Room of doom conceptual ideas (large pictures!)

[Blitzwing256]

My roomate is finally moving out this month and I am happily left with an entire room that is (or will be once he gets his shit out) completely empty.

As anyone who knows me knows...I'm more of a toy collector then a game collector (although I have a large collection of both) I've decided to turn that room into a gaming or..room of doom., I pretty much have every system released other then vectrex 3d0 and neo geo (i guess ps3 sorta counts as a game system..but i don't have that either) anyways, what I want to do is wallpaper the room with carded action figures from floor to ceilling, then line the walls with shelving units, one wall with all systems and another with just shelves of games.

this is my conceptual idea for the gaming shelves:

http://www.green-ranger.com/transformers/concept.jpg
these aren't my best conditioned systems by far, just the first ones I was able to grab (icky yellowed snes....) but it sorta gives the idea of what i want to do, I'd like to have each shelve with one or two systems, all the hookups, the best controllers and the essential gmes that are best for that system. all setup in an easy to grab and hookup sorta of system. for the final version i'm going to devide them up via pre crash, 8bit 16bit and "the shit that came after" shelving units.

any suggestions or do's and don'ts you guys might suggest?

[dao2]

those are pretty cool shelves :o what are they?

[Chainclaw]

Check out these shelves at Target. This is two sets of $13 shelves. They don't work for all systems, but it works pretty good. I only keep the new-gen systems plugged in at any given moment, but it's easy to get behind it to switch things out.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y204/Xieflow/collection/CIMG0705.jpg

I'm thinking of doing another set like this to the left of my TV, I've ran out of room for the 10 or so systems I already have besides what's pictured above, and whatever else I want to buy in the future.

I'm recommending this because the shelves in your picture waste a lot of vertical space.

[Blitzwing256]

hmm i've seen those at work, they aen't too bad for a funcitonal shelve, but I partialy want to be able to display the accesories and what not with the system (not so much to play them off the shelf)

I actually have one of those (slightly differnt model) for the currently hooked up games.

I notice those ones are buckling under the weight, or is that just my imagination?

[Marriott_Guy]

I attached a reduced picture of my set up below. The link below it will give you the high-res picture (and others) as well as what is all contained and how I have it hooked up.

http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/Disp1-800x600.jpg

http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/abt-coll-1.htm

If you have any questions, please let me know. Hope this helps and good luck with your new Room of Doom!

[Chainclaw]

hmm i've seen those at work, they aen't too bad for a funcitonal shelve, but I partialy want to be able to display the accesories and what not with the system (not so much to play them off the shelf)

I actually have one of those (slightly differnt model) for the currently hooked up games.

I notice those ones are buckling under the weight, or is that just my imagination?

Yeah, all my Target shelving is doing that, unfortunately. I'm going to switch out all my bookshelves next year, but I'm going to keep this console storage for the time being, it works really well for me.

[Marriott_Guy]

Yeah, all my Target shelving is doing that, unfortunately. I'm going to switch out all my bookshelves next year, but I'm going to keep this console storage for the time being, it works really well for me.

It seems like they are screwed in front the sides of the units - any chance of flipping them and reattaching to get some extended life out of them? (my shelving unit came from Target as well, though I did make some modifications).

[jupitersj]

Those shelves are pretty slick Marriott :)

[megasdkirby]

Those shelves are pretty slick Marriott :)

Gotta admit, it does look nice and artsy. :)

Me likey alot :)

[Steve W]

Marriott, have you considered painting your walls black? Every time I go into a Trade N' Play store, it occurs to me how good the black walls look with shelves in front of them. The boards in your shelves are black already, too.

If I had your set-up, I'd have a couple of TVs set up in the corner between the shelves, one a standard definition TV and a HDTV mounted above it. Then get an elaborate switching system in place so all the machines could be hooked up at all times (although not plugged in to the power grid, that would eat up a whole lot of electricity, even when not in use). Years back, you could go into an electronics store and they'd have VCRs on shelves with a button mounted on the front so you could turn on that particular model and send it's signal to the TV. Something like that would be ideal, just one machine at a time can be on, no dealing with RCA cables to hook up offbeat machines like the CD-i that you'll play for an hour and not fire up again for a year.

[98PaceCar]

I attached a reduced picture of my set up below. The link below it will give you the high-res picture (and others) as well as what is all contained and how I have it hooked up.

http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/Disp1-800x600.jpg

http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/abt-coll-1.htm

If you have any questions, please let me know. Hope this helps and good luck with your new Room of Doom!

You do have the best looking setup around! I wish I had the room to do that with my stuff instead of cramming it into every bit of space I can find.

[XYXZYZ]

(i guess ps3 sorta counts as a game system
LOL

I think you should paint the room green, put green lights and a small refrigerator in the wall, and a love seat. And display eight video games.

