Old Games within New Games

January 11, 2007 7:28 AM

Hidden in the video game Pitfall the Mayan Adventure for the Super Nintendo was the entire Atari 2600 version of the original Pitfall. Are there any other examples in the gaming world of an older version of a game being hidden in a newer version or sequel?

I'm looking for games from any era and on any platform including all consoles and PC.

posted by Otis to sports, hobbies, & recreation (42 comments total)

Donkey Kong 64 had a playable Donkey Kong arcade machine in one of the levels.
posted by cosmonaught at 7:32 AM on January 11, 2007

Major Havoc had an embedded version of breakout.
posted by plinth at 7:35 AM on January 11, 2007

The second Maniac Mansion adventure game had the original DOS game hidden inside of it...
posted by stratastar at 7:37 AM on January 11, 2007

There was a 3D version of Pacman (for the PS2, maybe others) that had the original Pacman and Ms. Pacman in it as minigames. I think it was one of the unlockables in your home area, but I'm not sure. How authentic they were, I do not know.
posted by spaceman_spiff at 7:39 AM on January 11, 2007

Tempest 2000

Excitebike 64

Spyhunter

Found via.
posted by JeremiahBritt at 7:39 AM on January 11, 2007

Nethack has the Rogue level, but I wouldn't call it hidden.
posted by cobaltnine at 7:44 AM on January 11, 2007

I think Doom 3 has a playable Doom 1 (or 2?) arcade machine in one of the levels.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 7:44 AM on January 11, 2007

This is streching things a bit, but the new Ms Pacman/Galaga arcade cabinets have Pacman hidden in them. Here's how to activate it.
posted by cosmicbandito at 7:44 AM on January 11, 2007

The original Prince of Persia could be unlocked on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
posted by muddgirl at 7:49 AM on January 11, 2007

Animal Crossing for Nintendo Game Cube has several original 8bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games within it.

The ones I've seen so far:

pinball
tennis
balloon fight

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Super Mario Brothers 3 for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance has a copy of the original 8bit Mario Brothers in it. This isn't hidden within SMB3, but is available at a menu when you first power-on the cartridge.
posted by Wild_Eep at 7:49 AM on January 11, 2007

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time has the original Prince of Persia hidden in it
posted by biscotti at 7:50 AM on January 11, 2007

If you won Metroid Fusion and hooked your GameBoy Advance up to Metroid Prime, the original Metroid would become playable.
posted by revgeorge at 7:51 AM on January 11, 2007

The original Metroid could be unlocked from the GameCube version Metroid Prime.
posted by knave at 7:52 AM on January 11, 2007

Wow.. Jynx.
posted by knave at 7:52 AM on January 11, 2007

GameCube Animal Crossing has quite a few NES games hidden inside it. Here's a FAQ.
posted by box at 7:53 AM on January 11, 2007

Super Mario Brothers 3 for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance has a copy of the original 8bit Mario Brothers in it. This isn't hidden within SMB3, but is available at a menu when you first power-on the cartridge.

They also had Mario Bros embedded into Super Mario Bros 3 for NES. If two players stood on the same location on the world map and pressed A (or something like that).
posted by knave at 7:54 AM on January 11, 2007

Unfortunately, I don't think Doom 3 had Doom 1 or 2 available as unlockables. There was an arcade machine called Super Turkey Puncher 3d!!!! or something like that and it used the old graphics from Doom.

The Warriors had an unlockable beat em up game that was very Double Dragon-esque.

You can unlock the original Wolfenstein in the Xbox version of Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
posted by Diskeater at 7:59 AM on January 11, 2007

You can unlock the arcade version of TNMT in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus.

You can play Outrun, Space Harrior, Hang On, and Afterburner in Shenmue 2 (I don't remember which Shenmue allowed you to play which games but I'm sure you can look it up).
posted by Diskeater at 8:07 AM on January 11, 2007

There are a couple of video games inside CJs house in GTA San Andreas. I seem to remember that you can play asteroids on it.

Can't seem to find a refence for this online though.
posted by triv at 8:13 AM on January 11, 2007

In Prey, you can play an arcade game in the bar where you start the game.
posted by cowbellemoo at 8:21 AM on January 11, 2007

The SNES Ninja Gaiden Triology is hidden within the XBOX game.
posted by ducksauce at 8:21 AM on January 11, 2007

Wario Ware had Dr. Mario(Wario) as an unlockable.

Panzer Dragoon Orta had the original Panzer Dragoon.

Lunar Silver Star Story Complete on the Playstation had a cool unlockable clone of Warlords.
posted by Dr-Baa at 8:25 AM on January 11, 2007

Versions of Escape Velocity after the original have free plugins that let you play the original game in the shinier new engine.

The game is made by Ambrosia, for those who haven't heard of this reasonably obscure Mac software developer.
posted by sindark at 8:26 AM on January 11, 2007

It's probably worthwhile to point out the differences between homages/parodies/etc., as with (if I recall correctly) the games in GTA: San Andreas, and emulated, bit-for-bit versions of old games, as in (I believe) Animal Crossing and Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure.
posted by box at 8:31 AM on January 11, 2007

Doom 2 has secret levels that were remakes from Wolf 3d. Not a sequel strictly speaking, but Doom was sort of a sequel to Wolf in spirit.

