rube goldberg

05.11.08

Build Your Own Virtual Rube Goldberg Whizbang Doohickey

By Jake Ward Posted 08.23.2007 at 12:18 pm 1 Comment

Goldberg_rube_buffet44The illustrations of Rube Goldberg (July 4, 1883 - December 7, 1970), depicting complicated machinery accomplishing simple tasks via overly complicated means, were a brilliant satire on the mechanization of human life. 
What, then, would Goldberg have made of Crazy Machines II (in German), a new PC title to be released in October, in which you're handed a workshop full of virtual doodads with which to turn lights on, release a squirt of water, and carry a domino from A to B? Would he have been flattered? Or would the notion of people spending precious time building virtual, imaginary machines have sent him screaming from the room?

Whatever. With all the brain-splattering and thuggery of my gaming life, I think my wife would approve of my ignoring her in the name of getting a sprinkler to tip a bowling ball into a slingshot instead. Besides, it's good training for any entries I might want to submit to Purdue's Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. —Jacob Ward

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