If you’re thinking of buying Z now - the modern remake is a careless trash port FYI

  • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Elder millennial, here. One of the weird things about the 90s was cereal boxes marketed to little bastards like me at the time would often have some kind of toy included in it.

    PC gaming was kind of in its infancy and growing rapidly in popularity, so eventually the inevitable happed: a cereal company promoted their cereal by shoving a fucking CD into it, that little bastards like me lost their shit over, installed, and played the snot out of.

    Chex Quest.

    It was literally just Doom, except reskinned so the demons were boogers, and everything else was a fucking Chex cereal advertisement.

    AND IT WAS AMAZING! lol

    Best box of cereal my parents ever bought. Not a bargain bin, but I feel like “in a box of cereal” fits the spirit of the question.

    • XbSuper@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I got the original roller coaster tycoon from a cereal box! I got other games too, but that’s definitely the best (by far), and only one I remember.

    • batmaniam@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That had to be wild to work on. You get brought into the kickoff meeting for what you assume is going to be some soulless marketing gimick, then they start laying it out.

      It had a plot, a decent amount of levels. There was a good amount of heart that went into that.

    • Krudler@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Oh shoot, thanks for reminding me of that old classic! That reminds me of Jill of the Jungle as well!

    • UKFilmNerd@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      If my memory is right, after seeing how good sonic was on the megadrive,I was surprised with Jazz on my PC. It was so good and showed me that I didn’t need a console.

    • Krudler@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Second reply…

      I distinctly remember in my city various computer stores had kiosks which were basically coin op PCs and for $1 you could transfer shareware onto a floppy disk. You were still responsible for paying for the full license if you liked it.

      Does anybody else remember these?

  • money_loo@1337lemmy.com
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    1 year ago

    Castlevania Symphony of The Night!

    Apparently it released at a time when 3d graphics were the new hotness and it originally flew under the radar for a lot of people.

    Loved every minute of it!

  • Kedly@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Morrowind promised and delivered complete freedom to roam where I wanted and I found it in the big box of videogames at Superstore… That was after trying it for 15 minutes, thinking the animations were jank as hell even back then, and then not touching it again until a month later when I thankfully gave it another chance because I was bored

    • batmaniam@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I played that game entirely to young and somehow finished the main quest line, eventually.

      But man, I spent so many hours just murder hobo-ing it because I didn’t really understand the quest based game loop yet. I’d just pick a direction and look for something cool. When I found someone that looked like they’d have cool stuff I’d just kill them and take their stuff. The only time I’d reload is when I got the prophecy warning; I broke like every quest except the main one.

      This was compounded by the fact that 1) I was really enjoying just exploring and 2) that game was not particularly hard to destroy the balance on. Even a kid with poor mechanical skills could get wildly OP pretty easily.

      12/10 no notes.

      • Kedly@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Morrowind was the first game I started “Do a quick save so that I can go on a murder spree, and then reload when I’m done” xD Also learning how to insult people wearing glass armour enough so they’d attack me first, and now it wasnt illegal for me to kill them and loot the glass armour off of them

  • bridge_too_close@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I got Fallout 1 and 2 in a 2-pack for $10. This was back in the early '00s before the others were released. I loved those games so much.

  • raptir@lemdro.id
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    1 year ago

    Enclave. I picked up the Xbox version in a clearance bin somewhere. It’s a really solid level-based action adventure game.

  • rhythmisaprancer@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I don’t remember the price, and Mom almost certainly paid for it, but Faxanadu. First game I ever beat, got an emulator and sought it out on a rom when those came out, and most recently played it at an arcade that had a bunch of older games loaded onto a “TV” with real controllers. Hadn’t used that kind of controller for a long time.

  • kiljoy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    I got metal gear rising for 5 bucks at a 5 below. Everyone shit on that game but running around as ninja Raiden was so fun.

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I bought Phantom Pain for like $4. I was really burned out of the series after MGS3.

      But Phantom Pain is incredible! Giant open-world game where my main focus was collecting pokemon soldiers by tying balloons to their asses.

  • batmaniam@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Not quite “find your pocket change” but a solid value: Starcraft + broodwars for $20.

    So, soooooooo many hours. And it came in a sweet looking box! Like the kind that people shell out an extra $50 for as a pre-order these days.

    I’ll always remember you this way Blizz. You were one of the greats.

  • Aielman15@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    A few years back, dusting off the GameStop bargain bin with old gen games, I found a sealed copy of Zone of the Enders and a used copy of Metal Gear Rising.

    I had never heard of the first, and I was only mildly aware of the second one (it was before people started memeing it into mainstream status).

    Best summer ever!

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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    1 year ago

    The original Creatures I found in the going out of business sale at KB Toys when I was a kid for like $2. IIRC, it was also the first game I ever bought on my own.

    To this day, it’s still be the best virtual pet game I’ve ever played. The whole system of genetics was cool as hell, and the fact it was made by scientists studying the human genome and uses real science behind the genetic modeling was super fucking cool.

    • urist@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      I loved that game even though I never figured it out. I couldn’t find anything else like it. It’s one of the reasons Spore disappointed me so much. Spore had customizable appearances but all the creatures acted the same. In Creatures, it almost felt like they were alive.

      • The memory I have ingrained most from the game is that once I hatched a norn that for whatever reason, could not walk. It just stayed where it hatched unless another creature moved them. I feared it would starve to death, but the other norns took care of her. They brought her food and liquid, they played with her, they taught her language, they even protected her from the Grendel. This wasn’t necessarily pre-programmed behavior; this never happened at any other time for me. They usually didn’t teach each other much, and they certainly never brought each other food or gifts. Just for the one that was unable to take care of itself.

        • urist@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 year ago

          Awww! That’s so cute, I had no idea they could do that! Most of my saves just ended in destruction.

    • Davel23@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      There are several games in that series, most if not all of which are on GOG for cheap. I recommend Caesar III (don’t bother with IV), Zeus, Pharoah and Cleopatra. They all follow the same basic formula and are a lot of fun.