Games

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.

all shareware was bargain bin.

Jazz Jackrabbit was THE fucking SHIT.

Dungeon Keeper. I can still hear the sound FX of a slapped imp, or the Dark Mistress' scream

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!

Age of Empires 2 when a Kmart was closing down back in like 2001.

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

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

The original Mount & Blade at an office max, I think? 5 dollar bargain bin game. I remember being blown away by the army combat in that game. The first one was so barebones but I still love that janky mess.

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.

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.

Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom back in like '04

I got Okage for PlayStation 2 at Liquidation World for like $5.

It's not the best RPG, but it's one of my favourites just for its whacky humour and fantastic character designs.

"Greg Hastings' Tournament Paintball Max'D" for the PS2. It had no right being as fun as it was, and it sure wasn't polished, but it was a fun little title. My roommate and I played it off and on for a couple years.

Sunset Riders, thought it looked naff and was disappointed when I got it, hoping for something better known. Ended up loving the coop mode.

Majesty the fantasy kingdom sim. Got it at Ross the clothing store with the expansion and it's genuinely the most fun management games I've ever played. Available on steam very cheap now.

Total Annihilation. Yes I peaked young.

Fallout and Fallout 2. Two disk set at Walmart for $10 in the late 90s. Kept me busy through college, and I was so happy to see Bethesda bring it back from the dead and create some of my favorite games of all time!

FFX. The video store near me was shutting down and I scored an unopened copy for like 5 bucks, still playing with the same disc today.

Tactical Ops: Assault on Terror

It was the OG Counterstrike that started as an Unreal Tournament mod before getting a standalone release. It was popular for a long time entirely because it had zero anti-piracy built in and it supported modding. The game came out in 1999 and people still play it today.

Got it for $5 in the bargain bin at EB games.

Discounting Steam because otherwise I'd be here typing for an hour listing all the cheap games I enjoyed from there.

Lufia 2 for the SNES, which was great because it was a prequel to Lufia 1, though it took me a couple years to finally track down a copy in the pre-internet days. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was a prequel, and there are actually massive spoilers for the 2nd game in the intro for the 1st one, so I unintentionally played them in the right order!

Crack Dot Com's "Abuse". Greatest run-and-gun platformer ever.

Well this is more of a digital bin but I picked up Brother a tale of two sons on sale ages ago because the art looked cool. Hands down one of the best games I ever played, made me sob like a bitch.

All of our NES games were bargain-bin. Section Z was the only one we had with a decent soundtrack, which made up for how often I died