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How to Win a Game Against Other Robots in Machinarium

In the adventure puzzle game, "Machinarium," you play as a robot in the fictional mechanized city of Machinarium. As you try to unravel the plot behind all of the mysterious acts of evil in the city, you must solve puzzles and progress by helping out other citizens of Machinarium. One of the most frustrating puzzles comes when you have found your way back into the city and a robot playing a saxophone asks you to find some bolts so that he can fix his instrument. Unfortunately, the bolts you need are being used by an old robot in the bar for a game of "5-in-a-Row." You have to beat the old robot at his own game to get the bolts back. The game is played using nuts and bolts, and the objective is to get five of your pieces in a row on the board.

Things You'll Need

"Machinarium" game

Instructions

- 1
  Place your first nuts to the left, right, bottom and top of your opponent's first bolt, in that order. Because the opponent's first bolt placement is random, there are many ways to win this game, but this is usually the best start for most winning strategies. Once you have surrounded his first bolt, you may have noticed that your opponent has created an arrow-like configuration on one side of the board as a result of trying to anticipate your possible rows. For the sake of example, assume that the arrow is on the left.
- 2
  Place your fifth nut three spaces away from your opponent's starting bolt. It can be in any direction, but generally you want to place it on the opposite side from your opponent's arrow configuration. Because the example arrow is on the left, assume you're placing it three spaces to the right. Your opponent will respond by adding a bolt to his "arrow" on the left. Cut him off with one of your nuts before he can put a fourth bolt in that line. If he puts a fourth bolt in, cut him off at the other end before he can form five and win.
- 3
  Place a nut on the board so that it is diagonal to the piece you just dropped, but also forms a diagonal three-piece line with the nuts around the opponent's starting bolt. In our example, this will be two spaces to the right of the starting nut and one space up. You will notice that this forms the bottom two-thirds of an unfinished triangle.The old robot will attempt to cut you off.
- 4
  Place your next nut to complete the triangle. The old robot will try to cut you off again. This is where you reveal your true intention.
- 5
  Place a nut directly in the center of the triangle you've created. This will create two criss-crossing three-nut lines. Your opponent will attempt to cut one of them off with his pieces. Watch which line he cuts off, then create a four-nut line from the other one. At this point, he will be unable to stop you because cutting off one end of the four-nut line will still leave you open to get five-in-a-row at the other end.

Computer Games