The Incredible Machine v3.0 FAQ/Walkthrough
By King Kool
Table of Contents
1. Legal Notice
1:1 - Note From The Author
2. Version Information
3. Gameplay Overview
3:1 - Controls
3:2 - Setting Solutions
3:3 - Puzzle Making Advice
4. Part Descriptions
5. Puzzle Solutions
5:1 - Easy Puzzles
5:2 - Medium Puzzles
5:3 - Hard Puzzles
5:4 - Very Hard Puzzles
6. Epilogue
7. Special Thanks
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CHAPTER 1: LEGAL NOTICE
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This FAQ was written by and is the property of Jeff Hibbert, also
known as, and hereinafter called "King Kool." It is written solely
for use at GameFAQs.com. With the exception of private and
nondistributive use, it is not meant to be reprinted, copied, stolen,
or published, either in part or as a whole, with the author credited
or not, whether for profit or not, under any circumstance whatsoever.
Not reading this notice is not an excuse, either.
This FAQ is not up for sale, and the exclusivity is not up for
debate. I do not accept email offers from websites offering to host
my FAQs. I've observed many other websites, and none have compared
favorably to GameFAQs. I am not interested in any other websites at
this time, and bribes do not convince me of the reverse.
Should the time come that I want my FAQ on a website other than
GameFAQs.com, I'll be the one to offer it, should they want it. This
means no other website will be getting my FAQs unless I want the
site to host them. Therefore, writing me asking for them is useless,
and wastes my time. If a website possesses the disrespect to disavow
this plea, it will be immediately disqualified from EVER being
allowed to host my FAQs.
In less words: don't call me, I'll call you.
All other correspondence IS more than welcome. Believe it or not, I'm
a nice guy, but the actions of certain Internet denizens requires me
to be Draconian at times. For reports of misuse, questions,
corrections, comments, concerns, fanmail, hatemail, please contact
King Kool at:
[email protected]
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1:1 - Note From The Author
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
This was an unusual FAQ for me to write. It was only after I had
solved all the puzzles that I realized what it was I was doing. The
Incredible Machine is an educational game. It bends your mind. It
makes you think. But, writing a FAQ for it bypasses this. I tell you
the solution rather than you figuring it out.
However, it has always been my stern belief that I should not just
tell you how to do something unless I cannot think of another way of
conveying the info. I always try to vividly tell people WHY things
happen, not just how to get things done. It's about understanding,
not just accomplishment. I hope that my explanations retain some
educational value as well. I didn't write it to simply be a book of
solutions.
My only hope is that I have done well.
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CHAPTER 2: VERSION INFORMATION
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Version 1.00: The first time this FAQ was contributed. 1/10/03
Version 1.10: The first update (Spring Cleaning). 3/2/03
Version 1.11: A small update. 8/11/03
Version 1.12: Updated the Secret Parts section. 8/28/03
Version 1.40: Updated 43 puzzle solutions. 5/23/04
Version 1.41: Email change, and a few minor changes. 1/11/07
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CHAPTER 3: GAMEPLAY OVERVIEW
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The Incredible Machine v. 3.0 is one fantastic game. I got it for
Christmas of... 95 or 96. My brother got Monopoly (the PC game) and I
got this. We were both ecstatic with the gifts, but this one was the
one that stuck around for far longer. Aside from having 150-plus
puzzles, you can build your own and see if your friends can beat them
(or, just have fin with all the possibilities). I've matured greatly
since I first beat all the puzzles in this game, but I still have a
special place in my gaming heart for this wonderful title. It's one
of the best games I've ever played.
Everything in The Incredible Machine is about the transfer of energy.
The rope pulls the trigger to light the candle to heat the coffee to
blow the balloon. The more complex the puzzle is, the more fun and
absurd it all becomes. The simplest of tasks become immeasurable
efforts when you add a cat, three can openers, and an electric motor
into the mess. It's all absurd, and that's what makes it so great.
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3:1 - Controls
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Left-Click on something in the Parts Bin: Bring a part from the parts
bin out to the playfield.
Left-Click on a part in the playfield: Move the part.
When you drag the mouse over a part you set in the playfield...
Left-Click on the "Two-opposing-arrows" icon: Stretch the part.
Left-Click on the "Two-spinning-arrows" icon: Rotate the part.
Left-Click on the magnifying glass: Learn more about the part.
Left-Click on the padlock (workshop only): Lock or unlock a part. A
locked part will remain in place when you open the puzzle in puzzle
play.
Left-Click on the computer-terminal icon: Program the part.
Left-Click on the garbage can: Return the part to the Parts Bin.
Left-Click on the checkered flag: Customize Solution Conditions for
the part.
Left-Click on the "Cactus-and-Mesa" part (Scenery only): Move the
current part to the front.
Left-Click on the "Mountain-and-tree" part: (Scenery only): Move the
current part to the back.
Right-Click anywhere over a part: Duplicate the part.
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3:2 - Setting Solutions
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Solutions to puzzles are important if you want your puzzle to have an
end. If you build a puzzle like "Make toast," you need to make sure
you tell the puzzle that, once toast is made, the puzzle is solved
and you can end it there.
To do this, you'd click on the Checkered-Flag icon above the toaster,
then use the scrolling buttons to select "Toasted" as a solution to
the puzzle. When the toast is made, the puzzle will stop there.
If you want a solution like, "Get the baseball off the screen,"
Select the option "Off Screen" under the Checkered-Flag menu. Use
"Off-Top" or "Off Bottom" if you want the puzzle to only be solved by
getting off the top or bottom.
The only parts you can use in a solution are: 1. Those parts that
aren't bolted down (meaning anything that can be moved around) and 2.
Anything with different circumstances. The boxing glove can be cocked
or punched, so it can be used as a solution.
Any part that isn't bolted down can be used in a solution with
"Position." Position gives you an area you select for the part to be
when the puzzle is "solved." Example: Get the basketball into the
basket. Select the basketball, and give it the position of the basket
for the solution.
The "Part Count" solution criteria needs another part of the puzzle
to use. It means the number you put in is the number of that part
that needs to solve the puzzle. If you have four pinball, and the
solution is "Get three pinballs off the screen," any three pinballs
will do.
"Delay" simply means the puzzle won't start looking for a solution
until a certain time. The puzzle will run, and you just need to click
when you want the puzzle to start looking for a solution.
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3:3 - Puzzle Making Advice
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I've made more than eighty puzzles of my own, so I'd like to think
I've learned a few things about making puzzles. I'll dispense my
meager advice, so you can learn from my mistakes.
1. Be careful of what parts you don't lock down. If you leave a
tennis ball unlocked for the person to do with what they want, it
could be used to depress a dynamite plunger that's only supposed to
go off after it goes through a half-mile of puzzle. In general, not
locking moving parts is a bad idea.
2. Make sure the puzzle will work under more circumstances than the
ones of the solution. If something needs to hit a pinball flipper
JUST RIGHT to solve the puzzle, anyone playing it will be stuck
there, trying to get it exactly how you did. That won't be any fun.
3. Try to make the puzzle unrepetitive. If you have seven toasters in
the puzzle, it'll look odd (unless that's your theme, then go ahead
and run with it).
4. Experiment! Have fun with it! See what you can get to happen!
Remember, it's all a game.
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CHAPTER 4: PART DESCRIPTION
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Walls
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There's not many puzzles without walls. Literally the building block
of almost every puzzle, walls can act as walls or floors. Walls can
only be a limited length, but if you need them to be longer, you can
stick then end to end. They cannot be both walls and floors at once,
however. They can only be walls (vertical) or floor/ceilings
(horizontal).
Walls act the same way the walls in your house do; they stop things
affected by gravity from falling out of the puzzle, and things thrown
at walls do not pass right through them. But, deep down, I bet you
could have told ME that.
What DOES separate the different types of walls are two things:
Friction (how slick the surface is, which determines how objects
slide along it) and constitution (basically, whether or not the wall
is blown up when it is hit with explosions).
| Wall | Slippery | Bomb? |
|---------------+----------+-------|
| Red Brick | Medium | Yes |
| Yellow Brick | Medium | Yes |
| Cinder Block | Low | Yes |
| Greco-Roman | High | No |
| Wood | Low | Yes |
| Log | Low | Yes |
| Caution | High | No |
| Grass | Low | Yes |
| Sand | Low | No |
| Pipe | High | No |
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Balls
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Just about as basic as you can get, with the exception of walls.
Since the first caveman threw a round rock and noticed it rolled,
we've always had balls in out lives. The Incredible Machine is no
exception.
All the balls are round, typically bouncy things that you can use to
depress things, break things, or use them as the basis of a puzzle
(for instance, put the basketball into the wicker basket).
The basic determiners of the differences between these balls are size
(which should be immediately apparent), weight (the bowling ball
weighs a lot more than the baseball, so it won't get thrown around as
much) and bounce (the tennis ball is bouncy, and will bounce a lot,
but the pinball barely bounces at all).
A note about the superball; The superball gains height from each
bounce, rather than losing it. This makes the ball a very difficult
thing to control, but an excellent thing to mess around with.
The programmable ball can have any mass, friction, elasticity and
density. It's seldom necessary to have to make a ball to do what you
need it to, but if it ever comes up, use this.
| Type Of Ball | Weight | Bounce |
|--------------------+--------+--------|
| Bowling Ball | Heavy | Little |
| Basketball | Medium | Large |
| Soccer Ball | Medium | Medium |
| Pinball | Heavy | Little |
| Superball | Medium | Massive|
| Programmable Ball | Custom | Custom |
| Baseball | Light | Little |
| Tennis Ball | Light | Large |
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Inclines
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Inclines go right along with the walls as a major necessity in almost
every puzzle. Inclines can direct balls to roll in a certain way, or
send floating balloons in another direction. They have four lengths
and four angles. The shorter the piece, the more severe the angle.
Since none of them can be affected by explosives, the only difference
in them is friction (and how they look, if you care). Red-Brick,
Yellow-Brick and wood are medium in slipperiness, Greco-Roman is
high, and Log and Grass are low.
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Pipe Parts
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The pipe parts are giant plumbing pipes that can transport just about
anything through them. Something dropped into a pipe will emerge on
the other side, no worse for its travel.
Straight/Corner/T-Section Pipes
Typically, straight pipes aren't used on their own. They usually just
augment the other pipe parts. Corner pipes can catch something to
insure it falls where it needs to, or connects two straight pipes. T-
sections are used so two straight lengths of pipe can cross.
Something going horizontally will continue horizontally (even though
gravity would dictate it to fall, that's not how it works).
The pipe part you'll probably see the most is the accelerator. The
accelerator can face up, down, left or right. Anything dropped into
it will fly out of it in the direction the green arrow faces. This
part doesn't always have to be used in conjunction with other pipes;
it can throw Newton Mouse to the cheese, or toss a baseball off the
top of the screen.
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Pool Parts
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Pool puzzles are some of my least favorite puzzles. They're massively
dull, and I recommend not making any puzzles that just has the player
trying to sink the 3-ball or something like that. Nobody walks into a
workshop filled with mice and rope and toasters and says, "Let's
shoot a few rounds of pool."
Even so, the parts do come in handy in many occasions, so it's
important to know about them.
Pool Ball
The pool ball, unlike all the other balls, in unaffected by gravity.
It won't budge unless it's hit by something. Think of it as if you're
looking at a pool table from a bird's eye view, and the ball is
rolling around the table.
Pool Wall / Pool Pocket
Pool walls and pockets can make the pool experience more authentic,
with felt walls for the balls to bounce against, and pockets that be
at any of eight position. Anything that goes into the pocket is gone
forever.
Pool Cue
The pool cue isn't like the old ones your grandfather had to use,
where you have to push it to make balls move. All you need to do is
hit the button on the back and it'll push the tip with impressive
force.
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Rope Parts
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Rope. It makes the world go 'round. Or, at least, it makes TIM go
'round. Rope is one of the most important parts of The Incredible
Machine. Rope transfers translational energy (back-and-forth), which
is used a lot in this game.
Rope and Steel Cable
Rope and steel cable work identically. Tie rope to something by
taking it out of the Parts Bin and clicking on something rope can be
tied to (the end of a teeter-totter, for example). Drag the mouse to
anything else you can tie rope to and the rope will turn green. Click
again, and the two things are tied together. Only one rope can be
tied to something at a time.
When using rope, it's important to keep in mind what you want to
accomplish. If you want to tip a trailer with rope, you don't want to
pull UP on the high end of the trailer; that won't do anything. These
kinds of mistakes are easy to make.
Hedge Trimmers and Tin Snips
Hedge trimmers and tin snips are very similar. Bump the handles to
close them. Closing them will snip rope enclosed in its blades. You
can see if rope is in range, because the tips will wrap around the
rope to be cut. Balloons and blimps also pop on the tips, but only
when open.
The only practical difference between the rope and the steel cable is
this: Rope can be cut with hedge trimmers and tin snips, but steel
cable can only be cut with tin snips. Keep this in mind.
Pulley and Pierhook (Boat Cleat)
The pulley can have either rope or steel cable fed through it, and it
will change the direction of the translational motion moving through
it. Put a pulley behind the trigger of the phaser, and all the force
coming from the falling bucket will pull the rope in the direction of
the pulley. Pierhooks tie to rope to suspend something, like a
balloon, from flying off. I should note that only in TWO puzzles do
you use these things (The Sky Is Falling and Schlemming in
Dreamland), but they give them to you almost EVERYwhere. They're
common red herrings.
Balloon
The balloon is a most interesting object to throw into a puzzle, if
for no other reason than that they float up, rather than down. Other
than the fact that they can be tied to rope and used for all kinds of
things, that's all that makes them different from up-falling balls.
Except that they pop when they hit tacks, hedge trimmers, tin snips,
laser beams, flame, phaser shots and moving gears. That, too.
Balloons can also take four different forms, depending on which one
you feel like using. Some are smaller than others, which may matter
in some puzzles.
You know what? They're NOTHING like up-falling balls. Forget I said
that.
Hot-Air Balloon
The hot-air balloon is unlike the regular balloons. First off,
they're unaffected by gravity. Second, they need to be lit to rise.
(Lasers work excellently for this). Then, when they DO rise, then you
can use whatever they're tied to do some work. They will still pop at
all the things the regular balloons will.
Teeter-Totter and Trailer
The teeter-totter and trailer are absolutely identical. Drop
something on the high end of the teeter-totter and the other end will
rise. You can tie rope to either end. You can use this to pull
things, send things into the air, an obstacle for Mel, lots of stuff.
Beach Bucket and Paint Bucket
Buckets can tied to buckets .are commonly used as weights to pull
teeter-totters or phaser triggers. You can put stuff inside the top
of a bucket and upset a balance between two buckets. Raising and
lowering buckets can flip switches, or make anything that uses
translational energy work.
The paint bucket works differently than the beach bucket. The paint
bucket can be filled with a programmable amount of water. Water leaks
out the bottom of the bucket, and the bucket will get lighter and
lighter until it's out of water, and it weighs the same as a regular
bucket.
Since it takes time for the bucket to empty, you can use this with an
empty bucket and fill it with a ball, so once the leaky bucket begins
to lose weight, the scale will tip in favor of the bucket with the
ball in it. This doesn't work with pinballs, as a full bucket of
water STILL isn't as heavy as a pinball.
Laundry Basket
Laundry baskets can be used like buckets, to pull things like the
trigger of a phaser. However, they're most often used in "trap"
puzzles. Things like, "Get Mel under the basket." Suspend the laundry
basket with a boat cleat and snip the tie with trimmers to capture
Mel.
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Light, Flame and Explosives
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Of course, the puzzles aren't all ropes and pulleys. At some point,
you're gonna want to bring out some firepower. Or, if you're not
comfortable with explosives, you can pull out some flame or even some
harmless light.
Flashlight and Lava Lamp
The flashlight and lava lamps are The Incredible Machine's only two
sources of non-flame, non-explosive light. All they do is make light.
Bump the flashlight's button from above to turn it on, and use a rope
to pull the chain on the lava lamp. (See the Rope Parts for more info
on that.)
But, what good is light? Well, you can use it to power solar panels
(see Appliances). Or, you can focus the light with a...
Magnifying Glass
One of the most important parts in the game. Did you ever take a
magnifying glass and focus the sunlight to melt the face off a green
army man or burn a leaf? This is the principle behind the magnifying
glass: focusing light into heat to set fires.
Position the magnifying glass between the light source and what it is
you want to burn (a fuse, candle, etc.). The glass in the magnifying
glass must be facing the light source, and the rim of it (the other
side of it) must be facing the fuse.
These magnifyers can focus most kinds of light. Open flames give off
light that can be focused, as do the flames in the bottom of rockets
and launchable stuff. Lasers cannot be focused, because lasers are
already focused (Read the Laser Parts section to learn more).
Candle And Aladdin's Lamp
The candle and the Aladdin's lamp are just about the same, but their
shape makes them work differently in certain puzzles. Focused light
with the magnifying glass will light them aflame, as will lasers. You
can use that fire to light whatever you want, pop balloons and blow
up blimps.
Flint-Rocks (Flint and Tinder)
Just like the cavemen of yesteryear, you can make fire with nothing
more than two stones and some dry tinder. Knocking the rocks from the
left, right or above and the stones will smack together and light a
fire. This can be used with blimps, cannons, ill-aimed phasers, a
running Mel, etc.
Match-On-A-Spring
The match-on-a-spring is probably one of the most frequently used
flame parts. Aside from using translational energy to make fire (Read
Rope Parts for more on that), it also doesn't interact with walls.
You can build them right on top of walls, which can give them ideal
placement for most needs.
Hook a rope to the key and pull it. It can only pull out the key is
the force pulls in the right direction. Experiment with this a lot;
it's a great little thing.
Cannon
In the vein of the circus cannons clowns are normally shot out of, we
got our very own cannon. Light the fuse of the cannon and a
cannonball (equivalent to a pinball) will fly out. The cannon can
have any of six angles.
Stick Of Dynamite
The stick of dynamite is like anything else with a fuse, which can be
lit with fire or light and magnifyer. However, once the fuse is lit,
it explodes... as you probably figured. Explosions can be used to
destroy some walls, throw balls around, remove obstacles, etc.
Rocket, Missile and Fireworks
Three launchable things that work similarly. The basics that apply to
all three are: They're all long, thin things with fuses that launch
when they are lit. The rocket can face left, right or straight up,
and will bump anything it hits. The missile can be positioned
similarly, but the missile will blow up on contact with the power
equal to a remote bomb. Fireworks can only face up, and explode into
an harmless puff of sparks.
Nitroglycerine
Nitroglycerine (CH2-NO3-CHNO3-CH2-NO3) is, if you've ever watched
cheesy action movies or Looney Tunes, a highly volatile chemical that
explodes, not only when it's exposed to flame, but when its bumped or
dropped with enough force. It has an explosion a little bigger than a
stick of dynamite. Nitro can't slide down inclines, rest on anything
not flat, be bumped by ANYthing, but springboards have enough give to
spring them around.
Dropped nitro won't survive often, but remember some floors are
kinder to catching it than others. Sand floors have more give than,
let's say, brick.
Remote Bomb
I remember in the older version of TIM, the bomb you had was a
detonator attached to a bundle of dynamite. They were always right
next to each other, and it was excruciatingly hard to use it in
puzzles.
Well, we don't need to worry about that in TIM v3.0. Here we have the
remote bomb. It comes in two parts; the detonator and the bomb. When
you pull the remote bomb out of the parts bin, the detonator comes
first, then the bomb. When pushed down, the detonator will send out a
signal for the bomb to go off. The explosion is quite effective, and
can take out three layers of brick in any direction.
You can tie rope to the detonator and use other translational energy
to pull it down. Look in the Rope Parts for more info on that. I
probably shouldn't have to mention this, but each bomb will only
detonate the remote bomb it was brought out of the Parts Bin with.
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Appliances
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This category if for the household things that are kind of nebulous
in category, except that they are real things you've probably seen
before.
But, before we cover these mostly electrical appliances, let's go
over how to get power to them.
Outlet and Switch Outlet
The outlet is as simple as it gets. Place it anywhere, and plug
something into it to make it run. To plug something into an outlet,
drag the appliance or other electrical doohickey to the outlet. One
of the plugs in the outlet should become filled. This means the
device is getting power.
