We are living in the Age of Information. All the accumulated knowledge of the greatest minds of history are at your fingertips, any time of the day, instantaneously, for only the price of a Wifi connection. Sometimes this can be overwhelming. But developer Science Museum is here to teach us all a thing or two with Transmission, a game about the web of electronic synapses that makes our connected world possible, and also available free for iOS and Android. It's a puzzle game that has you connecting various receivers and transmitters with glistening streams of information via the mouse. Each circle can transmit and each square can only receive. It's up to you to juggle corrects amounts of information, represented with glowing cubes, between each circle and square. There are some optional objectives you can fulfill for some extra credit, like using the fewest connections possible or leaving info cubs on the right circle. All of it combines to create a brain teaser with a capital B.
Transmission isn't an educational game per se, though it certainly inspires its fair share of wonder at the information-soaked world which we all share. It offers the odd bit of trivia between levels and it's full of links to the Science Museum's various educational projects, so you if you've got the urge to study up this isn't a bad place to start. On the art side, it's spare but attractive, with a shiny, lag-free aesthetic and some excellent sound effects that can occasionally feel a bit overbearing. The puzzles continuously evolve, with each leg of the game offering a new communication-related concept, from the telegram up to broadcast Wifi. The difficulty curve is sometimes inconsistent; you can breeze through four levels in a minute and then become irretrievably stuck on the fifth. But the whole concept is inspired enough that it saves itself. Check out Transmission and marvel at the wonder of the Information World, one puzzle at a time.
Transmission (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)
Android:
Get Transmission
Walkthrough video All levels 1-70 - 145/146 stars:
This game feels very carelessly made. The factoids at the beginning of each series of levels contribute nothing to the game and seem like they were thrown in as an afterthought. Similarly, the animations feel tacked on and serve no purpose except to waste the player's time. There is no way to mute the repetitive soundtrack. The mechanism of clicking on edges to remove them is buggy and doesn't always reset the state properly. As noted by the reviewer, the difficulty curve is very uneven, suggesting a lack of effective play testing. And there doesn't seem to be any "logical" way to solve the puzzles other than trial and error.
All in all, a thoroughly mediocre game.
It has a "sciency" feel, but you should take care not to actually learn anything from the game. While the transmission types are correct, such as broadcast spreading information to many targets, the actual notion of "information" is totally wrong. In particular, there's no way for information to go in a loop to produce more information. If I tell you I have $30, and you tell Alice I have $30, and Alice tells me I have $30, have I gained information? Of course not; I already knew I had $30. Sending the information around in a circle does nothing.
So the idea of information is fundamentally misunderstood here. Play this game as a puzzle game, and not as edutainment.
Also, I don't believe it's always possible to get all the achievements for a level using a single configuration. In 3-12, two runs may be necessary (but I could be wrong).
Muting options are on the menu. Also, you can solve the puzzles logically; you just have to understand the consequences of the mechanics.
which plugin does this game require
That just supports my point. I had that solution too (plus another one, just like in the video).
These puzzles get very hard very quick, one level is easy, the next one is click-n-try.
Walkthrough video made by JiG available on this page (above) or directly from youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfuwiNzcqcs
All levels 1-70 - 145/146 stars.
The solution for Dont cross signals for level 5-9 is:
Left - Top - Middle - Upper Right - Top
Middle - Bottom - Left
Bottom - Right
@QRjroQ: Technically, in terms of computer networking, the concept of information is still correct. In your example, the information is still sent and received, but the final recipient (you) discards it. You have to receive it in order to make that decision, though.
In any of these network types, 'information' would be broken down to binary for transmission. For telephones, either a charge is sent or no charge is sent down the line, multiple times. It's only when the binary is reconstituted - into sound for example - that it makes sense, so you can decide how to react.
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