 Screenshot of The Incredible Machine 3 The Incredible Machine is a series of computer games designed by Jeff Tunnell, developed by now-defunct Jeff Tunnell Productions, published by Dynamix (except for later titles, which was published by Sierra Entertainment because Dynamix was acquired by Sierra by then) where the objective is to place different objects in order to perform some simple task (e.g. "put ball inside box" or "light candle") using only objects that are available to the player for a certain level. Available objects could include anything from simple ropes and pulleys to electrical generators, bowling balls, and even cats. The levels have some fixed objects that cannot be moved by the player, so the only way to solve the puzzle is to use the objects that one is given. There is also a freeform option that allows the user to mess around with
all the objects available, often creating devices that torment the animate objects included in the
menu, such as a mouse, a cat and a tiny man.
The game simulates not just the physical interactions among these objects, but also some other ambience effects like air pressure and gravity variations. The physics simulation engine does not a use random number generator, assuring that the results do not depend on chance.
The Incredible Machine was the winner of several prizes due to its innovative style and precise reality simulation. It is so innovative, that it earned Jeff Tunnell a patent for the game concepts due to the novelty of the game concepts (see the external links section for a link to patent description).
By now, all games from The Incredible Machine series are quite hard to find in stores, considering that the publisher had stopped selling those titles (In fact, the original publisher, Dynamix, then a subsidiaries of Sierra, had been shut down by Sierra in 1999).
See also: Rube Goldberg machine
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