BRIDGE BUILDER

March 6, 2001 3:42 AM

BRIDGE BUILDER : It's fun for a girl and a boy! A downloadable demo of a pretty cool but geeky bridge building simulator. Each level, you're given the task of spanning a gap using limited materials. Your goal is to build a bridge not only strong enough to stand under its own weight, but to also support the weight of a train crossing over it.

There is no right way to build a bridge, but there is a lot of wrong ways.

System Requirements: 200 MHz or faster CPU, Windows 95/98/00/NT, Direct X version 6 or later, Keyboard recommended, OpenGL video card and drivers

posted by crunchland (22 comments total)

There are lots of wrong ways.

There's no right way to write, but there are lots of wrong ways.
posted by dagnyscott at 6:44 AM on March 6, 2001

Yeah, yeah. I saw that after I pressed POST. But it's a quote from the site.
posted by crunchland at 6:52 AM on March 6, 2001

That is pretty cool.

I like how after I built a truly crappy, untenable bridge, it starts wobbling all by itself -- my very own Tacoma Narrows disaster.

Excellent.
posted by MarkAnd at 7:32 AM on March 6, 2001

I like testing it and making the train fall in the gully. CRASHSPLASH!
posted by jennyb at 7:35 AM on March 6, 2001

This is great!
posted by cCranium at 9:26 AM on March 6, 2001

After playing with this for the last two hours, I think the coolest thing to do is to make a bridge where the pieces hardly connect and then test it just to watch the computer implode your Mondrian-ian designs. It works better the higher the level - more pieces to destruct.
posted by MarkAnd at 10:05 AM on March 6, 2001

It's fun for a girl and a boy? What if you have two boys?
posted by sonofsamiam at 10:32 AM on March 6, 2001

brillant!
posted by stevridie at 11:20 AM on March 6, 2001

I've been stuck on level 6 for like, half an hour now. So close, if only the freakin' train would jump the gaps it makes!
posted by cCranium at 11:52 AM on March 6, 2001

My friend has been playing it for quite a while, he's got his high scores posted. None of us have been able to beat his scores quite yet. You want to give it a try? :)
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 12:35 PM on March 6, 2001

I have been playing for quite some time as well, and your friend's scores are amazing. I did beat him on level 10 though... $1500 to his $1700.



posted by krakedhalo at 12:48 PM on March 6, 2001

wow, where did my hour go? drum and bass an this game are a deadly mix...
made it to level 10, gave up
must say that it made astounding usage of my gforce2
posted by starduck at 5:22 PM on March 6, 2001

Darn, I spent $1800 on Level 10 and I was pretty happy. I haven't attacked level 11 yet--it looks do-able, but it's huge.
posted by daveadams at 6:04 PM on March 6, 2001

Wow. You guys must me very clever. I've been banging away at level 7 with not much success. Shoulda majored in engineering instead of art, I guess.

Tell me, are the bridges you're building completely symetrical? I've been toying with bridges that are less realistic and more like spider webs.

I've also learned that it's not necessary to over-engineer it. Some red stressed beams as the train passes over are acceptable.
posted by crunchland at 7:13 PM on March 6, 2001

You know, it's amazing how much fun I'm having with this game, considering my usual cup of tea is FPS/RTS games and--even more damning--I transferred out of engineering into English. It's like playing with Tinkertoys all over again.

MarkAnd is right--there's nothing more hilarious than seeing red stress on a completely unsafe and wobbling bridge before I even begin to run the train. My bridges always fall apart, but as long as the train makes it across it's all good... right?

High scores? (Or more accurately, low scores?) For some of us, just completing the level using only the anchors provided (and not digging new supports) is hard enough, thank you very much. Forget Bridge Builder--Train Wrecker is a more accurate game title for normal joes like me.

Okay, back to level 7.
posted by DaShiv at 2:35 AM on March 7, 2001

I'm missing something. I can't work out what you mean by digging new supports. How do you do that?

BTW, if the scores on the other guys page are any indication, my only noteworthy score so far is 2700 on level 4, but I think my neatest one is the first leg of level 3 which flexes until it's almost in the water, without breaking.
posted by NortonDC at 3:51 AM on March 7, 2001

I made a bridge yesterday (level 8 or 9 -- one of the really long spans) where the whole thing crumbled behind the train, yet the train made it across alright. The last car was sort of teetering on the edge of the cliff, almost pulling the rest of the cars with it. It was like a James Bond movie.

I'm going to quit my job so I might play this game non-stop.
posted by MarkAnd at 7:13 AM on March 7, 2001

The person behind the aforementioned My friend link mentioned "digging" as a way of making the game easier. I assume it means dragging a point into the dirt from the bridge even though it's not marked by an anchor.

Me, I just see a few dots in the dirt and I get busy playing connect the dots in the water. Design? What's that? :-)

And I think something breaks as the train goes over on all of my bridges, and I'm happy whenever the train actually makes it across. I've never been so horrible at a game and yet still have so much fun with it at the same time. I actually laugh out loud over my gross incompetence; in retrospect, it was a wise decision for me to leave engineering.
posted by DaShiv at 2:14 PM on March 7, 2001

I made a bridge yesterday (level 8 or 9 -- one of the really long spans) where the whole thing crumbled behind the train, yet the train made it across alright. The last car was sort of teetering on the edge of the cliff, almost pulling the rest of the cars with it. It was like a James Bond movie.

Wow. I'd like to see that one. Did you save the file?
posted by crunchland at 9:56 AM on March 8, 2001

crunchland: It's on my home computer, I'll see if I still have it. It may have been a redesign in an attempt to create a bridge that was less expensive after creating an expensive, stable one...

If I've got it, I'll send it to you.
posted by MarkAnd at 10:01 AM on March 8, 2001

This game is just brilliant. I have devoted way too much time I should be spending on other stuff to it, but it's sooo much fun to finally get that damn train across.

One of my favorite techniques is to build a double-arch, one going up one going down with the actual rail in between and watching the stress spread across the entire span. It's fun AND edumicational!
posted by cCranium at 5:55 AM on March 9, 2001