The 3DO Experience - Episode 23: The Incredible Machine: Rube Goldberg Styled Action... On 3DO!!

[00:00:00] Every week's experience there was a power of the Panasonic Wheel 3DO system. Obviously...

[00:00:42] Hello everybody and welcome back to the 3DO Experience, the 3DO Retrospective podcast where we talk about all things 3DO, the 3DO company, the console and everything in between kind of screwed up the intro there. But oh well...

[00:00:52] I'm Bill and this is Thrak, I can't even think of it. Fuck it, we'll do it live. I'm doing just fine, Bill. How are you doing? I'm doing alright. Just kind of tired and beat to hell with winter and everything but that's besides the point.

[00:01:09] You should drink a 5 hour energy, maybe that'll help. Honestly it'll probably just pull me to sleep. That seems to be how caffeine works with me sometimes. I've never had a 5 hour energy. It just looked like a heart attack in a bottle.

[00:01:23] See, I had... There was a short period where my favorite NASCAR driver was sponsored by them. I EY have this hat. I bought them when he was sponsored and then the sponsored did to them at the end of the season.

[00:01:35] I was like, fuck this fuck this brand and never bought another one. Mill, you have the hat. Yeah. It was a nice hat. Like, yeah. That's embroidered and everything? Hey, we see the top of your head. Yeah, I have a lot of hair.

[00:01:49] I was going to make a Tim Bull joke because you know he always has the beanie he never takes it off. Yeah. Do you think it's the same beanie? Or do you think he has multiple ones? I'm convinced he's a robot secretly. I just think he's an idiot.

[00:02:06] But he provides a lot of funny content. You ever seen the video, so he did a... Is he the apple guy or are we thinking of different people? Oh, oh, you're talking... You're thinking about what Tim Cook? Oh, Tim Cook? Oh, Tim Cook? Yeah.

[00:02:22] Some reason I thought Tim Cook. Yeah, I'm talking about Tim Pool. The political commentator. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he... Yeah, he... And he always had... I don't know... I guess you don't know him. He doesn't... he always wears a beanie. He never takes it off.

[00:02:38] There are pictures of him without the beanie and he's clearly balding. But it's like bro. Just accept it. It's okay. It's not that big of deal. You know, that's far from the worst thing about him. I think he's a complete business ship.

[00:02:49] But we're not here to talk about that. Instead, we're here to talk about a fun game. But before we talk about this fun game, talk about another game. And that is... Before this episode, I beat Star Wars Jedi colon, followed order.

[00:03:02] And I got to say this game was fantastic. This is the one that responded, right? Yes. They also did Jedi colon survivor. And apparently the Jedi colon series is supposed to be a trilogy. So they are working on the third one.

[00:03:19] I'll probably play survivor, because I think it's supposed to hit... It says it hits EA Play in about April. And game passes tidy EA Play. So I'll probably play it then. But yeah, Jedi fall in order was fantastic.

[00:03:32] Honestly, it's probably the best Star Wars game I've ever played. And there's a lot of great Star Wars games. A lot of people love Cotor. I get it. Cotor wasn't really my thing from a gameplay perspective. I loved the old pandemic Star Wars battlefront games.

[00:03:46] I still love those games to death. I never played for some leash. We're a public commandos, a lot of fun. I quite like Empire War. There's a lot of Star Wars games. To Lego Star Wars games are good. But I don't know.

[00:04:00] This one just really hit for me. You know? It just... It was perfect. And I beat it in just under 20 hours. So I could have went back and got everything. But I just didn't feel like it. But it was good. I really, really enjoyed it.

[00:04:15] For maybe Star Wars episode 3 game on DS. Yes, I actually played on GBA. Okay. And I have the GBA version over in my collection behind my shoulder. They're the same game. I thought that... Well, the DS one has 3D Starfighter sections.

[00:04:34] Yeah, but they're both like 2D beat them up. Yes, sides going to be more... Yeah, they're rising really good. Oh yeah. Yeah. They have the Anakin and the Obi-Wan Path. So you get slightly different stories, the boss fights were fun. You get like force powers and...

[00:04:50] That the end you fight each other and it's great. And then there was also the console version, the PS2 Xbox version. I haven't played that game in a long, long time. And if I remember... It has some similar... It's similar. Like I believe...

[00:05:06] Like it has maybe some similarities to this one. And from memory, in terms of it's a game where you're just a Jedi and the whole game is like, Oh, it's an equal to be a Jedi. But I'd have to play it again.

[00:05:19] I think it's backwards compatible so I could give it a shot. And I never played the Force on Leach Games. I've heard... The first one is really good the second one. Yeah. Yeah. But they're... I saw somebody compare it to like Fallen Order.

[00:05:34] And it's like they're not really the same. Fallen Order is like babies for souls like, whereas Force Unleashed looks more like a typical hack and slash kind of game. Or some leached is a really good hack and slash for some downright awesome Force gameplay. Yeah. It's like playing...

[00:05:51] If you were silver, the hedgehog and it was good. Basically. That's hard to pull off. Yeah. I mean that or psychonauts are probably the two best examples of how to do psychic powers. God, I need to play psychonauts.

[00:06:05] But the reason why Force Unleashed to me is so good is the story is just so freaking fun to follow. Honestly, it's better than anything that didn't need shadow. I think... I will say Fallen Order has a very good story.

[00:06:18] It's kind of like like light versus dark stuff, but it's done really really well. Like I enjoyed all the characters and it handles the whole like being a lone Jedi host perge, right? But pre-new hope, you know, like how they're dealing with it.

[00:06:36] And there's various Jedi's you meet and they all are sort of dealing with it in different ways. So... And I thought it was handled very well and the ending wasn't too bad. So it definitely was a self-open for a sequel.

[00:06:49] And I have no idea what the survivor story is. And I don't want to know until I play it. Okay. I'll give Re-spon credit. They're probably the best thing he is for just an a long time. Oh yeah. They're respawned.

[00:07:02] Wow. Like after playing Titanfall 2 and this got damn. What a great dev studio. Like they were able to do a kick-out. They were the... They were the... They were the... They were originally like Infinity Ward guys, right? I think so. Is either Infinity Ward or Tray Arc?

