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Tuesday November 18, 2008

Fantastic Contraption

My old roommate, Rich, sent me this website. He has a Master's in Physics and another one in Engineering Science and knew I would like it. I can't really explain it, so you will just have to visit. Basically you build mechanical contraptions to move an object to a certain spot.

http://www.fantasticcontraption.com

It starts out easy, of course. Then it gets harder and harder and the contraptions required get more and more complicated. I started out by always building a little car that would take the object wherever it needed to go. Once you finish a level you can save it or you can look at other people's solutions. If you buy the program, then you can rate people's solutions. There are thousands of solutions, but the really good ones are the 4 and 5 star solutions. The 5-star solutions are just amazing. There are catapults, chains, spear throwers, cranes, lifts, and so on. Some solutions just stumble along, some are just beautiful. Mine are usually cars.

Try the game out first. The tutorial is pretty short and you can do the first few levels in a few minutes each. After you check things out, you can look at some of the ones I did, with links below. Feel free to share your own designs too.


fantastic.jpg



This one is a typical example of one of my designs, for Up the Hump:

Bendy Truck

This one is a little more elegant, with the nice touch of leaving the object in the target zone permanently, for Around the Bend:

Tricycle

This is an amazing solution (by someone else) to the level Mission to Mars:

Major Tom

thankful.jpg

Comments (10)

I opened Ted's email at 10 pm last night and played up to level 19 until 3:28 a.m. It was addictive. I do not recommend looking at the solutions Ted included until you have done the levels yourself. More fun to figure it out before looking at how others did it. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I can't stop playing ... this is awful, I am neglecting work, family, eating. Just got by "4 balls" and I definitely don't want to look at Ted's solutions yet - seems like cheating.

I am stuck on that level right now, so I can't look at how yours works yet. You and Jeb are doing really well on this.

Time consumption warning: Beware "AWASH"!!!!

I got through Down Under and Awash wasn't too bad once I figured out a good approach. Handling wasn't terrible. I'm stuck on Tube now. I can get some upward motion, but then everything falls apart.

Tip on tube: There's a little notch at the bottom. What could fit in that notch? Finished 20 and 21 last night. All done until I pay. I kind of want to go back and clean up my old solutions.

I had not noticed the notch, but I didn't end up needing it: Tube

Be careful on paying the $10. Rich did that and it gets you a whole bunch of new levels to play (more time down the drain).

Just finished. I thought U Turn was pretty simple. I never did get Tube. Great game!!

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