picking the option. Just like how resize, rotate and customize works. This is in fact how to do it, but the flag doesn't appear on locked parts and the springboard I kept unlocked can't have any goals assigned to it. So I just straight-up missed it. At the end of the next session though, I do come back to this puzzle and expand upon it using the Goal dialog properly.
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Jun 19, 2017 17:26
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Episode #3: Easy Puzzles Part 1 - with guests Faerie Fortune, QuantumFizz, and Krysmphoenix While the puzzles here are obvious pretty simple, they're also starting to use multiple part interactions more often. There's still generally one way to solve the puzzle due to the low number of parts available for us to place, but we can really get a good feeling for how the rest of the game will build on these early puzzles. Also, the sale on GOG for the game is over now but you can still get it and the other games in the pack for $10. And there's still plenty of time left to submit some custom puzzles if that's something you want to do.
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Jun 22, 2017 20:44
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Yes, the plan is to have Fae and May in all of the videos with other guests popping in randomly.
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Jun 23, 2017 04:35
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Episode #4: Easy Puzzles Part 2 - with Krysmphoenix We're finishing up the Easy Puzzles today, but stay tuned because there's still another episode in this recording session. Also, I realized that Fae and May are permanent parts of the LP so I decided to stop listing them as guests and instead put them down as hosts.
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Jun 25, 2017 19:59
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Yeah we're taking a break. I'm thinking we might start it in August since it'll be the 10-year anniversary of Prime 3's release but we'll see what things look like by that point. Either way, I always post my new LPs in the New LPs thread and also pin my most recent new LP tweet to my Twitter profile if you're following me there. (@FP_zero) As I mentioned, this LP wasn't originally planned to happen, so we do have other ideas in mind as "filler" between now and starting Prime 3. We'll see when or if we decide to do those.
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Jun 25, 2017 22:00
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Episode #5: Building our own Puzzles, Part 1 - with Krysmphoenix and a surprise Tyty. I decided to return to the custom puzzle I started work on in Episode 2 and made it into a full contraption.
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Jun 28, 2017 20:22
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Episode #6: Medium Puzzles, Part 1 Beginning the Medium Puzzles today.
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Jul 2, 2017 20:04
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It was the best place I could cut before the conversation switched into another topic for the next five minutes. It's awkward, I know, but I didn't really have a choice.
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Jul 2, 2017 23:02
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Episode #7 - Medium Puzzles, Part 2 Fae decides to try and be nice to May for the rest of the stream but will she succeed?
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Jul 6, 2017 00:19
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Episode #8: Medium Puzzles, Part 3 - with Krysmphoenix Fae and May tell me about English food in great detail.
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Jul 11, 2017 23:22
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Episode #9: Building our own Puzzles, Part 2 To wrap up the session, we build another puzzle involving cats and baskets. ------------ So we haven't had the chance to record the next set of episodes which is why I'm spacing these ones out longer than I would've liked to. I should be able to record again starting Friday once I return back to my apartment. So the next stream will be happening soon. Someone also brought up that while these custom puzzle episodes are good and all it might be more fun to try and take suggestions from the thread or stream chat one what sort of puzzle I should build. By now we've seen all of the building parts the game has to offer, so if you want to challenge me to use certain items in a puzzle, feel free to suggest something here in the thread and I'll choose an idea (or maybe more if they combine well) and make that as the next custom puzzle to end our session.
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Jul 19, 2017 18:47
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Poil posted:How do we submit our own puzzles and is there a time limit (I haven't even started yet)? You can just upload them somewhere and link them in your post. To find the actual puzzle files, go to your install directory for the game (probably under "GOG Games" if you bought it from them), then "Return of TIM" then "Homemade" and it'll be in there with the label "Home000X.tim". I haven't set a time when I'll stop accepting submissions from people so just get them to me at your leisure. The LP will probably go on for another month or so unless we start having some real fun with custom content and extend it as a result.
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Jul 22, 2017 01:43
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Don't worry, I also have Even More Contraptions installed if they don't work for me in Returns for some reason. Thanks! And since I just mentioned it, I'm not actually planning on playing Even More Contraptions for the LP despite it being basically just more puzzles. I'm playing through it on my own time and...the quality of puzzles feels a lot lower and experimental compared to the ones in this game. More of those "make sure you have the items at the exact right pixel location" puzzles like the pinball aquarium one in episode 8 and tons of "get the mouse/Mel to safety" ones that aren't that fun.
