Looking Back at the MegaPak, the 1990s Big-Box PC Compilation Precursor to Modern Bundles

Modern PC gaming offers an unprecedented level of abundance, with storefronts like Steam facilitating cheap digital bundles and endless sales. This environment is a stark contrast to thirty years ago, when purchasing a new game was a significant financial decision. However, in the mid-1990s, a unique precursor to the digital bundles of today existed in the physical world: the MegaPak.

The MegaPak was a series of big-box compilations containing several games that had typically been released one or two years prior. Developed and published by Megamedia Corp, a company with a relatively small online footprint whose credentials also include publishing the Ukrainian shooter Chasm: The Rift, the MegaPak line ran for several years. The first volume debuted in 1994, featuring eleven games. Because of the prominent yellow "11" displayed on the box to highlight the number of included titles, some online databases incorrectly labeled it "Megapak 11," despite the series ending at volume 10.

The contents of a typical MegaPak were an eclectic mix of major franchises, vehicle simulations, and obscure titles. The inaugural bundle included the Ultima spin-off World of Ultima: The Savage Empire, the combat flight simulator F-14 Tomcat, Test Drive 3: The Passion, and the educational adventure game Dinosaur Safari. As the series progressed, the quality of the included software rose. MegaPak 2 featured Ocean's Jurassic Park, while MegaPak 3 introduced the flight simulator TFX.

The series peaked in 1996 with MegaPak 5, which bundled several major PC titles together. This compilation featured Jagged Alliance, the turn-based tactics game that helped shape the genre alongside X-COM. It also contained Apogee's Terminal Velocity, Looking Glass's Flight Unlimited, and the roleplaying game Entomorph: Plague of the Darkfall. Later iterations continued the trend of high-profile inclusions: MegaPak 7 contained Caesar 2 and Heroes of Might and Magic, and MegaPak 8 featured SimCity 2000 alongside Mechwarrior II.

Between 1994 and 1998, Megamedia Corp released nine volumes of the compilation. After a hiatus, a tenth and final MegaPak collection was released in 2001, but the publisher had changed. This final entry was published by Empire Interactive and consisted solely of Empire-published games. No public records exist to clarify exactly how the license transitioned, but Empire launched its own budget range of titles called Xplosiv in 2000, signaling the end of the classic big-box MegaPak era in favor of budget DVD-case releases.