This isnāt how most serious archives work. Archiving media is sensitive, careful work which takes time and space. Providing tours is at very least expensive and at worst a serious risk to the collection.
So what is the point of spending money and effort to preserve video games if nobody can play them? Seems like a waste of time and resources, especially for something so trivial as games.
See, here's the thing: Archives do not have pedestals - they use archival storage. This may come in different forms, but to the uninitiated eye, it often looks a lot like narrow pathways between storage shelves, with labeled cardboard boxes, which may contain, in acid-free paper, sometimes with foam inlays - objects.
Archives exist to preserve what is there, not to show it off. Sometimes, that's for future scientific research. And sometimes, they may participate in museal work as well, lending off objects.
My misunderstandingļ¼ sorry - I was imagining this as an online archive that was closed to the public, hence the apparent absurdity of it. The only thing wrong that day was my brain.