[00:07:21] One of the two. One of the two... I want to say Infinity Ward is I believe all the Titanfall stuff was like from the original Call of Duty creators, which I believe wasn't Infinity Ward. I think it's Tray Arc.

[00:07:31] I think Tray Arc came in later to do three. And they'd be wrong. The Call of Duty. So yeah, they were... Yeah, they... It was the guys who co-founded Infinity Ward. God. I have to co-found respawn. Yes.

[00:07:45] And the first Call of Duty game was made by Infinity Ward you are correct. They didn't start up until Call of Duty 3. So yes. Plus, I believe they did a fine-to-star and Big Red 1 look at the PS2 Xbox Verans. Love Big Red 1. One of my favorites. Solid game.

[00:08:00] So what have you been playing anything interesting? Nothing too crazy. I was playing a bit of Batman Arc and a Silent Recently because I got a... Woo! I picked up the... On Switch, they put the full trilogy up. Which... Yeah. Essentially means play a Silent in the city.

[00:08:19] Don't even bother playing Knight because... Oct, I gave it doesn't work. But... Yeah. So you got the return to Arkham? Yeah. Nice. Only play a Silent in City. Knight doesn't work on Switch at all. Oh, you have the Switch versions?

[00:08:38] Yeah, I've already had them on everything else so I figured I'd give them... Oh, sure. Oh, sure. I was Silent in City. Run great on Switch. It's... It's City. The version on there is it based on the Wii U version. I don't think so. Okay.

[00:08:54] So when I heard City would ran the best of the three, which might... Which could be because they're using the Wii U port of it. So like... That was the foundation. Potentially. But yeah, I'm sure a Silent would run just fine on there as well. Oh, a Silent.

[00:09:09] I had no issues with... The only one that I've heard has any problems as Knight but also... I saw... I saw... It's Arkham Knight. Well, that game still looks really good. Back at boot up on my series X. Wow, what a gorgeous game.

[00:09:21] I saw game footage of the Switch version of Arkham Knight running at like zero FPS. Like the game would just freeze. Like it's bad. Like why didn't they... They should have just done Origins. Yeah, I know they don't like to count it. But... Origins is a good game.

[00:09:37] Yeah, it's perfectly fine. Yeah, like a Silent and Origins are the only two I've beaten. Like City's on my backlog. I've played it a couple times but I never like sound-man. It's quite... That's so big. But it is good.

[00:09:53] And I'd like to get tonight at some point as well. So... The... I enjoy Knight. The biggest problem I have with Knight is that Paul Dini clearly did not contribute to the story this time around and it shows. But um... Got a Silent and City.

[00:10:10] Arkham a Silent alone to me is like the best superhero game I think ever made. It's probably the best 3D Metroidvania too. Hmm. That combat system... I don't know what... Rocksteady just found like magic in a bottle of that combat system. It's just perfect. Because...

[00:10:29] Well it has like that sort of like a rhythm. Like something like rhythm game and a way. Free flowing. I think they called it. Yeah, last. And with Batman it makes perfect sense. Like it feels good.

[00:10:40] And so many other games have tried to copy it with like a mixed results. Like I'm also playing Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Still. Um... But at this point I'm just probably just going to finish out the story

[00:10:51] just because I've put too much time into it and I need to work move on to other things. But it does like Arkham combat and it's fine. But it doesn't feel nearly as good as it does in the Arkham games.

[00:11:01] You know, like Arkham a Silent is one of the few games. I like got all the little collectibles in and all that stuff. Because it was so good. In fact, I think it was the last game I played on my PS4 before I traded for my Xbox.

[00:11:13] But I have it and I'd love to play it again on my Xbox. But I need to get knockout city first. Yeah. Because I just need to get that one under my belt. Because a lot of people that's the best game in the series.

[00:11:25] You know, it's between the Silent and City for most people. You know? So... Just the banter between Kevin Conor and Mark Campbell is like... Right, so listen that game. Oh yeah. But yeah, but a Silent is such a tight, made game. It's phenomenal.

[00:11:42] I love the fact that they were so confident in it that they actually put the little sneak peek of city, like in that hidden room. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I mean, they were right because that game's fucking perfect. Yeah. It's a shame that...

[00:11:58] I'm kind of worried about Rock's Daddy right now with that suicide squad game coming out. I have, like... I've heard nothing but mixed things. Like it's easy for you to really like it or they hate it. There's like no one between. I think it's like the Avengers game.

[00:12:12] It's just going to shit the bed. And at least with like Crystal Dynamics, they were able to... Like, well, they got bought by Embracer. But they also have support from Microsoft as well, which I think is what keeps them afloat.

[00:12:26] But with Rock's Daddy, especially with all the weird stuff Warner Brothers has been doing. Like if this game doesn't hit, this Rock's Daddy can get closed. And if so, that fucking sucks because I think... I mean, suicide squad may... I think it's gonna bomb genuinely I do.

[00:12:44] And I just hope that they're able to recoup and actually... They'll either do like another Batman Arkham game or let them do a Superman game or something. You know, like don't let Rock's Daddy go. They're way too good and have too much validity to let them go.

[00:13:03] You know what I mean? Yeah, I will see. Like their track record is pretty perfect at this point so I feel like... One misstep wouldn't kill them but it also like Warner Brothers is so confusing right now.

[00:13:16] Oh, and also in the industry right now, you kind of need to hit every time. Otherwise you're fucked. You know, like look at them. The devs do you even made Callisto Protocol. Like they formed to did the whole thing for that one game and it kind of underperformed.

[00:13:34] And now it's like they're probably gonna dissolve. I think that's what happened to the For Spoken Studio. Yeah. Remember For Spoken? Yeah, like we're like... Debs aren't allowed to have a couple goes at it before they really hit anymore, you know?

[00:13:50] Like, like, did Rockstar hit out of the gate? No. Took them a long time to get there floating. I mean, yeah, just anyone remember like body harvest and like, kind of silicone valley. I fucking love space to use. I don't really. Good old DMA design.

