Bad Machine

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Average Rating: Number of Ratings: 12 Write a review

SPAG
A pseudo-inter-RE-view with Dan Shiovitz

The world of Bad Machine, this fully automated warehouse, is astounding, even overwhelming: while it doesn't take too much time to finish the game, one could spend I think at least a couple of hours exploring possibilities, gaining information, and trying to figure out how everything works. And despite its large size, you somehow managed to maintain both its consistency and a high level of detail. Danny, pal, please tell me -- was it difficult to create?
-- Valentine Kopteltsev

- kevan, September 23, 2018

- Sobol (Russia), March 4, 2017

- Audiart (Davis, CA), February 17, 2017

- lkdc, February 2, 2017

In this game, you play a machine in a sort of factory that is malfunctioning. I assume the eventual goal is to escape; even with the walkthrough, I ended up dying at the second-to-last move.

The game is written bizarrely. Here is an example of it at it's worst, when going west at the beginning:

?w
Dir ALT{ER}DDDisplace-: 2 [west -> south]
(self.travelTo(loc) = nil && m$ve(her@) FAILED

At the best, it is pretty understandable; here's LOOK's output in the first room:

?l
Reclamation Sector (2)
Cleared area amongst to-be-reforged bodies; gap(s) movement(allow) west, north; other exits apparent lacking.
To the north you see salvager-class machine.

So you see now what type of game this is. There are enemies that will harm you, there are other units whose parts you can scavenge. It's all bizarre.

A unique experience.

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- wolfbutler (Canada), July 9, 2014

- Victor Gijsbers (The Netherlands), May 3, 2012

- Mr. Patient (Saint Paul, Minn.), August 28, 2010

- Sam Kabo Ashwell (Seattle), February 15, 2010

- Genjar (Finland), August 31, 2008

- Anders Hellerup Madsen (Copenhagen, Denmark), July 21, 2008

- jfpbookworm (Hamburg, New York), February 25, 2008

Baf's Guide

This is one of those games that you just have to see to understand. There's nothing else quite like it, although Michael Berlyn's Suspended bears some similarities. In a vast, hivelike robotic factory, a malfunctioning machine struggles to avoid being being captured and reprogrammed. All text is in a pseudo-computery style, heavy on punctuation and mixed with error messages and line noise, and the main challenge is to figure out how to interpret the information you're given. (People using text-to-speech software might find this insurmounable.) Warehouse IV is full of activity even when you just wander around, so figuring out how things work and how to interact with them is your second challenge. Even when you have that knowledge, logistics can be sticky. Multiple paths lead to very different conclusions, all of which are somewhat anticlimactic. I'd recommend this one especially for techies, particularly if they're into Lego Mindstorms.

-- Carl Muckenhoupt