Game Room Build Need Ideas

[8-Bit Archeology]

Hello, my wife and I recently purchased a new home. We have a nice unfinished basement, that we plan on turning into a game room / museum / theatre. That having been said, finding the right shelves and displays is proving to be a trial. We have at least 450 sq ft to set the area up.

Has anyone seen any good entertainments or shelves that work for a large collection. I dont like having consoles stacked. I would need 18 shelves around the tv area for the consoles and sound. Any thouhgts or pictures are greatly apreciated.

Plus I thought I could learn a thing or two, from hearing how you all have your setups. Thanks.

[Ed Oscuro]

I tend to keep things boxed up when they're not in use to keep the dust off, so I don't have a wired-and-ready stand for games.

For game shelves, especially those near windows, I also like to keep games them in or behind something so they don't get sunfaded and brittle or dried-out (a particular pet peeve of mine).

Some thoughts: Many games fit on shelves spaced for VHS tapes quite well (for SNES and Genesis it's a pretty reasonable fit, Neo Geo AES too).

A trip down to the local Wal*Mart, Staples, or some other place will reveal lots of potentially useful stackable drawers, clear or with solid colors, most of it plastic. Storage tubs are nice but can be tough to stack and awkward to deal with. Staples has various plastic filing cabinets, cheaper and arguably even uglier than the real thing but much lighter and stackable. Depends on what you want. Ideally I'd get wood or maybe nice painted (non-rusting) metal, but both of those options get heavy and expensive in a hurry.

[wiggyx]

Hello, my wife and I recently purchased a new home. We have a nice unfinished basement, that we plan on turning into a game room / museum / theatre. That having been said, finding the right shelves and displays is proving to be a trial. We have at least 450 sq ft to set the area up.

Has anyone seen any good entertainments or shelves that work for a large collection. I dont like having consoles stacked. I would need 18 shelves around the tv area for the consoles and sound. Any thouhgts or pictures are greatly apreciated.

Plus I thought I could learn a thing or two, from hearing how you all have your setups. Thanks.

Build your own. Only way to get exactly what you want ;)

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/3-224small_zps6bf45958.jpg

[VACRMH]

Build your own. Only way to get exactly what you want ;)

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/3-224small_zps6bf45958.jpg

Are those...clamshells for your portables?

[Ed Oscuro]

hello sunfade and dust! also too fixed for my taste. If you decide to sell stuff or expand the collection, you're still stuck with the same shelving as before, which could now be too much or too little for your needs.

I'm not sure if the plastics I mentioned earlier are really archival-grade, though. That could be nasty if the decide to leach poisons into boxes.

[wiggyx]

Are those...clamshells for your portables?

Yup!

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02647.jpg

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DoubleUSGportablecasescopy.jpg
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DoubleUSGportablecasesinside.jpg


hello sunfade and dust! also too fixed for my taste. If you decide to sell stuff or expand the collection, you're still stuck with the same shelving as before, which could now be too much or too little for your needs.

I'm not sure if the plastics I mentioned earlier are really archival-grade, though. That could be nasty if the decide to leach poisons into boxes.

In basement, so no UV fade. Also, dust? Yeah, that's life. Everything gets dusty. That's why they invented dust rags :P


They're modular. None of them are fixed. Can be adjusted to ANY height needed. See rails on left before installation. Uses metal tabs that are EASILY moved around in 1" increments.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/E6505E4A-C69D-4CE3-955F-082CF77EAD16-1240-000000B9532A7A24.jpg


Plus console drawers slide out.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC03211.jpg

If they're polypropylene, which most Wal-Mart crap is, then they're likely to be archival/acid-free.

[8-Bit Archeology]

Thats an awesome set up. I need to get a way to have my consoles hooked up. How do you go about playing with those drawers. Are the cables hooked up, and not the consoles?
Also I really like the handheld cases, How could I aquire or make those.
I really want my tv consoles hooked up all at once. I have an idea for the switch boxes that has been working just having all of my consoles cluttering my stand is gettin to me.
I have a thing, if its not hooked up I won't play it.

[wiggyx]

Thats an awesome set up. I need to get a way to have my consoles hooked up. How do you go about playing with those drawers. Are the cables hooked up, and not the consoles?
Also I really like the handheld cases, How could I aquire or make those.
I really want my tv consoles hooked up all at once. I have an idea for the switch boxes that has been working just having all of my consoles cluttering my stand is gettin to me.
I have a thing, if its not hooked up I won't play it.


Thanks!

I had originally planned to run A/V hookups into the shelving, but then I realized that I'd need to run controller extensions for each of those systems to use them in where they sit, so I didn't. I just pull em out and hook them up as needed.

Like you, I'd play them more often if they were all hooked up, but I'd have to build a pretty big entertainment center sort of thing to hold everything.

As far as the clamshells go, I make them using two "Universal Game Cases". Here's my how-to:

http://www.thecoverproject.net/forums/index.php?topic=10451.0

The cases come from:

www.mediashelving.com

[camarotuner]

I'll chime in on this like I always do. Custom is the way to go *IF* you have both the equipment and ability to do it. If you have to go out and invest in the equipment that's a lot of money and it also means you likely don't have the skills needed to build it correctly, no offense intended. I've built custom set-ups for clients before. They look trick and it's always exactly what they want but it's quite costly to hire someone to do that type of work. For example one of my more popular ones is the "collection racks". I've sold several "nes set" racks which hold all of the US released NES games (cart only) and look great. The problem? I charge 300 bucks for the rack. If you collect for a lot of systems, that's gonna get pricey. If you don't collect full sets you'll need a more modular system which can be a pain. So it all depends on your ability to build it yourself and your budget. If you want to avoid the hassle and cost just go buy some universal media shelving and work with it. General bookcases with holes cut in the back to run the wires work great for systems and as long as you buy it all the same color and measure it out well enough that you don't leave hideous gaps it'll look decent enough without breaking the bank.