[00:14:07] DMA was so good. Even the early GTAs are kind of clunky. Oh, yeah, the top downers. Yeah, the only other games, let's see Rocksteady. They did, yeah, a Silent City night, Arkham VR, which I forgot was the thing. Suez hat's squad. Oh, yeah, their first game.

[00:14:25] Do you ever play Urban Chaos Riot Response? No, I've seen that on the shelf. I should get it. Just to see. I'm told for a FPS from the PS2 era. Not bad. Not bad.

[00:14:38] Though you wouldn't expect this studio in this team to go to what they eventually went to. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think anyone had the expectations for Arkham asylum that like, Rocksteady did because most people like at that point superhero games were like,

[00:14:56] Spider-Man would put out like a average decent game every now and then for the most parts superhero games just sucked. I mean, original Spider-Man 2 still holds up. Well, you want to come to me. The PS2 Xbox Game You Game.

[00:15:11] That one gets a pass just for how fucking good the web swinging was. Yeah, it's still fun game. I have a moon. Oh, no, my balloon. And then of course the famous Pizza delivery music. I've been a lot of memes in there.

[00:15:26] But yeah, like superhero games are such hitting this before Arkham asylum. Batman had a couple good ones, the NES game. I'm starting here slander about the NES Batman game. Guys, that game is good. Okay. It's too hard so we hate it now. It's not bad.

[00:15:42] It's not bad hard. It's really not. I know. I mean, people like the Joker, the final boss battle with the Joker fucking sucks. Well, that's a bad boss sucks. But the rest of the game is phenomenal. That's just NES gaming for you.

[00:15:56] It just was like they had to design it that way for the time. Yeah. But there were still some good batbang games before that. And Batman returns was pretty good beat him up. I'm going to say the Genesis Batman games are pretty good.

[00:16:09] They're different but they were good. Oh, so there was the adventures of Batman and Robin. And there were two different versions. There was the Super Nintendo one which was more of a side scrolling beat him up.

[00:16:18] And then there was the Genesis one which is like technical wizardry on the Genesis. Yeah, it's like a shoot him up. Yeah, it's like a shoot him up with like pseudo phenomenal graphics. Oh yeah. The most insane soundtrack on Genesis.

[00:16:32] Yeah, I had that game for the nominal game. But I was also talking about like the two games based on the Tim Burton movies for the Genesis. We're different games like entirely and they're pretty good as well.

[00:16:44] So Batman's always Batman is one of the few superheroes that like if you look at his video game. Well, it's not all bad. There's actually like some good stuff even for you. The two biggest winners were probably Batman and Spider-Man.

[00:16:57] Oh yeah, because they're easier to make games on. Because even PS1 Spider-Man is still a good game. Oh yeah, it's really dated. And it's a shout out to credible Hulk ultimate destruction. Great game prototype prototype. Yeah, and then that 360 Captain America game. Not bad. It's not bad.

[00:17:21] I haven't over there. So now it's not a bad game. So for sure. And it was part of that weird like Sega publishing like Iron Man, which Iron Man wasn't good. But somehow that Captain America, it's like a band at a clone or something. But it works.

[00:17:37] And then there's poor Superman who just can't make a good game. Superman's a tough one, you know? Like probably the Superman game I enjoyed the most was Superman Returns.

[00:17:50] Oh yeah, that's the one where they came up with that great idea of rather than giving Superman a health bar give the city a health bar. It was trying to be different because it's like, well, Superman does what I would have the health bar that's stupid.

[00:18:03] And it definitely was influenced by Spider-Man too. So it's trying. Like at least with Superman Returns I play it and I'm like, they're definitely there's an attempt being made to do some the kind of fit. You know? The one I hate just he just hit.

[00:18:19] The one on GameCube and PS2 was alright as well. Shadow overropolis, I think. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't good but it wasn't bad either. It was just it was. First Superman standards it was great.

[00:18:31] That's so that that's why I'd like to see Rock City attempt a Superman game because if anybody could make it work, I think they could do it. If they couldn't then just never do it again. That's my job.

[00:18:45] But yeah before this just becomes a full on comic book podcast or she probably jump over to our topic for this episode. Yes. So we had said two episodes ago we were going to be talking about a little fun game. Incredible machine nice big lawn box here.

[00:19:07] Oh yes over 200 brain twisting puzzles plus a fantastic puzzle builder. So going on this one I guess like initial impressions. Did you play this game previously before you played the 3D over version? No. Because yeah, interestingly enough this is a series. Yes, a long running series.

[00:19:31] Yes because a guy I work with who's also really into gaming and we talk about that stuff a lot. I brought this up to him and he's like oh yeah that game I played on the back of middle school on the computer. Yeah, that's like what?

[00:19:46] And then I looked it up. Yeah, it was a series of mostly PC games from the mid 90s up until about the early 2000s even with this 3D over version we have as far as I know the only console version ever of this game.

[00:20:03] So yeah, but when I but I never knew about it beforehand like I learned about this game when I was digging through 3D as library and seeing a roob goldburg puzzle machine like video like puzzle game and I'm like oh I'm fucking in that sounds brilliant you know.

[00:20:23] So that's what I thought. What did you think? So I actually had previously experienced this game years ago back on a so we were mean Alex my sister we were in like at one of those after school like

[00:20:38] quote unquote like daycare programs because parents were at a parents were still at work we couldn't go home at the time so we kind of went to one of those things.

[00:20:48] And I was remember they had a um they had computers set up with a bunch of games pre loaded into it and this game was actually on there like one of the PC versions.

[00:20:58] I don't know if it was exactly this version it was a version of this and I remember.

[00:21:04] You couldn't always just think of Peter because you had to share with everyone so I remember just watching someone playing it back in the day thought it was interesting but usually when I was using the computer I was playing Sonic 3. But impression-wise it looked fun. Yeah.

[00:21:23] Um yeah now I guess brief history of the game. Obviously the game the game series has been going on forever. I mean the earliest is probably 93 was the original release. I believe this version is based on like the original.

[00:21:41] That's not version of the game and funnily enough according to Wikipedia. This game was originally going to be developed by our old friends electronic arts for the Commodore 64 back in like the 80s.