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Jul 22, 2017 16:39
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Hey we're finally able to record again. edit: The stream's over now. Thanks for tuning in! Sorry it was a little choppy but the recordings should be nice and clean. FPzero fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Jul 28, 2017 |
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Jul 28, 2017 19:55
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At the end of the stream I spent time creating a puzzle from the recommendations I received over the last week. I combined the suggestions to make a breakfast machine and a puzzle with explosions to make Breakfast Explosion (although it's just called LP PUZZLE #3). If you'd like to try it for yourself before you see it created in a future episode, you can download it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/elm4omhb0xf8ux4/Home0004.tim?dl=0 I did polish it up a little bit after the stream ended. Added some scenery, a couple more parts, etc. Just put it in the /Homemade/ folder of your installation and maybe rename the file to be "HomeXXXX" where "XXXX" is the last four digits of the last custom puzzle you've made plus 1.
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Jul 28, 2017 22:50
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Episode #10: Difficult Puzzles, Part 1 - with Krysmphoenix and Tyty Starting the Difficult Puzzles today.
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Jul 30, 2017 20:43
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I looked around and I found this page on Contraption Maker's website: http://contraptionmaker.com/incredible_machine_soundtrack/ I think the song you pointed out is called "Tuna Loaf" and is just tributing Meat Loaf.
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Jul 30, 2017 21:52
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How did you push the bowling ball upwards to turn on the switch with that configuration of stuff? Does the dynamite that hits the air pump slide over far enough to blow up when the remote bomb goes off and carry the explosion to the nitro under the ball? Whatever the case, nice job finding a totally different solution than intended!
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Jul 31, 2017 16:15
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Huh. I thought the nitro had a larger fall distance than that. Oh well, finding your own solutions is just as fun!
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Jul 31, 2017 18:07
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Episode #11: Difficult Puzzles, Part 2 - with Tyty Today we learn facts about animals.
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Aug 4, 2017 18:58
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Episode #12: Difficult Puzzles, Part 3 The last puzzles confuses me to no end when in fact I could've moved the green laser down and saved myself the hassle. Hindsight = 20/20.
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Aug 8, 2017 18:29
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Episode #13: Difficult Puzzles, Part 4 Finishing up the Difficult Puzzles today, and we get to go back and beat that one that I skipped earlier.
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Aug 11, 2017 16:27
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Episode #14: Building our own Puzzles, Part 3 - With PoorlyWrittenNovel Featuring the thread suggestions of "breakfast machine" and "EXPLOSIONS". You can download the puzzle we created here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/elm4omhb0xf8ux4/Home0004.tim?dl=0 ----- We haven't recorded the next stream yet, so if anyone has any other suggestions for puzzle ideas put them in here within the next day or two and once again I'll try and incorporate them!
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Aug 18, 2017 17:44
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Stream is over, thanks for coming by and watching! FPzero fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Aug 23, 2017 |
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Aug 23, 2017 20:11
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Episode #15: Expert Puzzles, Part 1 Oh right I have to actually update the thread after I record new videos. --------- If you want to play the puzzle we made at the end of this recording session, you can find it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gjqv2e5zp0zqiua/Home0005.tim?dl=0
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Sep 1, 2017 01:20
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Yep I saw it a few days ago and grabbed it but thanks for bringing it back to my attention just in case!
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Sep 1, 2017 03:02
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Episode #16: Expert Puzzles, Part 2 Lasermania is even more fiddly than I remembered. Augh!
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Sep 6, 2017 16:53
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It's missing Chipotle, chart is bad. let me enjoy my fast food burrito bowls in peace
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Sep 6, 2017 22:58
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Episode #17: Expert Puzzles, Part 3 - with PoorlyWrittenNovel I keep forgetting I have other LPs than my SSLP to update. I'm so bad at this. Just like I'm bad at Expert Puzzles!
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Sep 16, 2017 20:07
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Episode #18: Building Our Own Puzzles, Part 4 Took the suggestion of using pipes and phasers to make something a little less complicated than last time. ----- If anyone has any other puzzle suggestions, now would be the time to give them to me. Next recording session might be the last one if I can get through the rest of the Expert Puzzles. We haven't set a time to record, but it'll probably be within the next few days so get those ideas in.
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Sep 22, 2017 17:09
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