SMBC Comics Forum

http://fantasticcontraption.com/

You're given an object and using wheels and spokes (wood and water), you must get the object into the goal area. They start off simple and then get ridiculous, and there's always multiple ways to win. Here are a few of the solutions I've used for the puzzles:

Mind the Gap: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=501984
Junkyard: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=502114
The Wall: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=502219
On a Roll: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=502275
Full Up: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=502704
Higher: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=502773
Around the Bend: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=502953
Up the steps: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=500817
Mission to Mars: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=500547
Big Ball: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=501608
Four Balls: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=505381

That is a great game. I like it quite a bit.
Here are my (so far) favourite versions of what I've done.


Reach Up: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=582850
Mind The Gap: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=583165
Junkyard: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=583492
The Wall: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=584402
On A Roll: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=584621
Full Up: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=574663
Higher: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=575191
Around the Bend: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=584899
Up The Hump: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=585172
Mission to Mars: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=577686
Up The Stairs: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=586990
Big Ball: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=594257 (That one took a tonne of tries, and new approaches)
Four Balls: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=596050
Down Under: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=598761 (way too much time spent tweaking it because every tiny little change completely threw off the physics)


I really like your version of Around The Bend.

Here's some more I did:

Up the Hump: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=555264
Awash: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=512156
Handling: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=510927
Tube: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=511572

Around the bend is too easy, you can beat it by dropping the target on top of the sphere on the left. The target then rolls all the way to the right, and then left into the goal after falling.

This game is awesome. Lethal, I like your Big Ball. Kick ass.

A few I'm proud of:
Unpossible: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=629873
Handling: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=626700
Big Ball: http://fantasticcontraption.com/?designId=581949

TwoBuy wrote:This game is awesome. Lethal, I like your Big Ball. Kick ass.

A few I'm proud of:
Unpossible: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=629873
Handling: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=626700
Big Ball: http://fantasticcontraption.com/?designId=581949

I actually quite like yours. Not an approach I even thought of (and not close to any other version I looked at afterwards). And an idea I'll have to keep in mind in future tracks (I'm still stuck on the avalanche one, though I haven't looked at it since yesterday afternoon).
I'm doing my best not to look at other versions.
I did notice that several of my ideas for Down Under were used by others. Unfortunately I could never get them to work. I would get the ball in the goal 95%, but never the whole way, and then I'd tweak it, and it would go all wonky, so I would try again, change, try again, change. Then I finally got sick of the way I did it and try another way. I think my way was my third choice, and I managed to get it in my first 2 or 3 tries.


Awash: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=643919
Finally finished that one. Ended up being an absolute ugly mess of rods. Mainly because I had my idea from the start, but I had problem after problem with the physics (even this one still has problems, as the extra weight of the boulders messes with the rods and wheels too often), so I really wanted to cement everything in place. Some of it was my fault/problem, but most was just that the stuff stopped doing what it was supposed to.

Thank goodness that Handling was much easier.
Handling: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=645028

Tube: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=645479
Wasn't too bad. It didn't take that long for me to figure out the one small ingredient I was missing, which was that little spike.
After checking out some other versions (most of which were similar to my mine, but not quite as clean), I rather liked this one, which takes a very different approach, but is awesome.

TwoBuy wrote:This game is awesome.

Lethal Interjection wrote:That is a great game. I like it quite a bit.

So will you stop hating me now?

No.

Back and Forth: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=665042

I can do simpler than you.
Mind the gap: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=665024

I've started going through it again and trying to do every level without ever attaching my machine to the red ball (or trapping it in a box. It must be free-flowing). Here are some fun ones:

Handling: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=642634
Down Under: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=641443
Big Ball: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=640796 (based on one you guys showed me)
Stairs: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=640204
Mission to Mars: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=639880
Hump: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=639591
Higher: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=638630
On A Roll: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=638438
Junk Yard: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=638090
The Wall: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=637794 (this one was fun)

Oh, and Cheez. I can do it simpler: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=637324

cheez.wiz wrote:I can do simpler than you.
Mind the gap: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=665024

That is simpler than mine? I used 3 rods and 2 wheels.

TwoBuy wrote:I've started going through it again and trying to do every level without ever attaching my machine to the red ball (or trapping it in a box. It must be free-flowing). Here are some fun ones:

That's a cool idea.
Your Wall one was great. I think that is probably the first time that one has been done with out moving any of the blocks from the wall.
I also liked the Big Ball one. I tried doing something that would incorporate the ball into the machine (which yours kind of did), but once I had beat it (I actually beat it my first try, by accident, which isn't the same one above), I had a hard time not just moving on. I also liked the move with the blue ball on that one.
And the down under solution like that is the best one yet. The chains are such a pain, I liked that you found a way not to use one.

Awesome game! Here are some of mine

Higher: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=697706
Hump: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=698290
Mars: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=698709

Lethal Interjection wrote:

cheez.wiz wrote:I can do simpler than you.
Mind the gap: http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=665024

That is simpler than mine? I used 3 rods and 2 wheels.

Okay. I got the fluff out.

http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=705072

Are you happy now?

cheez.wiz wrote:Okay. I got the fluff out.

http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=705072

Are you happy now?

Mine is still simpler.

It depends on how we define simpler 'bout now.

I used less stuff, (2 bars and 2 wheels vs 4 bars and a wheel).

But it is indeed an elegant solution right there. And i have to note that your Higher solution is simply sexy.

cheez.wiz wrote:It depends on how we define simpler 'bout now.

I used less stuff, (2 bars and 2 wheels vs 4 bars and a wheel).

But it is indeed an elegant solution right there. And i have to note that your Higher solution is simply sexy.

Trumped. http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=729168

Or, you could even go with my eco-solution (no fossil fuels were used in the making of this solution). http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=729365

Also, I finished Unpossible. http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=729087
I must say, that I don't really like this one or the Down Under one. Why? Because why make the most obvious solution for these some sort of chain, and yet the physics does not handle it. I mean, most solutions to both have the chain bending through objects or even breaking. I have considerably less appreciation for that.