Switch outlets work in a very similar fashion, but for two
differences. 1. They're rigid in position, so they can only be placed
in certain geometric positions. 2. The switch needs to be flipped
before any power will be administered to whatever is plugged in. The
switch will always start out "off." Flipping it will only determine
which way will turn it on, be it down (a ball or piece of cheese) or
up (a rocket or balloon).
Solar Outlet
The solar outlet works like a regular outlet, except you need light
to get it to work. Open flame or flashlights and lava lamps work for
light. The panel will glow when it is powered.
Can Opener
The can opener needs to be plugged in to work. When powered, the can
will fall and stuff will come out of it. (Soup, maybe?) Even so, this
part is a good one to have a goal for. If you don't want that, it's
an excellent way to get Curie Cat to come hither (see Critters for
the lowdown on Curie).
Electric Mixer
This is the only piece in the whole game with NO output whatsoever.
You plug it into something and the mixer will run. You can't use that
force for anything else. This part is exclusively for the end of a
puzzle.
Coffee Pot
The coffee pot, one of my favorite pieces. I hate coffee, but this
part is greatly useful. Put this pot over an open flame (you can
usually have a floor between it and the flame) and the coffee will
heat up and blow steam out the spout of the pot. This wind energy can
be used to push stuff or spin pinwheels (see Gear Parts for the
skinny on pinwheels). It also makes an excellent end piece of a
puzzle.
Electric Fan
If you judge it on what it accomplishes, it's very similar to the
coffee pot. Except with this fan, you use electricity to make wind
power. The wind power is most frequently used to spin pinwheels (see
Gear Parts for more), but they also can push a tennis ball into some
nitro, or push a bit of cheese for Newton.
Vacuum
This is much like the vacuums you might have around your house. Plug
it in and it'll suck up anything that isn't bolted down. Blimps,
balls, critters, etc. And once it's sucked up, it's history. You
can't get it back... not that you'd want to. (Ever opened a vacuum?
It's not pretty.)
Toaster
I don't know about you, but my toaster has never been as easy to use
as THIS thing. I'm always burning stuff... anyway. So long as the
toaster has power from an outlet AND something pushes down the handle
on the side, toast will pop up, knocking anything above it up, like
teeter-totters, balls, light switches, etc.
You can program the toaster to fire at any of three intervals,
depending on how dark you want the toast and how long you want the
toast to take to pop up.
Egg-Timer
I've never seen on of these in my kitchen, but I'm sure they exist
somewhere. Depress the switch on the top and the timer will begin.
Once the timer reaches zero, the plunger on the side of it will
extend and bump things. It can stretch through walls, so keep this in
mind. It's useful for getting something small like a tennis ball to
move a bowling ball, a feat it'd have no chance at with anything
else.
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Laser Parts
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Red Laser, Blue Laser and Green Laser
It wouldn't be the laser parts category without laser parts, now
would it? All three lasers act pretty much the same; they can be
positioned up, down, left and right. Laser beams can light fuses and
pop balloons. Since they are just light, anything that passes in
front of them that the balloon can't pop will obstruct the beam. They
can be bounced around using the...
Mirror
The angled mirror can be positioned in four different positions. Any
laser hitting the glass side of the mirror will change direction by
90 degrees.
Laser-Powered Outlet
The other common use of the laser is to power this laser-powered
outlet. Set the outlet to the color of the approaching laser, and
whatever is plugged into it is powered. Of course, you won't be able
to use all the colors of outlets until you see the...
Laser Mixer
Fire lasers in the back of the laser mixer, and the colors will mix.
As with lasers, you can position them up, down, left and right. Red
and blue make purple. Blue and green make blue-green, and green and
red make yellow (I dunno WHY it does, but whatever). A mix of all
three colors makes white. Lasers from laser mixers work exactly the
way regular lasers do.
Laser Detector
The laser detector doesn't come in much handy in puzzle mode, but it
can make for some interesting solutions for your own puzzle. A laser
(any color) that hits the black eye will make the green light blink,
meaning a laser has been spotted. If the beam is lost, due to an
interruption, the red light will blink. If the beam returns, both
will blink. A "Break the laser beam" puzzle using the laser detector
is a nice puzzle idea.
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Gear Parts
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Gear parts cover everything that use circular energy. Circular energy
is energy that goes round and round, and has innumerable applications
in the incredible machine.
Cable (Or Belt)
The cable (called a belt in the game, but I prefer cable) is arguable
the most important part of the gear parts. It works similarly to
rope, which you take from the Parts Bin and click between the two
spinning parts you want to connect. It transfers the spinning motion
between the two parts. The VERY big difference between cable and rope
is cable can only be stretched a limited distance.
Conveyor
The most common gear part. Hook the conveyor to any spinning part and
the conveyor will spin. Something resting on top of it will be thrown
one direction, and something resting beneath it will be thrown in the
opposite direction. The direction the conveyor goes is determined by
the direction of the energy; it can't be switched by the conveyor.
Large Gear and Small Gear
Gears are essential in getting around the limitation of the short
span of cables. Gears can have stuff hitched to them, but can also
transfer motion by putting gears directly to the left, right, above
or below another gear. Doing so reverses the direction of the
spinning motion, but allows it to travel much greater distances.
The reason there are two different sizes is to change the speed of
the rotation. If you hook rotation directly to a large gear, mesh it
to a small gear, and cable the small gear to a conveyor, the conveyor
will spin twice as fast. If you do the same, but with the gears
reversed, the conveyor will spin twice as SLOW.
Some parts don't really care what speed the energy is coming is; the
generator isn't going to work any less efficiently with lower
rotation speed or any different direction of.
Electric Motor and Generator
Two parts opposing each other, each making what the other takes as
input. The Electric motor plugs into any outlet. When it gets power,
the motor will start spinning. Hook that to whatever you want to
spin. To reverse the direction of the spinning, flip it.
The generator is the exact opposite. Hook it up to any spinning
source and the attached outlet will become powered and anything
plugged into it will operate.
Translational-To-Circular Translator and Circular-To-Translational
Translator
Wow, that's a mouthful. The two parts above don't really have good
short names, so these names will have to do. The trans-to-circ works
by pulling on an eyehook, which drags a gear in circles, making
rotational energy. The trans-to-circ can also be operated by bumping
that piston opposite the eyehook. The circ-to-trans uses a bolted
joint to make the spinning energy go only up and down, or back and
forth (translational).
Both parts can be flipped so the rope tied to it can reach it at what
angle you want it to. I'm sorry I lack the imagination to make better
names for these, but at least YOU didn't have to WRITE those ungodly
names about 50 times... my hands ache from that alone.
Pinwheel
The pinwheel is a fun little prop, but it's not often used since
there are only three parts that make wind energy. But, wind energy
from a coffee pot, bike pump or fan will spin the pinwheel, making
rotational energy. If you want the energy to go the other way, flip
the pinwheel.
Jack-In-The-Box
Not much to say about ol' Jack. Hook him to a cable and he'll pop
out, knocking anything above him either this way or that. He makes a
colorful addition to lots of events that could just use a conveyor,
so pop Jack in when you want to mix it up.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Critters
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Ah, yes. The part everyone likes to play with at the beginning.
Whether they're taunting Mel for being half the height of a house
cat, or knocking him out with a massive fall, or making Edison snatch
him up for brunch, these are the truly absurd parts.
Mel Schlemming
Mel Schlemming is the greatest person who ever lived. It's just that
simple.
Mel will walk forward until something gets in his way, then he'll
turn around and walk the other direction. You can program him to
stand (until something disturbs him), walk or run. If he falls too
far (roughly 8 1/2 Mel heights from the floor), he'll fall down and
take a nap. You can program this for a solution to a particularly
cruel puzzle. If you want one even crueler, have him be the target of
a snack for Edison Alligator.
Newton Mouse
Newton Mouse, who was, of course named after Olivia-Newton John, is
the resident cheese-eater. Nothing much motivates him but two things.
If he sees cheese (on the same level of flooring) he'll run to it.
And even though he can snapped up by Edison Alligator, the only thing
he fears, if he can see her, is...
Curie Cat
Yes, Curie Cat. She's a cutie, all right. If she sees Newton Mouse,
she'll run towards him. If she gets close enough, Newton's a goner.
It's a potential solution for the crueler puzzle builders out there.
Curie will also walk towards Bill's aquarium if he's close enough. If
Bill's tank is broken, she'll be attracted from even further. She
also will walk to an open can from a can opener.
I know the help files in this game call Curie Cat a "he," but Curie
was named after the greatest female scientist of the last 200 years.
So, Curie's a SHE, as far as I'm concerned.
Bill the Goldfish
Ah, Bill the Goldfish. Tragic Bill the Goldfish. Not only is he not
named after any famous scientist, he's also a fish, so he can't leave
the domain of his aquarium. However, that aquarium is the cheapest
thing I've ever seen. Do just about anything BUT shoot a laser at it,
put it under open flame or hit it with a pool cue and it'll break. It
can make a nice puzzle solution, or can be used to get Curie Cat to
where you want her to go.
Edison Alligator
A sinister alligator named after some light bulb guy. He just sits
where you put him, his tail waving. Mel and Newton will become food
for Edison, but most other things that fall onto his snout get
propelled into the air (except for, like, nitroglycerine).
Mandrill Motor
The Mandrill Motor is like the electric motor in the respect that it
generates spinning energy, and that flipping him makes the energy
reverse direction. However, this motor doesn't need any electricity.
Rather than plugging it in, all you need to do is tie the hook of the
shade to something else with rope. When the shade is pulled, it'll
retract, and let Pavlov Mandrill look at the bananas. He'll start
walking to them, making the conveyor he's on spin.
Mouse Motor
The mouse motor works almost identically top the Mandrill Motor, but
rather than having to hook rope to the mouse motor to get it to work,
you need to have anything bump the sides of the cage. That will be
enough motivation to get the mouse a-runnin'. If Curie Cat looks at a
mouse motor, the mouse will also start running. As always, hook a
cable to the mouse motor to whatever you want to spin.
Cheese
It's Newton's Achilles heel. Anytime Newton sees a hunk of cheese
that's on the same level of flooring, he will run to it. Getting
Newton Mouse to his cheese is an excellent puzzle solution to play
with.
Mel's House
No, Mel's not homeless. If Mel's strolling along, and he reaches the
house, he'll sidle right in and get comfy. "Get Mel home." is
probably the most popular solution to a puzzle of all. The suburban
duplex only holds one Mel, but the log cabin holds many. Don't try to
stick more than eighteen Mels in one cabin, though. Sometimes, the
cabin will disappear. An odd error, but one that you should be aware
of.
Actually, you CAN get more than one Mel into the suburban house. They
just need to get there at the same time. This is more likely an error
than anything else.
Newton's Hole
No, Newton's not homeless either. It's a hole with all the comforts
of a ritzy hotel, even a front door. If Newton is influenced to go in
(by putting cheese on the opposite side or making Curie chase him
in.), he'll run in and shut the door. The mouse hole can hold any
number of mice.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Miscellaneous
---------------------------------------------------------------------
All the parts that don't really fit too well into any other category.
This doesn't mean they're useless; it just means they're some of the
more wacky parts.
Lattice/Scaffold/Barrier/Archway
Four different designs of the same thing. All four of these things
act like big chunks of walls. Things bounce off them and stand on top
of them, but nothing passes through them. They're more for using to
make your puzzle look nice rather than as a real alternative for
walls. Explosions won't effect them.
Trap Door
The trap door acts like any regular floor for things too light to set
them off. (Most things, like coffee pots, Mel, tennis balls). If
something too heavy sets it off (bowling ball, pinball, Curie Cat,
missile, etc.), it'll collapse and the stuff on top of it will fall.
Not much else to say about that.
Thumbtack
The thumbtack is a nice thing to use to pop balloons when there is no
flame handy, and you need to use tin snips and the like for something
else. The thumbtack can face up, down, left or right. It's most often
used to pop balloons, hot-air balloons and...
Blimp
The blimp. It's a hard part to describe. It's kind of like an aerial
Mel that can explode or pop. The Blimp will sail mindlessly left till
it hits something, then it'll turn around. I didn't include it with
the other balloons because you can't tie a rope to it. It'll pop if
it touches a gear, pin, tin snips, hedge trimmers, etc. But, if it
touches flame or an explosion, it'll explode in a Hindenburgian
blast. The flames on the exploded blimp can be used to light candles
and solar panels.
Phaser
The phaser could have put in the "Rope Parts" as well, but it makes a
unique kind of energy, so I thought it deserved a spot among the
Miscellany.
If you pull behind the gun with a rope tied to the trigger, the
phaser will fire. It HAS to be a pull from behind the gun; seldom
other forces work correctly. The phaser will fire so long as the
trigger is being pulled. You can program how many shots the phaser
has (from 0 to 99).
Phaser blasts light candles, bump objects, explode blimps and pop
balloons. You can even send a Phaser blast through the oversized
pipes. But, the blasts can only leave the pipes horizontally. Bear
that in mind if you want to throw the phaser blasts around.
Bicycle Pump
The bicycle is filled with air, and bumping the handle from above or
below will result in the air getting pushed out really fast. However,
there's only one blast of air to be used, so once it's used up, it's
used up for good. The air works just like the air from a fan or
coffee pot. Use it to spin pinwheels or push stuff.
Antigravity Pad
One of the most frequently abused parts in the game. The antigravity
pad makes any object above it that would normally fall ascend.
Objects that are bolted down (toaster, for example) are unaffected,
and things that gravity doesn't dictate action to (blimps, hot-air
balloon) will ignore it. However, balloons, which normally ascend in
regular gravity, will drop. Of course, that shouldn't happen (since
the balloons are using pressure to float, and not just defying
gravity), but it makes for some interesting puzzles.
Remember, when I say anything above it, I mean ANYthing above it. If
you build a puzzle with some stuff on top of it, all that stuff will
also be effected by the antigravity pad, no matter how many layers of
floor there are.
Springboard
Anything that lands on the springboard will go higher with each
bounce. Yes, even nitroglycerine. it doesn't affect things on floors
above it, so it can make a less zealous alternative to the
antigravity pad. Not much else to say.
Pinball Bumper and Pinball Flipper
The pinball bumper and flipper are parts I don't recommend using
much. These parts bounce things off at wacky directions. Anything
that lands on the top of the flipper will be sent flying, and
anything that hits any part of the pinball bumper will sail in an
unpredictable direction.
Boxing Glove
The boxing glove is similar to the egg-timer, but instead of using a
button on the top, the button is in the base of the glove, and there
is no timer. It's most often used for mechanical advantage, like
making a baseball smack a pinball around.
Box
The box can have five different appearances. Aquarium, crate, wicker
basket, steel cage and cardboard box. They all vary in size,
depending on what you need or want to have. You can use the boxes to
catch stuff, or as a goal for a ball to get to or something.
Message Machine
Probably the least used part, this computer terminal, when something
bumps the keyboard, will wake up the screen saver and the
programmable letter will appear. You can program any of the letters
of the alphabet, all the numbers, and a bunch of symbols. If you want
to spell something, line them all up and program them each to say one
letter.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Secret Parts
---------------------------------------------------------------------
First time I went through this game writing this FAQ, I listed that
there was only one secret part. As it turns out, there are at least
four of them. The only reason I even knew there were any was because,
as listed above, this was a Christmas present, and I installed it and
played it that day.
The secret parts are reliant on your Windows clock settings. The day
that you have it set to, if it means something to TIM, will bring
up a unique part related to that day.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
February 14th (Valentine's Day): Cupid
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The cupid part has little cupid flying back and forth with his bow
drawn. He's got a pointy arrow that can pop balloons and stuff, and
he goes along until he hits something, at which he turns around.
Basically, he's a blimp that can't be popped, but can pop stuff
himself.
Oddly enough, even though he's a moving part, he doesn't have a
Checkered Flag. It's unfortunate.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
March 17th (St. Patrick's Day): Leprechaun
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Blarney O'Reilly, the Leprechaun that lives in Professor Tim's
garden, stands stalward until someone bumps into him, in which
he'll do a jolly jig for a couple of seconds. A funny solution to
a puzzle would be to get Blarney a-dancin'.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
October 31st (Halloween): Bat
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Boris the Bat is a bit boring. He stands perfectly still, hanging
upside down until something bumps him. Once bumped, he flies randomly
around. Again, the Checkered Flag is absent, so the possibilites are
limited.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
December 25th (Christmas Day): Santa Claus Lamp
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Santa Claus Lamp works by plugging it in to an outlet, making it
a unique part indeed. The light is just like any other light. Use it
to light candles, power solar panels, etc. This part has a Checkered
Flag, so it can be used as a noel-ish solution to a holiday puzzle.
=====================================================================
CHAPTER 5: PUZZLE SOLUTIONS
=====================================================================
You will note that I am not going over the solutions to the tutorial
puzzles. The tutorial puzzles are ESSENTIAL, and should be required
reading before you go off to face any of these puzzles. Fact of the
matter is, you need to know how to beat these puzzles, else you are
going to have a bumpy road ahead.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
5:1 - Easy Puzzles
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 1: Under The Sea
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Get Mel Home
Parts: 1 large straight pipe, 1 antigravity pad and 1 granite
incline.
You can see Mel marching along his merry way. He'll fall right into
the corner pipe, but if he falls out of it, he won't be able to get
over the corner of the pipe. Connect the large gray pipe to the
corner pipe Mel falls into, and stretch it as far as it will go.
Mel will proceed over the edge of the pipe to the lower level.
The second obstacle is a gold pipe wall, midway through the second
level. You could put the antigravity pad beneath the floor before
the wall, but that will only get Mel stuck to the ceiling. To
prohibit this, put a slant above the gravity pad, so Mel will be
propelled past that obstacle, and he can walk to his house with no
further difficulty.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 2: Yellow Brick Path
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Get Newton Mouse into his hole
Parts: 1 remote bomb and 4 pieces of cheese.
You definitely need that remote bomb, since there's a wood floor
between you and the mouse hole. Otherwise, Newton is guaranteed cat
food. Place the bomb halfway between the second dark vertical line in
the wood and the right-hand wall. Leave the detonator wherever for
now.
Put one piece of cheese at the far right of the wooden floor, one
on the Greco-Roman corner (near the stick of dynamite) and one on
the red brick step just before his mouse hole. The trick is to make the
cheese visible, but unattainable (if he starts eating, you'll never
get him off of it).
But, we still have one cheese left, and there's nothing making him
run along the second yellow brick platform. So, place the detonator
just above the second Curie Cat, and place the cheese on top of it
to detonate it one the puzzle is started.
Fire her up, and the explosion should blow the floor out, making
Newton run into the hole, and he'll continually descend until he
reaches his mouse hole.
The official solution puts a cheese right behind his mouse hole,
rather than behind the remote bomb. Both of them are partially
beneficiary, and also somewhat superfluous. It's up to you which you
wanna do.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 3: Space Hoops
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put the basketball into the basket.
Parts: 4 yellow brick inclines, 2 cables, 1 large gear, 1 small gear,</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
2 antigravity pads, 1 springboard, 1 pinball bumper, 1 pinball
flipper, and 1 Jack-In-The-Box.
If you're feeling lazy, you can simply position the pinball bumper
between the mouse motor and the yellow brick incline, and the
basketball could bounce right into the basket. But, that's boring.
A far more exciting way to do it is to make use of the mouse motor.
Place the jack-in-the-box right next to the brick incline on the map.
Then use the 4 brick inclines to make slopes around Jack (and the
basket, if need be). Connect Jack to a big gear, and connect the
mouse to the small gear, and mesh them.
If done correctly, the gears should slow the jack-in-the-box down
enough so the basketball can be put into position, then the ball
should be thrown right into the basket, or close to it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 4: Bump and Roll
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Get the tennis ball into the aquarium.
Parts: 1 pool cue, 1 blimp, 1 flashlight, 1 egg timer, 1 antigravity
pad and 1 boxing glove.
You need to get the tennis ball near the bottom of the screen into
the aquarium in the corner. You can see the only thing moving in the
puzzle at the beginning is the bowling ball at the top of the map. He
has some "Oomph!" but not enough to make it to the pinball.
Put the boxing glove (or the pool cue, it matters not) just before
the pinball. Then put the pool cue (or boxing glove, for all you
anarchists) to knock that one.
The next set up doesn't have the ball hitting another ball directly;
the bowling ball has to fall on top of something. Therefore, you need
to use the egg timer, which will strike the baseball vertically. Once
hit by the tennis plunger, the baseball will hit the tennis ball, and
the tennis ball will roll into the aquarium.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 5: Midnight Blast
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Fire the cannon
Parts: 1 flashlight, 1 conveyor belt, 1 cable and 1 boxing glove.