[00:21:53] But um the company who eventually did make it which I believe is Jeff tunnel productions instead worked on it. So it's ended. Yeah it was programmed in nine months on a budget of $36,000. And looking into Jeff tunnel productions history.

[00:22:13] Most of it is literally they've made the incredible machine a lot. They pretty much handled most ports of it. Their one original game was a game called. Working in corksu's turbo science so they were an educational game studio.

[00:22:33] Yeah and looking at Jeff tunnels I hope I'm saying that right his his his gameography I guess it's a lot of um Sierra online stuff in the 90s like rise of the dragon. Let's see bouncer's for the Sega CD.

[00:22:51] Um 3D Ultra pinball creep knight you know marble blast ultra like games used to be called these things people. Yeah because the company that published this and they also handled a lot of the development for some of the other versions was a company called Dynamics

[00:23:07] Yeah and Dynamics like you say in like 3D Ultra in ball all these crazy. It was a lot of educational games and actually like that opening startup screen like where like little blue. Creature that yeah you can see it in the background there.

[00:23:27] Yeah as dynamics that actually triggered a like a memory in my brain because one of the games they actually. One of the games that's actually listed in their. Gameography that I noticed was like this little game called brain town for the train town.

[00:23:45] I had that up I had that on my PC back in the day and. Is it like a railroad tycoon type game?

[00:23:53] It's not really a tycoon it was more a it was actually a puzzle game where you would have to like do different challenges by like building railroad tracks kind of kind of very similar to this.

[00:24:01] I'm just saying I can see if I can still if I still owed it somewhere because I'd love to give it a shot again. Yeah it sounds like a good way of getting a kids brain working you know.

[00:24:14] Yeah then you could crash the trains and that was always fun. Fucking weird as. Yeah. Um yes so. Interestingly though this is the lone console port. Yeah apparently at least according to the little research we did though there is one.

[00:24:35] There's a game called sit and owls incredible tunes which is like similar to incredible machine but not really the same and that got. A console port for the Saturn in playstation but only in Japan.

[00:24:49] So yeah and I guess there was a vote a mobile version of incredible machine done a couple years back as well. And you can get what's the incredible machine mega pack on God where it gives you like like four or five of the games in this series.

[00:25:07] So because yeah definitely playing this game it is a PC style game. You know I have no idea that the 3D on mouse is compatible with this. You should find out. I have to I have to find one that's the thing. 3D on mouse let's say.

[00:25:26] I saw one on eBay when I was looking at controllers and it's a mouse already. It's like it's literally a brick it's like the funniest looking thing ever. Oh not at these prices. Yeah exactly absolutely not. Well those are if you look.

[00:25:44] Yeah I mean this game plays perfectly fine with controller it's a little stiff but I mean that's expected for this type of game on controller. Oh yeah but it works fine for what it's trying to do.

[00:25:56] But I have the good old manual with me and in here there is something called what's it all about so listeners I'm going to tell you what it's all about.

[00:26:07] If you're the kind of person who gets off on gadgets and gizmos and insanely complicated contraptions you're going to go wild over the incredible machine. There are 200 and 8 puzzles here awaiting your creative genius.

[00:26:20] Basically the game works like this you get a puzzle, a goal and a bunch of spare parts.

[00:26:25] Your challenge is to figure out how the spare parts fit into solve the puzzle or you can become the machine maker and build your own puzzles see how weird and tough and crazy you could make them.

[00:26:35] Then test them out on your pals but be careful to much machine mayn't have some pretty spooky side effects. Oh my god turn to a mass murder. 90s.

[00:26:48] But yeah that's essentially what it is so for those who don't know the term Rob Goldberg machine is basically an American cartoonist named Rob Goldberg used to make these like pictures of like these very kind of complicated ways of solving very simple tasks.

[00:27:11] You know like probably the famous one is the self operating app can where it's like attaches to the dudes head and it's all this weird shit you know or if you remember the opening of lover.

[00:27:24] Where he's like trying to get like the breakfast made for him and it's like this weird like convoluted contraption to do all this stuff it is definitely modeled after the idea of the group Goldberg. Most of the wall's and grommets contraptions back in that series.

[00:27:41] Yes that's another good one as well. So if you're curious you know you can look into Rub Goldberg machines and the drawings they are very fascinating to look at like I think they're meant to be funny.

[00:27:55] You know like oh look how silly this is but if anything they're just kind of interesting to look at like the ingenuity of like how somebody would think of this weird round about way to do so.

[00:28:05] And it's a bit of a way to do something that's incredibly simple you know yes and it's. Oh go on. No please. I lost my train of the idea.

[00:28:15] So basically the so basically this game is taking the idea of the Goldberg machine and turning it into an interactive puzzle game so as it says you'll have a goal saying like oh get this ball into this you know hole or whatever.

[00:28:35] And you'll have like different ramps and like conveyor belts and like rubber bands ropes all this weird stuff that you have to try to put together to form this you know kind of contraption to get it to where it needs to go you know like in a way it kind of abandoned like traditional logic.

[00:28:56] But with all good puzzle games they kind of have their own logic and that you can kind of stick with that logic to figure out how the game works like you'll learn oh if I hit.

[00:29:08] If something hits like the little rat box it'll trigger it to start running and then you can use that to attach to like a conveyor belt to get something to move across it you know say like a magnifying glass to shoot off a rocket or something crazy like that.

[00:29:22] It's it's really fun because a lot of the puzzles are like designed to make you think outside of the box but also keep make you overthink things at the same time.

[00:29:31] Yes, I mean the whole idea of a rubgobberg machine is overthinking things but it but what I like is it really allows your brain to work you know it definitely feels like an educational game.

[00:29:45] It in a sense that it's also really entertaining because it's educating you in sort of in a way like physics and gravity and how that kind of works because it's fairly realistic for what for what it is and what it's trying to do.

[00:29:58] And it just and if anything it just kind of creates problems all things skills, you know like how do I get this thing over here and all that kind of yeah.

[00:30:07] Like I'll say like the first day I attempted to get do my research for this episode I was playing this game. I had had a couple drinks and I was like I got two levels and I was like yes it happened in the night.

