Easiest/Cheapest Shelves in the World

[Flack]

I don't know about you all, but I'm constantly running out of storage space. I decided to dump the shelves I purchased just a year ago in lieu of these custom shelves I built. Pardon the wiring mess, that part should be finished tonight. Other than that, what do you all think?

http://www.robohara.com/pix/neweshelves1.jpg

Top, L/R: C64c/C16, SMS/SNES Controller, PSX Dev Unit, Genesis II w/Console Copier, Genesis 3, RF Unit/SMB2 Lunchbox, 8 way Pelican Switchbox.

2nd, Supergun (in TurboGrafx case)/C128, N64 w/V64, N64 w/CD64, SNES Console Copier/Switchbox, N64 w/Z64, SNES w/Console Copier, modded PSX, SNES w/Console Copier.

3rd: NES/NES, Atari Stunt Cycle, Saturn, NES/Switchbox, Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox, PS2.

Bottom: Atari 800, Atari 5200, Odyssey II, Intellivision, Amiga CD32, 2600.

Like I said, excuse the wires until I can get everything hooked back up this week.

The wood used cost about five bucks per plank. The metal braces were about a buck each and were screwed into wall studs. Although you can't tell in the picture, each shelf is about 1 inch from the wall, so I can easily slide cords behind each one. I had the black paint sitting in the garage which I used on the wood.

I'll probably get tired of these in a year or so, but for now I think they'll do their job okay.

[Kroogah]

Beauty. I need some shelves, this looks like exactly what I'm looking for.

Love the lunchbox, I've had one of those since I was 6.

[goatdan]

That looks AMAZINGLY good. And the wiring "mess" that you speak is sure looks clean to me :)

[Jumpman Jr.]

I made something similar to that for my room.
These shelves only hold about half of my consoles though, the rest are in random places in my room. This was the only wall space that I had to make the shelves though.

http://videogamecollectors.com/albums/Jumpman/consoles.sized.jpg


Yours look sweet though :-P

[Aussie2B]

Hehe, that's insane. So many systems hooked up at once. :) I only keep one of each system model/variation out for use.

How do you guys play the systems way at the top? o_O The controller cords must hang down really weird.

[djbeatmongrel]

I made something similar to that for my room.
These shelves only hold about half of my consoles though, the rest are in random places in my room. This was the only wall space that I had to make the shelves though.

http://videogamecollectors.com/albums/Jumpman/consoles.sized.jpg


Yours look sweet though :-P

thatsa clever spot you have for those shelves. its a good usage of space

[Mattiekrome]

Nice work both of you. I am running out of space myself, but the wifey and me might not be living where we do for much longer (if everything goes to plan), so there are no plans to add to my "shelf" LOL

[kainemaxwell]

That's amazingly good Flack! Why not set them up from earlist to newest consoles?

[rbudrick]

Nice collection, Flack! As soon as I get a place I was thinking of a very similar setup myself. Instead of those $1 brackets, I plan on getting these strips that you run vertically that the brackets sort of hook into.

-Rob

[john_soper]

No Colecovision or 7800 boo hoo hoo

[Fuyukaze]

I have a few questions about your shelves, and I hope you take no offense by any of their implications.

1.Are they level? In the pick you posted, they dont look that level.

2.Is there any organization to your colection? Its great that you finaly have all your systems hooked up, but I cant help but wonder how you organized them.

3.Have you considered hanging shelves? Some of the ones I've seen as of late are very good.


For the most part, the shelves look like they will hold your systems and last as long as you want them to untill you replace them. The most impresive part of them is how you have managed to get so many systems on them and manage to have each one hooked up. I have hell having 10 things hooked up together and running. I realy didnt notice the wires but I am certain if each system had the controlers pluged in it would be a different story. A good start though. I hope when I'm in my new place, I can show off my shelves. It wont be as impresive in console numbers, but I believe it will be nice all the same. Congrats in doing what so few others can manage.