The ball that moves down the wooden incline at the start is the only
thing moving at the start, but, as in the last puzzle, it's not
moving far enough to get anything started. Use the boxing glove to
get the second pinball moving. It should fall onto the switch
connected to the electric motor.
Maybe you also noticed how the conveyor fits nicely under the pinball
in the air near the electric motor. Slide the conveyor underneath it
and stretch it out as far as it will stretch.
Now, there's only one part left, and it's fairly clear what to do.
Put the flashlight right near the magnifying glass, and the pinball
should hit the button. The fuse will light, and kablam!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 6: Bill's Aquarium
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Break Bill's Aquarium
Parts: 2 large pipe corners, three granite inclines, 1 trap door, 1
thumbtack, 1 egg timer, 1 switch outlet, 1 cable, 1 antigravity pad,
and 1 boxing glove.
The puzzle gives you some clearly worthless parts like the switch
outlet (what is there to plug in?) and the thumbtack (what is there
to pop??), so ignore those parts.
There's a electric motor plugged in already, and a conveyor not far,
so it's clear you want to connect the two. The ball should spring off
the pad, but then reaches the one antigravity pad and struggles. It's
clear you want another to assist the antigravityness. Place the
antigravity pad right next to it's brother.
Now, once again, these parts become interchangeable. You can either
build slopes to send the ball to the accelerator, then use two corner
pipes to send the ball up into the accelerator and to the aquarium,
or you can use one corner pipe to get it to the first accelerator
(not CONNECTING to it, but positioning it so it's in the right
position), then using the other corner and the granite incline to
direct the ball over to the aquarium. Either way is fine, as they
both should wreck the aquarium.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 7: Caged Balloons
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Pop both of the balloons.
Parts: 2 antigravity pads and 2 thumbtacks.
This puzzle in ridiculously easy. If you can't get this one, you
probably skipped the tutorial puzzles (which is a VERY bad idea).
This puzzle is only impossible if you don't remember one critical
thing about the antigravity pad; things pulled down by gravity will
float, but things that disavow gravity will descend. Granted,
balloons don't float because they stop gravity; they float because
they're more buoyant than the stuff they're floating in. But that's
science, and therefore, boring.
All you need to do is put the two upturned tacks beneath both
balloons, and place two antigravity pads beneath them. This is a
really easy one, and you shouldn't have any problems with it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 8: Air Time
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put all of the blimps in the hangar on the right. They all need
to be there at the same time
Parts: 3 granite walls and 3 pinball bumpers.
Ignore the bumpers; any blimp that strikes them will go off in a
wacky direction. What's needed here is precision. Since all of them
need to be there at the same time, maybe we could make certain that
one set of them always are.
Take the granite blocks and make it into three pieces one wide by two
tall. Place them in front of the noses of the three blimps heading
to the LEFT. Now, they'll stay in the hanger almost always. Now, you
just need to let the other three blimps fly in.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 9: Pulley Popper
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Pop the silver balloon
Parts: 2 wooden inclines, 1 rope, 1 steel cable, 2 pierhooks, 1
paint bucket and 1 antigravity pad.
You want to pop the silver balloon, which means cutting that rope
holding it down. There's a pair of hedge trimmers already set there,
but you need a means to drop something on top of it.
You can see the bucket just above the remote bomb. You can stop it
from falling if you tied it to something. Bring the paint bucket
right below the pulley near the detonator, then connect them with
some rope or steel cable. Empty the paint bucket, so they'll have
equivalent weights. Also, make sure to set the paint bucket low
enough so there's enough slack of rope for the beach bucket to
descend all the way to the hedge clippers.
Now, you can see the ball on the left, which isn't doing much. But, a
lack of gravity can change that. Set an antigravity pad beneath it,
and a wooden incline above it, so it'll move to the right. It should
hit the detonator and fall into the bucket, slowly descending to the
hedge trimmers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 10: Separation
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put the baseball in the aquarium and the pinball in the cage.
Parts: 1 trap door, 2 remote bombs, 1 antigravity pad and 1
springpad.
The trap door wasn't covered in the tutorial puzzles, but an
important thing to know about it is that something too light to set
it off can roll over it like any other floor. Something too heavy
will make the trap door collapse.
To make the baseball go one way, and the pinball the other, place the
trap door in the first gap the two balls run along. This should let
the baseball go one way, and the pinball should go the other way.
Right where the brick ends for on that first platform, place the
detonator for a remote bomb. Place the dynamite over the brick on top
of the cage.
Place the second remote detonator above that set of dynamite, right
near the really stretched red brick slant (so when the pinball passes
there, it'll hit it), and place the dynamite above the aquarium.
You probably saw that there are two gaps on the paths. Put the
antigravity pad parallel to the brick to be destroyed by the bomb,
and place the springpad between the two inclines (NOT the other way
around). Both balls should make it to their destination.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 11: Beach Blast
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Shoot off all the fireworks.
Parts: 1 pool ball, 1 wood incline, 1 pool cue, 1 flashlight, 1
candle, 1 flint rock, 1 outlet, 1 blue laser and 1 mirror.
You need to set off all the fireworks, and all but one of them is a
pushover. Since you have a laser and an outlet, point the laser to
the five fireworks all sitting in a row and plug it in.
Mel will mindlessly walk forward, as he often does, but if you don't
put the wood incline into the missing part of the platform, he'll
fall in.
You cannot get the laser to hit the final fireworks, so don't even
try messing with the mirror they give you; nothing but a red herring.
Instead, place the flint-rocks beneath the final fireworks, and
Mel will walk into it and set them off.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 12: The Dream
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put the balls into the boxes. They all go into the boxes to
their immediate left.
Parts: 4 Greco-Roman inclines and 4 antigravity pads.
This isn't a very complex puzzle. Place the four antigravity pads
beneath all four balls, then place the Greco-Roman slants against the
ceiling. Align them so the rising balls will hit the lower-half of
the slant to the left of it and fall into the box. This doesn't
matter for the one to the far left.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 13: Late for the World Cup
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put the soccer ball into the basket.
Parts: 1 large pipe corner, 1 red brick incline, 1 teeter-totter and
1 antigravity pad.
The only energy at the start of this puzzle is the falling bowling
ball. You can use the teeter-totter, with the right side lowered, to
spring the basketball into the next section. Use the antigravity pad
to get it up to the large pipe (use the corner piece to direct it
correctly) the basketball should fall onto the detonator, and the
soccer ball will take its course to the wicker basket.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 14: Trap Newton
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Trap Newton Mouse with the laundry basket.
Parts: 1 hedge trimmers, 1 remote bomb and 1 piece of cheese.
This puzzle can be a real stinker, as there's an elemental problem
with it. The puzzle works by putting cheese on the small platform
parallel to Newton's starting position. The dynamite detonator goes
beneath the hole he'll fall through, and the dynamite goes on top of
the brick stopping the ascent of the pinball. The hedge clippers sit
at the rope, with the handles facing where the pinball should hit
them.
The problem is, once Newton is on the detonator, there's nothing to
endeavor him to run, and the explosion can mess up the path of the
pinball. It's a pain, but this one you just have to tinker with for a
while.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 15: Balloon Traveler
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Use the tack on the left side of the screen to pop the balloon.
Parts: 10 Greco-Roman inclines and 4 antigravity pads.
Place an antigravity pad beneath the slants at the start to bring the
balloon down. Put upward inclines in the ceiling of the next part,
then have an antigravity pad pull it down. Use some slopes to direct
it again. Lather, rinse, repeat.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 16: Kitty in a Cage
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Lure Curie Cat into the cage.
Parts: 1 can opener, 1 electric motor, 3 cables and 1 small gear.
Newton mouse falls onto a switch immediately in the puzzle. You could
have the can opener plugged in to there to get Curie cat's attention,
but that won't accomplish much.
Instead, plug the electric motor into it. Connect the spinning thing
to the circular-to-translational gadget above it. It will power the
translational-to-circular gadget. Put the small gear meshed to the
large one sitting below it. Connect one gear to the translator and
the other to the generator. Plug the can opener into the generator,
and the can will lure Curie into a cagey doom...
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 17: The Food Machine
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Open the can, start the mixer, and heat up some coffee.
Parts: 2 yellow brick inclines, 1 rope, 1 pulley, 1 red laser and 1
cable.
First off, fill the gap between the two yellow brick platforms with
the two inclines. The pinball will be able to hit the switch partway
down. Plug the laser into it, aligned roughly with the upper wall,
pointing down. It should be able to hit the red-laser outlet with
relative ease.
The pinball will continue down and hit the seesaw, which will bump
the mouse motor. Tie the right side of the seesaw to the match-on-
a-spring, using the pulley to make sure that it's pulled in the
right direction. Connect the mouse motor with the generator and
the mixer will become powered. Mmm... food.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 18: Night in the Mountains
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Help Mel get back to his cabin
Parts: 1 accelerator, 1 hot-air balloon, 1 trailer, 1 rope, 1 candle,
1 stick of dynamite and 1 conveyor.
The amount of parts is a bit overwhelming, but you don't use almost
any of them. The big gap that Mel first approaches could be conquered
with a conveyor, but use a trailer instead. Make the right side face
down, so you can get onto it.
He'll continue on, and reach another hole very near the left side of
the map. Just place an upward accelerator there to fling Mel up.
He'll keep going, but the higher trailer is in the wrong position. To
get it to turn down, you have to tie the high end of both trailers
together. That will make it drag down the trailer when Mel walks over
the first one.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 19: Double Whammy
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Blow up both missiles
Parts: 1 bowling ball, 1 trailer, 2 ropes, 1 candle, 1 flint rock and
2 matches-on-a-string.
I recommend trying to light the fuses with matches-on-a-string. The
flint rock is impractical, if for no other reason then that there's
no control over when you fire it.
Put the two matches over the fuses of the missiles with the keys
facing the center. Place the trailer on the small caution floor.
Position the left side down, and rope them both to the keys of the
matches-on-a-string, going through the pulleys, of course.
All that's necessary now is to drop something onto the trailer. Both
matches should strike the fuses at the same time and the two missiles
should go off and explode.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 20: Deep Sea Explosion
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Make the soccer ball float off the top of the screen.
Parts: 1 large corner pipe, 7 grass inclines, 1 trailer, 1 rope, 2
pierhooks, 1 egg timer, 1 bicycle pump, 1 boxing glove.
Special Conditions: Underwater; anything filled with air floats.
There's a really simple way to solve this one, and a more
complicated, but fun way. I'll cover both here.
For the simple solution, you can leave the trailer beneath the slowly
descending bowling ball, and have the trailer pull down the detonator
of the explosives with the rope. It's simple, but dull.
The game's solution has the bowling ball falling on top of the egg
timer, which pushes the basketball. The seven inclines are set up
so they direct the ball to the down-pointed part of the trailer,
which pulls the detonator down and releases the soccer ball.
But the placement matters so little, and the pieces they gave you
were clearly poorly thought out. This is probably one of the weaker
puzzles.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 21: Newton Drops a Message
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Reveal Newton's message and get Curie Cat off the screen.
Parts: 1 pool ball, 1 pool cue, balloon, 1 teeter-totter, 1
nitroglycerin, 1 antigravity pad, 1 pinball bumper and 1 piece of
cheese.
The pinball between the yellow brick walls will be best for setting
off the computers with the hidden message. Theoretically, you could
drop the cheese on it, but it's unnecessary to do that.
Curie Cat should walk herself to the trap door, and fall though and
set off the second set of explosives. They're not strong enough to
blast through both walls, so put the nitroglycerin next to it,
between the pinball and the yellow brick wall. The pinball should
fall down the computer terminal staircase.
But, once Curie Cat's past the trap door, she just sits on the
detonator. To get her off of it, look to the left of the second
detonator. There's a baseball. Pin the baseball to the left caution
wall with the pool cue. It will repeatedly fire, and will knock
Curie away, and off the screen.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 22: Home Sweet Home
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Help Newton Mouse get home.
Parts: 4 large pipe corners, 1 accelerator, 1 remote bomb and 2
pieces of cheese.
Looking at the existing pipe structure, it should be clear where will
be the end of Newton's pipe journey. It should also be clear that
that tall wall of wood has got to go. Place the dynamite next to the
vertical wood against the ground near his mouse hole.
Now, let's head back for Newton. To get him to the wood floor in the
center of the puzzle, have two pipe corners (with the corners
pointing to the bottom right) have him kinda "stair" his way to the
wood floor. Place some cheese opposite his landing area, so he'll run
into the next pit. This is where the detonator should be. The
depressed detonator will be tall enough for Newton to see the cheese
you should place across from it.
All you need to do now is place the accelerator at the end of the
first tube (Newton will barely not make it otherwise.) Then, Newton
will travel around the world and head home.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 23: Feeding Curie
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Open a can of cat food for Curie Cat.
Parts: 1 balloon, 1 trailer, 1 rope, 1 stick of dynamite, 3 cables,
and 4 large gears.
Set the balloon down and use the rope to tie him to the match-on-a-
spring, pulling it through the pulley, of course. The dynamite just
BARELY fits between those two planks beneath the beach bucket tied
to Mandrill Motor so slide it in. The match should light it up and
get Pavlov a-walkin'.
Use two pairs of gears meshed together to stretch how far the
spinning can travel. Connect a cable to one gear and Pavlov, mesh
that gear with another, connect a cable to that gear with another
gear, mesh a gear with that gear, and connect that gear with the
generator. The can should open and Curie will go unfed no longer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 24: Fishtank Target
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Blow up the fish tank with the missile.
Parts: 2 red brick inclines, 1 thumbtack, 1 rope, 1 pulley, 1
pierhook, 1 switch outlet, 1 mouse motor, 3 cables, 5 big gears and 1
small gear.
This puzzle requires you to use the mouse motor and the translator to
pull the key out of the match on a string. Put the mouse motor
directly after the end of the high incline. The missile will have
enough force to go past it. Then, mesh gears as you did the last
puzzle to get the spinning energy to the translator. Rope the
translator to the match on a string, via a pulley.
Don't forget to fill the bottom incline with your two brick inclines.
Also, don't put the mouse motor on the bottom. The missile often gets
stuck. And the gear that's already set down is far too difficult to
use; just ignore it.
In any case, a launch seldom gets hung up anywhere else, and it's
Sayonara, Bill.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 25: Ghost Dynamite
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Light the dynamite with the candle
Parts: 1 pool cue, 1 thumbtack, 1 balloon, 1 rope, 1 pierhook, 1
magnifying glass, 1 outlet and 7 antigravity pads.
I imagine it's fairly clear with the name of the puzzle and the
wooden structure you're given that the candle will have to travel up
the structure using all the antigravity pads at your disposal. Place
them all on the lowest floor. Distribute them evenly, but make sure
there is one directly beneath the dynamite, and make sure there ISN'T
one beneath the candle.
Now, in the column where the candle is going to fall, put a balloon
somewhere between the match and the candle. Tie the balloon to the
match through the pulley. It should pull the pin out of the match-on-
a-spring and the candle should push the balloon into the match,
popping it. The candle should light and continue up to the top of the
map and light the dynamite.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Easy Puzzle 26: The Merry Mixer
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Turn on the electric mixer
Parts: 1 large pipe corner, 1 accelerator, 1 trap door, 1 thumbtack,
1 pulley, 1 hedge clippers, 1 bicycle pump, 1 antigravity pad, 1
springpad and 1 boxing glove.
Place the springboard (not the antigravity pad) beneath the pinball,
and connect the corner pipe piece to the other pipe. Connect the
accelerator to the end, so the ball will go straight up and into the
part of the puzzle with the smiley-face balloon.
The vertical falling of the pinball should be ideal for setting of
some hedge clippers, so put them so they cut the rope. In the empty
space in the floor beneath the incline, put down the antigravity pad.
The balloon should fall, then sail back up and hit the underturned
switch.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
5:2 - Medium Puzzles
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 1: Mountain Man Mel
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Get Mel back to his cabin.
Parts: 1 balloon, 1 bucket, 1 cable, 1 bicycle, 1 Newton mouse and 1
Edison alligator.
To get Mel home, you need to set off the Jack-in-the-box, which you
can connect to the Mandrill motor. To activate the Mandrill Motor,
place the Edison alligator on the log floor above the log cabin, so
the snout is parallel to the end of the incline above it. Edison will
send the pinball into the bucket tied to the Mandrill motor.
He'll send Mel careening along, but he'll land right into the happy
jaws of Edison. This isn't a problem with Edison, so don't move him.
There's a small bit of log floor near the ceiling. Put a balloon
there, so Mel will hit it and land onto the lower balloon. It may
take some small adjustments to get it so he doesn't get knocked out,
and so he doesn't walk directly into Edison's mouth.
Curie Cat also is an obstacle. She'll block Mel's path is you don't
lure her away. All that's needed is to place Newton mouse down near
the above balloon, and Curie will walk out of your way.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 2: Mondrian's Toy Box
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Make all five Jack-in-the-boxes pop open.
Parts: 1 electric fan, 1 outlet, 2 cables, 1 large gear, 1 small
gear, 1 pinwheel and 1 jack in the box.
This puzzle may look outrageous, but don't fret. It's fairly simple.
Lay down the outlet, and plug the fan into it. Put the pinwheel in
front of it. Hook a cable between the pinwheel and a gear, and mesh
that gear with any other gear in the structure. Mesh that gear also
with another gear, and connect it to the Jack in the box in your
inventory.
So long as either of your gears are meshed with the already-set
gears, all the others will open.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 3: Gimpy Blimpy
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Get the balloon off the top of the screen without popping any
blimps.
Parts: 1 yellow brick incline, 1 blimp, 1 stick of dynamite, 1
missile, 1 nitroglycerine, 1 remote bomb and 1 boxing glove.
It should be clear that you have to set off an explosion to break the
log wall holding the balloon in. The dynamite and missile are useless
since there's no open flame (without exploding a blimp, and that
can't happen...).
To destroy the wall, drop the nitroglycerine near the log wall. Make
sure it's really close to the wall, as it may take out the lowest
blimp. Once the wall is destroyed, the balloon is free, but you need
to make it move. Clearly the only thing that will make that move is
the boxing glove. Set the blimp in your inventory behind the button,
but make sure it hits it AFTER the explosion, else the balloon will
either get taken down or the boxing glove will punch the balloon into
the wall with no effect.
Once you get it down, the balloon should take a crooked path up to
the hole in the ceiling and float off the top of the screen.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 4: Pipe Gripe
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Get the pinball off the screen.
Parts: 1 T-Connector, 3 large corner pipes and 1 accelerator.
This is a really dry puzzle. These ones based purely on pipes tend to
be. All I can really tell you is where all the parts go.
Following the path of the pinball, put a corner pipe AND an
accelerator where it flies into the air and stops, then put another
corner pipe to point the ball downward. Where it falls should be the
T-Connector. At the upper right-hand corner of the puzzle, place a
corner to make the ball head downwards.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 5: Up and Away!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Launch the missile.
Parts: 2 large corner pipes, 4 accelerators, 1 hot air balloon, 1
rope, 1 match-on-a-string and 1 antigravity pad.
Put the antigravity pad beneath the pinball. Between that corner
part, and the one across from it, place three accelerators to form a
makeshift bridge between the two parts. The pinball should pass to
the corner part beneath that one. Stick an accelerator on that one
two (facing left), and it'll get into the pipe immediately above the
flashlight.
NO, you don't use the flashlight to light the missile. You use it to
light the candle in the hot-air balloon. Place the match-on-a-string
beneath the missile, key facing left. Tie the match and the hot-air
balloon together. This should suffice to launch the missile.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 6: Mouse House Munchies
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Feed Newton Mouse the cheese.
Parts: 3 large pipe corners, 1 hedge trimmers, 1 flashlight, and 1
magnifying glass.
All that's keeping Newton mouse from a tasty supper is a remote bomb.
It's a metaphor for life. Like my uncle used to tell me, "King, you
gotta put a corner pipe to the accelerator, so the baseball will fly
out the other side. Then, you use another corner piece above the
brick inclines to direct it towards the left. It'll tumble down and
can set off hedge trimmers you can put down there. Then, the base-
ball will get shoved off the edge by the newly freed balloon. Now,
don't connect the highest corner piece to the rest of it, else that
baseball won't be doin' anyone any good; it's gotta be high above
it, near the inclines."
