I just saw this posted today on NPR's web site and thought I would pass it along. There is a new computer game out this week that is called Crayon Physics deluxe. Here is a quote from the article:

Here is a web site where you can watch the creator playing the game. It looks like a combination of Crazy Machines and Fantastic Contraptions, except that you get to "draw" your own objects yourself in order to satisfy the goal. If you need to have an object fall from the sky in order to bump your ball towards the goal, then you get to draw it in. You can also draw in levers, cars, etc to meet your goal. I would love to know if the program was sophisticated enough that you could draw springs, pendulums, and other fun physics toys as well.
http://www.crayonphysics.com/

It also looks like there is only a PC version, no MAC at this point, so we are currently out of luck. It also means that I am passing it along untested. Someone else will have to respond with comments after they have tinkered with it for a while. Here is a link for a free demo version (I think?):
http://www.kloonigames.com/blog/crayonphysics/crayon-physics-deluxe-demo-and-faq

Enjoy! Oh, and the game is priced fairly inexpensively: $20.

Sounds cool! we will have to check it out and post back...

We just finished the demo version. The beginning is super easy, but if you take the time to go through the whole demo it gets really fun and hard! My six yo thinks it's awesome. It's hard to say how long it is to the boredom factor. There is a feature that allows the user to design their own, but it wasn't available in the demo.

We just got this game. We love it! DD4 likes that the graphics are done to look like a child's picture. It seems to keep her interested and the music is much more relaxing for us parents than some of her other games. It also is great late at night if I'm really tired and up with the baby. It has sparked some good questions from her too about physics.

How does this compare with Fantastic Contraptions? We looked at the video on the homepage and loved how the drawing came to life. We don't have a tablet pc, so not sure if that feature will work with the mouse somehow.

I heard about it from NPR, too, and checked it out just last night with DH--can't wait to share it with DD4!

Hey Shari, we just finally downloaded this (internet issues with ds8's computer delayed us checking it out).
Anyway, when we did so, we were able to get to the 'create your own' area...'draw things' was what we clicked on. Seems like we can't save the screens we drew,so maybe that is in the full copy, but we definitely made some really fun and puzzling screens with all sorts of spinning, sliding thingamabobs.
Very much up ds' alley. He finished all the allowable levels in one sitting and wants to get the full version, it is not badly priced so I will probably do it in a few days, especially knowing about the 'make your own'.

I made some with funny faces, he made some really interesting ones too ... definitely worth looking at!

This game is a blast!! Both my kids love it. To be honest, I had fun with it too.

This is VERY cool. Ironically, I am just starting my force and motion unit with my middle school kids. Perfect timing - I'm going to see if my principal will purchase it for classroom use. Great resource!

Wanted to give my review of this since we've been playing with the demo all weekend. We love it! The free demo lets you do 18 levels - there are 70 total with the paid version which I hope to get for Mother's Day (it's more for me than for ds5). Also to compare with Fantastic Contraption, I like them both - they have the same basic goal: get the ball or wheel to the goal. You just use different tools and have different scenarios in each game. Fantastic Contraption gets more difficult faster so for ds5, he went through Crayon Physics demo rather quickly but with Fantastic Contraption, he got stuck a lot sooner and it was much more of a challenge sooner. This was certainly the case for dh and me also. If I could only have one, I would choose Crayon Physics. I just like being able to free-hand draw my contraptions. It is funny to view other people's designs on the Fantastic Contraptions (link under each level).

Another one to check out is: http://linerider.com Very simple concept but there very elaborate designs on youtube that will amaze you.

As for drawing with the mouse with Crayon Physics, it's not bad with a touchpad mouse on my laptop. Even my dd2.5 likes to scribble with the onscreen crayon. I don't know how it would be with a traditional mouse though. I have problems with my hand using a mouse too much and causing pain so it would probably bother me. Coordination could be an issue too.