The Tekken series has always had mini games built in and Tekken 5 includes Tekken 1, 2 and 3 in it's "Arcade History" mode.
posted by utsutsu at 8:40 AM on January 11, 2007

This isn't really the same, but in Space Quest 4: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers, the story eventually has you travel back in time to scenes from Space Quest 1, and the graphics are suddenly all shitty and pixelated again.
posted by Robot Johnny at 8:50 AM on January 11, 2007

Day of the Tentacle's predecessor, Maniac Mansion, is playable in-game on Weird Ed Edison's computer.
posted by esd at 9:07 AM on January 11, 2007

A couple of the later Commander Keen games had a Pong clone called "Paddle War" in the pause menu.
posted by Partial Law at 9:11 AM on January 11, 2007

In Kirby's Adventure for the NES, some of the later levels were clones of levels in Kirby's earlier Gameboy game. They were even in black and white and had the original music.
posted by owenkun at 9:18 AM on January 11, 2007

Very vaguely, and going very old school, I want to say that the '80s version of Space Quest III may have had Space Quest I embedded in it. We're talking really low-tech MS-DOSish kind of games here.
posted by WCityMike at 9:22 AM on January 11, 2007

Also, regarding the earlier confusion about DOOM3 having earlier an DOOM game within it:

1. The Xbox collector's edition had a seperate disk with the older DOOM levels

2. There is a DOOM3 mod that lets you play the original DOOM in various screens within the game.
posted by owenkun at 9:22 AM on January 11, 2007

The SNES Ninja Gaiden Triology is hidden within the XBOX game.

In Ninja Gaiden Black for XBOX, you can play the original cabinet arcade Ninja Gaiden.
posted by chrisamiller at 9:54 AM on January 11, 2007

NHL 06 on the PS2 had NHL 94 embedded in it.
posted by Nodecam at 10:47 AM on January 11, 2007

While battling Arcade in the recent Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, you get to play very spot-on minigame versions of Pitfall and Breakout (except with various Marvel heroes substituting for Pitfall Harry and moving the Breakout paddle).
posted by sluggo at 12:06 PM on January 11, 2007

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (2005) had playable versions of Metal Gear (1987) and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990) embedded in it.
posted by ikkyu2 at 12:58 PM on January 11, 2007

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I had no idea there were so many of these.
posted by Otis at 5:21 AM on January 12, 2007

To clarify diskeater's comment earlier... the first Shenmue has Hang On and Space Harrier. They're not hidden at all-- there's an arcade you can walk into and play those games. The game's even set in 1985 so those particular arcade games are even relevant to the setting.
posted by lou at 12:21 PM on January 12, 2007

Since Maniac Mansion was never actually released on the Mac, the only way to play it was through the easter-egg version in Day of the Tentacle.
posted by blueberry at 12:27 PM on January 12, 2007

Some notes on things already mentioned:

The version of Donkey Kong hidden in DK64 is an emulation of the ARCADE GAME, which is different than any other version Nintendo has released for home use so far (most others are recreations or emulation of the NES game). However, its level order has been hacked up, so it cannot be considered an authentic experience all the same. The game also contains an emulation of Rare's early classic Jetpac.

Super Mario Bros. 3's version of Mario Bros. is actually a two-player minigame inspired by the original, not either a port or emulation of the original (and some of the games that randomly come up in that do not play like Mario Bros.). A version of Mario Bros. that can be played competitively or by one's self is included in the Super Mario Advance series for GBA, and also in Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, but this is a recreation with updated graphics, and anyway it is closer to the NES version in design than the much-harder arcade version.

NES Metroid, in addition to being included in Metriod Prime, is also unlockable in Metroid Zero Mission (and MZM itself is an expanded remake of that game).

Some of the other games mentioned here are not emulations, but are inspired by the older games. The Breakout in Major Havoc is a minor minigame that only lasts a few seconds.

The GBA WarioWare's port of Dr. Mario ("Dr. Wario") has two fewer rows in the bin and some changed graphics. However, one of the Gamecube demo disks they made had a port of Dr Mario that could be transferred to a GBA via link cable.

The Rogue level in Nethack is an homage, but doesn't qualify as an "older version" hidden in the game, since it is just another level of the dungeon, and not a self-contained game.

The Animal Crossing NES ports must be acquired in-game to play them, a few are difficult to acquire without special equipment (GBA and link cable), and a couple (Super Maro Bros. and Zelda) are impossible without a cheat device since Nintendo (in a move that I wish was uncommon with them) never got around to releasing the means of acquiring them.

There is a version of Mortal Kombat (2? 3?) that contains a recreation of Pong. There was an old Namco game (for Playstation? For arcade?) that used Galaxian for a loading screen.

If you count offcial emulation and recreations the number expands greatly: you could then include things like compilations (like Midway Arcade Treasures), Virtual Console, the NES Classics series for GBA, and many others.
posted by JHarris at 12:35 PM on January 12, 2007

That Namco game would be Ridge Racer, and it's something the company continued -- the original Pac Man is available in Ridge Racer 5 (loading screen, but also later unlockable).

Beating Quake 4 on the 360 unlocks Quake 1 with its own achievement points (all 0 though).

Tekken 5 has, I believe, "Star Blade" hidden inside it.
posted by mkn at 5:41 PM on January 12, 2007

Space Quest 4 has the Ms. Astro Chicken game, in which Cedric from King's Quest 5 appears.
posted by IndigoRain at 11:05 PM on January 15, 2007

Apparently, the first version of the coin-op game NBA Jam had a secret Battlezone-like game in it that you could play without putting in any money. It was removed in later versions.
posted by blueberry at 7:49 AM on January 17, 2007