I never knew what was wrong with my uncle, but he did leave out that
you need to put the flashlight and magnifying glass beneath where the
baseball will fall. Also, when the cannon fires, redirect the
cannonball with another corner pipe. Adjust it so it'll fall onto the
detonator.
My crazy uncle... I wonder whatever happened to him...
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 7: Laser Launch
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Launch the rocket off the top of the screen.
Parts: 1 yellow brick wall, 1 large straight pipe, 1 corner pipe, 1
accelerator, 1 rope, 1 pierhook, 1 flashlight, 1 mirror, 1 conveyor,
1 cable, 3 large gears and 1 antigravity pad.
Immediately, you should see that there's a problem with the initial
set up. If you're supposed to launch the rocket off the top of the
screen, you need to move it to someplace where it will not be
obstructed.
Place the conveyor belt beneath it, and connect it to the electric
motor. To power the electric motor, place a mirror just above the
trailer, so it will reflect the blue laser to the plug. It will get
turned on by the falling pinball.
Even though the name of the puzzle IS Laser Launch, you can't use the
laser to burn the fuse. It's not in the right position for long
enough. The solution if far more complicated. Place the antigravity
pad in the small space past the yellow-brick incline on the left side
of the puzzle. Place a corner pipe and an accelerator (facing RIGHT)
to catch it and direct it rightward.
This is critical: Use the straight pipe to lengthen the pipe after
the accelerator, but DO NOT put it above the pit where the rocket is.
If you do THAT, it won't be able to get off the top of the screen.
You only need to extend it to give the distance to get over to the
brick floor. Think of it as pitching the pinball across to the other
corner piece.
It'll fall and push the trailer. Use this energy to pull the key out
of the match-on-a-spring (hook it into the right side of the
trailer). That will heat up the coffee and the percolating brew will
bowl the bowling ball down into the nearby pit. Strong coffee, huh?
Yeah, that pun was awful.
Place the flashlight underneath where the bowling ball falls, and it
will burn the fuse and launch the rocket.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 8: Fire Ball
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Launch the fireworks.
Parts: 1 large corner pipe, 1 accelerator, 9 Greco-Roman inclines, 1
thumbtack, 3 pierhooks, 1 hedge trimmers, 3 nitroglycerines, 1 remote
bomb, and 1 antigravity pad.
This puzzle is really sad. Aside from having some ludicrous red
herrings, like the pierhooks (There's nothing to tie anything TO!)
and the thumbtack (what am I gonna pop??), it has a gruesome error in
it.
The puzzle is SUPPOSED to work by bringing the soccer ball into the
beach pail with the inclines and antigravity pad. This makes the
beach bucket weigh more than the leaky bucket, bringing it down and
pushing the trailer down, lighting the match and launching the
firework.
But, since you're given nitroglycerine (for NO REASON, I add), you
can simply place a vial on the raised end of the trailer beneath the
puzzle, and set the fireworks off THAT way. It's an inexcusable
error, especially since the nitro has no use in the puzzle. This is
probably the worst puzzle in the game.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 9: Fourth of July
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Launch all the fireworks.
Parts: 1 caution wall, 4 yellow brick inclines, 1 rope, 1 flashlight,
1 magnifying glass, 1 match-on-a-string, 1 egg timer, 1 electric
motor, 1 laser outlet, 1 red laser, 1 blue laser, 1 green laser, 1
mirror, 1 cable, 1 circular-to-translational translator, and 1
pinball bumper.
To begin, let's close up the hole in the floor. It's bad karma to
leave holes around. Take the four yellow-brick inclines and shrink
them up as tight as they go. Make a large and steep slant from the
caution wall heading left. The slants should end at the same point
the caution floor beneath the fireworks. Then, use the caution floor
in your parts bin to fill in the remaining gap.
The falling of the candle, slight as it may be, is important. Put a
egg timer beneath it, and point the plunger left. Place a match-on-a-
spring to the left of the egg timer.
Place the translator near the outlet, and plug in the electric motor.
Connect the two with a cable, and attach the rope to the translator,
through the pulley, and to the match-on-a-string.
What should happen is the candle gets lit by the match-on-a-string,
then gets shoved down to the slope you constructed, then slides down
and lights all the fireworks.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 10: Beach Ball Bonanza
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put the striped ball into the bucket.
Parts: 2 yellow-brick inclines, 1 stick of dynamite, 1
nitroglycerine, 1 fan, 1 generator, 4 cables, 1 small gear and 3
antigravity pads.
Put the two inclines in the hole in the incline on the left. Place
the antigravity pad beneath the striped ball, and it should travel
left and hit the mouse motor. Place the other two antigravity pads
just beyond the mouse motor, on the sandy floor.
Connect the mouse motor to the preset small gear, and mesh the small
gear in your parts bin on the other side of the preset large gear.
Connect the second small gear with the higher conveyor. This will
make the tennis ball hit the egg timer. You have to connect the
mouse motor to the first small gear, else the conveyor won't turn
in the right direction, and you have to connect the conveyor to the
second small gear, else it STILL won't.
Place the nitro into the wooden alcove where the plunger of the egg
timer will hit (since it'll go off when jarred) and place the
dynamite in the hole above it.
The ball is near the bucket, but it can't proceed unless the conveyor
moves. You still have one gear to use. Connect it to the generator,
(the generator doesn't really care which way it's spinning) and plug
the fan in. Point it towards the pinwheel and connect the pinwheel
to the lower conveyor. This should suffice to push the ball into the
bucket.
Oh, yeah, and ignore the blimp. It's just for decorations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 11: Cat Bounce
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Pop the balloon.
Parts: 1 can opener, 1 fan, 2 generators, 2 belts, 1 antigravity pad.
There is a small detail you should remember for this puzzle. Even if
Newton Mouse has a wall between him and Curie Cat, often he will run
anyway. Bear this in mind.
All that's happening with no parts in the puzzle is one of the
Newtons getting cheese. Place the antigravity pad beneath him, and
he'll float up and knock a mouse motor. Connect him to a generator,
and plug a can opener to the generator.
Curie Cat will come a-walkin'. But, she'll fall right onto the
springboard and pop up to the highest level. The Newton on that level
will freak and run into the second mouse motor. Hook him to a
generator, and plug the fan into it. Face the fan to the right, and
the wind will blow the balloon into the pin.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 12: Laser Target
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Shoot the sensor at the bottom right with the laser.
Parts: 1 pool cue, 1 thumbtack, 1 rope, two pulleys, 2 pierhooks, 1
flashlight, 1 lava lamp, 1 fan, 1 mirror.
The pinball falling at the start is important. Put the flashlight
beneath him, so he hits the button to light the candle, and rolls
onto the detonator near it.
The candle, now lit, will slide down the incline, light the hot-air
balloon and depress the second detonator. Tie the end of the hot-air
balloon to the lava lamp (use the pulleys to direct it correctly),
and put that near the solar panel powering the laser. Finally,
redirect the laser beam with the mirror, so it'll hit the target.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 13: Breakfast Buffet
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Make coffee and toast.
Parts: 3 red-brick inclines, 1 trap door, 1 thumbtack, 1 rope, 2
pierhooks, 1 magnifying class, 1 egg timer, 1 mouse motor, 2 belts, 1
circular-to-translational translator and 1 antigravity pad.
The hole in the floor would be excellent for a mouse motor to go;
just align it so it's flush with the floor. Attach it to the gears
already set beneath the red brick and attach the translator to them
as well. Hook the rope to the key of the match-on-a-spring beneath
the coffee.
Use one of the brick inclines to stretch the slant past the mouse
motor. Place an antigravity pad in the hole left there. It should
rise up. Place an egg-timer here, and give it enough time so the
tennis ball can hit the switch AND get hit by it. Once struck, it
should roll along and bump the toaster's knob down and put the power
on.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 14: Pipe Mixer
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Turn on the electric mixer.
Parts: 1 large pipe corner, 2 accelerators, 1 blimp, 1 rope, 1
pulley, 1 Aladdin's lamp and 1 antigravity pad.
The pinball isn't up to much, but that's only due to it being
affected by gravity. Place the antigravity pad beneath the higher
pipe floor (make sure the right side of the pad is flush with the end
of the floor) and the ball will end up flying to the right. Collect
it with a corner pipe and accelerator. Point it up to the pipe
already there, and it should roll into the empty paint bucket.
The bucket will descend and hit the trailer. Use that power to pull a
match-on-a-spring up. But, how do you get that light below to the
solar-powered electric mixer? Well, place the blimp near where the
fire will be, and it'll explode, theoretically into an Aladdin's
lamp, but that's not necessary. Even the blink of power while the
blimp passes is enough.
Granted, there are many ways you can break this one, but this is a
more evocative puzzle than Fire Ball, so I'm not going to be as
critical.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 15: Fishing In Rome
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Break the fish tank
Parts: 2 Greco-Roman inclines, 1 seesaw, 1 flashlight, 2 magnifying
glasses, 1 outlet, 1 antigravity pad, 1 jack in the box, and 1 boxing
glove.
Place the seesaw into the small space on the right side of the
puzzle. The descending pinball should flip the baseball quite easily,
and it will land near the cannon. Poise a flashlight to be struck by
the inside pitch. Of course, use a magnifying glass to complete the
ensemble.
Now, put the antigravity pad next to the Greco-Roman wall at the
left. When you run the puzzle, it should appear that the cannonball
went away, but give it a second. It will descend directly on the
fishtank. Not expecting that? Neither was I.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 16: Bomb Baffle
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Set off both bombs.
Parts: 6 yellow-brick inclines, 1 pool cue, 1 trap door, 1 thumbtack,
1 teeter-totter, 1 rope, 1 flint-rock, 1 outlet, 1 antigravity pad,
and 1 pinball flipper.
Place the antigravity pad underneath the higher leaky bucket. This
will cause the lower bucket to drop onto the first detonator. For the
second detonator, place the pool cue just before the pinball, so the
blimp will knock it to the pit on the right side of the puzzle. Place
the teeter-tooter there, and tie the higher end of it to the second
remote bomb detonator.
Couldn't be simpler... unless it was.
(Note: The game's solution has the bombs both going off at the same
time, but that's not a requirement to this puzzle. It's just awesome,
so I recommend you check it out.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 17: Bowl Me Over
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put the bowling ball into the cage
Parts: 1 large corner pipe, 1 rope, 1 pierhook, 1 outlet, 1 mouse
motor, 1 conveyor, 2 cables, 1 translational-to-circular translator,
1 circular-to-translational translator, 1 springboard, 1 Jack-in-the-
box and 1 boxing glove.
Put the boxing glove behind the bowling ball, so the pinball strikes
it and sends it on its way. Beneath the top brick layer, you should
see three gaps in the caution floors; the higher one can be filled
with a mouse motor, the large lower one can be filled with a
conveyor. The final one will fit a springboard nicely.
Unfortunately, since the conveyor and mouse motor are so far apart,
they cannot be connected with a cable. This is where the two
translators come in. Connect the cable to the circular-to-
translational translator, tie that to the other translator with rope,
and cable the second translator to the conveyor. If you went through
"Translation and Rotation" in the tutorial puzzles, this should be
clear.
Now, with everything in place, the bowling ball should make it
safely, if stubbornly, to the cage.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 18: Mel in a Muddle
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Get Mel home in one piece!
Parts: 1 teeter-totter, 2 ropes, 3 pierhooks, 1 hedge clippers, 1
egg-timer, 1 switch outlet, 1 cable, 1 translational-to-circular
translator and 1 antigravity pad.
It's a tight fit, but place the egg-timer between the pinball and the
red brick wall. Mel will run onto it and set it off, sending the
pinball into a pit. Fill that pit with some negative gravity, and the
pall should make it all the way to the first detonator.
Place the teeter-totter in the empty spot before the first remote
bomb. Tie the high end of the teeter-totter to the other detonator.
with both explosives gone, Mel can dash his way back home to do...
whatever it is Mels do in their house.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 19: Mel's Amazing Maze
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Get Mel home.
Parts: 1 caution floor, 1 flashlight, 2 remote bombs, 1 egg timer and
1 springboard.
There are two subsidences in the caution floor where you can place
detonators. Position the detonators so Mel can walk over them without
interruption. Put the dynamite over the straight lengths of wood.
Now, use the caution floor to lengthen the floor leading to the pool
cue. Make it that the right edge of the new caution floor aligns with
the caution floor beneath it. That way, Mel will walk into the pool
cue and send the pinball down. Use the egg-timer to push the bowling
ball to the trap door (since Mel isn't heavy enough).
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 20: Illuminate the Lab
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Turn on the lava lamp on top of Mel's underwater laboratory.
Parts: 1 large corner pipe, 1 rope, 1 egg-timer and 2 antigravity
pads.
The pinball in the air is high enough for you to place the egg timer
beneath it, and the arm is just long enough to hit the second
pinball. Knock it over, and make it fly with the antigravity pad.
It'll descend into a corner pipe, but just catch it with another
pipe, with the bottom pointing to the left, so it'll hit the trailer
in on the left side.
All it takes now is a rope and pulley to pull the chain down and
Mel's lab has light. If you can't quite get the egg timer to hit
the second pinball, put the antigravity pad beneath the first
pinball, and the egg timer right next to the second one.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 21: Blow Up
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Make the balloon fly off the top of the screen.
Parts: 1 yellow-brick incline, 1 trap door, 1 hedge clipper, 1
bucket, 1 flint-rock, 1 stick of dynamite, 1 nitroglycerine, 1 remote
bomb, 1 mirror, 1 bicycle pump and 1 springboard.
It should be evident that there's going to be a lot of fireworks for
this puzzle. So, let's set up the pyrotechnics first. Set the
dynamite next to the bowling ball, so the fuse is near the match-on-
a-spring. Set the nitro on the next lowest level, and the remote bomb
on the lowest level. Put the detonator after the third slope.
The baseball is falling, but we can put a slope below it (to get it
to go left), then a springboard to get it over the remote bomb
(that'd be the best place to send it). Place flint-rocks beneath the
hot air balloon.
After the baseball detonated the remote bomb, it should roll into the
flint rocks. Since it's tied to the match-on-a-string, it will
detonate the dynamite. Place the hedge trimmers beneath the pulley;
the bowling ball will snip the rope and hit the nitro, so it will
clear the entire path for the hot air balloon.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 22: Gravity Cavity
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put the soccer ball in the caution box with the 1-ball.
Parts: 1 pinball, 1 yellow-brick incline, 1 blimp, 1 rope, 1
pierhook, 1 magnifying glass, 1 candle, 1 electric motor, 1 conveyor
and 1 cable.
You probably figured it out, but there are antigravity pads
throughout the entire puzzle. There's nothing you can do about it, so
get used to things being backwards for one puzzle.
Put the conveyor above the soccer ball to keep it from moving around
too much. Plug the electric motor into the solar panel. String the
rope from the lava lamp between the two pulleys and hook it to the
higher end of the trailer.
If you put the pinball beneath it, the lava lamp will activate. But
the solar panel doesn't go off; the light is too far away. But, there
is a solution. Place the magnifying glass and candle near the lava
lamp, then let the candle hover up and down until lit. Remember, the
antigravity pad will lose range once something goes too far
offscreen, so the candle will come back down. Once lit, it'll power
the motor and send the soccer ball to the caution box. You may need
the yellow-brick incline to coax it further.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 23: The Sky is Falling!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Mel is in trouble. Help him get to his house in the upper
right.
Parts: 1 wood floor, 1 yellow-brick incline, 4 ropes, 4 pierhooks, 1
magnifying glass, 1 flintrock, 1 match-on-a-spring, 1 remote bomb, 1
antigravity pad and 1 springpad.
This puzzle is a tricky one. There is nitroglycerine falling, and
buckets threatening to block Mel's way. Your first thought may be to
use the floor to protect Mel, but you need that floor so Mel can make
his way to the rightside of the screen. What you need to do is place
pierhooks where the nitro is, then hang the four buckets from them.
This will cause the buckets to catch the nitro so it won't hurt Mel.
(The official solution simply suspends them, and leaves Mel to outrun
the nitro, but I think my idea is wiser.)
Now, once the immediate danger is cleared, place the antigravity pad
lined up to the floor, partially under the caution wall. Use the
wooden floor to fill the rest. Use the yellow-brick incline at the
top of the caution wall to keep Mel from flying into oblivion.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 24: Stop The Invasion
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Blow up all the blimps.
Parts: 1 balloon, 1 rope, 1 phaser, 1 flintrock and 1 missile.
This puzzle is one of the more difficult medium puzzles, mainly
because the small amount of parts can be threatening at first. It
seems to be far too little to blow up ALL of the blimps with, but
it's possible.
One mistake I made on my first attempt was trying to use the phaser
to shoot down a blimp. This makes the blimp you shoot fly way out of
control, and makes the puzzle unpredictable.
Instead, set up the rope, pulleys and balloons so the phaser will
shoot the flint rocks. The flint-rocks should be directly above the
lower horizontal brick platform, and should be in a vertical position
just beneath the highest blimp. Point the phaser to the left,
putting it to the right at the flint-rocks, and tie the balloon</pre><pre id="faqspan-3">
to the trigger, using pulleys as necessary.
Believe it or not, this takes out almost every blimp. The highest
blimp touches the fire of the flint-rocks, blows up, descends,
touches the fuse of the missile (which blows up the four blimps on
the far left) and blows up the two blimps in the middle.
There's only one left; the one in the lower-right corner. But that
first blimp is still heading down. Set the missle, facing right, on
the lower platform. It'll waste the last blimp, and end the
invasion.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 25: Mel-O-Drama
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Help Mel make it home.
Parts: 3 basketballs, 2 baseballs, 1 wood incline, 1 trap door, 1
trailer, 1 nitroglycerine, 1 springboard, 1 pinball bumper, 1 piece
of cheese, 1 Newton Mouse and 1 Curie Cat.
Newton Mouse stands in Mel's way at the beginning of this puzzle. You
have some cheese to lure him away, but then the cheese would just get
in your way. So, put Curie Cat right above Mel's head. She'll chase
Newton off.
The next obstacle is a raised bit of wood. It's not obvious, but you
can run up Newton Mouse's back. This is kinda tricky, as there's no
solid way to guarantee if there will be the first Newton there. Put
cheese on the other side to make sure he's at the right spot.
Finally, you gotta bust through the entire floor. Place the nitro in
the small crevice where the wood is raised on the upper level. It'll
be enough of a drop to blast the floor out. Now, it's all up to
little Mel. Run, little man!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 26: Lunar Base Take-Off
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Launch the rocket off the top of the screen.
Parts: 1 blimp, 2 ropes, 1 pulley, 1 hedge clippers, 1 flashlight, 1
magnifying glass, 1 flint rock, 1 electric motor, 1 green laser, 1
blue laser, 1 laser mixer, 1 cable, 1 antigravity pad and 1 pinball
flipper.
Special Conditions: Low gravity and pressure; balloons sink, and
slowly.
That mylar balloon acts peculiarly. It sinks rather than floating.
Therefore, you must take that into consideration when you think of
what to do. Because of the way the pulley is set up, if it goes too
far in either direction, the teeter-tooter it's tied to moves. You
can use the antigravity pad, or the pinball flipper, or just wait for
gravity to pull it. In any case, tie the other end of the seesaw to
the lava lamp to power the red laser.
But... the red laser misses the target. That's odd... and we can't
move it to adjust it either. But have no fear. Here's a good use of
the laser mixer tool. It can redirect already locked lasers. Place it
so the laser mixer is pointed to the target of the outlet. Plug the
generator in, and connect it to the translator. Use rope (through a
pulley) and fire the phaser to the rocket's fuse!
..wait. The phaser missed, TOO. Grr... who playtested this hunk of
crap? Anyway, the phaser, as you learned, can strike flint rocks, so
place flintrocks beneath the fuse and the rocket will launch without
a hitch.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 27: Flight Through the Alps
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Launch the balloon off the top of the screen.
Parts: 1 teeter-totter, 1 tin snips, 1 hedge clipper, 1 flashlight, 1
lava lamp, 1 red laser, 1 blue laser, 1 bicycle pump, and 1
antigravity pad.
This puzzle starts out, as many do, with a little antigravity. Place
the antigravity pad beneath the soccer ball. It will hover up and hit
the beach bucket. Put the teeter totter there (with the lower end
supporting the baseball). The bucket should make the baseball fly
over the rest of the scene, but position a bicycle pump over the light
switch so it'll blow into the pinwheel before the baseball leaves.