[Flack]

No offense taken; I figured at least half of the responses would be "those look cheap and sucky" so I'm really surprised that really anyone liked them. ;)

They are level -- I took the picture from a slight angle.

Just to the right of these shelves (facing left) is my futon. Just to the left of these shelves (facing right) is the screen for my projector. So, all the systems are to my right while sitting down. That being said, the systems I play the most (PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, Atari 2600, SNES, Dreamcast, NES and Genesi) are located closest to me. The stuff that either isn't hooked up or I don't play that often are furthest from me. Then on top of that (as stupid as it sounds) they are arranged according to controller cord length. :) Now that I have Messiah's wireless controllers, I can move my SNES and NES further away and rotate other systems closer. I could really use some controller extension cords for me N64 and Genesis!

As far as the hanging shelves go, I have/had some, but I didn't go with them on this because A, it would have been more expensive, B, I'm probably not going to move them once I get them situated, and C, once they are in place there is not enough space between the shelves and the wall to run cords.

As far as cabling goes, I have a Pelican 8 port system and then I have each port going to a four port switch box. I have a small cheat-sheet telling me what goes where, and I have like systems grouped together. For example, 5-1, 5-2, and 5-3 are all N64 systems. 1-1 is PS2, 1-2 is Xbox, 1-3 is GC, 1-4 is Dreamcast, etc. I think the 7's are all my RF systems.

rbudrick: It all depends on configurability vs. cost. Looking at Lowe's, three of those "vertical metal slot things" 4' long are 6.88 (so 7x3 = $21). Then you still need the brackets, which are also about a buck each, so that's another $12. That's $33, where to do it the way I did only cost $12. I had the other kind of shelves before and never reconfigured them before so I figured it wouldn't matter this time.

I'll try and get another picture when I get everything wired up and the room cleaned up a bit ... which had better happen before Friday, when k8track drops by!

[Promophile]

and as a heads up if you aren't very "handy" walmart now stocks a new CD shelf that holds 250 CDs (or was it 350?) for only 20 bucks.

[Fuyukaze]

Actualy, I would say they look cheap. Sucky is a different story. Cheap isnt an insult though as they apear to be cheaply aquired, built to the cheapest expense, and with use being key to their design.

I have seen worse (actualy, I have used worse). One of the worst things I ever used for shelves was where I used boards around 2ft in length and drilled 4 holes, one in each corner. The reason was so I could stick four 18 inch long dowl rods in the holes. Once the glue had dried I had cut out peices of cardboard which I used as shelves. I'd have a row of games, then the cardboard, another row of games, yet another cardboard, and finaly a third row of games. It didnt look great, but it wasnt ment to. It served its purpose as each board was able to hold 3x the amount of games they normaly would have. As the rows were divided by peices of cardboard, it made access to the games very easy as with a small gap between the front and back of the titles it made it easy to sort thru each row to get what ever games I was looking for. Actualy, they realy were not so bad. If I had used better stock cardboard (I used stuff I cut out from boxs of beer cases) it would have looked decent.

[Fuyukaze]

Get your hands off me you damned dirty double post!

[Ed Oscuro]

and as a heads up if you aren't very "handy" walmart now stocks a new CD shelf that holds 250 CDs (or was it 350?) for only 20 bucks.]
They also had - probably still do - a VHS shelf that holds a fair number of Mega Drive/Genesis/SNES/SFC/CD-ROM/Neo-Geo games. Good for those two dozen top rank titles for each system you want handy. It was only about $25-$30, and can hold a ton of jewel cases on the top shelf or so. Configurable.

[WanganRunner]

In college, I used cinder blocks and long pieces of glass. I spraypainted the blocks diff. colors. It looked pretty sweet.

[ClubNinja]

those look cheap and sucky

:D

[s1lence]

I like them it should look really nice once you clean up those wires. Just a question, what do you have on those N64's, is that a 64DD?

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm quite sure that's a cartridge copier. Probably a ZIP drive on front.