But seriously, I would consider what you're going to play and what's just for show. I have all the consoles on the right here connected to the TVs through switchboxes, and the ones on the left aren't connected. (I'll reconnect the Duo when I fix it)

http://www.videogamecollectors.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=51799&g2_serialNumber=1
I'm considering attaching a simple wall mounted shelf to the wall on the left to display some more consoles.

[Blitzwing256]

LOL

I think you should paint the room green, put green lights and a small refrigerator in the wall, and a love seat. And display eight video games.


they're up to 8 games already? wow I thought they only had 2...I must be behind ;-)

[FxMercenary]

Old consoles require old furniture! Make a retro room! Goto thrift stores for old couches, and paint the walls turd brown to keep the sunlight off your goods!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOEanPuHfqo&feature=channel

sorry for the music =/ gf made the video

[8bitCaged]

I ran out of room a long time ago so this is what I had to do.
http://snigsclan.com/forum/download/file.php?id=518&mode=view

yes that is my bathroom it was for a contest for my TF2 clan of who can take a picture of there collection in disarray.

[murdoc rose]

blitzwing glad to hear your getting some more space last time i saw pics of ur collection it was overflowing. congratz man it really is cool. The shelves you have pictured are good for a lot of things besides being a bit ugly. Best advise is to use what you've got till you find something better or try to go somewhat custom while the room is clean.. You can also paint shelves to make them look a bit better. For games and smaller toy displays you might want to use actual book shelves since most boxed games are about the size of a small book. I always thought wallpapering with carded figures was cool till i actually tried it. After that i only used carded figs as wallpaper where i knew a shelf wouldn't be going like above the shelf and above the doors and window( little wall shelves above windows and such are cool usually u can fit a line of he man figs and it keeps the light from fading the bottoms of cards) For hanging figs peg board is really the best option but most people just use push pins. If there not in star cases the push pins can really tear up the hang tabs on some stuff. Also if your walls are textured and your not using peg board you might consider having a very thin layer of plastic behind where your hanging the figs. Some times the texture will leave white on the card backs. Not always but sometimes I think it depends on age, type of texture, type of card, and air flow among no telling what else.

Any way good luck I'm sure it will be great oh and Marriott_Guy very impressive I like how you have your apf games on display for all to see.

[EviLEd76]

I attached a reduced picture of my set up below. The link below it will give you the high-res picture (and others) as well as what is all contained and how I have it hooked up.

http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/Disp1-800x600.jpg

http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/abt-coll-1.htm

If you have any questions, please let me know. Hope this helps and good luck with your new Room of Doom!

This is probably one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen in my life! Thanks for sharing.

[Xander]

Indeed Marriott_Guy, congratulations this is a very nice looking setup.

Now you need to hook them all to the same tv ;)

[swlovinist]

http://s268.photobucket.com/albums/jj28/swlovinist/current%20console%20setups/?action=view&current=DSCF3999.jpg

Great to hear you have more room for your collection. There are alot of shelving ways you can go, my recommendation would be adjustable hardware shelves(I got mine at Costco for $60) each. They cost a little more but are metallic and can hold about 10 large systems and have adjustable racks. My crappy picture shows what they look like. I have a large collection, and like you I wanted it accesable and playable. This is my current setup with four of these hardware shelves. Maybe it will give you some ideas, but thanks for sharing your pic

Vintage Setup setup A
Zenith 19 inch donated TV(has to be completely unplugged to stop humming)
Amplified signal booth thingy(makes RF signals come in extra nice and fuzzy free)
Telegmames Pong Unit
Astrocade
Odyssey 2
Intellivision
APF M 1000
Vectrex
Atari 7800
(room for my yet to be aquired arcadia 2001)

Vintage Setup B
Sony 19 inch Trinatron at Goodwill $5
Atari 2600 Modded
Atari 5200
Colecovision
Turbo Grafx 16 with CD unit
Atari XEGS

Classic Setup C
Phillips 19 inch Flat Screen standard TV(component)everything hooked up AV or better
FC Twin system
Genesis/Sega CD/32X combo
Laseractive
Neo Geo AES
Atari Jaguar
Master System
3DO

Everthing else that is not current gen setup D(everthing hooked up s video or better)
36 inch Panasonic standard TV(component, works great)

CDi 490
Nuon
Saturn
Dreamcast
N64
Gamecube with GB player
Xbox
PS2

Modern Setup in living Room E
Sharp 26in HDTV(great TV)got it pretty cheap
Xbox 360
PS3
Wii
For two of the units, I have the pelican system selector pro. I like having units of 6-8 grouped into a setup as it is kind of like a snapshot of a timeperiod. I also like to run random tourneys so I can have four TVs going at the same time in my room.

