Highlights

  • Virtual museums in video games preserve and honor gaming history, providing a museum-like experience for players.
  • Compilations like Atari 50th Anniversary Collection contextualize the importance of old games, featuring interviews and documentation.
  • Games like The Making Of Karateka and The Document Of Metal Gear Solid 2 offer in-depth looks into the development of specific titles, appealing to fans and enthusiasts.

Video game preservation is tough. With the way formats change so frequently old titles often become unplayable. Then there is the documentation of a game's development that is even harder to keep track of sometimes. The games below all do a great job of becoming museums themselves to preserve and help history live on.

Even if the games included in the virtual museums are no longer fun or feel outdated to modern players, the actual museum experience makes it worth the price of admission. A couple of entries on this list take a different approach. Instead of being a museum honoring video game history, they are museums about different topics that use the medium to reach new audiences.

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6 Atari 50th Anniversary Collection

Gives Context To Understanding Why All These Games Are So Important, Even If They Don't All Hold Up Perfectly

Missile Command remastered Atari 50th anniversary

Compilations of Atari games are nothing new and have been coming out since the 90s. The Atari 50th Anniversary Collection goes above and beyond all other collections by including interviews and documentation around many of the releases featured in the title. This is not just talking about the Atari 2600, either. Games all the way up until the 1990s are playable in this collection.

For anybody who never put their hands on an Atari console or played any of these games, it is a great way to experience these titles and learn about their place in history. By themselves, most of these games might only provide a few minutes of entertainment, but putting them into the context of this museum makes them all the more memorable. Another highlight of the package are the interviews with developers who were inspired by Atari like Tim Schafer and Cliff Bleszinski.

5 The Making Of Karateka

Deep Dive Into One Title Many Have Forgotten But Was Ahead Of Its Time In Many Ways. A Great, In-Depth Look Into Early Video Game Development

karateka menu showing Jordan's Original

Few reading this might have known about Karateka before The Making of Karateka came out, but they might be more interested to know it comes from game designer Jordan Mechner, who would go on to create Prince of Persia. The Making of Karateka comes from Digital Eclipse, who also did the Atari Anniversary Collection.

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This time, players get to see the same care and attention of that went into preserving Atari games poured into one title. Players get a timeline of the game's development along with numerous documents and drawings regarding the production. A remastered version of the game is included here along with the designer's prior title, Deathbounce.

4 The Document Of Metal Gear Solid 2

A Comprehensive Look At Everything That Went Into 2001's Metal Gear Solid 2: The Sons Of Liberty

Solid snake peaking around a corner. Guard with his back turned to him

Metal Gear Solid Master Collection is a fairly comprehensive package, despite the complaints around the remastering effort of the games themselves. There are scripts for every title as well as virtual books detailing the way the lore connects all the games. It misses the extreme deep dive that is The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2, however. In this release, players can look into every nook and cranny of Metal Gear Solid 2's development.

Character models, concept art, and even the ability to watch every cinematic and freely control the camera make this a must-have for any fan of the 2001 stealth-action title. A highlight is the original design document which details numerous scrapped ideas even more audacious than what made it into the finished game.

3 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Cowabunga Collection

The Games Hold Up Well, And The Design Documents Are Things Fans Never Thought They'd See

Box art in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-The Cowabunga Collection

Licensed games usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to re-releases and remasters. This is what makes the Cowabunga Collection so surprising. It contains 13 separate games along with the Japanese versions of all the ones that had one.

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The museum aspect comes into full play with the ability to look at numerous design documents for each game. The best part is that many of these games actually hold up really well. Cowabunga Collection was also developed by Digital Eclipse, so it is pretty miraculous that Konami was open enough to share all this information with the developer to make this title possible.

2 Assassin's Creed Discovery Tours

For Those More Interested In The Real History That Inspires Assassin's Creed

Map of Valhalla, knight putting banner in the ground
Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Released
November 10, 2020
Developer(s)
Ubisoft
Genre(s)
RPG , Action

Any player who is more into Assassin's Creed for the historical aspects rather than the larger-than-life story is probably going to be more interested in the Discovery Tour Mode than the mainline titles. These are purchasable as standalone titles on the PC but console gamers need to have the base game first and buy it as an add-on.

This is a purely educational mode, where players go around the map and learn about the historical aspects of the area, including details about daily life. So far, Discovery Tour is available for Assassin's Creed Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla.

1 Fortnite - Voices Of The Forgotten

A Unique Way To Teach Kids And Teens About Important, Tragic, Historical Events

fortnite corny complex logo
Fortnite

Released
July 25, 2017
Developer(s)
Epic Games
Genre(s)
Survival , Battle Royale

Voices of the Forgotten is a Holocaust Museum within Fortnite and the brainchild of Luc BernardIt. Players enter it and learn about the tragic events of the genocide. Though players can enter it with any avatar of their choosing, they cannot engage in combat or use emotes, as the purpose of location is purely educational.

On paper, it can seem like a bad idea to mix Holocaust education with video games, but another perspective is it is a great way to reach out to young audiences who might ignore other forms of education. Voices of the Forgotten omits the more graphic imagery to still fall in line with Fortnite's policies, but it serves as a unique educational tool nonetheless.

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