The bowling ball should hit the switch and bounce off the pinball
bumper at such an angle, it can hit a pair of tin snips you put
beneath the deep slope in the center of the puzzle. Plug a laser
into that switch and the solar panel. Aim them both for the flammable
parts of their nearby entities (the candle of the hot-air balloon and
the fuse of the cannon) The cannonball should go over the hot-air
balloon and can hit a flashlight positioned just after the solar
cells. The laser should burn the fuse and tt should now rise off the
screen.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 28: Soccer Shocker
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put the soccer ball into the crate.
Parts: 3 large corner pipes, 2 accelerators, 1 pool cue, 1 thumbtack,
2 trailers, 1 tin snips, 1 hedge trimmer, 1 flashlight, 1 magnifying
glass, 1 flint rocks, 1 egg timer, 1 boxing glove and 1 Edison
alligator.
Put Edison alligator in the bottom-right corner of the puzzle, so his
snout will flip the pinball to the hot-air balloon. The official
solution used the boxing glove, but I think the alligator is far
awesomer. Anyway, the pinball can then be used to hit a flint rock
placed beneath the hot-air balloon.
Now that the hot-air balloon is rising, you can use it to bump a pair
of tin snips to cut the steel cable holding the beach bucket. (You
can get the blimp to do this sometimes) The bucket can cut the
balloon from the rope as well. Place a pool cue (facing up-left)
between the smiley balloon and the soccer ball.
There IS a springboard there, but IGNORE IT! Using it is far too
obfuscated. Instead, put a corner pipe to catch the soccer ball, then
connect an accelerator to it, then another corner pipe to send it
upwards. Put an accelerator above the first accelerator, making the
end of it flush with the yellow brick floor. Attach a corner pipe to
the other end of the accelerator so it will catch the soccer ball.
Basically, you're constructing a big "C" shape OUTSIDE of the little
narrow place where the springboard was, but with the middle of the C
missing. It should send the soccer ball up the incline and to the
crate. You may need to put something to keep it from going off the screen.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 29: Pinball Puzzler
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Make the pinball in the upper left corner fall off the bottom
of the screen.
Parts: 11 large corner pipes, 3 accelerators, 1 egg timer, 3
springboards and 1 pinball bumper.
Even for a pipe puzzle, this one is amazingly dry. Along the bottom
of the puzzle, in the three areas, put two corner pipes to take a
pinball going down and send it up and attach an accelerator to it.
The pieces should look like shortened J's.
Between the first and second, and the second and third, at the top of
the structure, put two corner pipes to take a ball coming up and drop
it down a little to the right. They should look like C's turned on
their side.
Finally, take the last corner piece and hook it onto the right part
of the T-connector. This should complete the path for the pinball.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Puzzle 30: All Terrain Pinball
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put the pinball into the wicker basket and activate the
computer terminal.
Parts: 2 accelerators, 3 pinball bumpers and 1 Edison alligator.
This puzzle is a big pain. It's only difficulty is in that it's
difficult to get the pinball to do what you want, as there are
infinite positions of the pinball bumpers, and they are fairly
chaotic.
First things first; place an accelerator beneath the pinball. When
launched, it should hit the computer terminal right away. That was
easy. Getting out, however, will not be. You need to use two (and
ONLY two) pinball bumpers to knock the ball back out. Put one beneath
the computer, so the ball rolls onto it, then another to where it
will bounce from there. In BOTH cases, make sure the pinball hits the
RIGHT side of the bumper. That way, it will head right. This will
take a lot of adjusting, so don't be impatient.
Once the ball is in the second quadrant, you have an new problem. Put
the accelerator in the hole. The problem now is the pinball isn't
going into the basket. It's going into the aquarium. To prevent this,
put the final bumper into the corner above the aquarium. This should
bump it down into the basket.
This will take a while, so try not to be impatient. My instructions
can't really get much more clear than this, believe it or not, since
the pinball bumper, shall we say, creates fluctuations in even the
simplest equations...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
5:3 - Hard Puzzles
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 1: Things That Go Boom!!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Set off the fireworks on the left side of the screen.
Parts: 1 rope, 1 pulley, 1 hedge trimmers, 1 flashlight, 1 magnifying
glass, 1 rocket, 1 missile, 1 bicycle pump and 1 jack-in-the-box.
There's a lot of bang to boom around here. But all the action that's
moving is Newton mouse lighting a match-on-a spring. Place a rocket
beneath it. It will push the lower end up and you can use that
energy to pull the trigger of the phaser. That will set off the flint
rocks. Use the fire of the flint rocks to set off a missile
(not a rocket). The missile will blow up the two blimps, and they
will blow up all kinds of stuff. Eventually, the pinball there will
hit the detonator and release the other pinball.
That pinball should fall between two brick inclines. Put the
flashlight and magnifying glass between them and the firework, and
watch the show! If this is to complicated, replace the first rocket
with the missile to move this around.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 2: Curie and the Fish Squish
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Break all six fish tanks and help Curie Cat exit the right side
of the screen.
Parts: 4 yellow-brick inclines, 1 blimp, 1 flashlight, 1 magnifying
glass, 1 candle and 1 springboard.
You need to light that cannon to wreck them fishtanks, but the only
thing moving at the beginning of the puzzle is too far away. You
could get the baseball to get down to the cannon, but there is a
better way.
Set the flashlight and magnifying glass beneath the baseball. Have
them light the candle. Now, have the blimp hit the lit candle and
explode. The flaming blimp can light fuses, so put the candle at a
point that the blimp will fall onto the fuse of the cannon.
The first four aquariums fall with little difficulty, but the two on
the bottom are left unbroken. To remedy this, on the left side of the
caution wall with the fourth aquarium broken, place a springboard
immediately to the left of that caution floor. Above it, put some
yellow-brick inclines, one one-wide, then one two-wide. Make them
slope so the ball will hit them and go right. This should direct the
ball to the right side of the screen, rolling along the floor and
blasting the two final fish tanks. Curie should be intrigued, and
walk her way off the map.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 3: Newton's Cafe
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Help Newton Mouse treat all his past to a cheese dinner.
Parts: 1 pool ball, 1 antigravity pad, 1 springboard, 1 Jack-in-the-
box, and 1 boxing glove.
There is one very important thing to keep in mind with this puzzle;
the goal says to help Newton treat "all his friends" to cheese. It
does NOT say Newton needs to be among them. Newton (the mouse
suspended in the air) doesn't need to be eating for the puzzle to be
solved.
The puzzle is fairly simple for one in the Hard category. Even so,
I'll explain it. Place the boxing glove next to the cheese, with the
button facing the right. Place the antigravity pad and the
springboard in the two bottom corners of the room Newton is in. For
the most part, it matters not which one is where.
When set up properly, Newton will strike the pinball bumper at a
particular angle and sail to the leftside of that room, then be
propelled up to the boxing glove's button. The boxing glove will
strike the cheese and all of Newton's friends will feast away.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 4: Curious Curie
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Help Curie Cat get out of the basement. Make her exit the
bottom of the screen.
Parts: 1 Greco-Roman incline, 1 pool cue, 1 trailer, 1 hedge
trimmers, 1 springboard and 1 Newton Mouse.
Place Newton Mouse in the view of Curie Cat. This will get her to
stride forward and slide down the inclines up to the bucket tied to
the pierhook above the trap door. This is, quite clearly her exit,
but how do we cut the rope?
With hedge trimmers! Well, duh. For those of you wanting a more
satisfactory explanation, here you go. There's a hole in the Greco-
Roman floor after the inclines Curie Cat takes to her beach bucket.
Put the hedge trimmers near that hole, so something falling through
the hole can cut them.
But, what's going to fall through the hole? Not Curie, certainly. Up
in the upper-left corner are two tennis balls. Place a pool cue
facing right, and position the button of the pool cue so it will be
struck by the higher tennis ball. This will make it strike the
pinball and it will fall and cut the ties to the bucket. Since Curie
is heavy enough to set off the trap door, she and the bucket will
fall out of the basement.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 5: Cage the Kitty
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put Curie Cat in the cage.
Parts: 1 yellow-brick floor, 2 large corner pipes, 1 accelerator, 1
Greco-Roman slant, 1 balloon, 1 steel cable, 1 phaser, 1 electric
motor and 1 cable.
You can probably already see the gap in the big Greco-Roman incline,
so go ahead and fill that up. Now, to get Newton closer to that
cheese, position the phaser near that pulley. Tie it to a balloon
with the steel cable. When it blows up the dynamite, Newton can run
to the cheese.
Of course he'll fall into the pit, as they always seem to. Put two
corner pieces around the already-set accelerator. Position them to
catch him and to sent him upwards to the already-set corner piece.
Add an accelerator to that piece, and Newton should be thrown into
the next pipe, and onto the switch. Plug the electric motor into it
(and flip it), then cable it to the conveyor Curie is resting on.
Finally, Curie will fly right past the cage if you don't put the
yellow-brick wall along the side of the cage. Put it so it's aligned
with the left side of the cage.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 6: Target Practice
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Use the boxing glove to pop the balloon.
The goal is very clear; use the boxing glove to pop the balloon. That
means you can't just use the remote bomb to pop it. The game will
know you're trying to fudge it. (You CAN position it to pop it with
the explosives, then set off the boxing glove, but that's weak.)
Note this well about the puzzle as well: The pen that the boxing
glove and balloon are in is made of sand walls on THREE sides and
GRASS on it's left side. You need to position the dynamite near that
side, else you'll never get in there. Put the detonator beneath the
corner pipe the righthand bowling ball emerges from.
Getting the lefthand bowling ball to the preset flashlight is
slightly more difficult. Set a corner piece right beneath it, then an
accelerator. The accelerator should connect with the preset corner
piece. Above that, connect a corner piece to mesh with the preset
straight piece, then one to turn the bowling ball downward. It should
land precisely on the flashlight.
I'm sure nobody's surprised that you have to light the fuse of the
cannon with the flashlight and magnifying glass. Point the cannon so
it'll hit the button of the boxing glove and strike the balloon.
Yippee.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 7: Plural Pop
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Pop both of the balloons.
Parts: 2 large corner pipes, 2 accelerators, 3 red-brick inclines, 1
pool cue, 1 thumbtack, 1 pierhook, 1 egg timer and 1 antigravity pad.
Put an antigravity pad in the hole in the floor in the center of the
puzzle. The bowling ball should float back the other antigravity pad.
Catch it with a corner pipe and an accelerator, so it will run along
the brick floor. Use another pipe to direct it right onto the
nitroglycerine. That will pop the mylar balloon, and the dog-face
balloon will now be free. Leave the thumbtack above it to pop it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 8: Laser Coffee
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Get the coffee pot off the screen.
Parts: 1 pinball and 7 mirrors. That's it.
You might have guessed, but all you need to do to beat this one is
direct all three lasers to the laser mixer to power the motor. Use
the pinball to turn on the switch. I'll cover each laser's path to
the mixer individually.
Green: Put one mirror next to the highest preset mirror. Align it
horizontally to the lowest preset mirror.
Red: Use two mirrors, one past the coffee pot, aligned to the red
laser, and one above it, aligned to the righthand mirror above the
laser mixer.
Blue: Use three mirrors, two on near the same level vertically
(above every other mirror), one parallel to the first mirror furthest
to the left, the next above the coffee pot, the final one aligned
with the blue laser, also above the coffee pot.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 9: Newton Goes Bowling
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put the bowling ball into the cardboard box.
Parts: 1 remote bomb, 1 electric motor, 1 laser-powered outlet, 2
mirrors, 1 cable and 1 hunk of cheese.
When there's Newton involved, it's seldom in question what to do with
the cheese. Set the cheese across from Newton, and he'll run to it.
He'll fall into the beach bucket, and disrupt the delicate
equilibrium of the beach bucket balancing act.
The other bucket will rise, flipping the switch for the red laser.
Use the two mirrors to redirect the laser closer to the conveyor,
since that's what you're going to use the power for. Switch the
laser-powered outlet to "red" and get the laser into it. Plug the
electric motor into it, flip it, and connect it and the conveyor
with a cable.
Finally, set a remote bomb on the log floor directly to the left of
the conveyor, and place the detonator beneath the sinking half of the
beach bucket Libras. The bowling ball should make its way down to the
cardboard box with no interruptions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 10: Toast Roast
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: It's breakfast time. Let's roast some toast.
Parts: 1 large corner pipe, 1 accelerator, 1 hedge clippers, 1 fan, 1
mouse motor, 1 conveyor and 1 cable.
As is the norm in The Incredible Machine, one of the parts has an
important double purpose. The basketball has to set off the preset
mouse motor and the flint rocks. This is achieved by funneling the
basketball into a corner pipe, then using an accelerator to give it
some push. The accelerator should be positioned beneath the
firework, so the firework is on the very edge of it. Knocking the
flintrock should launch the firework and turn the power of the toaster
on.
The mouse motor is attached to the Jack-in-the-box. Here's where we
learn something very important about the Jack-in-the-box. The force
of it opening can knock hedge clippers shut. You can use the Jack in
the box to free the lower dogface balloon. It will fly up and hit the
downturned switch.
Plug the fan into the switch outlet, and it'll blow the other
dogfaced balloon. Set a mouse motor next to it, and connect it to a
conveyor stretched to the switch of the toaster. The baseball should
keep from falling with this conveyor there, and should hit the switch
when the mouse motor is activated.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 11: Clash of the Critters
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Help Curie Cat and Newton Mouse blow each other off the screen.
Parts: 1 lava lamp, 1 flint-rocks, 2 cannons, 1 remote bomb, 1 can
opener, 1 outlet and 1 piece of cheese.
This puzzle tarts out so peacefully. Neither Curie or Newton even SEE
each other. It's so nice to think they can get along...
NOT! You gotta stir things up a bit here. Start by putting a piece of
cheese out of Newton's reach, and a can opener in the outlet out of
Curie's reach. This will lure them both out onto the flashlights. You
only got two things to light; place once cannon near Curie, facing
the corner of Newton's side of the screen. Place the other near
Newton, facing Curie's side of the screen. Position it so the
cannonball will hit the detonator of the bomb underneath Curie Cat.
All you need to do is forge a similar setup on Newton's side. Place
the detonator in the funnel setup near the top of the puzzle, and
place the bomb directly above the magnifying glass on his side of
the screen.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 12: Cheese Please!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put Newton Mouse into the cage at the bottom. Put the center
piece of cheese in with him.
Parts: 1 flint-rocks, 2 remote bombs, 1 electric motor, 1 cable and
1 antigravity pad.
You got two things to do; Get Newton into the cage, and get that
center piece of cheese in there with him. Let's handle Newton first.
All you really need to do to send him on his way is place an
antigravity pad in the subsidence in the red brick on the righthand
of the puzzle. His lust for cheese will send him around all the other
turns (except for the red brick obstruction, but I'll get to that.)
Now, we need to send that piece of cheese on the conveyor into the
center cheese. How do we do that? Put the detonator of a remote bomb
in the hole in the incline on the left. Set the bomb in the red brick
above the cage. Occasionally, the pinball will br thrown to the left
because of the explosion. Just inch the bomb to the right some.
The pinball passes over the detonator and it will clear away the red
brick obstruction and pass along to the egg-timer. Set a flint-rock
beneath the rocket, as that next pinball will be able to light it up.
All you really have to plug in to the switch the rocket hits is the
electric motor. Cable it to the conveyor, and the cheese sitting
there will knock the center cheese around the same path Newton took
to the cage. Cheese and mouse, united in holy eatery.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 13: Danger Blimp
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Get the blimp into the hangar on the left.
Parts: 1 red brick floor, 1 hot air balloon, 1 rope, 2 pulleys, 1
pierhook, 1 magnifying glass, 1 match-on-a-spring, 1 remote bomb and
1 outlet.
Getting the hangar safely into the hangar means three things:
destroying the nitro, getting the bucket out of the way, and blowing
up the yellow wall. Luckily, these are all easily achieved in only a
few short steps IF YOU CALL NOW!!
..I don't know where that came from. Anyway, set the remote bomb
plunger beneath the pinball. Set the bomb inside the hangar. The wall
is destroyed and the bucket is out of the way, but you need that
bucket.
Tie the bucket to a match-on-a-spring. Use a pulley to position where
the bucket will hang from. It's important that the bucket won't get
in the missile's way. Put the match-on-a-spring underneath the
missile and it should launch and destroy the dangerous obstacle. The
blimp should be able to sail in just fine.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 14: Pompeian Rhapsody
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Light the candle and turn on the lava lamp.
Parts: 2 Greco-Roman slants, 1 balloon, 2 ropes, 1 match-on-a-spring,
1 cable, 1 circular-to-translational translator and 1 antigravity
pad.
Use the pulley on the lefthand side of the puzzle to string a balloon
and a match-on-a-string together. The match should be lit by the time
the candle slides by, so watch the timing on this one.
As far as the lava lamp, you can see the mouse motor. The candle
should slide all the way to the hole in the floor at the bottom
right. Fill that hole with some antigravity, then use some Greco-
Roman inclines to direct the candle on top of the mouse motor.
Translate the mouse motor's power to translational, and attach it to
the lava lamp.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 15: Blimp-Be-Gone
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Blow up the blimp before it can get off the screen.
Parts: 1 pinball, 1 pierhook, 1 switch outlet, 1 mouse motor, 1
conveyor, 1 cable and 2 antigravity pads.
Believe it or not, you ARE going to use the missile to destroy the
blimp. You just need to bring it into the right position. Place a
conveyor underneath it, and a mouse motor (you'll have to flip it)
underneath the tennis ball. This will send it to the left. Assuming
the bucket wasn't there, (I'll get to that) you need it to get past
that pit. You do this by laying BOTH antigravity pads into the hole.
It should fly up and land on the caution floor near the match-on-a-
spring, if all the explosives weren't there.
How do we get rid of the explosives? How do we move the bucket? How
do we light the match-on-a-string? All of these questions have the
same answer; place the pinball into the higher bucket. It will
descend, raise the other bucket, depress the detonator, and the lower
bucket will pull up the teeter-totter, and the match will light.
This is one of my personal favorite puzzles. The extreme efficiency
of that one pinball drop accomplishing THREE things is normally
unheard of, and the seemingly impossible task of getting the missile
to where it seems to be is just a great example of what The
Incredible Machine is all about. Makes a man proud.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 16: Newton's Special Brew
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Get the coffee to start brewing.
Parts: 1 Greco-Roman incline, 1 rope, 1 steel cable, 3 pulleys, 2
pierhooks, 1 hedge clippers, 2 match-on-a-string, 1 fan, 1 conveyor,
1 cable, 1 circular-to-translational translator, 1 bicycle pump, 1
antigravity pad and 1 piece of cheese.
What do you do when you see a useless gap in an incline? That's
right. Fill the gap beneath the coffee pot with your bit of incline.
And what do we do when we have Newton in a puzzle? We tantalize him
with cheese. Put the cheese just outside his reach, so he'll fall and
set off the remote bomb. Put the bicycle pump in between him and the
detonator, and point him to the already-set pinwheel. Hoot the
pinwheel to the translator, and the translator to a match-on-a-
spring. Put the match in the aquarium. It may be necessary to use a
pulley.
Next, fill the hole between the cinder block wall and the Greco-Roman
incline with an antigravity pad. This should take the coffee pot up
to the aquarium. It'll be percolating all over the place.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 17: Mel on the Move
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Help Mel get safely home.
Parts: 3 teeter-totters, 3 ropes, 3 phasers, 1 magnifying glass, 1
stick of dynamite, 1 nitroglycerine, 1 egg timer, 1 antigravity pad,
1 springboard and 1 boxing glove.
It should be obvious Mel will be on the move from the beginning of
this puzzle. The antigravity pad will push him to the top-left of the
puzzle. It should also be obvious the drop he will suffer is far too
great for Mel to bear without a nap. To preserve Mel's well-being,
place three teeter-totters between the top of the leftmost shaft and
the bottom. Set them so the lower end faces a wall. Put the first and
third against the left wall, and the second one against the right
wall.
This will supply a nice set of steps to keep Mel awake, but it
doesn't get rid of the obstacles leading to Mel's house. There's a
mylar balloon and two long planks of wood floor. What can you do to
get rid of them? You do have three phasers. Point the phasers (1)
above the wood blocks (2) between the second and third wood blocks
(3) and pointing to the mylar balloon (pointing right at Mel's
starting point). They should all be against the right wall of the
part of the puzzle you put the seesaws in.
