Crazy Machines: The Wacky Contraptions Game Win/Mac Reviews

• Educational, mentally challenging, positive, fun GIFTand toy!

  
  By A3QIIFCE6T9KUE on 2005-12-17
  First, as a present, this is a great gift! Whatever computer your recipiant has, this will run on it, so no worries there. Next, it is positive and fun for any age, or even a whole family to play. I would have loved to play something like this with my dad when I was little, or even with my friends, or by myself. Soon, I am even going to put this on my laptop so I can play during free time on the go or at work, or with my students at lunch as I am a teacher. I am almost sure whoever you buy it for will like it as a gift once they get into it and they will thank you for it! ... Take care, and good luck shopping.
  
  p.s. great game, great gift
  
  

• Super Fun!

  
  By A6Y3JOD9I639R on 2005-10-20
  This is an awesome, good, clean game that will provide hours and hours of entertainment. Remember Rube Goldberg? You can build Rube Goldberg-esque machines and put them into motion. You can also "solve" puzzles by figuring out what things to put where to make your crazy machine do something - like lighting a candle or launching a rocket.
  Our kids also like to work together and also with their friends - not always something we see when they play on the computer - so it's great for families and friends to play all together. I like the way the people who made this smuggled the physics in there with the fun. How nice to see intelligence combined with real fun.
  (We got this for our kids but we are having fun with it too.)
  
  
  

• Great Game, Poorly Documented

  
  By A1ABETM4C2FFD7 on 2005-12-07
  First of all, let me say that this is a great game. It's loads of fun for the whole family to play, and it runs smoothly on even my older Mac G4.
  
  That said. My whole family was stumped about what to do when plugging cords into machines in the game. If you've run out of plugs, the other end of the cord just floats there, and you cannot continue the game! Nowhere in the manual does it mention that you can give up on a cord by pressing the 'ESC' key. I suppose that's a good key to choose, and it makes sense, but they simply forgot to mention it in the manual, and we wasted a whole day trying to play the game and getting stuck over and over.
  
  

• Fun game, but runs very poorly on Macs

  
  By A2ZVI2Y876JUDE on 2006-11-24
  I have a fairly new Intel iMac and an older G4 Powerbook, and I was looking for games for my mechanically-inclined 5 year old son that would run on Macs. The game does run on both the Intel and G4 Mac, but crashes frequently - one learns to save "inventions" constantly to avoid losing a masterpiece. Also, the sound frequently stops and can't be restored unless you exit and restart the program. And, if that weren't enough, it becomes unbearably slow when you have more than 20 - 30 elements in your "inventions." I also have Parallels for the iMac which allows me to run Windows programs. The PC version would install but refused to run at all in Parallels. Needless to say, it's a very frustrating program, at least for Mac users. From these reviews it appears that some even some "real" PC/Windows users have similar problems. Apart from the Mac problems, the other weakness of the program is that there is very little help available and the (tiny) printed and electronic manuals are not particularly helpful, and there isn't much in the way of "getting started" or "hints." On the other hand, this is supposed to be a "figure it out yourself" type of game, so that's not a major problem.
  
  Having said all that, the game itself is a blast, and my son loves building contraptions with building blocks of electricity (batteries, motors, generators, switches, etc.), fire, light, steam, bouncing balls, explosives, etc. (Think "Rube Goldberg" if that term means anything to you.) I see some resemblance to "real" contraptions I built (with considerably more risk...) as a youngster. The games are challenging, perhaps too challenging, even for adults. And it's technically accurate - for example, in a daisy-chain of light-bulbs and solar panels, each successive light in the chain will be dimmer than the previous one due to losses in transmission. For those to whom it matters, the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics are not violated. (Suggestion to the authors: create a sequel program that allows one to build moving vehicles and obstacle courses based on these building blocks.)
  
  

• We'd give it 10 stars if we could!

  
  By A237JIW7U9PO4F on 2006-10-09
  Kids and adults love solving the puzzles. It is a great intro to basic physics (w/o your kids realizing it!) There are problems to solve and you have to place tools (pulleys, balls, dominoes, candles, etc.) in the right place in order for the goal to be accomplished. Our 5 year old needs help; our 8 year old plays alone. Our friends' teenagers enjoy it also.
  
