The Bargain Bin Binge!

On occasion, bargain shelves at your local video/electronics store contain a semi-old title worth more than just a look. This page reviews such titles...

Bungie's Mac Action Sack

(sadly, this item is no longer available, as of November 2001)

This Product is iMac-friendly!

In the darkest gaming moments of the Mac, Bungie was one of the few game companies to deliver quality Mac games. In fact, some of their titles were released to the Macintosh first, or even exclusively. Most were released years before iMac, however, and some are no longer sold, making it hard for the iMac owner to play them...until now. Bungie's Mac Action Sack --a collection of 6 classic titles-- is a must-have to the Macintosher who's never played them. It even has its share of packaging surprises.

Let's start by mentioning the games themselves: there's the entire Marathon trilogy, which was Macintosh's exclusive Doom clone. There's an impressive 2D action scroller named Abuse, which includes impressive animation effects. Then there's two of Bungie's premiere games; Minotaur, which is not unlike a classic Ultima, and Pathways Into Darkness, which plays like a classic D&D game (Eye of the Beholder comes to mind). This collection works on iMacs (as the bottom of the "sack" mentions), and has more than its share of timelessness.

There are impressive additions to the purchase. For one, the action sack is encased in an actual, literal, cloth sack. The sack is imprinted with the Bungie logo, along with a mock "warning" symbol for the excitement to be had in the games. This is a sales gimmick in the spirit of classic computer games of the 1980's, and it makes for a good eye-grabber on store shelves. Aside from Eidos' trademark boxes shaped like a semi-triangle, I can't think of anyone these days who attempts an intriguing look to their game packaging. So classic is packaging like this, I've seen original Infocom adventures sell for nearly $400 on eBay; something for game distributors to consider, when wondering if that next sci-fi game should be in a flying saucer package, or if it should have a cool 3D mask on the front. In short, a cute "sack" idea.

Another cute addition is a paper pad within the sack, that promotes the upcoming Bungie game, Oni. It may be too soon to tell, although it seems likely that Oni will be as classic as these games now are. It already has received more than its share of publicity. The paper pad is also well needed, when most of these games need you to map out the level or write down clues!

These perks to buying the collection are just the icing on the cake, however. The six games are the real purchase at hand, and they are priced to fly off a shelf. At $20, you won't find very many collections as good as this. More often than not, collections of six games are often one or two tolerable titles, and four titles that never sold. Bungie has put together a collection of some of their best, that rivals the LucasArts Archives series. Anyone who owns a Mac without these games should be sacked...

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