[00:30:19] It's like nope too much brain. Yeah, you need to be stone cold silver to play this one. Yeah, like my brain was like stop. You're you've had enough sir. Yeah and there are 200 or eight puzzles. How many did you end up end up doing? I did like 40.

[00:30:38] Okay, I did about 30 35. So. I think it pretty intense as like a long.

[00:30:45] Oh yeah, oh yeah, in fact there's some YouTube videos of people playing like even further in and yeah the the creativity of the developers to make up these weird things is also absolutely something to note as well.

[00:31:01] And yeah, just I just love how the game just kind of makes you think in very weird interesting things and also I love how unique it is because there's no other game like this not really.

[00:31:14] You know, like I have quite a soft spot for puzzle games especially puzzle games that do very interesting things, you know. Like slightly off topic I've really heard good things about subliminal. And that's a puzzle game that I definitely should check out because it looks like something that.

[00:31:31] I would really enjoy, you know and of course there's the portal games as well which handle puzzles in a very unique way in those games and masterpieces and honestly I would kind of put incredible machine in that line of like really unique puzzle games because even if it has like an educational.

[00:31:48] I'm not really excited to it that end to some people that's a dirty word in gaming here, I think it's done very well like it's not pandering to you or anything.

[00:31:56] Yeah, and you could see like a teacher overlooking like the shoulder of a child and he's trying to do this and be like oh he's just you know that's not bad you know he's not killing people or doing anything horrible so.

[00:32:10] Like the puzzles in this game I kind of like not the same genre at all, but I kind of align them in the same kind of kind of like brain kind of thinking as like say like the professor laid in the series where like it's not an educational game or say but it's like a game that like really.

[00:32:28] And it's just your brain power and like thinking outside the box.

[00:32:31] Yeah, yeah, because professor latens puzzles are all logic based and but what helps with latent is it also taps into sort of just like I guess common sense kind of things because a lot of the stuff it asks you a lot of the puzzles.

[00:32:47] It tries to relate to like your own cognitive ability and your own experience in cognitive ability there is one puzzle in the the main line six latent games that I do not like and I'll always remember it's in the first game where it's essentially a riddle.

[00:33:02] And it's asking you. Yeah, it's basically the answer is they're looking for like a compass the thing you put like a little pencil and draw circle or whatever right and I didn't like it because.

[00:33:15] People don't really use those anymore like even in 2007 when that game came out like that was a very sort of old person thing like I mean I used a protractor and I think that's what I use what I said it first was oh it's a protractor but it wasn't.

[00:33:31] You know, so that was like the only example of a puzzle like I think about how my head I didn't care for in terms of like the more logic puzzles but yeah there's definitely a connection there.

[00:33:41] Yeah, but also late and has like a really good story and the late games are like puzzle games that are that have like these insane stories that like just go completely off the real separate episode.

[00:33:52] Yeah, and and I do get emotional at the end of one of them. Was it a. Three or was it six three. Okay, that's because I was an idiot because I was an idiot and played six first. Before any of the others. You like it's like $200 now.

[00:34:11] Yeah, I have a digitally on my three S because physically when I was getting into the series, I think physically was like 70.

[00:34:19] And I was like, I don't know about that and then it's just gone up but I also have the Phoenix right crossover but that's also digital and then I have the one starring his daughter on my switch.

[00:34:31] So there's only two I haven't played but I played the six one first only because I was like oh, which considered the best one in the series because I was interested in them never said oh, that's the best one so I played that.

[00:34:43] And then when I finished it and it goes right into the opening of the first one curious village, I went shit maybe I shouldn't play this one first because then I ended up playing all the others.

[00:34:54] So when I finished and when I finished miracle mask I was like to how I want to do as ran again and I was like. Maybe not yet. Yeah, I would like to play that one again.

[00:35:03] Yeah, I remember before we get back at three no just one little off tangent.

[00:35:08] I still remember when the when the crossover came out, I went to game stop and the guy like literally was like everything put it on the fucking shelf yet because I didn't think anyone was gonna buy it.

[00:35:18] Is it such an obscure game so I made the guy actually have to go in the back or get it. Good for you good for you.

[00:35:25] But yeah, I love late in series it's one of my favorite video game series of all time like so so good just kind of hit me perfectly you know and and to the listeners if you're curious. I would say start with diabolical box.

[00:35:41] I think that's if you need a if you want to one off that's the perfect one on. Curious village has not aged the best that's a lot.

[00:35:50] No, no it hasn't but what's nice about diabolical boxes that it feels like a standalone game you know like it gives you all the context you need kind of at the start and it's just a really good singular story. And that ending is so fucking sad.

[00:36:09] It's a rare instance of a game doing a sympathetic villain that I totally fell for. I was like yes, I completely was a pleasure this guy. So it did a good job and also the puzzle really good. Yeah.

[00:36:24] What to do like a lead episode at some point when we're just doing spin off that. I have the first five physically over on that stack over there because they got a close there's still cheaper.

[00:36:36] Well, the last DS one last specter was a bit pricey but I want yeah. Yep and it's the worst one. Yeah, unfortunately is what is depending on your thoughts on like crossover some people really didn't like the crossover.

[00:36:53] I haven't played it and I know a lot of people don't like the one starring his daughter. The puzzles are fine. Like this is daughter's board a boring character. Yeah, so I'm excited for the new one which I think is 25 I think it's when that comes out.

[00:37:09] Day one baby. All right, but going back to a credit whole machine now. So this game's pretty interesting when you start it up you get three options of gameplay. You have the right right there you have you can solve puzzles.

[00:37:26] Yep, you can make a puzzles and then there's also the tutorial which teaches you how to play the game and I would recommend doing the tutorial. It's going to be like me.

[00:37:37] It gives you some very simple puzzles and kind of allows you to it's like when you play like the first like two or three levels of the original portal.

[00:37:46] You know, we're kind of eases you in to what's going on and you kind of figure it out at that point. So and I did not mess with the making puzzles. I just don't think I have the brain power to make a rubble bug machine.