  
• North Dakota Kid
  By on 2006-09-24
  I am 8 years old and I got Crazy Machines for my Birthday. This is the best game in the world but if you don't like complicated things you won't this game. The four main things are fire, rope, electronics,and the next one I will let you discover. You can either build your own machine or you can figure out problems that may seem hard but after you've done them awhile they are easy. Some of the things that you can build with are boards, balls, robots, cannons, goo, blimps, cords, gravity controlers, scissors, tubes, and plants. Buy this game and have tons of fun!
  
  
• Great idea - fair execution
  By A1XVBF3IR76QPL on 2006-07-27
  This game is a load of fun to play, for both my 9 year old daughter and me. As others mention, the action of the parts is very realistic, and there's a good variety to choose from. Only problems I've seen are (a) the placement of objects is very "fiddly" - even once you know what you want to do, you waste time moving objects to just the right pixel. (b) After spending an hour putting together an elaborate machine (my first), the screen went blank, and I was left staring at my Windows desktop. No error message, no nuthin'.
  
  
• Difficult to launch
  By A3MDEITXMKSMW4 on 2006-01-08
  I have been trying to install the game on a Windows XP machine with 1.4GHz processor and 512 MB of SDRAM. I turn all other programs off while installing. The installation procedure is simple and takes less than 5 minutes. However, once the installation is complete, I am unable to launch the program. Everytime I try to launch it an "Application Maintenance" menu pops up even though the install program clearly states the installation is successful. I have been able to launch the game twice - not sure how. My daughter has become extremely frustrated by the whole experience.
  
  
• Now I want the expansion pack! LOVE THIS GAME!
  By A1L6P06A6C3IPI on 2006-05-08
  I played the origional "incredible machines" games when they first came out and I was hoping to find something close in challenge and gameplay. This game is even better. The physics are amazing and this is a great thinking game for kids.
  
  It is easy to install, but make sure you have enough RAM!
  
  If you are unsure, they have a demo that you can download. If you like it, come back here to buy because this is the ENGLISH version.
  
  Go! Try it and come back!
  
  
• Great Game for both Kids and Adults
  By A4JVF84UWPH80 on 2006-07-14
  I purchased this game for my husband for Father's Day, but it is so fun, the whole family works on it together! It is a game of puzzles which you have to figure out what you need where to make the desired outcome. It is a good problem-solving game for the kids (mine are 6 and 7 years old)and parents alike. They can also create their own experiments, which my 7 year-old particularly likes. I highly recommend!
  
  
• The Single Best CD Game EVER
  By A206726B43ESHZ on 2006-07-03
  We play this with our 6 year old and it's just perfect for him and us. We've wasted countless dollars trying to find fun, educational and family appropriate CD games. This is the best. It loaded with ease and works great. It has games and puzzle contraptions to try and figure out, and it gives an open board for building your own contraptions and studying cause and effect.
  
  Countless enjoyable hours.
  
  
• Great Fun For me and my son
  By A3OF9XVJYD4HTC on 2006-08-08
  I read some mix reviews about the game and I was undecided in buying it or not. I am glad I did. It has been a lot of fun for me and my son. I had no installation problem on both my laptop and my desktop ( Both running XP home edition with Service pack 2 ).
  
  
• DO NOT BUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  By A3975X2TIGVI12 on 2006-11-08
  This is total garbage. It won't even run on a brand new laptop with XP home. It will instal and load just fine but when you try to run it nothing hapens at all. The manufacturer is no help. I tried several times to contact them with no responce. I also tried ot install and run it on a computer with windows 2K with no luck. now I'm stuck with a worthless game. I would have rated it at zero stars if that was an option.
  
  
• A great disappointment
  By A2YLGH7JBZ6GJV on 2005-12-28
  I put this on my wish list, remembering the old "incredible machine" games and the like. This is a sad, pale imitation of them. The graphics are pretty, the physics simulation is good, but the puzzles are dreadful.
  
  Many of them are so simple that anyone over the age of four can do them with little effort. Some others are just mind-bogglingly stupid that when you are done you'll be offended that anyone thought that was a puzzle.
  
  The user interface is atrocious. Much of what you'll do is look (without manuals) how to place items, set them up, and every time you click the wrong thing the scorekeeper will penalize you for clicking wrong.
  
  Avoid.
  