Currently missing
modding my xbox for mame
a mame cab/arcade cab of classic sort

[SegaAges]

I attached a reduced picture of my set up below. The link below it will give you the high-res picture (and others) as well as what is all contained and how I have it hooked up.

http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/Disp1-800x600.jpg

http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/abt-coll-1.htm

If you have any questions, please let me know. Hope this helps and good luck with your new Room of Doom!

I am not being a smartass, I am curious, how do you grab your Xavix or something without breaking stuff.

Please tell me you swing on those vines dude, that would fucking pwn

[Blur2040]

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[Marriott_Guy]

Hello all.

Thanks for the feedback. My intention was not to show off my set up but to help the original poster with some ideas on how they may go about building their own Room of Doom.

To answer a few questions...


[from Steve W] ...Marriott, have you considered painting your walls black? Every time I go into a Trade N' Play store, it occurs to me how good the black walls look with shelves in front of them. The boards in your shelves are black already, too.

If I had your set-up, I'd have a couple of TVs set up in the corner between the shelves, one a standard definition TV and a HDTV mounted above it. Then get an elaborate switching system in place so all the machines could be hooked up at all times (although not plugged in to the power grid, that would eat up a whole lot of electricity, even when not in use). Years back, you could go into an electronics store and they'd have VCRs on shelves with a button mounted on the front so you could turn on that particular model and send it's signal to the TV. Something like that would be ideal, just one machine at a time can be on, no dealing with RCA cables to hook up offbeat machines like the CD-i that you'll play for an hour and not fire up again for a year. I actually looked into doing this (multi-selector \ power grid system) iniitially when my collection was around 20 systems or so. As the collection grew, it really became cost prohibitive to pursue this route. Even using the relatively inexpensive Pelican 10-switch AV switching system, this would still require ove 8 units for the just the main set up (pictured in my original post). This does not include the power grid - which would require around 100 plugs (also have to account for the step down transformers and the like for consoles released outside North America). In theory it sounds great - cost wise and logistically it is not.

As far as the black painted room, I doubt my lady friend would buy into that program. I am already pushing the limits in my current Room of Doom set up :)


[from 98PaceCar] ...You do have the best looking setup around! I wish I had the room to do that with my stuff instead of cramming it into every bit of space I can find. 98 - thanks for the kind words. I have seen your set up and it is no slouch at all. Especially since it contains a couple of holy grails missing from my collection. Keep your doors locked friend ;)


[from murcoc rose] ...and Marriott_Guy very impressive I like how you have your apf games on display for all to see. The placement of the APF games was more due to shelving constraints. The consoles in the main picture are arranged by the actual year of release - I tried to do this with the games as well but had to make some variations. Also, I needed to keep the top of those 7 foot high tower units light on the top to ensure they would not topple over if someone bumps into them slightly. More mechanics working there rather than trying to showcase them. Those games have only been fired up to test my two APF systems and to show the system to a few friends. Game play is pretty brutal to be honest.


[from Xander] ...Now you need to hook them all to the same tvI acutally do use one big screen TV for all of the systems (except for some of the older Japanese models requiring channel 1 - I have a 21" for those). From the intro for the page that contains the additional pics of my collection:

"I have a 10-switch Pelican A\V selector under the big screen television with 20 feet of Composite and Component cables permanently hooked up. I use a simple A\B switch for use with the older systems requiring a RF connection. Also located behind the television is a 25 foot extension cord. I keep the respective power supply and any required A\V connectors in individual boxes (see below) so that I do not have to risk the original boxes being damaged."


[from SegaAges] ...I am curious, how do you grab your Xavix or something without breaking stuff.Very carefully :) The shelving system is extremely durable and does not move at all. It is extremely easy to grab a system. If I was under 6' tall, that would be another issue.


[from SegaAges] ...Please tell me you swing on those vines dude, that would f**king pwn I can't tell you how many times I get comments about those damn vines - people either love them or hate them (kind of like brussel sprouts). Truth be told, I think they do soften up the look a bit. It was a friend's suggestion.

But to answer your original question, I watch my lady friend swing from them naked. Now that pwns! :)

__________________________________________________ __________

Thanks for the questions and interest.

Everything that is pictured (aside from the games\consoles) was purchased primarily from Target. Drop me a message\email if you would like the specifics on pricing and hardware used to make this.

I do hope this post helps out.

[Marriott_Guy]

swlovinist - nice set up and collection. What PAC units do you have for the LaserActive?

[swlovinist]

swlovinist - nice set up and collection. What PAC units do you have for the LaserActive?

I dont have the NEC unit, but I have the sega one. I got a laseractive and 9 games for $200 :) at one of our shows.

[AMG]

I have to hand it to you Marriott_Guy, your set up is one of the most impressive (and clean) displays I have ever seen. Awesome stuff.

[Marriott_Guy]

I dont have the NEC unit, but I have the sega one. I got a laseractive and 9 games for $200 :) at one of our shows.

That is a great deal! Are the games LaserActive originals?