The balloon pops with little difficulty, but the phaser can't destroy
walls. But, the dynamite and nitro can. Place the nitro on the lower
floor blocking Mel's way, and put the dynamite on the higher floor.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 18: Edison's Breakfast
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Turn on the can opener.
Parts: 1 pool ball, 1 rope, 1 pulley, 1 hedge trimmers, 1 toaster, 1
mouse motor, 1 cable and 1 boxing glove.
This is an odd name for this puzzle, especially since Edison
Alligator is nowhere to be found. Anyway, the beginning force of this
puzzle is a little hard to see at first. The blimp floating towards
the happy face balloon will push it enough to pop the balloon, and
Newton Mouse will fall unaffected. You could use the boxing glove,
but that's unnecessary roughness. Beneath him, put a mouse motor, and
attach it to the conveyor with the tennis ball resting on it.
The tennis ball will strike the button on the flashlight and light
the hot-air balloon. Since the tennis ball is bouncy, it'll not be
satisfied with resting on the flashlight. Thank goodness, because
it's the only moving part right now. Place the hedge trimmers near
the floor, so they'll trim the rope and free the balloon. The balloon
will tip the trailer, which will free the baseball. Tie the left side
of the trailer to the lava lamp, and the solar power will be... uh,
powered.
The only thing you have for it to power is the toaster. Plug the
toaster in, pointing the tab to the left. The baseball should press
the lever down and the toast should pop. If it's close enough, it'll
hit the switch, but sometimes it's hard to get that to happen. If
you're having trouble, place the pool ball above the toaster, and
it'll hit the switch no problem.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 19: Mel's Mine Field
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Get Mel or any of his friends to the house.
Parts: 2 pipe floors, 1 large pipe corner, 1 accelerator, 1 Greco-
Roman incline, 2 sticks of dynamite, 1 nitroglycerine, 1 remote bomb
and 1 antigravity pad.
This puzzle is, by far, the most chaotic and randomly solved puzzle.
There are at least a dozen different ways you can solve this puzzle,
but almost all of them involve the antigravity pad.
The solution I first used was: Put the antigravity pad beneath the
second-lowest Mel, then build an accelerator and corner pipe near the
top of the screen to send him towards the house. You may need to use
some of the pipe floor to make sure he doesn't just turn around.
The official solution puts the antigravity pad underneath the
righthand nitro next to the second-lowest Mel, then the Greco Roman
incline above it, to redirect the Mel to the house.
There really isn't a definite solution with this one; it's all very
random. Even so, eventually you'll get it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 20: Mel Takes a Hike
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Set off the fireworks.
Parts: 1 Greco-Roman incline, 1 electric motor, 1 blue laser, 1 cable
and 1 antigravity pad.
The red half of that laser mixer is already there, but what we need
is the blue half. The switch seems to be the only thing able to give
it electricity, but the tennis ball is beneath the switch. Once
again, antigravity comes through. A little dab'll do ya! Place the
antigravity pad in the space in the floor beneath the inclines. The
ball will pass, but when it tries to descend, it will just barely hit
the switch.
Point the laser to the lower mirror, and it'll mix into purple. Plug
the electric motor into it (flip it), and cable it to the large gear
already set. This will send the bowling ball onto the detonator and
remove the obstacle from Mel's way.
But, the obstacle doesn't get blown up in time for Mel to get past
it, so he turns around and starts walking into the gears. Allow him
to do that, and he cannot get back. To prevent this, stick the
electric motor in his way, so he cannot fall off that bit of floor.
Mel's hike should take him down to the flint rocks to set off the
fireworks. Note how the antigravity pad that made the tennis ball
turn on the blue laser also saves him here. That's called value.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 21: The Big Balloon Bummer
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Pop all the balloons.
Parts: 1 flashlight, 1 magnifying glass, 1 red laser, 1 mouse motor,
1 conveyor belt, 1 cable, 1 bicycle pump, 1 antigravity pad, 1
pinball flipper, 1 Jack-in-the-box and 1 boxing glove.
Note: The goal says "Pop all the balloons," but it does not include
the hot air balloon on the left. So, don't worry your little head
over it.
Also, ignore the pin set beneath the smiley-face balloon. That's not
what you need to pop the balloons. Instead, place the antigravity pad
beneath the mylar and dogface balloon. This will queue all four
balloons at the far right.
Beneath the high pinball, put the pinball flipper. Angle it so the
ball falls into the nearby pit and hits the switch. Plug the laser
into it, and point it to the hot-air balloon. This should start the
phaser firing. Now, one by one, the balloons will pop to the mighty
phaser.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 22: Jolly Jolly Jumping Jack
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Make Jack pop out of his box.
Parts: 1 wooden floor, 1 large straight pipe, 1 large corner pipes, 1
flashlight, 1 magnifying glass, 1 cannon, 1 egg-timer, 1 switch
outlet, 1 blue laser, 2 mirrors, 1 conveyor, 2 cables, 2 large gears
and 1 boxing glove.
To get the Jack-in-the-Box started, you'd need to move that
basketball. That would require lighting the dynamite. How do you do
that? That bucket hanging partially in the caution block structure
looks like a good place to start.
Don't let the hedge trimmers fool you. There's an easier way to get
that bucket down. The bucket is being suspended by that smiley face
balloon. The other bucket is being suspended by the trigger of that
phaser. It fires only one shot, but that's all you need. Put a corner
pipe to collect the phaser shot (yes, this will work), stretch out a
length of straight pipe, and turn the shot back towards the smiley
face balloon.
It seems we've run into another obstacle. The long wood wall is
blocking the phaser shot. It's always SOMEthing, isn't it? There's
falling nitroglycerine right near it, and would be a shame to waste
it. Line a small length of wood floor against the edge of the screen.
The nitro will fall just enough to detonate it and get rid of the
obstacle. Now, the phaser shot can travel uninterrupted to the
balloon, and destroy it.
The bucket falls, and this downward force would ideal for a
flashlight/magnifying glass combo. You can use this to set off a
cannon, and the cannonball will continue on. But be patient with this
part of the puzzle. It doesn't take long to set up, but very
frequently, the cannonball will not make it over that caution wall.
It take some very exacting positions, as the cannon still needs to be
in a place the flashlight and magnifying glass can light the fuse. A
good thing to avoid is keeping the base of the cannon aligned to the
floor; keep it a bit off the ground.
Anyway, once you do get it over the hill, it should drop into another
narrow place. Put your switch outlet there, and plug in the blue
laser. The laser should be just above where the nitro fell. Use the
two mirrors to redirect it to the dynamite. The fuse will light and
the basketball will set off the mouse motor, and it'll send Jack
right out of his box.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 23: Rocket Racket
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Make the rocket fly off the top of the screen.
Parts: 1 flashlight, 1 magnifying glass, 1 laser-powered outlet, 2
blue lasers, 3 mirrors, 1 conveyor, 3 cables, 5 large gears, 3 small
gears and 1 bicycle pump.
Not much is going to happen until you get the bowling ball on the
conveyor up that incline. You could cable it to the mouse motor with
two large gears, but then the direction would be reversed. Add a
third large gear, and the bowling ball will move in the right
direction, but it doesn't have the push necessary to climb the
incline. Instead of a large gear, make the third gear a small gear.
It'll be spun twice as fast, and will give the bowling ball the force
to get up the incline.
You can put a bicycle pump to make it blow the mylar balloon, but the
bowling ball will do it eventually. It might behoove you to use the
bicycle pump. Once the mylar balloon rises, the ever-powered blue
laser flashes beyond the seesaw for one brief second, then is re-
obstructed.
Believe it or not, one instant is all you need. Place a blue laser-
powered outlet where the laser will pass, and plug two more blue
lasers into it. Direct the first one down, and use a mirror to send
the beam into the fuses of the rocket and the missile. Point the
other one directly at the target of the blue outlet that it is being
powered by. Yes, it's going to power itself! Isn't technology keen?
It should keep itself running, so the other laser can burn the fuses
of both the rocket and the missile, the missile blowing up the
ceiling for the rocket.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 24: Trick Shot
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put the 2 ball into the middle pocket at the bottom of the
screen, and put the 3 ball into the top left corner pocket.
Parts: 1 pool ball, 1 baseball, 1 wood incline, and 1 pool cue.
I LOATHE pool puzzles. They're almost entirely based on luck. Not
only that, but they're very hard to help someone on. All I can really
tell you is what you're supposed to do. Hit the cue ball with the
pool cue. Put the pool cue at the down-left position. Hit it a little
down of the center of the ball. When you get it right, the cue ball
should knock the 2 ball down into the pit, but then travel back up
and knock the 3 ball into its pocket.
And take your time. This needs some fairly precise positioning of the
cue. But, you'll get it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 25: Fire Show Shenanigans
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Set off all the fireworks.
Parts: 1 pipe floor, 1 wood incline, 1 flashlight, 1 magnifying
glass, 1 candle, 1 flint-rock, 1 remote bomb, 1 mouse motor, 1
conveyor and 1 cable.
The tennis ball on the right if falling agonizingly slow, but it's
all you have to start with. At the bottom of all those steps, put the
detonator to the remote bomb. Place the bomb beneath the imprisoned
rocket. If you don't feel like waiting till infinity for that damn
tennis ball to crawl down the stairs, put the detonator to the right
of the entire puzzle, and the candle above it.
The rocket is in a cramped space, but I don't think it's cramped
enough. Add the mouse motor just above the rocket. Add the conveyor
beneath the tennis ball above it, then tie them together with a
cable.
Place the pipe along the bottom of the puzzle, so the rocket will
have somewhere to fall to. Place the flint rocks beneath the wood
incline at the bottom of the hole. The tennis ball should be able to
just strike the left rock. If not, set it so it strikes the right
rock, and the flame gets magnified with the magnifying glass.
The flame of the rocket should light all the fireworks as it slides
along the floor. Yay.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 26: Late for Breakfast
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Make some toast and launch the balloon.
Parts: 1 baseball, 1 accelerator, 1 hedge trimmers, 1 magnifying
glass, 1 red laser, 1 green laser, 1 blue laser, 1 mirror and 1
cable.
This part has two entirely unrelated parts. The balloon and the toast
never interact or interfere with each other. So, I can cover them
separately.
Make toast: Put an accelerator facing right at the end of the pipe
the soccer ball falls down into. You'll notice the soccer ball is
pushing the spring at the end of the translator, making it spin. Keep
this in mind. Belt the translator to the generator, and plug the red
and blue lasers into it. Point them to the mixer, and direct the new
purple laser to the purple outlet.
Launch the balloon: Drop the baseball onto hedge trimmers to cut the
balloon free. Make the baseball fall so it will also hit the button
on the flashlight. Use a magnifying glass to light the fuse of the
rocket. The rocket will hit the switch, so plug the green laser into
it to light the candle of the hot-air balloon.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 27: Curie and the Cannon
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Fire the cannon and put the laundry basket over Curie Cat.
Parts: 1 large corner pipe, 1 accelerator, 1 pool cue, 1 trap door, 1
rope, 1 pulley, 1 hedge trimmer, 1 match-on-a-string, 1 coffee pot, 1
fan, 1 laser, 2 belts, 1 large gear, 1 small gear, 1 bicycle pump and
1 pinball flipper.
The baseball is the only thing with kinetic energy at the start of
the puzzle, but it will fall off the arena if you don't do something.
All you need to do is put the accelerator beneath it to throw it back
up. Now, it'll hit that switch. Plug the green laser into it. Line it
so it hits the green laser-powered plug. Plug a fan into that plug
pointed to the pinwheel, and cable it to the translator. Put a match-
on-a-string near the fuse of the cannon, and tie the two together
(you may need a pulley).
The cannon is fired, but what about Curie Cat? Well, that candle
could do something, if it was on the level of the laser. Well, the
candle isn't heavy enough to set off the trap door, so put that down
beneath it. Put the coffee pot facing left above it, in the small
pipe pit. The candle should be lit, and the coffee pot should blow
the laundry basket onto Curie Cat.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 28: Patriotic Pop-A-Thon
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Pop the balloon in the top right corner of the screen.
Parts: 1 rope, 2 hedge trimmers, 1 lava lamp, 1 magnifying glass, 1
red laser, 1 green laser and 1 blue laser.
Mel takes a long run before firing the phaser. You can use the phaser
blast to free the smiley balloon. It will flip the switch to turn on
the vacuum above it. Plug the red laser in and point it to the red
laser outlet. Plug the blue laser into that outlet (leaving it out of
the way of the balloon's path) and aim it to the blue laser outlet.
Plug the green laser into that outlet and light the fuse of the hot-
air balloon.
Tie the balloon to a lava lamp. Use the light from the lava lamp with
a magnifying glass to light the cannon's fuse. The cannonball should
make it all the way to the balloon and the antigravity pad. Just
place the other hedge trimmers in there to cut the rope and send the
balloon into the pin.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 29: Immobilized Mel
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Help Mel get to the floor at the bottom of the screen.
Parts: 1 pool ball, 5 tennis balls, 1 wood incline, 1 antigravity pad
and 2 springboards.
You need to get rid of all that nasty obstruction on the bottom left
before much will happen. The first remote bomb does go off, but it
doesn't set off any of the nitro. To do this, you need to set off the
second remote bomb. Place a springboard beneath the falling nitro on
the right side of the screen. I'll destroy the brick obstruction, and
the tennis ball thrown by the first remote bomb will sail right by.
To slow down the tennis ball, put ALL FIVE OTHER tennis balls in
front of it. The explosion gives it far too much power, but the last
one in the line should roll gently onto the second detonator. Now, all
the wood and nitro are gone except for one falling nitro and one last
bit of nasty wood. To get rid of this one, put the other springboard
beneath it, so the nitro will hop up to the wood and blow up, Now,
Mel's path is completely clear.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 30: Free Smiley
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Make the smiley face balloon fly off the top of the screen.
Parts: 1 fan and 1 springboard.
Is this one really hard?? With the two parts they give you, is there
any doubt of what you have to do? Put the springboard underneath the
nitro and plug the fan into the solar outlet. When the blimp gets
taken down, the dog balloon gets popped by the clippers and the
smiley balloon goes off the screen. How is this a "Hard" puzzle??
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Puzzle 31: Rocketropolis
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Launch the rocket off the top of the screen.
Place the flint-rocks beneath the rocket. They are really the only
logical firestarter you have (it would be impractical to try to get
the laser up there).
Place the toaster beneath the tennis ball, so it depresses the
button, and place a conveyor beneath the baseball. Set up two gears,
one large and one small. Tie the large one to the conveyor and the
small to a mouse motor (flip it), activated by the bump of the tennis
ball. This should send the baseball down the way to the switch.
Plug the blue laser into the switch and aim it towards the toaster.
Plug the toaster into the laser-powered outlet. Set the toaster to
dark toast, and the toaster should boost Mel up as he walks by. Your
particular setup of the above may warrant a different speed. Place
the bicycle pump above him. Point the pump to the tennis ball, so it
will blow to the edge. Place the pinball flipper into the narrow pit,
a little sunken in. At the right setting, the tennis ball should hit
the flint rocks and set off the rocket. Awesome.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
5:4 - Very Hard Puzzles
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 1: Exit Laughing
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Make the happy face balloon exit the top of the screen.
Parts: 1 yellow-brick incline, 2 balloons, 1 teeter-totter, 1
toaster, 1 egg-timer and 1 antigravity pad.
Once again, you need to let the smiley balloon off the screen. Put
the teeter-totter on top of the second column, with the right side
raised. Put the balloon beneath it, so it will raise it and depress
the bicycle pump. Put the other balloon in front of the bicycle pump.
It will bump the translator, which will swing the bucket down. Place
an egg-timer beneath it, so the button is struck when it falls.
Position it with the plunger facing right, so the coffee pot will be
sent onto the trailer. It will pull the trigger of the phaser.
Of course, that didn't do anything, because the balloon was not in
the right position. To bring it into position, put the antigravity
pad beneath it. Position the pad just above the pulley. Once the
dogface balloon is destroyed, the happy balloon is now the happy and
free balloon.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 2: The Critter-Gitter Cat Trap
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Trap Curie Cat in the laundry basket.
Parts: 1 pool ball, 1 yellow-brick incline, 1 balloon, 2 ropes, 1
match-on-a-spring and 1 coffee pot.
Nothing much is moving at the beginning of this puzzle. The official
solution has you put the incline and balloon in the far right, so the</pre><pre id="faqspan-4">
balloon pushes the bucket off, and then you rig the seesaws to
transfer the motion to the match-on-a-string. But, it's far simpler
to just hook the match-on-a-spring to the balloon.
Set the coffee pot diagonally below and to the right of the laundry
basket. Place the match beneath it, and the force of the coffee pot
should be able to make the laundry basket fall onto Curie Cat. She
never suspected a thing...
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 3: Lil' Mel's Jail Break
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Assist Mel in his daring escape and journey home.
Parts: 2 large straight pipes, 3 large corner pipes, 1 rope, 1
electric motor, 1 red laser, 1 green laser, 1 blue laser, 2 cables, 1
translational-to-circular translator and 1 antigravity pad.
The thing you should do first is try to set off the remote bomb above
Mel's cage. He won't be going anywhere until that's taken care of. To
set the bomb off, hook the blue and red laser up to the outlet in the
lefthand caution brick. Point them both up, and to the mirrors in the
corner. If properly positioned, they will mix in the mixer and power
the purple-laser outlet. Plug the electric motor (flip it) into that
outlet and cable it to the nearby conveyor. The pinball resting on it
should fall onto the raised end of a trailer.
This part is slightly tricky. Place the translator between the
trailer and the lower conveyor. Face the hook-eye right, and place
the translator so the hookeye is further to the left than the
rightside of the trailer. If it's not, the rope won't be able to pull
correctly. Setting the plunger on the left side of the translator
against the caution wall will ensure it will work. Cable the
translator to the lower conveyor, and the pinball should fall onto
the detonator.
Now the brick above Mel's cage is gotten rid of. Now, you need to
lead him home. This is accomplished purely with the big pipes. Put a
corner piece to direct Mel down, then connect one to move him left.
Put a small straight piece, then a corner piece and another vertical
straight piece. It should meet up with the piece already sitting
there. This path should send Mel to the house.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 4: Laser Balloon Blitz
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Pop the balloon.
Parts: 1 steel cable, 1 stick of dynamite, 1 rocket, 1 fan, 1 cable,
1 translational-to-circular translator, and 1 circular-to-
translational translator.
It's probably unclear from the initial setup of the puzzle, but you
won't be using the rocket OR the dynamite to pop that doggy balloon.
Instead, you should use the nitroglycerine resting near the green
laser to destroy it. Plug the fan into the yellow laser outlet,
facing the balloon. When powered, it'll blow the balloon right into
the detonator.
There's something else that may not be clear from the puzzle. While
you have BOTH kinds of energy translators, NEITHER of them are gonna
do you any good. How can I be so sure? Along with the translators,
you only have one length of steel cable, and one cable. This means
you could connect that mouse motor to one translator, then hook the
steel cable between them... and that's it. There's no way to transfer
the motion any further, so it isn't gonna get you anywhere, certainly
not in this puzzle.
So, ignore the steel cable and both translators. Instead, hook the
cable between the mouse motor and the generator. This will power both
lasers, which follow already-set paths to the outlet.
But, those darn blimps block the paths of the lasers. You only need
to get all of them out of the way for a fraction of a second, so even
removing a few blimps from the picture should help a lot. In front of
the red laser, just before the mirror, place a dynamite stick between
the caution floor and wall. It'll explode and take out the blimp
above it. Where it falls, put a rocket beneath it facing right. It'll
destroy the blimp between the two caution blocks on the right side.
This frees up enough space for the lasers to get by. The fan should
blow and hit the nitroglycerine.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 5: Balloon Over Manhattan
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Make the balloon fly off the screen.
Parts: 1 wooden wall, 1 rope, 1 hedge clippers, 1 flashlight, 1
electric motor, 2 cables, and 1 translational-to-circular translator.
Fill the space in the wooden structure with the wooden floor. Once
again, that pinball is a double purpose pinball. Place the flashlight
just before the solar panel, so the pinball will strike the button.
It'll have plenty of force left, though. It'll bounce right past the
flashlight and down into the pit in the cinder block floor. Beneath
that hole is the rope holding the hot-air balloon to a pierhook. Set
the hedge trimmers down so the pinball will snip that rope.
Now, since we have the solar power, let's plug what we can into it.