  
• More Fun Than Rube Goldberg Ever Imagined!
  By A3FARCKMBHQZLY on 2006-02-12
  This is an incredible piece of software. I don't know whether to label this entertainment or educational software. We gave it to our 10 year old at Christmas and he literally played it non-stop for days on end. It was so much fun, everyone in the family took a turn. I was impressed by how much our 10 year old learned by creating the fantastic machines with the software. The software starts the user out very slow, teaching the basics of gravity powered "devices", steam powered, electrically powered, etc. and then requires the user to create a machine (actually a "chain reaction of machines") to complete specific tasks. The tasks become increasingly harder and complex. You don't have to stay within the structured program, however, since the software allows you to freelance and create machines of your own just for fun. This is a well written software program and is tremendous value for the money. The software installed quickly and ran smoothly on our moderately equipped Dell desktop running Windows XP Home Edition.
  
  
• Tony D.
  By A221O3U5WFUABD on 2006-03-01
  The concept and physics were excellent. However, there basically is no save feature. One cannot continue at a given point and must start at the beginning of each level. My only other complaint is it was too short.
  
  
• program won't run
  By A15W35VDH6EJAQ on 2006-06-19
  Like others here, I can't make this program run on my nephew's machine. I'm an IT Professional who reads instructions and knows something about troubleshooting. I can't find a cause for the problem. There is no response from the publisher, which I find offensive.
  
  
• Crazy Machines: The Wacky Contraptions Game (PC & Mac)
  By A1ZBDEOATUVA43 on 2006-08-11
  Simply put a great game for inqusitive kids........
  Also enjoyable for adults...hee hee
  
  
• Buggy
  By A12NB39MIREA67 on 2006-12-04
  Continually pauses on a high-end computer with WinXp. If it didn't do this the game would be wonderful for children. Having read this in other folks disappointment with customer support and that there is no patch to be found on the Web, I wouldn't recommend it.
  
  
• Harder than it has to be
  By AVMNNN989FKDC on 2007-09-08
  A brilliant game that can be extremely frustrating due to the touchiness of the pieces. Even when you know where the pieces are supposed to go and how they should interact (and thanks to the answer guide included on the CD, you always know or can find out), it can be maddeningly difficult to get them in EXACTLY the right position to have the desired effect.
  
  All the same, it's perfect for would-be engineers who don't have the room or equipment to build real Goldbergian machines. Go nuts!
  
  
• CAN'T GET CRAZY MACHINES TO WORK!
  By A2QONAQBAZ0B47 on 2006-01-03
  We too were excited to get this well reviewed educational game and are very frustrated at not being able to use it. No assistance from creators as emails go unanswered and phone message box is full. anyone with any suggestions? thanks!!
  
  
• No customer support or service...
  By A2YH0385L2FNZQ on 2006-05-01
  I loaded the software but it would not launch from my computer. The only customer support available is by emailing through the website, which I did. However, it took 2 weeks to get a response to my email, and the response I received was of no help at all. Basically I paid for nothing, since I have not been able to use this product and don't have the patience to wait for a response from this company. Plus, it all took so long that now Amazon won't take the return. A total waste of money as far as I'm concerned.
  
  
  
• ~WOW~
  By on 2006-10-09
  This game is a lot of fun. You need to use your head and think about how to solve all of these "wacky contraptions." At first, I thought it was a challenge, but then it got easier and easier. I'm almost at the end of the game and can't wait to see what happens!
  
  
• Too picky in some cases
  By A21BJ1O7WT8OJ0 on 2005-12-30
  This game provides many good problem-solving exercises. My 14 and 16-year-old grandsons spent many hours with it, and (unintentionally) learned some basic physics in doing so.
  
  There are some problems, however. Some of the solutions depend upon such exact placement of the items on the screen that your time is spent placing and re-placing the items instead of deciding on basic strategies to solve the problem. In at least one case a solution would not work, but when an item was taken out and then put back in what seemed to be exactly the same place, the solution worked.
  
  None-the-less, this game is better than many of the mindless alternatives that clutter today's computers in the name of education.
  
  
• GPT club review
  By A2A0P9Y1CVHYQC on 2006-01-01
  Crazy Machines should be relevant to anyone age 8 and up. However, younger gamers may need a little help from their parents when getting started, as well as with some of the more obtuse puzzle solving scenarios built into the game. The marvelous thing about Crazy Machines is its design-your-own experiment setting that will allow you free-form control over tons and tons of the game's many wacky gadgets that can be combined in all sorts of ways to accomplish literally any challenge you can imagine.
  