[00:38:01] To me, it was kind of like Mario Maker where it's like it's really cool but I don't have the creativity to really do much with it. I made a couple Mario Maker levels. I made like two but like that was about all the creativity I could do.

[00:38:12] Yeah, I think what I wanted to do which I thought would have been interesting was try to recreate the like a handful of level. Like if anything the entirety of World One and Mario Maker 2 of Mario 3. Oh nice.

[00:38:27] Yeah, I thought about doing it but I was like the work I would have had to do to like get like reference pictures and do all the work just to like wide screen Mario 3. That's probably I would have called it like HD Mario 3 or something.

[00:38:40] Like the work probably wouldn't have been worth it. I'm sure people would have enjoyed it but yeah, maybe somebody already did it. I don't know. Mario Maker kind of fell off a cliff. Yeah, I mean it was cool for a while.

[00:38:54] I mean there still still has a dedicated fan base but. Oh yeah. It's not the hotness anymore. No, I think it's fantastic. It's just after you've put a handful of hours into it. It's like yeah, I know what this is. Yeah.

[00:39:09] You get way too many auto run auto Mario levels which just aren't really anything. Thankfully they put they put a separate category for those after a while and just kind of stuck them to the side so you wouldn't see them if you were trying to avoid them.

[00:39:21] Yeah, and then like. If it's like a hard level and it has like Japanese letters, you know, it's going to be insanely hard every time.

[00:39:31] And I'm not how to do it, but that was my favorite part of that game is whenever you die and you just see all the x-fuckers from the previous one. There's always fun. Always fun, yes.

[00:39:41] So um, for this episode though because we're doing video now, I have props and I figured we can kind of go over how this game controls. Yeah. So it's it's very simple.

[00:39:52] It's a it's a point and click kind of game but you got your D pad over here. Move your cursor around. It's it's okay. It's not the best controlled but does the job. Looks like a shiny D pad.

[00:40:04] So I'm using the gold start controller just because I think it's funny, but um, fair enough. Over here then we have our A B and C's A grabs your your puzzle like like contraption pieces and let you drag them around. I drag and drop them.

[00:40:20] So you can be once you have a piece dropped it allows you to modify it so you can either grow it in size depending on the piece or you can rotate it or flip. Yes, and flipping is very important.

[00:40:32] Yes, and then finally see brings up your menu which gives you all your options like there's the play button which will activate the puzzle, which is very handy because sometimes like you sometimes when you look at a puzzle you need to at least see what's going to happen before you actually start messing with it.

[00:40:49] Run through everything and then you can just go back and then start from there and you can keep you could have unlimited tries with this so you can just keep like seeing what goes and like figured stuff out.

[00:41:01] Yeah, because a lot of the puzzles are challenging enough to figure out on the own so having limited tries would just be kind of pointless, you know.

[00:41:10] And I would solve them I would go step by step like I would put something in place and I'd be like here let me see if that's working like the idea in my head right and then I'd be like okay it is kind of going that way and then you know we're just kind of layer on top of it, you know.

[00:41:25] Yeah, like it's a cool like thing and then you also get um there's the goal option which gives you the prompt at the beginning again.

[00:41:35] There's a restart option that lets you start from scratch because like one thing that's a little annoying is rubber bands are kind of paying the ass and once you play some there stuck there. I got some rubber bands out of there.

[00:41:47] Okay, let's not have been able to figure it out. It's very particular like if you want to move a rubber band like you can do it but it does kind of suck I had more issue with the rope. Yeah, rope was a pain too.

[00:42:00] Yeah, because the rope you have to they'll give you like the little anchors and you essentially have to anchor it in order for it to do its thing.

[00:42:07] But I felt like I was learning how ropes and especially there was the one puzzle where you have to guide the guide to his house and though like give you are the sea saws and the ropes.

[00:42:17] Yes, you know that one I felt like a genius when I figured it out, you know like oh this one it'll hold this one down so it won't go down but I felt so smart.

[00:42:28] I love the puzzles to the try to trick you by like because you don't have to always use all the items they give you.

[00:42:34] No, and that's another great thing about the game is it gives you the tools to solve it essentially how the game wants you to but there were a couple times where I solved the puzzle and I'm like this probably wasn't the right way but it worked. Oh, no.

[00:42:49] When you figured out by sheer fucking accident. Yeah, yeah, but I think it adds to the quality of the game because and I think it was almost intentional.

[00:43:00] Like if you figured out this way it's all good, you know as long as you solve it who cares how you solved it, you know.

[00:43:06] So if anything it also adds as I said to the creativity of the player, you know, you learning to solve things on your own outside of like you know the game, you know how the game wants you to solve it, you know.

[00:43:20] It encourages you to sort of try different things out as well, you know. So say in like the future you can have more confidence in solving problems and maybe more real world capacities, you know.

[00:43:32] I did love that like you're recum moment too when you figured one out like for me like one of my the ones that like stumped me for a few minutes was there's.

[00:43:40] It's an early early one where it's some you have three balloons you got to pop all three balloons. Yeah, and you only get so it only gives you two pairs of scissors to pop the balloon. So you kind of have to think about it and.

[00:43:52] The trick is there's a gear there that you're supposed to push the balloon into but I didn't realize the gear at first was a sharp object.

[00:43:59] It was like thinking like all around like how do I get this balloon to like pop so like I was thinking like maybe like knock a ball into it or something would pop it but that was over thinking and I just kind of like placed a ball to aside.

[00:44:13] And just kind of forgot about it and I set up the bellows to take out the other two balloons and I had a bellows set up like near the balloons.

[00:44:21] Those thinking like you had to like blow the balloon somehow it just happened to knock that ball into the bellows and hit the balloon into the gear and I was like oh, I'm like that works.

[00:44:31] Yeah, and yeah, and that you for you get for solving it that ways it feels good like this game this game definitely triggers that sort of reward thing in your brain. You know that makes you feel really good about it.

[00:44:45] There was another one with like ceiling what would that with like table fans that you had to like get the plug that until like while I'll suck it's to get more.

[00:44:53] Yeah, and they have to and I guess the chords are super fucking short because you have to be so close to it. You know, and then when you and then if you tried to flip it it would unplug so you'd have to remove it around but.

