Amanita Design forum

I believe this 5 in a row in the bar is impossible. I have been stuck on it for hours, and no matter what I do, the computer always wins. Is there a way to skip this puzzle, or have some savegame or something to skip it?

** SPOILER **

this is the pattern -

O_O_O
_O_O_
O_O_O

:D

I don't get it.

That may be the pattern, but whenever you try to input it, the computer will get 5 in a row, or will block you, and it is impossible to change this. Also, I have seen the computer win with 3 or 4 in a row.

Same problem >:(

The pattern I gave you is the solution, whenever the computer have 3 in a row, block him instantly! just keep playin' until you manage to get 5 in a row

So.. did anyone manage to do it with using the pattern?

I just played right away and tricked it. Once one gets 5 in row it wins the game. Start in a corner and try to align 5, the computer will try to block it and you have to block your opponent's row if it's going to be 5 in the next move. I basically kept playing like that until I managed to do two 4's which assured me to win the game.

I fail to get it. The pattern doesnt work for me. I try to beat it since hours now but it's just too hard...

I guess he gives you what you need for the last musician.. the tall one, right? Or does he simply give you money?

Well, it doesn't matter, actually. I still can't beat him, lol.

Start in a corner! And continue from there on, watch horizontal, vertical, diagonal alignment of your opponent. Immediately block it if it gets 4 in a row (of course you can block it before), continue like that and try to align the needed 5. Good luck!

If you succeed it actually gives you nothing, it just gets angry and spills some bolts. :P

Sorry, I try starting from a corner but doesn't work for me either. Can you make a video of how you play it and win?

So if he doesn't give you a thing, why do we have to beat him in the first place? ARGH. We just did a draw.

Sorry, can't do that right now but maybe tomorrow I will try to upload something ;)


Remember what the saxophonist's saxophone is missing? It's all about the bolts I tell ya!

You are not alone in failing to win >:(
Will soon become gray-haired

I took a look at the hint book thing and it had a frame after you win he throw stuff around the room. You have to go around the room and pick the bolts up the give it to the 2nd musician. It's just I need to finish the 5 in a row which is ridiculously hard.

Very hard indeed. I still haven't beated him, haha..

im uploading a video explaining how to beat 5-in-a-row

I finally did it. Whew... Haha.

Still on it :(

How?

By luck, my friend, but I have to admin that death-like's method helped me, in a way.

Fond this on youtube, took five or six attempts before I managed to win.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m6NhwjFuXU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m6NhwjFuXU)

The game has to be played with open threes. By that I mean that you must constantly attempt to connect three nuts that are open on both ends. He will continue to block your moves but as soon as he slips up you can make an open four and there is no way to block that because another piece on either end will win the game for you. It sounds a little harder than it is. When my friend was telling me this strategy (he is an avid player of the game in real life) I thought it sounded a little vague but I beat the computer on the 3rd try when I used that as an active game strategy. So I hope that helps.

Got it now too, thanks to the video. Thank you guys!

It worked :D

I'm sorry, making this game a mandatory exercise is a very poor game design decision.  This will be the last game I buy from this company.

Just because you come come across a minigame that's somewhat harder you'd call it poor game design? It's much more satisfying when you finally master a tricky part but that's only my opinion.
And this is no company but an Independant Developer.

I think you're a newbie of videogames...if you define Machinarium as poor of game design. Do you have took a look around?
Otherwise maybe you like games "all gore no brain", considering you don't like the challenge and you've said "mandatory exercise".
So i tell you this: i've played a lot of games, some of these are considered milestones (Quake, Half-Life, Doom, Unreal,Diablo,Warcraft, WoW,etc,etc) and i have appreciated them very much, but we are talking about companies investing millions $.
Well, in my opinion Amanita has done a great job with few people and not so much $.
I'm not the defence attorney of Amanita, i just support a team which deserves it.

