Xatal

A little over a week ago, I finally found out about Fantastic Contraption, a very cool physics flash game.

A sample catapult I made

I posted about how addictive I thought it was, as well as showed some cool designs I had seen. Most of the time when I play I try to come up with different designs, but today I was hunting around trying to find some really unique solutions to the levels. Most of the levels are solved basically the same way by most people, so I tried to look for unique and innovative solutions. I found 50 cool new solutions, which I’ve put here.

I sorted them all by level and then each by how much I liked it, putting my favorites last. I’m a firm believer in saving the best for last. :]

I didn’t name these, I just cleaned up the name that they were given. None of these are mine except for “Push” under “Mission to Mars”.

Without further ado, here’s my list of favorites. Maybe some of these can give you cool ideas.

4 Balls

• The Spoon: Lets all 4 balls load up before flinging them over.
• Brown Four Ball: Does the same thing as the spoon, only without using any wheels: just gravity.
• Stairs of Heaven: Uses levers and wheels to bring each ball up one level at a time.

Around the Bend

• Smooth: Throws a piece to allow gravity to take over.
• The Hard Way: Pushes all distractions out of the way and then launches the ball.

Awash!

• Sweeper More: What it doesn’t push over it, it pushes in front of it.
• Mole: Burrows everything out of its way.

Back and Forth

• Pointless: Uses three separate machines to grab the ball and pull it along.
• One of a Kind: Brings the ball in and shoots it out like a cannon.
• Unnecessary: Very complex, but in the end it works!

Big Ball

• Mine: Uses some extending rods to beat the big ball. Reminds me of those extending-reach things.
• That’s the Best: Uses a small piece to keep the big ball out of the way.

Down Under

• Home Run: Swats the ball where it belongs.
• Drop & Scoop: Drops the ball and scoops it under.

Full-Up

• Green Solution: This wouldn’t have a chance if it wasn’t for the giant ball.
• Teeter-Totter: Uses gravity to launch the piece into the goal.

Handling

• Cool: I’m not even sure why half of that stuff is necessary…
• Goal: Pushes the piece around with a big arm. Pretty clever.

Higher

• Throw up: Uses a slingshot to shoot the piece up.
• Come Together: Beatles allusions aside, this one brings two separate wheels together to raise the piece. Simple, but clever.

Junkyard

• Dozer: A bulldozer that pushes everything out of the way.
• Catapult: A quick catapult to clear the junk.

Mission to Mars

• Apples: This shouldn’t work, but it does.
• Push: A very simple slingshot to shoot the ball across the gap.
• Manual: A falling ramp makes this one possible.
• OMG: Drops the ball down a track that shoots it over.

Reach Up

• Glitch FTW: Uses the glitch to rocket the ball in.
• Big Bridge: Cradles the ball safely in a moving bridge.
• Blue Champ: Lets gravity pull on the blue rods to lift the ball.
• A Little Help: A catapult throws the ball onto a moving platform which takes it the rest of the way. Now that’s teamwork.
• Basketball: A catapult shoots the ball into a basket. This is very cool, definitely one of my favorites.

The Wall

• Best Ever 2: Credits to Kyle (see comments) for this. Throws the ball around the side.

Unpossible

• Ball on a Chain: A catapult with a chain that’s just the right length.
• O.o: Launches two separate machines that are timed perfectly. This is probably the coolest contraption I’ve seen yet. I can’t imagine how long it took to get the timing perfect.

Up the Stairs

• Weee!: Three levels of wheels should do the trick!
• Soft Pitch: A catapult on the underside instead of on top.
• Monster Car: I just like the way this thing looks.
• Roll Out: Creates a path over the red circles to be driven over.
• No Power: Uses gravity to create a catapult. Doesn’t use any turning wheels!
• Alley Oop!: What do you do when one catapult isn’t enough? Build a second!

U-Turn

• EZ: Using the glitch to hurl the ball around the corner. This reminds me of mini-golf.
• Dump Truck: Rolls the piece out up top and even saves it at the end.
• Other Way: Creates a ramp on the left side of the level.
• Woo!: A catapult that bounces the ball off of the environment and into the goal.
• Arm: Goes around the left with a nice big arm.
• Endless: Hit ‘Back’ after it finishes to watch this thing go on again and again without stopping. It’s more impressive when you actually watch it happen. Very cool.

A little bit more Fail

No list of Fantastic Contraptions would be complete without at least a few contraptions that don’t work quite right. Here are some of my favorite failures:

• Magnet: Somehow sucks all of the debris towards the contraption….
• So Close: This one just about makes it to the top
• Damn It: I cannot believe how close this one comes.
• Please Kill Me: This one actually looks like it would work, but then it just goes… well you’ll see.

Of all of these contraptions, my personal favorite would probably be “O.o”, under “Unpossible”, but really it’s hard to say — many of them are very cool.

Does anyone have any other really cool contraptions to share?

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