  The game's pre-designed puzzles will challenge most all players, so very young players will also likely need parental help with the challenges that are a bit more complicated.
  
  Game fans who remember The Incredible Machine and its successors will most certainly be very pleased to see how this new Crazy Machines approach to this unique game idea plays out. What made The Incredible Machine so much fun and successful was the tremendous variety of gizmos and gadgets you could combine in weird Rube Goldberg concoctions to get something done. Now, Crazy Machines advances this idea still further, and succeeds with its iteration of this idea that was so solidly established by The Incredible Machine.
  
  Kudos to the game designer studio team for taking on this challenge and providing for gamers a new approach to the whimsy and challenging fun that we loved so much in The Incredible Machine.
  
  
  
• Difficult for younger kids, software is lacking
  By AGPHB7KJ5R6GK on 2006-01-10
  We bought this for our 8 yr old son due mostly to all the great reviews this had rec'd at the time. I've found the best games for kids are those that kids can easily figure out how to play it, and this is not that kind of game. If your kid is younger than a teen, an adult will likely need to be with him/her to help the kid figure everything out.
  
  And even adults will need to spend time trying to figure out how to operate the game or how to do the various puzzles.
  
  Directions are lacking and the game says a manual is available on the CD. I could not find one anywhere on the CD. I emailed the games support dept. weeks ago, and still haven't gotten a reply.
  
  This game's graphics and directions are severely lacking compared to other kids' software. And the support is non-existent.
  
  Our bright 8 year old quickly lost interest in the game because of the poor directions.
  
  I regret having bought this game.
  
  
• descendant of "The Incredible Machine"
  By A17ZRJ4NVN8C4S on 2006-03-20
  Being a descendant of "The Incredible Machine" (which some of you older gamers may remember) the game has several qualities which make it a significant evolution over the Incredible Machine games. The physics is amazing; I'd love to see the code map they used to program the physics into the game.
  
  
• Very good, but has problems.
  By A38QEQ3OVCUYCX on 2007-05-26
  We bought this for our seven year old son. He has enjoyed it greatly and seeing how creative he can be with problem solving in this game, I have to declare this was money well spent. Why only 3 stars? First because it won't work on my son's computer and after a week I got a terse reply from support saying it won't work on my video card. It worked find on my laptop (but now I have to share, but that's another story.) Also, it is sometimes hard to figure out how to use some of the parts or what exactly they want you to accomplish. Better objectives would be nice. At least they give you an answer key but that is in a PDF document where it is time consuming to find the experiment you are on.
  
  All in all, a pretty engaging 'game', but be prepared for some technical troubleshooting.
  
  
• Can't get it installed!
  By A2KQ6GBBSN3D77 on 2005-12-30
  I am so frustrated! My son was so excited to get this game for Christmas and I couldn't install it eventhough my computer has all the requirements for it!! I thought it was defective so I returned it to Amazon.com for a replacement - which they did in a very timely manner - but the new CD gives me the same trouble! I also gave it to my son's dad to try to install on his computer and he was unsuccessfull as well!Anyone experienced this? Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp! Please disregard the star rating since I haven't seen the game yet!
  
  
• My kids won't let me play
  By AS53BHHKEVF4Q on 2007-05-15
  I bought this game "for me" or so I thought... until my kids took it over two days after it arrived. Both my kids, ages 5 and 9, sit for as long as I will allow them and play with this game. They have completed half the pre-written experiments, but their favorite part is making thier own. (My hubby is also hooked on it LOL) Definitely worth buying. This game re-enforces problem solving skills with simple mechanics and engineering. It is very challenging so it keeps you on your toes, yet has enough "easy" levels to keep the kids interested. The interface is simple enough to learn, as stated, my 5 yr old plays it. If there are any draw-backs (outside the professor who can thankfully be muted) we haven't found them! I can't wait til it's MY turn to play!
  
  

• Plantronics DSP-400 Digitally-Enhanced USB Foldable Stereo Headset and Software
• Belkin Nostromo Speedpad n52
• Microsoft Habu Laser Gaming Mouse (Black)
• GameComPro1 PC Gaming Headset
• Saitek PC Gamer's Keyboard

• Crazy Machines 1.5
• Genius
• Zoombinis Logical Journey
• Mia's Math Adventure: Just In Time
• Learn to Play Chess with Fritz and Chesster