Games that contain an entire game within the main game

[j_factor]

I'm not talking about minigames (which are common), and I'm not talking about game compilations, or games in which you can unlock another game and select it from a menu. I'm talking about games that, in the course of playing the game, you can play another game. I can think of a few examples. Probably the most famous one is Shenmue (and its sequel), where you can go into the arcade and play Hang-On or Space Harrier. In Day of the Tentacle, you can find a computer with Maniac Mansion on it, and play it. In Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, you can play the original Pitfall. In Pac-Man 2, you can go to an arcade and play Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man (SNES) or Pac-Jr. (Genesis).

Anything else like these? It doesn't necessarily have to have been a pre-existing game, but I guess it has to be optional (otherwise it's not really a separate game, it's just part of the game), and it shouldn't be a minigame, although I guess there are borderline cases and there's not a concrete definition of "minigame". But, yeah.

[DigitalSpace]

The arcade games in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas come to mind (though they're short and repetitive enough that they feel like minigames).

Donkey Kong 64 - with the original arcade DK - also came to mind, but I can't remember if you can play the original DK in-game, or if you just unlock it.

[p_b]

In PGR2 or 3 you can play Geometry Wars.

[DDCecil]

Not sure if it counts, but Adventures of Willy Beamish (Sega CD version) has a Quarth-like game you play on his Nintari system.

[Dangerboy]

If you count Home as a 'game', there are various places you can walk up to, be it a arcade or property and play a full fledged game, usually puzzle. Once you have the Namco Museum Home edition, you'll be able to earn arcade machines for your home, and really play it.

Granted it was hidden, but anytime on the ship in Final Fantasy I you could open up a slider puzzle game. Completing the game in the PSX version gave you bonus items depending on the quickness of it.

[dao2]

theres a bunch of full fledged card games in rpgs, like in kotor and ffix, and theres blitzball in ffx

[The 1 2 P]

In Contra: Legacy of War you can go into a bamboo arcade and play a pac-tank game.

[Superman]

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (on a few systems) has the original game from the Atari 2600 you can find and play.

[Daria]

I'm surprised that you didn't mention Animal Crossing. You can collect NES systems and play classic games.

There's also Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, there's a tv you can interact with to play a pong clone. You can also play a root beer tapper mini game, but it's not the same thing because you don't interact with any sort of in game arcade. It's just Larry running around delivering beers.

I also want to say that Prey had an interactive arcade machine at the beginning of the game when you're in your grandfather's bar.

[tom]

Little Computer People has 'poker (well, it's more of a mini-game really)
Spycraft The Great Game has Shanghai (Activision)
Space Rogue has an arcade machine you can play (forgot the games name)
Lynx game Electro Cop has some accessable games

[Infernal Monkey]

Includes the original Rampage, plus Rampage: World Tour.



Includes an addictive little 2-player shooter called Death Tank. Duke Nukem 3D for Saturn included its sequel; Death Tank Zwei.



Ridge Racer contains Rally-X, Ridge Racer 2 contains New Rally-X.

[Vroomfunkel]

Death Tank Zwei is great, but doesn't really fit the bill for this thread as it is an unlockable game that you select from a menu rather than a game that you play within the main game. Same is true of Death Tank.

Surprised no-one has mentioned Final Fantasy VII yet, where there's a whole bunch of games you can play in the arcade. Can't remember them all, but one of them was a Road Rash clone.

[spoon]

The Warriors has it's own arcade game within. The Gottlieb and Namco PSX collections let you walk around a virtual arcade. Wario Ware series has all kinds of unlockable games.

The NFL and NBA 2K series have Cribs that you can purchase different games for.

[Mayhem]

The Mystical Ninja series on the SNES had arcade machines to play such as Gradius.

Within Iridis Alpha for the C64 by Jeff Minter, pausing the game brought up another game called Deflex. Pause THAT and you got another game of sorts!

[sonoranreptile]

In The Bard's Tale for the Xbox there are the original 3 PC games that are fully playable.

[Rogmeister]

Unless I missed it, I don't think anyone mentioined in the GameCube version of Fight Night: Round 2, you have Super Punch-Out (SNES version)...

[dendawg]

AFAIK, Day of the Tentacle has the full version of Maniac Mansion in it.

[mailman187666]

Space Quest 6 on PC had Stooge Fighter 3 in it. "moida him"

[onReload]

The arcade games in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas come to mind (though they're short and repetitive enough that they feel like minigames).

Donkey Kong 64 - with the original arcade DK - also came to mind, but I can't remember if you can play the original DK in-game, or if you just unlock it.

Yup, it had the arcade version of donkey kong that could play in the factory level or in a selection on the menu. Early Rare game Jetpac was also in DK64.

I personally think people are still listing a lot of minigames ... Virtua Fighter and Tekken would have unlockable older versions of themselves in later games, but they weren't true emulations

[roushimsx]

God, I played the hell out of blackjack in Prey.


Loved that game. Can't believe how great it still looks, over 2 years after release.