[xelement5x]

Ikea Billy Bookcase

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/83688210/

I used that as a base and then did the customization I wanted to it including additional holes for pegs and such. As a cool bonus, Ikea sells extra shelves for these units at a cost which is pretty low and so everything continues to match.

When it came to a time vs money tradeoff I was happy to spend what I did on the bookcase and not have to measure/cut the wood, plus drill pilot holes or glue and clamp, and other trivial stuff. They're bookcases, they need to hold stuff reliably and that's about it.

Also, one cool thing on the Ikea ones is that the back of the bookcase has a curved part of the bottom cut out so that they can fit around your trim and sit flush with the wall. No wasted space!

[8-Bit Archeology]

Sorry for the late reply. When it comes to making the shelves, I grew up in the furniture and home repair business. Im good at building and my uncle still runs a mill so wood cheap. The biggest problem that is most concerning to me is that, I cannot find any good configurations of having my consoles hooked up all the time.

I have the electronics figured out. I.E. power switches and av/rv/aux/hdmi switches. I just cant find a way to have all the consoles close to the tv without making it look like a thrift store.

We are getting those curved theatre seats and framing my classics posters. and the top of the wall is going to have a shelf for my statues and big box games.

Has anyone seen any....Clean way to have the consoles all close to the TV? Other than the popular black and red cubby thats on google.

That Billy shelf has a cool idea of cutting out the runner, I'm definately doing that when I build.

Thanks again to everyone.

[camarotuner]

Has anyone seen any....Clean way to have the consoles all close to the TV? Other than the popular black and red cubby thats on google.

That Billy shelf has a cool idea of cutting out the runner, I'm definately doing that when I build.

Thanks again to everyone.

Do you "need" to have all of them close to the TV? You can always run extension cables to the system hookups which would allow you to arrange them in any configuration you'd want. This does have the serious downside of cost however as you'd need a LOT of extension cables depending on your tastes.

[8-Bit Archeology]

The problem there, is many older consoles dont have long controller cables. And having them around the media area makes it easier to play at a good convenience.

[8-Bit Archeology]

The problem there, is many older consoles dont have long controller cables. And having them around the media area makes it easier to play at a good convenience.

[camarotuner]

The problem there, is many older consoles dont have long controller cables. And having them around the media area makes it easier to play at a good convenience.

You can buy controller extensions for most controllers, but again additional cost involved and it all depends on how one wants it done and how important it is to have things spaced out or just lump em all around the TV. I'm just tossing out options.

[wiggyx]

Plus, they just make a mess IMO. One more thing to find a place to store, and it's not like wired-controllers and extension cords are tidy. You've gotta wrap the damned things up every time :( I've got extensions for a lot of my older consoles, but more often than not, I just end up pulling the console onto the floor in front of the TV and skip out on the extensions, not to mention that extension cords can often be finicky and require more fiddling with than I prefer.

[camarotuner]

Plus, they just make a mess IMO. One more thing to find a place to store, and it's not like wired-controllers and extension cords are tidy. You've gotta wrap the damned things up every time :( I've got extensions for a lot of my older consoles, but more often than not, I just end up pulling the console onto the floor in front of the TV and skip out on the extensions, not to mention that extension cords can often be finicky and require more fiddling with than I prefer.


Yeah they are a massive pain in the butt to deal with. I actually prefer taking apart the controllers and adding wiring to them to extend it and them wrapping the new wire up. That way I don't have to fiddle with it to get that nice solid connection and it looks a bit cleaner than having a big connector in the middle of the wire. But again, to each their own. There is no "good" solution to the problem unless someone comes up with some killer universal setup or retractable cables or something awesome like that.

[wiggyx]

I did that with my Saturn controllers (re-wire them). It's better, but I plan on eventually doing this for all the retro systems that I can ;)

http://imgur.com/a/8H3Ci

[bb_hood]

Plus, they just make a mess IMO. One more thing to find a place to store, and it's not like wired-controllers and extension cords are tidy. You've gotta wrap the damned things up every time :( I've got extensions for a lot of my older consoles, but more often than not, I just end up pulling the console onto the floor in front of the TV and skip out on the extensions, not to mention that extension cords can often be finicky and require more fiddling with than I prefer.

They do make a huge mess. Ive stopped using cable extensions EXCEPT with the duo, those controller wires are pathetic.

Ive found that some cords are VERY finicky, mainly the NES controller extensions. I also had some genesis cords that had their metal pins break off in a controller.

As far as hooking up systems, I would get a long component & AV cables and a scart box and selector. Then you can have all the systems hooked up to the tv, and switch through them without re-hooking systems up to the tv. You can have the systems closer to you while you sit farther away for the tv.

[camarotuner]

I did that with my Saturn controllers (re-wire them). It's better, but I plan on eventually doing this for all the retro systems that I can ;)

http://imgur.com/a/8H3Ci

That is amazing and far beyond my skill set. Wood, metal, hell even plastic fiberglass these are things I can work with and mold and shape. Fine electronic wiring of circuit boards... nope not me lol.