I agree with bio.
I got stuck on the five in the row game yesterday too, and my first impulse was also to denounce this mandatory game of five in a row as a bad decision on Amanita's behalf, but after having overcome my first frustration, I have to admit, that this is just the rule by which machinarium is played. It's always: We provide you with fairly constructed puzzles, you just have to find ALL items and hints and rack your brains a bit and then you'll succeed. Machinarium is strangely strict in it's twisted ways, but also very stringent in the way it's made up, so one can do it.
There are so many games on the market which do not provide such filigranely designed puzzles, not to mention the graphics. I played the myst-series for instance, and I really have to say, that I find machinarium much fairer. In the myst-games I always had the impression, I had to invest in figuring out the ways of thinking of the game-designer, whereas in machinarium it seems that I always have a chance by trial-and-error as well as alert observation.

Bad thing is, I'm really bad at games like five in a row.
Seems like I have to learn how to play this once and for all.
What's fair is fair.

got it,  :D

the two-gaps-theory
and
the bar-fourth-screw-rule,
as given above, really help.

Maybe it also helps to say, that one has to try to go for a balanced play between attack and defense.
If you attack solely you will loose, 'cause you ignore his moves. If you defend only, the best you can achieve is a stalemate, which means that the other robot wins. So try to hamper his moves, but go for trying to set up your own rows at the same time keeping the two gaps-trick in mind. Eventually after a while you will have created a situation, where you can achieve two linked four-screw-rows. The next move he looses. One doesn't even have to worry too much about building up a set of two four-screw-rows, it almost happens accidentally.

Well, you people can justify this decision all you want but I'll remember the name Amanita Design and I hope they enjoy my $20 because I'll never buy anything from them again.

I really, really wanted to support the independent designers/programmers, liked the art very much and I bought the game half a month ago. I still can't get through this @!#* level.

Yes, I saw all the YT videos and hints here on forum but all of that is the proof that the game is a manual thing, e.g. "keep doing that thing and eventually you'll nail it". Well, that "eventually" moment never came for me.

I don't mean to insult anybody but if this is your idea of fun or if solving these kind of manual tasks create feelings of satisfaction for you - than I just don't know what to say

It is fun and satisfying to overcome a difficult passage.
Take exams for instance it's so much stress, angst and I don't know what. But once you successfully pass it you get a feeling of satisfaction, joy and confidence. I would talk for hours afterwards to explain what I did there and why I did that...

Of course I'm not saying Machinarium is like an exam by far not, it's more fun and relaxing before anything else.
I was expecting the game to have some nice puzzles and difficulty. That's what I was looking forward to and got served well in the end.

This doesn't look like your kind of game and that's fine, there are plenty others available. But maybe one day you will come back on your opinion (aka getting past this damn mini-game!) :)

It took me several attempts playing through the game the first time to get this. But playing through it a second time I beat the computer on my second attempt.

But I think there should have been a skip option for the puzzles. Because this was really the only time where the walkthrough wasn't as useful. Or after so many attempts it should have let you pass.

I have to be honest, I felt like I was playing against Deep Blue. I wasn't frustrated to the point of disliking the game. I assumed that I was doing something wrong. But considering that people have gotten stuck and can't complete the game, I think the overall merit of this puzzle should be reevaluated.

well, i have been frustrated too but decided to attack the opponent instead of letting him rule the game and after a couple of attaks I had 5 in a row.

hmmm,

i really DON'T care what any one thinks of this message or says in response, i just want to have my say.

I have played hundreds of adventure games for over 10 years now and i hate it when anything like this comes up. It ruins a game.

Machinarium was going to be up there with one of the best adventure games i have ever played until i came across this puzzle. This isn't good coding or clever game development, this is just annoying....

An adventure game should be about figuring out your surroundings, not learning an old method at a crappy board game or bored game should i say. For those of you who stay on your high horses because you know how to play connect 5, lol @ u.

Sorry. Ignore. I didn't realize that Lamkin had already posted an easier solution to the puzzle in the main forum.

link: http://machinarium.net/forum/index.php/topic,701.0.html (http://machinarium.net/forum/index.php/topic,701.0.html)   ;)