[00:45:06] You know, it was another good one where it was the legit um that the prompt was like. That rat's fucking lazy. Oh, wake it up and you just get three trampolines and you have to figure it up from there and.

[00:45:19] So I over thought it I thought like you'd have to like kind of make a trampoline bridge up to the rat. But the physics don't work that way like the ball needs to constantly gain momentum.

[00:45:29] So you actually have to space them out in like a certain way to get it to reach the rat and it was like an interesting like.

[00:45:37] Wait, is like the first through your all evenly space but then like the last one has so much momentum that you have to like just get it just right to get it up there which was pretty interesting.

[00:45:46] Yeah, yeah, you actually do the first one who just go like that and the second one I think I dropped it really low so would go really high. Because then it could use that momentum to further go and then the other one I put.

[00:45:58] Probably about middle way so catch in then it would move it in. So I did actually they were all like level on the same. Plane and they had actually built enough momentum to get up there. Okay, yeah, I had a mid different elevations.

[00:46:13] So that's the other cool thing is like there's just different ways to solve every puzzle. Yeah, yeah, there's no right or wrong way. The end's justified the means of they say. There's also a crazy one where like one of the items is literally a fucking revolver.

[00:46:25] You have to shoot it with revolver. Oh, the one with like the three it's like the baseball's and then the three tennis balls and you have to sort of line them up the revolvers to shoot. Just the three tennis balls. Yep, there was that one.

[00:46:38] There was also a group of you had to like use like ropes to like shoot off the revolvers with like weights and stuff. Oh, yeah, yeah, that was good.

[00:46:44] Like one of them he had to like link to a C saw and like knock a bucket into the C saw shoot off the revolver. It was so cool. Once you got it to work it was like damn that's cool.

[00:46:57] Yeah, it's just I just love the idea of this game because it's just you don't see this stuff. You know, and it's just and it's executed so well. And it's just it's just so much fun. You know, this game is just super fun for me.

[00:47:11] The sad thing is there's not much else to say about it. It's not really fun game. No, but the things with puzzle games they're usually isn't that much to say.

[00:47:21] You know, like if we were to do an episode on Tetris, like there's not much to say it's just Tetris. But it's so fucking good. What does it matter? Yeah. It's puzzle games are usually very simple. Like usually it's the most simple ones that work.

[00:47:33] The incredible machine despite all this wacky stuff, it is very simple at the end of the day. It's just trying to solve little issues and it gives you the tools to kind of figure it out. And it's all executed perfectly well. So that's what matters, you know?

[00:47:49] I kind of wish there was a multiplayer option like you could have like obviously this is primitive for the time. So it probably wouldn't have been thought of. But like two people trying to solve puzzles, like would be interesting. Like which one solves it faster?

[00:48:03] Yeah. Either that or like you could like tag team, like teamwork it like if someone person stuck. I mean, who knows maybe the later versions do this? I don't know. I mean, in theory you could tag team it because you could just say sit with somebody with this.

[00:48:17] You know, I'm sure like, I can't figure it out and then they get the control. And they're like, oh, you do this and this. You know, you could make your own make it up. Yeah, I mean, obviously, I mean, other than that there's no save.

[00:48:31] I don't think it saves at all. No, it's it saves the puzzles like the last puzzle you're on it saved you. Okay, good to know. I mean, yeah, there's 200 and eight some odd puzzles. So you kind of need to save.

[00:48:47] But you can't delete that saver as far as I know. There's no way to go back to the old puzzles. Maybe unless you solve all of them, maybe you can go back.

[00:48:58] So when I restarted this, I deleted my save file so I could start from scratch because I wanted to do the other ones again. So if you have an FC one, get fucked. Basically. Yeah, basically. Yeah, because there's no memory of the manager on here now.

[00:49:12] No, that's just funny to think about it. I can say it's like, you can't go back. Oh, you want to do it? You say well, if you have an FC one, sorry. Yeah, that sucks. Yeah, RIP FC one players. Yeah, graphics. I mean, there's not.

[00:49:27] I mean, it looks fine. You know, it's 90's PC game. Yeah, but it has more detail than the PC versions. Yes, those are much more plain. These definitely are an upgrade in the presentation because also the sound design.

[00:49:41] Like, I think it's the same tunes that are in the PC version, but the versions on here really good. Like, I really enjoyed the music in this game. It was coming. Like, I had a podcast going on in the background.

[00:49:52] I actually turned it off just to kind of listen to them using like, It's not bad. Yeah. Yeah, and music is very important in the puzzle game because this helps kind of keep you going. You know, and this game does a great job with that.

[00:50:03] I really like to do these are kind of funky. You know, but they don't, they're not too much, but they're not too little. Yeah. And there's quite a few. I think there's like what? Four or five tracks. And yeah, and there are all. Really well done.

[00:50:15] It's enough to keep you from getting bored and not get to. And not get to repetitive. I'd love to have them on like a Spotify playlist. So, I could listen to them at work. Yeah.

[00:50:25] Unfortunately, with 3DO games finding the soundtrack, so we're just games like this is harder to find. Oh, absolutely. The only other thing is like, there's a, between each stage, There's actually a narrator who will read off the prompt to you. He does a good job.

[00:50:42] He's pretty enthusiastic about it. Just pretty fun. Yeah. I think I have a little, a little of that, um, I guess I call it like teacher voice. Yeah. Where he's like trying to be like enthused for like the kids. Yeah. He's hamming it up a little bit.

[00:50:57] Oh yeah. Yeah. Not bad at all. Yeah. Um, other than that though, not whole lot to say, it's, it's a fun game. I love that openings. You can see right now on the background that opening CGI. Yeah. And it looks like not bad for what it is.

[00:51:15] 3D O era like CG. Oh yeah, absolutely. Perfectly captures the gist of what the game is. 100%. And it looks good. Boxing will have send to the fellows. The fan was pretty funny too. Yeah. Because also just the joy of watching a group goalberg machine, you know,

[00:51:35] I feel like it triggers the same part of my brain that watches like when people make those very complex like domino setups. Yeah. You know, like I can imagine the amount of time it takes to set that up. Like I couldn't imagine.