All we can plug into it is the electric motor. Make sure where you
put it isn't going to interfere with the pinball. It's possible to
position the motor in the right position so the cable can hook to the
translator attached, but that can cause some problems with the
pinball. To avoid this, cable the electric motor to the translator
already sitting near the match-on-a-spring. Place the translator you
have near the one hooked to the match, and connect them all
accordingly. The balloon should fly off to lands unknown... or at
least, off the screen.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 6: Pool Ball Sinker
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Sink the eight ball.
Parts: 1 cable, 1 antigravity pad, 1 springboard, 1 pinball flipper,
1 Jack-in-the-box and 1 boxing glove.
This puzzle isn't that complicated for a "Very Hard" puzzle, or at
least not to me. Anyway, it's a nice puzzle. Put the springboard (NOT
the antigravity pad) beneath the pinball under the switch connected
to the electric motor. On it's descent, it'll flip it on. Even though
it'll keep flipping it on and off, erratic power is better than no
power. Kids, don't flip on and off lights in your house. That's how
fires get started. Or, at least that's what my parents told me.
The only thing that can utilize the power of the electric motor is
the Jack-in-the-box, so place it beneath the pinball facing left.
That way, the pinball will be thrown to the right. It'll fly (well,
fall) onto the detonator. Place the antigravity pad to the right of
the detonator and the pinball will fly upward into the bowling ball.
The force of the pinball is usually far too great, and it'll smack
the bowling ball too hard for reasonable predictability. It's not
often you need to use the boxing glove to REDUCE the speed of
something, but place the boxing glove just before the bowling ball.
It'll roll along, down the trap door and hit the pool cue. Since the
remote bomb went off, there's no further obstruction between the cue
ball and the eight ball.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 7: Mega-Launch
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Launch the missile, the rocket, and the fireworks.
Parts: 2 caution walls, 1 large straight pipe, 1 large corner pipe, 1
thumbtack, 1 rope, 1 pierhook, 1 tin snips, 1 flashlight, 1
magnifying glass, 1 flint-rock, 1 match-on-a-spring, 1 electric
motor, 1 cable, 1 antigravity pad, 1 springboard and 1 Jack-in-the-
box.
This puzzle can seem overwhelming with the number of parts given to
you, but you don't need them all. TO make it simpler, I'll break it
down into each individual launch.
Missile: The pinball immediately falls through the trap door, and
flips a switch. Attach the electric motor to the switch, and cable it
to a Jack-in-the-box. Place the Jack-in-the-Box beneath the bucket
near the missile, facing right. Tie the bucket to a match-on-a-
spring, and position it beneath the fuse of the missile.
Fireworks: The pinball continues down to the left of the screen.
Place a wall just as tall as the leftmost wall (but four units
shorter) four clicks to the right of that wall. In this position, the
pinball should fall down near the firework. Place the flashlight and
magnifying glass near it to light the fuse. The pinball should
continue rolling left after hitting the button, else we'll never be
able to launch the...
Rocket: Place an antigravity pad near next to the yellow-brick slant.
The wall from the firework solution should make sure the ball goes up
to where it should. Use the corner pipe to direct the pinball into
the accelerator. Now, don't use a pipe here. You need to let the
missile hit the caution ceiling, else it'll be too close to the small
yellow-brick wall near the stairlike yellow inclines. That brick wall
keeps it from falling out of the stairs. Instead, use another caution
wall stretching just above the pinball's starting point to let the
pinball roll into the corner pipe (leave 2 units of room for the
pinball to fall, and for the missile to get through.) The ball should
descend the inclines and hit the flint-rocks I'm sure you thought to
put there (as that's the only firestarter left).
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 8: Newton's Dilemma
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Get Newton safely home to his mouse hole.
Parts: 1 egg-timer, 1 electric motor, 2 cables, 1 large gears, 1
small gears, 2 antigravity pads and 6 pieces of cheese.
Getting Newton Mouse anywhere always involves a lot of cheese. But,
to start this puzzle, Curie does all the convincing for you. She'll
chase Newton, even though the pinball bumper is in the way. So, fill
up the floor with two antigravity pads (you don't need the one
further out, but it won't do you any good, so big deal). He'll float
up to the level near another antigravity pad. Use a piece of cheese
on the small wood platform right after it to convince him to run to
it, and place another one on the small wooden floor right above it.
(That will come in handy later.)
Now, he'll be on the higher platform, and you can goad him again with
some cheese on the small platform on the right edge of the screen.
Now, we got that pinball in the way. Place an egg-timer facing left,
but make sure Newton can hit the button and slide off to the LEFT. If
he slides right, he'll fall out of the puzzle. That piece of cheese
we placed earlier will get him off of the egg-timer and down to the
conveyor. The egg timer will shove the pinball onto that switch. Use
this to power an electric motor. But, DON'T belt it directly to the
conveyor Newton's on. Instead, belt the motor to a small gear and
mesh it with a big one. Then belt the big one to the conveyor. This
slows the speed of the conveyor down.
I've been frequent to mention the unpredictability of pinball parts
as far as using them to send something somewhere, but when you send
something off of a conveyor to hit a stationary pinball bumper, it'll
always be hitting the pinball bumper in the same place at the same
trajectory. In other words, that pinball bumper is in just the right
place to send Newton over Curie Cat and to his mouse hole (she'll
convince him to run to it).
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 9: Brain Teaser Breakout
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Lift the basket off Newton so he can eat the cheese.
Parts: 1 log wall, 3 log inclines, 2 ropes, 3 pulleys, 2 pierhooks, 1
hedge trimmers, 1 stick of dynamite and 1 antigravity pad.
This puzzle is fairly subjective. Even though a majority of the parts
can only be placed rigidly throughout the level, it can be difficult
to get what you want to happen to happen, especially if you are
deceived by the many red herrings (like the rocket or the three
dynamite sticks preset on the puzzle).
Since you do need to raise the laundry basket, it's a good idea to
hook it to that leaky paint bucket. Just redirect the rope through
some pulleys. Then, place a somewhat long slant beneath the pinball,
to make it roll right. It should hit the slant and tip the seesaw
tied to the detonator. Unfortunately, since the detonator is tied to
the LOWER end, you need to push it up, then down to detonate the
bomb. But, that's no problem. Place an antigravity pad to the left
of that seesaw. Then, extend the wood slant that runs on the same
line as the remote bomb. The extension needs to be at least two
clicks wide for the ball to make it back to the seesaw and set
off the bomb.
That explosion from the remote bomb wasn't enough, though. The floor
beneath the leaky bucket is still there. No problem. Just place the
dynamite in your inventory between them and you'll have enough boom
to take out the floor. The bucket will descend and Newton would thank
you... if his mouth wasn't full... and if he wasn't a mouse...
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 10: Jack's Big Fan
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Make the Jack-in-the-box pop out.
Parts: 1 pool cue, 1 flashlight, 1 magnifying glass, 1 egg-timer, 1
electric motor, 1 antigravity pad and 1 boxing glove.
Once again, as is often in The Incredible Machine, there is a whole
in the floor at the bottom of the screen just the right size for an
antigravity pad. So, as you have done before, fill that spot with an
antigravity pad. From the start of the puzzle, it'll take the pinball
along to the Jack-in-the-box and strike the second pinball. That gets
that one moving, but put the egg-timer there instead. The first
pinball has another job to do.
The first pinball will descend from the egg-timer and down to the
antigravity pad. Normally, this is where it'd proceed to that
springpad, but the slant goes the OTHER way, trapping the pinball.
What in the world is there to do NOW?
I hope you remembered to give that egg-timer a nice, healthy time
limit, because that first pinball needs to be trapped, else the
second pinball's job will not work. Below where the pinball will go,
place the flashlight and magnifying glass as you would expect to to
light a fuse. The cannon will fire directly at the small gap in the
brick near where the first pinball gets stuck. Stick the boxing
glove to the left of the hole, so the cannonball will hit it. You
could use the pool cue, but the boxing glove is more fun. The first
pinball will be freed and will be able to bounce on the springboard
to the switch.
And yes, the fan can blow through walls. It'll blow through all that
crap and power the Jack-in-the-box.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 11: Illuminated Schlemming
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Light both candles and get Mel home.
Parts: 1 balloon, 1 rope, 1 pulley, 2 pierhooks, 1 hedge trimmers, 1
cannon, 3 rockets, 1 remote bomb and 1 laser detector.
This puzzle has, with small doubt, the most hilarious red-herring of
them all; the laser detector. Of what POSSIBLE use would something
with no output be in a level with no lasers?! What does Sierra take
us for!? Anyway, ignore the laser detector. Just pretend it's not
even there.
This puzzle relies very heavily on one important fact not often used
in this game: The burning flame at the base of a launched missile,
rocket or firework can be used to light something else. It's all
fire, so it all works the same way.
But, before we got to the application of that, first we gotta light a
fire. Put the balloon above the thumbtack, then tie it to the match-
on-a-spring through the pulley. Now, the already-set rocket will fly
off. It'll pass over a small gap in the floor, then fly off to the
left. Put the detonator for the remote bomb there, and put the bomb
between the two wooden walls blocking Mel's passage to his house.
Near the thumbtack, place another rocket, facing up. The fuse of this
rocket should be lit by the one exiting left. This rocket's purpose
is to light the fuses of two MORE rockets. Both of these rockets
should be facing right, so they sail over the candles at the right
side of the screen. The lower rocket also should light the fuse of
the cannon. Place the cannon facing all the way to the left, standing
on the Greco-Roman floor between the middle and bottom floors. It
should fire, and the cannonball will set off the dynamite, letting
Mel into his house.
Yeah, I know it's possible to have the rocket hit the detonator
instead of lighting the fuse of the cannon, but the position needed
for that in impractically precise, and I figured not many people
wanted to bother with it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 12: Schlemming In Dreamland
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Mel is sleepwalking. Help him get home.
Parts: 2 thumbtacks, 4 balloons, 1 hot-air balloon, 1 blimp, 2
teeter-totters, 4 ropes, 4 pierhooks, 1 match-on-a-spring, 2
nitroglycerine and 2 antigravity pads.
This puzzle's a real doozy. There are a bunch of wacky ways to solve
it, but the best one, as usual, is the one the game gives as an
official solution. So, I'll cover that one.
Place the blimp beneath Mel facing right. He should be able to ride
the blimp past the aquarium. Place the hot-air balloon above the
snout of the first Edison Alligator, and place all four balloons
between the hot-air balloon and the balloon already there. Try to get
them as straight as possible. Tie them down with pierhooks placed
beneath the sand floor. Make sure the ropes are as straight as
possible. Mel should be able to walk across the tops of all the
balloons.
Now, he's on the bottom floor. Place teeter-totters sloping down
towards his house. You'll notice the teeter-totters can't quite
reach. Use the two thumbtacks pointing downwards to bridge the gap.
It's very, VERY unlike the normal solutions to use a part in such an
irregular way, but we've all had to use makeshift parts at times, so
there's nothing wrong with it. Remember the motto of the army: "If
it's stupid, and it works, it's not stupid."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 13: Lasermania
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Use the lasers to power the electric can-opener.
Parts: 1 red laser, 2 green lasers, 2 blue lasers, 1 laser mixer, 1
mouse motor, 1 conveyor and 3 belts.
If I remember correctly, this was the last puzzle I beat in this
game. Laser puzzles are always mind-bending, but the most complex
laser puzzle in the entire game is destined to be much more than
mind-bending.
This being the case, I'm not certain if it is in my FAQwriting skills
to properly explain how this puzzle works. I know how the puzzle
works, but it's beyond my current writing skills to explain this
puzzle sufficiently.
Therefore, I have made a GIF to show exactly what needs to go where.
Since a pictures worth a thousand words, I'll save mine for puzzles I
can adequately describe.
The GIF should be on the same GameFAQs page as this FAQ.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 14: Ballistic Balloon
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put the balloon inside the laundry basket.
Parts: 1 yellow-brick wall, 1 large wooden barrier, 1 yellow-brick
incline, 1 rope, 1 tin snips, 1 hedge trimmer, 2 flashlights, 2
magnifying glasses, 1 cannon, 1 fan, 1 egg-timer, 1 electric motor, 1
conveyor, 2 belts, 1 pinwheel, 1 circular-to-translational
translator, 4 antigravity pads and 1 springboard.
Put the egg-timer beneath the tennis ball near the top of the screen.
When it hits, it should push the baseball into the switch, but you
may need to use antigravity to coax it in the right direction. Use
this power to run an electric motor. Place a conveyor beneath the
pinball and stretch it out to reach the caution floor to the left of
it. This will make the pinball move to the remote bomb, but we want
the remote bomb to explode first.
The official solution has you use a springboard beneath Mel, then
using two antigravity pads to get him to the other switch, but you
already have the power running from the other outlet, so plug the fan
into that switch. Since it can run through walls, put the pinwheel
beneath the caution floor where the tennis ball and egg-timer are all
set up, and cable that to the translator. Use the pulling motion to
set off the detonator of the remote bomb.
Timed correctly, the pinball on the conveyor should fall into the
newly opened hole in the floor. If you're having trouble timing it,
give the egg timer a lot of time and use Mel to hit the other
switch, and use the fan from there.
Once you do get the timing down, set a flashlight/magnifying glass
combo down beneath it, and use it to light a cannon facing left. Use
the inclines to direct the cannonball to another
flashlight/magnifying glass combo, but light the hot-air balloon with
it. Put tin snips above it, and the balloon will float on up to the
laundry basket. If you're feeling adventurous, try to get the cannon
to fire right at the tin snips.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 15: Missile Vs. Blimp
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Remove the green blimp from the skies.
Parts: 2 large corner pipes, 1 accelerator, 2 ropes, 1 flashlight, 2
magnifying glasses, 1 cannon, 1 fan, 1 electric motor, 1 mouse motor,
1 conveyor and 2 belts.
I think it's fairly obvious who would win in a fight between a
missile and a blimp. However, you have to LIGHT the missile first.
Tie that nearby teeter-totter to that match-on-a-spring sitting
behind the missile. But, now, we have to get there.
Newton Mouse is running for the cheese in the corner of the map, but
he can't quite get it. So, why not let him get it? Put the mouse
motor (facing left) along the brick floor, so Newton mouse will set
it off and start eating the cheese. Put the conveyor belt beneath the
baseball floating above the cheese. It'll move to the left. Put a
flashlight and magnifying glass between the conveyor and the
dynamite. The baseball on top of the dynamite will make it move
closer to the magnifying glass, so the combo has to be pretty tight.
If set up correctly, the dynamite should go off. The baseball will
hit that teeter-totter and detonate the remote bomb, then the
baseball will hit the switch. Plug the fan into it, and it'll push
the soccer ball. Set up an accelerator facing left, then the two
large corner pipes to direct the ball to the two red brick floor
above it. It should ramp off the wooden incline and hit the switch
near the teeter-totter and Jack-in-the-box. Plug the electric motor
into the switch and place it beneath that teeter-totter and cable it
to Jack.
The spring of the Jack-in-the-box should knock the teeter-totter up.
Tie the lower end to of the teeter-totter to the lava lamp (through
the pulley near the first switch). Use the last magnifying glass to
burn the fuse of the cannon, pointed towards the lower end of the
teeter-totter you roped to the match-on-a-spring. This should suffice
to launch the missile and remove that blimp from the skies.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 16: Rodent Restaurant
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Newton Mouse is ready for breakfast. Brew up some coffee and
start the electric mixer.
Parts: 1 large corner pipe, 1 accelerator, 1 seesaw, 3 ropes, 1
flashlight, 1 flint-rock, 1 fan, 1 red laser, 1 green laser, 1 laser
mixer, 2 conveyors, 5 cables, 3 large gears, 1 pinwheel, 1 circular-
to-translational translator and 1 bicycle pump.
Yeah, it's a whole bucket of parts, but that just means more fun,
right? Getting the mixer to run isn't too hard. Place the flashlight
beneath the tennis ball next to the mouse motor (it WILL fall
downwards; the antigravity pads aren't floating it). It'll light the
solar panel, so use the power to run the two lasers, which make up
the yellow color. Mix them and point as necessary. Simple.
Getting the coffee to boil is a bit harder. The levitating Mel is
force enough to activate a bicycle pump facing right, and that air
can spin a pinwheel. The bike pump and pinwheel don't have to be
anywhere in particular, but make sure Mel either stays on the bike
pump or falls up into something else and stays off the ceiling.
You'll see why in a bit. A good thing to remember is that he tends
to slip to the right when being pushed into it, so setting a
conveyor to the right wall above it means he'll be pushed into it
and not interfere with any other part.
If you're having trouble getting Mel not to stick to the ceiling,
here's the official solution's way of doing it. The superball to
the left can be of use by placing the seesaw above it, with the
right end of it lowered. Rope it to the translator and place it
beneath the high part of the red brick walls where Mel is, making
sure the button is facing the right. Place a conveyor above Mel,
and cable it to the translator. Mel will now be flung against the
right brick wall. Since Mel always slopes RIGHT when he's pressed
on the bottom of a bike pump, if the pump is at the very top of
the wall (the spout of the pump sitting just above the wall),
he will have nowhere to go. Place the pinwheel accordingly and
Mel should give you no problems.
Hook that pinwheel to the wheel of the already-set translator above
the detonator of the remote bomb. Tie rope between the hook of that
translator and the lower end of the trailer. The basketball will hop
up and depress the detonator. The baseball sitting next to the bomb
will fly a length across the screen to the switch outlet (you can see
now why you didn't want Mel to get stuck to the ceiling.)
Plug the fan into the outlet and use it to blow the soccer ball to
the right. Sometimes you can get it to upset the trailer without
using any other parts, but if you're having trouble, use the
accelerator and corner pipe to direct it to the raised end of the
trailer. Use the pulley to get the motion in the right direction to
pull the Mandrill motor. Line up all three gears horizontally, immed-
iately beneath the caution floor and cable the Mandrill motor to the
first gear. Cable the third gear to the conveyor under the coffee
pot. Place the flint-rocks on the floor to the right of the third
gear. The coffee pot should land on it and light the fire, boiling
it up just right.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 17: Fireworks Berserk
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Set off the fireworks.
Parts: 1 large corner pipes, 2 pipes, 1 pulley, 1 phaser, 1
flashlight, 1 magnifying glass, 1 cannon, 1 fan, 1 red laser, 1 green
laser, 1 blue laser, 3 mirrors, 1 mouse motor, 3 cables, 1 pinwheel
and 1 boxing glove.
The official solution has you using a mouse motor to get the phaser
to fire at the fishtank to get Curie to walk. But, with nothing in
the hole in the floor, Newton Mouse will get Curie to walk forward
enough to upset the teeter-totter. It's a small oversight, but it's
one to simplify the puzzle.
Tie the end Curie falls on to the Mandrill motor (place a pulley
above the teeter-totter and weave it through it). Cable Mandrill to
the conveyor above him. Use that ball to set off a
flashlight/magnifying glass/cannon combo. Keep the entire thing
close to the seesaw, since the cannonball can travel. Point the
cannon to the large corner pipe, which you should put above the
detonator, so the cannonball will set off the dynamite.
The basketball formerly contained behind the yellow-brick wall will
now flip a switch down. Blue both a red and blue laser into it,
pointed right at the laser mixer. You have three mirrors to get the
beam to the plug, but you can do it in two. It should be clear how to
put them.
Plug the fan into the purple-laser outlet. Use it to spin a
pinwheel beneath the detonator, and cable that to the conveyor
near the fireworks. Make sure the pinwheel is in the right position
so it will send the pinball to the LEFT. You can use a boxing glove
if you want, but even if you don't, the pinball will strike the
baseball into the teeter-totter tied to the match-on-a-spring to
set off the fireworks.
I hope Mel loved the show. It sure was a lot in the making.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 18: Big Job, Little Mouse
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Newton Mouse has some major painting to do. Help him lift the
leaky paint bucket on the right up above his scaffold.
Parts: 1 accelerator, 1 trailer, 1 rope, 1 hedge trimmer, 1 paint
bucket, 1 can opener, 1 vacuum, 1 toaster, 1 egg-timer, 4 cables and
6 large gears.
I really hope you can see that this puzzle won't EVER get solved if
the leaky paint bucket falls off the puzzle. To prevent this, use the
other paint bucket and tie it to the first paint bucket with the two
pulleys at the top of the arena.
