The Incredible Machine (TiM) is a game designed and developed by Kevin Ryan and produced by Jeff Tunnel (now co-founder of GarageGames and their successful title Marble Blast Ultra on the 360 and co-founder in Dynamix makers of A-10 Tank Killer and The Red Baron). At the time, The Incredible Machine series came out of the shop known as Jeff Tunnel Productions.
Jeff Tunnel Productions published the first Incredible Machine games from 1993 to 1995 while Sierra Entertainment published all the rest of their titles all the way up to 2001. What is The Incredible Machines all about? It’s a game where you must build a series of Rube Goldberg devices in a “needlessly complex fashion” all to perform some simple tasks. That is the entire point to a Rube Goldberg device, which was originally defined as “accomplishing by extremely complex roundabout means what actually or seemingly could be done simply.”
I think everyone has seen a Rube Goldberg device, their are examples in science museums, and entire Myth Busters Episode about them, they appear in many movies (Goonies used one to open the fence to let in Chunk after he does his dance as did Doc Brown in Back to the Future to cook his breakfast and get his dog food).
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@Harmonix Sues Viacom, Goes Solo
Thing is, the only distribution channels that would fit indies (developers not backed up by a publisher) are the digital distribution ones: Steam, Desura, GOG. Those, however, are for the PC …
It’ll be tough for Harmonix.
@ “Price Fixing” Suit Vs. EA
… who plays NFL? [strike that, Jonah mentioned students in their dorms] And wasn’t the controlling of prices the whole idea of “exclusive license”?
Why isn’t there a similar suit against NFL? I mean they issued the exclusive license, right?
@Super Meat Boy Canceled for WiiWare
Ha! Don would have the guts to tell the right words there … Still, Derrick slipping them out once in a while is still funny.
Anyway, Team Meat did the right choice. There are different constraints from PC/XBox to Wii.
@PSN Still Not Turning a Profit:
This is not news, why did you have this in the news section … ?
Derrick, Jonah, Steam accounts are also free. And the features for it are … well, something any digital distributor would drool over.
@Question of the week:
I expect the rise of the indies. I mean currently the big news is coming from big developers/publishers. I’m hoping this will change in 2011 and we’ll see more news related to indies. Minecraft, Super Meat Boy, stuff like that.
@Harmonix Sues Viacom, Goes Solo
Thing is, the only distribution channels that would fit indies (developers not backed up by a publisher) are the digital distribution ones: Steam, Desura, GOG. Those, however, are for the PC …
It’ll be tough for Harmonix.
@ “Price Fixing” Suit Vs. EA
… who plays NFL? [strike that, Jonah mentioned students in their dorms] And wasn’t the controlling of prices the whole idea of “exclusive license”?
Why isn’t there a similar suit against NFL? I mean they issued the exclusive license, right?
@Super Meat Boy Canceled for WiiWare
Ha! Don would have the guts to tell the right words there … Still, Derrick slipping them out once in a while is still funny.
Anyway, Team Meat did the right choice. There are different constraints from PC/XBox to Wii.
@PSN Still Not Turning a Profit:
This is not news, why did you have this in the news section … ?
Derrick, Jonah, Steam accounts are also free. And the features for it are … well, something any digital distributor would drool over.
@Question of the week:
I expect the rise of the indies. I mean currently the big news is coming from big developers/publishers. I’m hoping this will change in 2011 and we’ll see more news related to indies. Minecraft, Super Meat Boy, stuff like that.
Long-time listener, first time writer. I can’t wait for The Sims Medieval. It’s like The Sims, but in the Middle Ages. Can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait.
Long-time listener, first time writer. I can’t wait for The Sims Medieval. It’s like The Sims, but in the Middle Ages. Can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait.
Shame, I was looking forward to playing Super Meat Boy on the Wii.
Shame, I was looking forward to playing Super Meat Boy on the Wii.