The Incredible Machine

Designed by Kevin Ryan and published by Sierra On-Line in 1993, The Incredible Machine is a DOS physics puzzle game built around Rube Goldberg contraptions. Players arrange dozens of components — pulleys, pinballs, balloons, mice, cats, and more — within a fixed scene to accomplish deceptively simple goals such as sinking a ball into a basket or lighting a candle. A free-build sandbox mode complements the structured puzzle campaign, encouraging open-ended experimentation. The endlessly inventive physical interactions between parts made this a landmark title that established the template for physics-based puzzle games for years to come.