Talk:The Incredible Machine

Untitled
I am sure the "Kevin Ryan" link is going to the wrong person. Kevin of TIM fame works at GarageGames http://www.garagegames.com/my/home/view.profile.php?qid=105

Name?
I'm not sure how Wikipedia's naming guidelines go, but shouldn't the proper name for this be Incredible Machine, The?
 * --Powerlord 09:16, 15 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Only when included in lists - for example if it was put into a category, it should be sorted that way. The article heading is fine as is, since the word "The" was part of the name. --Firi e n § 10:32, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
 * OK, thanks for clearing that up. --Powerlord 01:03, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

MacOS
I remember this came out for the Mac; presumably system 8 and system 9. I believe there were at least 2 or 3 versions; but I have no idea whether these featured the same levels as the corresponding MS-DOS games. They were again Sierra games, but Sierra.com doesn't list any of the versions let alone the Apple ones so don't know how to correlate this with the current list... --Firi e n § 10:32, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

An external link
Hi, I maintain a website www.tim-exchange.com designed for people to swap Contraptions puzzles. I know linking to websites that you are involved with is bad practice on Wikipedia, so I wanted to get opinions from editors on Wikipedia as to whether it would be useful to link to it or not. The reason I feel it might be relevant is because it is a replacement for an official service 'WonSwap', which was discontinued. I am not aware of any copyright reasons why it should not be allowed as the puzzle files are simply instructions on where things are placed, and cannot be run without buying the actual program (hence Copyright rests with the creators). So, I'd like to ask, should this site be linked to from this Wikipedia page? Thanks, --Christopher 13:07, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

While normally as a fan forum this probably goes against the letter of Wikipedia's advertising guidelines, I think due to the age of TIM and the WonSwap it becomes more relevant, and being a free service doesn't go against the spirit of the advertising guidelines. I didn't come across WonSwap while I was playing TIM though - As an official service, it should have its own section, and its going defunct is notable, to which replacement sites should be natural descendents. My only concern is that tim-exchange is so small - I don't know whether it's possible for you to ask Sierra for the files that were on WonSwap and put those up for hosting, but as tim-exchange stands it seems likely that it fails notability guidelines. I believe that due to the good-faith nature this should stand; however it may fall to an editor who skims through and sees its small size, or I might be wrong. Wikipedia is not supposed to be a place to drive traffic to your site except in the case that the externally linked site provides content about the article subject that the article is unable to provide. I feel that tim-exchange, although currently small, does provide that - and I can only hope that it can gain enough content to be notable in the eyes of the next editor who comes through looking to clean up a little.

I suggest you add a section on WonSwap and through that lead on to the link, and I hope it gets enough content to stand on its own merit. I haven't played TIM in many years, but that wasn't helped by believing I'd completed all the levels; I played with the editor for a good while but in construction you know the solution so might well see if I can get it running again if tim-exchange gains more content :)

Best of luck with it! --Firi e n § 19:49, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Hi, I think I agree - tho' it might be a useful resource as it gets larger, it seems too small at the moment to be an appropriate reference on Wikipedia. Perhaps once the number of contraptions exceeds some threshold - e.g. 30 - from a varied range of users, then it might be worth posting. FYI, if you hadn't encountered WonSwap when playing TIM, it is probably because it was only available for the latest version of TIM (Even More Contraptions) (though my service should work with all versions). Thanks, --Christopher 10:18, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Anouther game in the series?
There is also Professor Tim's Incredible Machine (game on Amazon) which I think must fit somewhere within this series (or is perhaps just another name for one of the games in the series) Dueledge 16:10, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
 * At a best guess, I'd say it was another name for The Incredible Machine 2 (TIM2)... the art inside the lightbulb in the image on Amazon is the cover art for TIM2. TIM3 has similar artwork with some alterations that are not present in the version on the Professor Tim's Incredible Machine box.  TIM2 also marks the first appearance of Professor Tim. --Powerlord 19:47, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Adding other games
I winder if having a list of similar games is really necessary. The last entry seems to be someone promoting a game not yet released. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.167.169.166 (talk) 17:58, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

incredible
Defind incredible in this context

So, you may use death as a tool with which to escape, or with which to create. The first is impossible, the second it incredible.

Cite your sources!
I am the only one who cited the sources! I wish I knew the template to type in.--Dummmmmmy 23:41, 10 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I see at least two other citations in the article, they just aren't done using the usual and block. Unfortunately, I don't know what source you used, so I can't use one of the cite templates to add it to the numbered list. --Powerlord 06:09, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Homemade Puzzles?
Why is there a link to just some random guy's list of puzzles? If it were a site that actually encouraged people to submit their puzzles to it, that would be something. But it just appears as some guy's web site and he happens to offer a few puzzles. My point is, is the site that important to link from Wikipedia? 168.103.137.148 (talk) 16:01, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

1992 or 1993?
The article refers to the first generation of games as "the 1993 through 1995 versions" and specifies that "work did not start on The Incredible Machine until the spring of 1993." However, the list of titles has the first game coming out in 1992, which is also stated at MobyGames. Which is it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.117.137.90 (talk) 00:40, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Windows-only?
"The Incredible Machine 3, on some releases titled Professor Tim's Incredible Machines, contained the same levels as The Incredible Machine 2, but with an improved interface. As a Windows-only title, it added extra features as well like CD music tracks."

There are two problems with that: It wasn't Windows-only, I remember quite fondly playing it on Mac OS 8 when I was wee, and even if it was Windows-only, what would that have to do with things like "extra features as well like CD music tracks"? HaniiPuppy (talk) 21:17, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Should problems be part of the article?
I LOVED TIM, but found the original version was apparently not designed for faster computers - it used delay loops or other CPU-specific tricks, i.e. was not timer based, so when run on a newer machine, it just ran impossibly fast and was unusable WardXmodem (talk) 01:10, 16 April 2014 (UTC)

Does Contraption Maker really belong here?
Certainly some mention of Contraption Maker is warranted, since it's extremely similar and was designed by the same person as the original Incredible Machine. But it's still unrelated intellectual property, so I don't think it should be treated as an installment of the Incredible Machine series when it really isn't. I think it should be spun off into its own article. - furrykef (Talk at me) 23:25, 20 August 2017 (UTC)

Requested move 25 January 2022

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) ASUKITE  16:44, 2 February 2022 (UTC)

– Another clear primary topic by pageviews. The only other non-partial title match for the name is an album that gets far less views (on any given day, 10 times less). The Incredible Machine is, of course, a WP:PTM and doesn't really need consideration - but even if it was considered a valid alternate term, it gets even less views than the album - a few on most days, on others, zero. ZXCVBNM (TALK) 11:22, 25 January 2022 (UTC) The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
 * The Incredible Machine (series) → The Incredible Machine
 * The Incredible Machine → The Incredible Machine (disambiguation)
 * Support Page views show an overwhelming primary topic.--Yaksar (let's chat) 15:59, 25 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Support – clearly the primary topic with respect to pageviews, and none of the other possibilities seem to have enough long-term significance to overcome that. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 19:45, 1 February 2022 (UTC)