[00:51:53] I'll set it up just a knock it over. But I put on YouTube and it gets like 3 million hits. So it's always. Yes. But um, yeah. So this one I already can kind of predict but a must play okay stay away.

[00:52:09] I mean, well, what did people think at the time? That's true. Reception wise. Finding info on the 3D O version in particular wasn't exactly the easiest thing to find. Yeah. I've got a 7.5 out of 10 from EGM so not bad.

[00:52:31] They complained the controls for slow and it doesn't support them though. So apparently. Oh, that's okay. Well, that's a bug. Yeah, but with this kind of game, you don't really need fast controls. You only need twitch reflexes for this thing. Yeah.

[00:52:47] Uh, for the PC versions though, they were all like extremely well received. Oh, yeah. Like apparently it was nominated and a for an awarded the G G D C. It's pretty cool. Back in the day. The 3D O version was raised though for some graphics and sound.

[00:53:04] Oh, yeah. It definitely looks better than the PC version. Like if you look at footage of it that gets much more plain. You know, like kind of windows 95, you know, this is closer to like like windows 2,000 or something. Yeah. Um, but yes. So must play okay stay away.

[00:53:23] I mean, obvious must play for me. One thousand percent must play for me. I love this game. Like honestly, I'd even say the 3D O version. It might be the best version of it just a few. Oh, musically. Of the original version.

[00:53:37] I don't know about the later versions. They're probably better. But they're they I'd be curious to the later versions. Just in terms of. I get it's probably just like more puzzles that they thought of, you know, so they probably added new elements and all that. Apparently.

[00:53:54] You can get this on your phone, I think. Some balances. I like iOS versions. Yeah. So in fact, So another. I have an Android. So let's see if it's on here. Well, you do that. I'm actually looking at it now.

[00:54:11] I think this is the rem double must plays in a row now. That's likely. Let's see. No incredible machine, but I can play lemmings. That's fine. Yeah, I was never a lemmings guy. No. But yeah, but we have to ask. Is this better than road rash? No.

[00:54:33] I'm going to say yes. Okay. I mean, but that's thing. My brain loves this shit. You know, and road rash is fantastic. Don't get me wrong. But if it's like a good puzzle game,

[00:54:51] and I can just sit at it and say that if we're hours and do all this stuff, it's perfect for me. You know? So for me, this was like, like, I don't know if and when I'll ever put road rash in again,

[00:55:04] this game, I could see everyone's so poppin' it and play me a couple more puzzles. You know, it has that replayability, which for a puzzle game is essential. And it just, I don't know, it just clicked all the right spots in my brain.

[00:55:19] So for me, for Therax sake, this is the number one 3D, again. For me. Okay. I love it to death. So I'm a shambles racing fan, so. And that's fine. Road rash is a great example of a racing game. Okay.

[00:55:35] So at some point we're going to have to do like a ranking of all the three hands we played. Oh God. Because we're actually, we're getting a lot of really good ones lately, so. Yeah. Surprisingly. But that might have to change because I think,

[00:55:52] I think for the next episode, I was thinking we'd do another vote. Yeah, we should do that. What game are you thinking? I was thinking, we haven't covered these yet. Let's maybe a fighting game. Which ones are you in playing, sir? Well, we got some options.

[00:56:09] We could say, We do. We got way of the warrior. We got super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. And we got, we got Ball 3D. I don't have Ball 3D. There's also, I have the other two. There's also, I think, same where I show down.

[00:56:31] Oh, yeah, same where I showed up was on 3D. Yeah. I think that's a pricey one as well. Maybe I've the loose disc. Yeah. Well, well, we can put up those four, I guess. Two of those. Two of those. I would have to play on emulator. Sorry, people.

[00:56:50] Yeah. That's fine. I'll, I have a feeling which one's going to win either way, but I have a feeling too. But yeah, so we'll throw that vote up there, but in the meantime, what are we going to cover next week? Is the real question? Hmm. I'm not sure.

[00:57:10] You have anything? Well, we just covered. We did just cover a company behind it, and I don't think we should do that right away again. Um, kind of think. Could talk about maybe compare, maybe a compare and contrast episode. Talk about the FC1 FC 10? Maybe. Yeah, why not?

[00:57:33] We're giving them a little, trying to talk about the little differences because they, surprisingly are pretty different little systems there. So yeah, let's do a run down like which, let's compare and contrast the, the FC1 FC 10 and see which one is truly the superior three. Yeah.

[00:57:48] That's a great idea. All right. So that poll will hopefully be up either tomorrow or, yeah, probably tomorrow after this episode airs. So yeah, and then we'll next week we'll talk about the consoles themselves. And with that, once again guys, thanks for joining us on the 3DOX experience.

[00:58:13] You can find the 3DOX experience on all the major podcasting platforms we're now available on YouTube with a video version of this podcast, which will be appearing. Probably actually write it as probably actually right before this episode even airs. So if you're paying attention, you'll find it.

[00:58:30] And other than that, you can find all of our links at link tree slash the bar per game's and you can join the GenC podcast discord server if you'd like where we can find all your information on gaming collecting 3DOX

[00:58:42] experience geek addicts, a talk gaming anime, just general nonsense. It's fun place for a pretty nice there. And there's an infestation of permit memes and there's a whole channel about staying hydrated. Yeah, there's a entire channel dedicated to water bottles. It's interesting. Yes, not Stanley cups.

[00:59:04] No hockey here. Just water in general. That's a weird crazy isn't it? I didn't realize there was actually a cup called the Stanley cup that you can buy. Yes, and like people are beating themselves beating each other up over them. It's it's weird. They can go do that.

[00:59:21] Just I'll just watch in the corner. Yes. Yeah, if anyone's curious, I'm drink. I have an owala. That's kind of beat up, but it has a nice little sticker of a gunstun it.

[00:59:32] You know, shout out to Shining Course Central who uh, who make the stickers for all the Shining Course characters. I also have one for Zylo. He's on my on my computer here. So yeah. So Shining Course Central. Love you. Awesome.

[00:59:48] And with that we will see you all next time. Bye bye. Bye bye.