The only thing moving at the beginning of the puzzle is the
basketball, but it's not moving nearly fast enough. What have we got
to fix that? Place the accelerator beneath it, facing up. The ball
goes up, theoretically to cut the rope of the beach bucket, but it's
not far over enough. Use the trailer, with the right side turned up,
and put the right side of the trailer so it's just above the hedge
trimmers. When the bucket tips the trailer, it'll snap the trimmers
closed.
Plug the can opener into the outlet, so when it goes on, Curie will
walk forward. She'll land on the trailer and set Pavlov Mandrill off
a-runnin'. Now, use any gears you need to get the spinning to the
conveyor at the top (with the tennis ball on it). I recommend keeping
the gears to the right of the puzzle, or right of center. Just try
not to interfere with anything you already got set up.
Once the power's hooked to the conveyor, it'll send the tennis ball
on its way. have it depress the plunger of an egg-timer, because even
though a pinball could push a baseball in the last puzzle with no
mechanical advantage, a tennis ball ain't BUDGING a bowling ball.
Once the ball falls, it should land in the paint bucket and bring
Newton's bucket up for painting.
..say, how's he gonna paint with no hands?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 19: Fandango
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Help Newton Mouse cool off by turning on the fan.
Parts: 1 large corner pipe, 3 ropes, 1 lava lamp, 2 electric motors,
1 red laser, 1 green laser, 1 blue laser, 1 laser mixer, 3 mirrors, 1
mouse motor, 5 cables, 1 translational-to-circular translator, 1
circular-to-translational translator and 1 bicycle pump.
In these puzzles, Mel is more often used as something else to throw
around, rather than as Mel. The same is true in this puzzle. I wonder
how Mel feels about that. "I'm more than just a thing to push the
bike pump!" He cries. "I know I'll move the soccer ball onto the
switch outlet, but... I'm a human being!"
Anyway, plug the red and green lasers into that outlet, mix them,
then use the mirrors to direct them to the laser-powered outlet. Plug
an electric motor into it and cable it to the really short conveyor.
Make sure the electric motor is not in the way of that ball. The ball
has to get by it and upset the teeter-totter to make the Mandrill
Motor run. Cable the Mandrill Motor to the circ-to-trans translator.
(place it beneath the teeter-totter tied to the mandrill, and flip if
necessary.) Rope the translator to the teeter-totter with the
basketball resting on it. The basketball will hot the detonator of
the remote bomb.
I hear you say, "But King, couldn't you have cabled the electric
motor directly to the translator?" And to that I say, "Yeah, but
that's not fun."
When the bomb is detonated, the dogface balloon will be free to float
to nowhere in particular (the explosion will kill the bricks, but not
be enough to pop the balloon). String the balloon down to the trans-
to-circ translator. Put the translator in the very leftmost and
lowest part of the puzzle. When the balloon rises, it'll spin the
center gear. Use that to spin the generator with the toaster plugged
into it. The toast should tip the teeter-totter. Tie the higher end
of the teeter-totter to a lava lamp to get solar energy to the solar
cells.
I hear you again, "But King, couldn't you just tie the balloon to the
low end of the seesaw?" And to that I say, "Do you want my help or
not?"
With the solar cells active, put the other electric motor into that
outlet, and cable that to the conveyor with the soccer ball. Put the
mouse motor to the right of the accelerator, and cable that to the
conveyor with the basketball on it. When the mouse runs, the
basketball will fly and hit the switch, turning on the fan and
helping Newton Mouse cool right off.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 20: It's Hip To Drip
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put the bowling ball into the steel cage.
Parts: 2 tennis balls, 1 rope, 1 remote bomb, 1 egg-timer, 1 electric
motor, 1 switch outlet, 1 cable and 1 Jack-in-the-box.
This puzzle is frustratingly difficult if you don't catch on to the
peculiar thing about the bucket-pulley setup they have. Only the LEFT
bucket has any water in it. This means for the beginning of the
puzzle, the left bucket will be heavier, but once all the water
leaves, they will be of equal weight. It takes about ten seconds for
the bucket to run out of water.
When the two buckets reach the same weight, neither will have any
heft against the other, so the left bucket will stay on the yellow
brick floor, presumably blocking the path the bowling ball is meant
to take. But, I'll get to that.
Put the egg timer behind the bowling ball, facing left. For once,
don't change the timer. Leave the timer as long as possible. Place a
tennis ball above the egg-timer's plunger to set it off once the
puzzle goes into motion. Since the left bucket is currently heavier
than the right bucket, the bucket will rise before the bowling ball
tries to pass it.
Now, we want to get rid of the yellow-brick floor blocking the
bowling ball's descent. Place the bomb right on the floor and the
detonator above the high end of the trailer. Tie the rope between the
detonator and the high end. Put the Jack-in-the-box beneath the low
end of the trailer. Cable it to the electric motor, and plug the
electric motor into the switch outlet. Place the switch outlet
beneath the left bucket, so when it falls, it'll hit it.
Now, the simple task of setting off a remote bomb would be FAR more
simply accomplished by simply dropping the remaining tennis ball onto
the detonator. But, that tennis ball can do ONE thing that none of
the other parts can: It's affected by gravity. Remember how I said
after ten seconds, the buckets become equivalent weights? Well, put
the tennis ball into the RIGHT bucket, and when the left bucket
empties, the right bucket will be heavier. This will make the left
bucket rise out of the way of the bowling ball, which now has a
beaten path to the steel cage.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 21: Mind-Mixer
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Turn on the electric mixer.
Parts: 1 large corner piece, 1 accelerator, 1 pool cue, 2
nitroglycerines, 1 remote bomb, 1 red laser, 1 blue laser, 1 mirror,
1 mouse motor, 1 cable, 2 small gears and 1 springboard.
Another somewhat obnoxious puzzle. Once again, I BEG you to keep
something in mind. You DO use the solar panel above the electric
mixer to send one of the lasers all the way around the puzzle to the
laser mixer, but it is NOT necessary to use it for BOTH lasers. Yeah,
I fudged it somehow to get it to work that way, but don't give
yourself the ulcer.
First off, we should stop that darn green laser from going into the
mixer (as green is not part of purple). Take one of the
nitroglycerines and put it beneath the generator. Put it so it drops
to the left of the platform with the baseball on it. It'll blow out
the floor and knock the baseball in the way of the green laser. Now
you got this big hole in the floor. But, we'll put it to use in a
second.
Put the large corner pipe beneath the bowling ball and hook the
accelerator to it. Make it flush to the long wooden incline near it.
The bowling ball should vault up and fall through the trap door onto
the flashlight. The light will power that solar panel, so plug either
laser into that. After the bowling ball hits the flashlight, it'll
roll off the back of it. Put the detonator for the remote bomb here
to set it off.
As you probably figured, you need to use the remote bomb and the
final nitroglycerine to get rid of the wood ceilings that will block
the laser. Put the remote bomb near the upper left corner, near the
mirror, and put the nitro beneath it, so it'll fall and take out the
bottom wall.
With the remodeling you've done in the floor to stop the green laser,
it'd be a shame not to use it. Point the other laser downwards
and plug it into the generator. Use the mirror to direct the beam
into the mixer. Try to keep it out of the way of the other laser as
it makes its way around. Also, keep it very high, so the baseball
won't interfere.
Now, we need power to go to the generator. Now, mouse motors are
positioned rigidly. To get it so the bowling ball will strike it and
still go the way you need it to, put it EXACTLY here: One rigid space
diagonally down and to the left of the corner above the pinball.
Cable it to the generator, and the next laser will be able to make it
to the mixer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 22: The Ultimate Schlemming
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Get Mel home. Don't allow the red light to blink on the laser-
detector.
Parts: 1 rope, 1 leaky bucket, 1 rocket, 1 remote bomb, 1 solar
outlet, 1 blue laser, 1 mouse motor, 1 conveyor, 1 cable, 1
antigravity pad, 1 springpad and 1 Jack-in-the-box.
Once again, as with a lot of these very hard puzzles, there's a trick
to this one. The puzzle solution says that Mel must get home without
making the light on the laser detector blink. All that means is there
needs to be a laser pointed at the beam at all times. It DOESN'T mean
you have to get Mel home with some outrageous acrobatics to never
interrupt the laser beam. All it means is we put up one of our own.
First and foremost, we gotta stop Mel from walking off the puzzle
like some kind of idiot. Put the remote bomb beneath the accelerator.
Mel will turn around and walk on. Put the detonator beneath the
bucket that would normally fall in front of Mel's cabin. Under most
circumstances, he should be far enough away from the explosion for it
not to bother him.
He'll walk along and tip the trailer. That will pull the key out of
the match-on-a-spring above the accelerator. The candle in mid-air
might be nice to light, so take a conveyor and get it as small as
possible, then put it beneath the candle, so it falls a bit, just
bumps the left edge of it, and falls into the accelerator. With the
match-on-a-spring lit, now you have a flying candle lit as well.
Up on the highest log floor, set a rocket facing right with the fuse
hanging over the log floor. The burning candle should pass right to
the fuse and the rocket should go off. It'll stop right against the
little bit of wall. Near that wall, put up the solar outlet and the
blue laser. The fire from the rocket counts like any other flame, and
that includes that it can be used as a light source for solar panels
and stuff like that. Point that blue laser to the laser detector, and
we'll now have a backup in case Mel interrupts the original laser.
Okay, but first we want to make sure he can get there. Put the
antigravity pad beneath the mirror the laser bounces off of to get to
the detector (Only the rightmost third should be actually under the
mirror). Mel will float up and get to the second floor. Not only is
the trailer in the wrong position, there's a hole in the floor. Well,
fill the hole with a mouse motor and cable it to a Jack-in-the-box
beneath the lower end of the ne'er-do-well trailer. Mel will set the
little mouse running and he'll hit the Jack-in-the-box. With the
trailer in place, you continue on. Put the springboard at the edge of
that platform, so he'll spring up to the third level. Since the
antigravity pad is already in place, he'll float on across it,
breaking the laser beam in the process, but still getting home
safely. The backup worked.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 23: Blast-A-Blimp
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Blow up the blimp with the missile.
Parts: 3 yellow-brick inclines, 1 pool cue, 1 trap door, 1 thumbtack,
1 rope, 1 hedge trimmer, 1 egg-timer, 1 laser-powered outlet, 1
cable, 1 pinwheel, 2 bicycle pumps and 1 boxing glove.
After the last batch of puzzles, this one is graciously simple. Tie
the beach bucket to the trigger of the phaser (using the pulley, of
course). Use it to hit a set of hedge trimmers and free the smiley
balloon. Set it to it pushes the button of the boxing glove pointed
right. It'll knock both the pinball and the baseball along.
You don't need to divide them, as they're already flying well beyond
reasonable controllability. Even so, put the trap door in the space
in the floor so the back of it faces right. You can see how both
balls fall in their own places. Under where both balls fall, place
both bike pumps facing each other. Between them, put the pinwheel.
Cable the pinwheel to the generator already sitting there, and use
the blue laser to light the fuse of the missile. You need BOTH bike
pumps to go off to give the generator enough power. If the pinball is
getting in the way, use the inclines to catch it somewhere outta the
way.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 24: Enchanted Kingdom
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Help Mel exit the right side of the screen.
Parts: 2 balloons, 1 hot-air balloon, 1 blimp, 2 trailers, 3 ropes
and 1 magnifying glass.
At first, this puzzle seems dang near impossible. How can you get him
over to the right hand side of the screen? There isn't anything
there. Don't worry. It'll become clear in time.
First, put down both trailers. Put one near the light switch, with
the high end beneath the light switch. Tie the high end to the lava
lamp. Put it far down on the puzzle, though. Put the other one right
next to the already-set trailer, this time with the right side up.
Tie the two lower ends together. The higher end of the one you put
down should be right beneath the pinball.
The dropping pinball should pull the key out of the match-on-a-
spring. Place a blimp near it, so it'll hit the flame, explode, then
descend into the fuse of the cannon (this may take some time to time
correctly). The cannon will go off and switch on the red laser and
hit the lava lamp.
Using the light from the lava lamp, put the magnifying glass to light
the hot-air balloon you'll put right near it. Put the hot-air balloon
right above the lefthand pulley. Now, string the hot air balloon
through all the pulleys to the laundry basket. The rising hot-air
balloon will pull up on the basket.
This is the REALLY tricky part. The blimp nearest Mel will bump him,
and he'll start walking. The rising hot-air balloon will obstruct the
bath of the lower blimp. If timed correctly, Mel will land on the
blimp, moonwalk on it and the blimp will carry him outta there. This
takes quite a bit of adjusting to get just right. Try moving the hot-
air-balloon around if Mel misses.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 25: Poolin' Around
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Sink one ball into each hole.
Parts: 6 pool balls, 1 tennis ball, 2 wooden inclines and 5 pool
cues.
I really loathe pool puzzles.
Put a left-facing pool cue to the right of the cue ball. Put another
one facing left next to the three ball. Then, put one facing down
above the 11 ball, and between the 2 ball and the 14 ball. Put a 3-
length incline before the pool cue before the cue ball, and drop the
tennis ball into it. The incline should be three rigid units down
from the top of the pool wall, and four from the corner just before
pocket.
That's the official solution, but it's likely the solution you get
will be much different. I know mine was. And, as always, lots of
different solutions are possible, and lots of adjustments are going
to be necessary. There's no magic way to beat this puzzle, or for me
to describe how to beat it. Just do this puzzle and forget it ever
happened.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 26: Beam Scream
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Break the laser beam.
Parts: 1 pinball, 1 fan, 1 green laser, 2 conveyors, 2 belts, 1
pinwheel, 1 antigravity pad, 1 springboard and 1 Edison Alligator.
You got a pinball in your inventory, but let's use the one that's
already in the puzzle first. It falls through the trap door, as would
be expected, and falls to the cinder block. Whoopee. Let's have some
fun. Put Edison Alligator's snout right where the ball will fall. He
won't try to eat the ball (thank goodness), but he'll flip it along
to the switch near the laser detector. Plug the fan into that outlet.
You probably figured you'll be using that pinwheel to turn something.
Put a conveyor underneath the tennis ball beneath the aquarium. The
only problem is, the wind is normally too far away for the cable to
reach that conveyor. We could fudge it to do that, but there's a
cooler way. Put another conveyor beneath the basketball. The
basketball will roll into the mouse motor (if the pinwheel is in the
right direction) and the little mouse will start running. Cable HIM
to the conveyor beneath the tennis ball. Now, put the antigravity pad
in the space between the cinder-block walls and floor. This should
make the tennis ball squeak through the small space and flip the
switch.
The only thing you got left that you can plug in is the laser, so
point that downward (just above where the baseball starts) and it
should light the stick of dynamite. When it blows up, it'll drop a
nitro left un-blown up, and blow a hole in the floor between the
puzzle and the beam. All you need to do there is set the pinball in
the place where the nitro drops, and he pinball will interrupt the
beam when the explosion goes off.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 27: Basketball Brain-Buster
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Send the basketball off the top of the screen.
Parts: 1 rope, 1 match-on-a-spring, 1 coffee pot, 1 conveyor, 1
cable, 1 pinwheel and 1 springboard.
This is one of the few puzzles with two entirely different solutions.
I'll cover the harder one and then the easy one.
Hard: Place the coffee pot beneath the soccer ball, and use the
conveyor to hold it up. Tie the match-on-a-spring to the bucket,
positioning it high enough so it'll still pull out the pin. The
soccer ball should be blown into the pipes, to punch the boxing glove
and set off the dynamite. Use the springboard beneath the accelerator
to bounce it up to it.
Easy: Place the conveyor right beneath the basketball, and string it
to the pinwheel. Put the coffee pot in the small yellow-brick square.
Put the match-on-a-spring beneath it and tie the match to the bucket.
Make sure the pinwheel is facing the right direction. The basketball
will fly and enter the TOP of the accelerator, bypassing all that
other baloney entirely.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 28: Kitty Catcher
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Put Curie Cat in the hole on the left. Then trap her with the
laundry basket.
Parts: 5 cables, 4 large gears, 2 small gears, 1 Jack-in-the-box and
1 Newton Mouse.
Resist the temptation to use Newton Mouse to upset the trailer with
Curie Cat on it. Instead, put Newton Mouse on top of the highest
mouse motor to get him running. In the grassy empty spot in the wall,
put a large gear to connect to the mouse motor, then one to mesh that
gear with the gear connected to the conveyor with the basketball on
it.
The basketball should sail on, tip the trailer with Curie Cat and
activate the mouse motor near her (Newton was incapable of doing both
without doing some other baloney.) Let's concentrate on getting Curie
Cat where she needs to be. She'll hop around, slide on the conveyor,
and stop, since the second conveyor isn't doing anything. You need to
hook the lowest mouse motor to a large gear, mesh it with a small
gear, then hook the small gear to the conveyor. Anything slower will
be incapable of getting her up that incline.
She'll now be in the pit, but how do we get the laundry basket on top</pre><pre id="faqspan-5">
of her. If you saw the hedge trimmers there, you probably also saw
how, even if you stopped the descent of the bucket, they snapped shut
as Curie hit them from underneath. It doesn't matter, as that's now
how you get the laundry basket to fall.
Put the Jack-in-the-Box underneath it and cable it to the large gear
sitting there already. Mesh it with a small gear, and tie the small
gear to the mouse motor that the basketball hit. The large gear
should slow the Jack-in-the-Box down enough to let Curie into the
hole before the Jack-in-the-Box goes off, throwing the beach bucket
around, making the laundry basket descend. Gotcha!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Very Hard Puzzle 29: TIM2 Contest Champion!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal: Congratulations to Richard and William Smith for creating this
First Prize Puzzle in the TIM2 Puzzle Contest! Check out their work,
and see if you can help Mel get home.
Parts: 1 baseball, 1 wooden floor, 4 wood inclines, 2 teeter-totters,
1 vacuum, 2 conveyors, 13 cables, 10 large gears, 6 small gears, 1
Jack-in-the-box and 1 piece of cheese.
This puzzle is probably the most complex in the game, but I don't
know if it's the hardest. It's quite a challenge, though, and it's
the last puzzle, so let's enjoy it.
Alright, put cheese on top of the mouse motor with the empty top near
the wooden floor. Put two large gears to the left of the one that's
already there near the start. Hook the one in the center to the Mouse
Motor, and the one on the left to a little gear. Put that gear to
the right of the small gear attached to the conveyor in the left
center of the puzzle. Put another small gear between them.
Now, hook a gear to the mouse motor Mel walks over. Surround that gear
with two gears. Hook the left gear to the conveyor in the ground, and
hook the one on the right to the Jack-in-the-box, which you put in
the hole in the floor, facing left. Mel should be spring past the
alligator.
One gear was left unhooked in the first setup, and that was the gear
that's set there at the beginning. Hook it to the generator. Up at
the top of the puzzle, line a small gear, then two large gears up
along the ceiling, in that arrangement. Cable the small gear to the
conveyor near Edison's snout, and the second large gear to the
pinwheel being spun by the fan.
Hook the left electric motor to the conveyor along the wood floor,
and the right electric motor to the conveyor above the springboard.
Switch them on with the baseball, which should roll and get stuck in
with the cheese, letting Mel walk right across with no difficulty.
Let's see... Uh, put a seesaw past the last springboard with the left
side down, so he will have somewhere to walk onto.
Um, I think that's it. It's kind of a dry solution, but it should
work if I described it accurately enough. After beating this puzzle,
you've conquered all the puzzles (unless you skipped some). Your only
reward for beating every puzzle is a message from the Professor,
thanking you for playing the Incredible Machine. That's it.
=====================================================================
CHAPTER 6: EPILOGUE
=====================================================================
Once again, just as I did with my first FAQ, I spent a majority of my
vacation time, time I should be working or relaxing, busting my hump
over a FAQ. I don't know what makes me do it, but once again, somehow
I have.
As I type, it is just five days short of my one-year FAQwriting
anniversary. I hope the next year goes just as good as this one has.
=====================================================================
CHAPTER 7: SPECIAL THANKS
=====================================================================
CJayC - Administrator of GameFAQs. Hardest working man in showbiz.
Alexander Davidson of LiquidNinja - He programmed Metapad,
an awesome pure text editor of extraordinary utility that I used in
the making of this FAQ. Visit him at liquidninja.com/metapad/
Sierra - Makers of this game.
My other real-life friends - You know who you are.
And of course, the society of GameFAQs, and the GameFAQs
Message Board.
============
This FAQ copyright Jeff "King Kool" Hibbert, 2003-2007.
See Chapter 1 for details.
Hakanai omoi zutto
donna toki demo negau yo
anata ni todoku you ni to...
