Video games that let you play other video games, inside the game (gameception??)

[prnzoDraGoonZweiOrta]

Code Shifter. nice lil 2D plat where you're literally part of a cartoonish virtual dev team tryin to debug n refine their game before they hit the deadline (but ofc, something shady happens). in the 'breakroom' you can play a 2D fighter mini-game with the various nicely-sprited-or-imported franchise guest-stars such as a dude from Kunio~kun series, Sol Badguy, etc. a great lil game but my progress on SteamDeck did not carry over to the Steam cloud's save storage on PC for some irritating reason

also, even those this doesn't quite qualify for bein what the thread topic is lookin for... in Streets of Rage/Bare Knuckle 2 you can punch arcade cabinets for fruit power-ups n rudely interrupt Galsia/Garcia from playing whatever game Mr. X would shoot him for doing while he's supposed to be a generic roaming antagonist who's only deadly when he holds a knife in front of him. he doesn't even extend his arm to stab you so one might conclude that knife is mad sharp

 

[Stookymalarkey]

In Bully, you can play in-universe games like ConSumo and Nut Shots. Also, in Day of the Tentacle it has the full MS-DOS version of Maniac Mansion

 

[Boo Man]

dunno if it counts but in Spyro 3 Year of the Dragon they had a secret demo for Crash Bash
but they accidently put the full beta version with all the levels into the game

 

[prnzoDraGoonZweiOrta]

oh, and Tekken 1 & 2 for PSx loading screens. vert-sh'mups, I think the 1st one is Galaga n 2nd one is Galaxian but could be wrong?

 

[Boo Man]

oh, and Tekken 1 & 2 for PSx loading screens. vert-sh'mups, I think the 1st one is Galaga n 2nd one is Galaxian but could be wrong?

yeah! i was gunna mention that one too
i think if you 100% Galaga in Tekken 1 you unlock devil Kazuya?
no way i could do it

 

[Vanadate]

Since no one has mentioned this yet, in Stardew Valley there’s a minigame inside the arcade machine when you go to the bar. It’s nothing over the top but it’s a very cute detail

 

[elehayyme]

If I recall correctly, when playing Day of the Tentacle, you can play the original Maniac Mansion on a PC in the house.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Retro Game Challenge lets you play lots of videogame parodies while tasking you to beat the titular challenges, they are made up but it's the tought that matters

 

[Somnia]

Demontower from Night in the Woods! Super fun yet brief original top down action game you play on Mae's PC in-game. You just run around and hack and slash as a kitty through a few levels of mayhem. It can get kinda challenging and honestly I'd have bought it as a standalone release cause it's just that fun despite its simplicity.

 

[Patapolis]

let's add pitfall: the mayan adventure to the list. one of the bonus stages lets you play the original pitfall.

 

[Prism_Red]

Thrillville.
It's a theme park management game, but you can actually play all the rides that you put in the theme park, you can also play as the staff like janitor which also have it's own minigame. Just like usual theme games you can customize the coasters, and karts, and my favorite, the minigolf.

 

[Egg (McMuffin) Man]

In Donkey Kong 64 you have to play the arcade Donkey Kong at one point in the game in order to progress.

 

[thanonyx thanonyx]

In Day of the Tentacle if you go into Ed's room there's a computer where you can play Maniac Mansion.

 

[Jeff]

Donkey Kong 64 has the original Donkey Kong arcade in Frantic Factory and the ZX Spectrum original game Jetpac after finding 15 banana medals.
Pac-Man World 2, unlock all Pac-Man games in museum by collecting tokens
Animal Crossing on Gamecube lets you play NES games from 1983-1985
Wario Ware on GBA lets you play an alternate version of Dr. Mario called Dr. Wario
Blades of Steel had a Gradius mini game during halftime
Star Wars Rogue Squadron 3 lets you play the original Star Wars arcade game from the early 80s.
Pokémon Channel on Gamecube lets you play Pokémon Mini handhelds

 

[moonbits]

I'd spent a lot of time in Virtual-On in Yakuza Kiwami 2

 

[Num]

Thrillville.
It's a theme park management game, but you can actually play all the rides that you put in the theme park, you can also play as the staff like janitor which also have it's own minigame. Just like usual theme games you can customize the coasters, and karts, and my favorite, the minigolf.

thrillville had so many mini games that were practically their own games but i never once thought they were supposed to be of the inworld rides on the park. so youre telling me that theme park has exhibits of of magical skeletons and ghosts you need to kill by shooting your enchanted bow and arrow. the biking one isnt too far fetched though i wonder what theme parks lets children ride motorbikes to do tricks with

 

[trickybus]

Homefront: The Revolution has the entire Time Splitters 2 game hidden inside for some reason

 

[7eve70rd]

@bjork and @Jeff @Egg (McMuffin) Man all mentioned Donkey Kong 64. Let's commiserate together.

The player will need both Nintendo Coin and the Rareware Coin to open the gate to the last Boss Key in Hideout Helm.

the player must clear the Jetpac arcade game . . .

the player must clear the Donkey Kong Arcade game.

Donkey Kong 64 includes Jetpac as an unlockable minigame in Cranky Kong's lab after collecting 15 Banana Medals. To get the Rareware Coin, you must score 5,000 points in Jetpac.

Playing two "retro" games inside the Nintendo 64 game were required to reach the final boss.

This was a pain point for many. Donkey Kong 64 was the game that forced me to sign up for GameFAQs to post on the message board.

Spoiler: reason

I didn't look directly up at the ceiling to find a missable thing. After DK64 I grew tired of collectathons.

 

[OmegaPunch's icon OmegaPunch OmegaPunch]

In Metal Max 2: Reloaded and Metal Max 3 there is a "Bang Bang Tanks" arcade cabinet where you play a simple game where you are a tank and you shoot down other tanks to get points, but each of your shots costed money.
There's also "Ribbit Race" that's basically horse race gambling but with frogs instead.

 

[Renirambus]

Here's one that I like:

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure on SNES lets you play the original Pitfall from Atari VCS/2600, and I thought that was really cool.

 

[MegaHiro91]

Pitfall: The Lost Expedition on PS2 and Wii let's you play Pitfall 1 and 2.

 

[Nidstang]

It's probably worth mentioning that people managed to get quite a few games running in Doom... including Doom itself.

Even officially
The BFG Edition ports of Doom 1 and 2 are playable in the terminal in Doom Eternal

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

Getting a win streak of 250 matches in Mortal Kombat 2 Arcade unlocks Pong.

 

[sun0wl]

Maybe not quite what was meant by OP, but I guess technically Moon RPG is a game within a game?

 

[Trainer Red]

Found it cool that you can play OutRun in Shenmue II for the Dreamcast :O