How to play Creative Contraptions on Mac

Game summary

Similar in concept to the later (and better known) Incredible Machine series, Creative Contraptions is all about creating silly machines from wacky parts to accomplish even wackier tasks. The puzzles consist of Rube Goldberg contraptions with wrong or missing parts, and the player must figure out the correct replacements - from basic devices such as pulleys and ramps to absurd objects like elephants, cannons and boxing gloves. Three game modes are available: in the first, you pick a goal for your contraption, and your job is to fill in the basic mechanisms; the second puts you in charge of the "Zany Objects". The real challenge lies in third mode (Contraption Mix-Up), which takes you through a sequence of puzzles, complete with a time limit and a scoring system - the fewer mistakes you make, the more points you earn. Each sub-game can be played in two difficulty levels, and there's also a tutorial which explains (and demonstrates) how the basic mechanisms work.
First released: Jan 1985

Play Creative Contraptions on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Creative Contraptions on a Mac is through Parallels, which allows you to virtualize a Windows machine on Macs. The setup is very easy and it works for Apple Silicon Macs as well as for older Intel-based Macs.

Parallels supports the latest version of DirectX and OpenGL, allowing you to play the latest PC games on any Mac. The latest version of DirectX is up to 20% faster.

Our favorite feature of Parallels Desktop is that when you turn off your virtual machine, all the unused disk space gets returned to your main OS, thus minimizing resource waste (which used to be a problem with virtualization).

Creative Contraptions installation steps for Mac

Step 1
Go to Parallels.com and download the latest version of the software.
Step 2
Follow the installation process and make sure you allow Parallels in your Mac’s security preferences (it will prompt you to do so).
Step 3
When prompted, download and install Windows 10. The download is around 5.7GB. Make sure you give it all the permissions that it asks for.
Step 4
Once Windows is done installing, you are ready to go. All that’s left to do is install Creative Contraptions like you would on any PC.
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