Shrink Wrapped from Games for Windows magazine April issue

When asked why certain retail entertainment products (be it movies, music, or games) are so expensive, a lot of people tend to believe that you're "just paying for the packaging." And while that's generally a pretty nonsensical belief for a number of reasons, it used to be at least partially true. In the early days of PC gaming, trendsetters like Infocom and Sierra On-Line took game packaging from minimalist to majestic; in recent years, however, we've witnessed a decline in quality when it comes to common packaging practices. Over the next few pages, we examine a few of the most memorable PC game-packaging trends (and the publishers who pushed them) of the past three decades...

Free Rice from games for Windows magazine

Politically active, financially reactive, and creatively proactive, John Breen has been struggling to do something about world hunger for the past 20 years. In January of 2007, he started Poverty.com to educate the well-fed Internet masses about the need for international action to feed the 850 million people worldwide without enough to eat.

By the spring of 2007, the self-employed computer programmer from Bloomington, IN faced a different kind of struggle: His son wouldn't study for his SATs. "He hated studying vocabulary," explains Breen, "like normal people, including me."

Killing two birds with one stone, Breen devised FreeRice.com, a humble online vocabulary game with the not-so-humble goal of ending world hunger...

A look at the bad, the bad, and the ugly.

A look at the bad, the bad, and the ugly.

Quake
Platform: PC | Genre: Action
Publisher: GT Interactive | Developer: id Software | Released: 1996

Final Fantasy Tactics
Platform: PlayStation | Genre: Role-Playing
Publisher: SCEA | Developer: Square | Released: 1997

Counter-Strike
Platform: PC | Genre: Action
Publisher: Sierra Entertainment | Developer: The Counter-Strike Team | Released: 2000

Super Mario World
Platform: SNES | Genre: Action
Publisher: Nintendo | Developer: Nintendo | Released: 1991

Pac-Man
Platform: More Than You Can Shake a Stick At | Genre: Action
Publisher: Midway | Developer: Namco | Released: 1980

.

Mortal Kombat II
Platform: Arcade | Genre: Fighting
Publisher: Midway | Developer: Midway | Released: 1993

Camera, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Haloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street & Jaws

Godzilla

Predator & Alien vs. Predator

Aliens !!!

X-COM: UFO Defense

Platform: PC | Genre: Turn-based strategy

Publisher: MicroProse | Developer: Mythos Games | Released: 1994