A personal epiphany: no, all my consoles don't need to be hooked up

[outofkeyslightly]

I'm a big proponent of keeping everything hooked up. Why the hell not? Games are worthless if they're not accessible. Yes, you could hook up that dusty nes any time you want, but do you really want to? My setup, although admittedly on the cheap, is a good example of how to keep things uncomplicated...

I have a black 3.25' x 1.75' x 1.75' tv stand. Sound tiny, right? Well, my TV is currently hooked up for six different inputs. I can watch or play games from the computer, with great 2.1 sound and two ps controller, one cordless, and then I have a Dreamcast, Gamecube, N64, Genesis/32x/cd (with enough room for game+genie) and a teeny DVD player. Sadly, there's a couple black switches that keep the av in line, but $15 is way better than $100+ for a good tuner. I also managed to cram 109 genesis games, 26 32x games, 24 n64 games and 56 Gamecube game into the little black wonder.

It's also worth mentioning that due to Jacqui's and I's bundle of weaselly joy, I zip-tied all the cords the best I could and managed to squeeze the entertainment center as close to the wall as humanly possible. The little bugger was stashing food behind the sega cd... Now he just tried to paw at the glass door on the front now and again. I kinda miss watching him climb to the summit of the 32X though. Congratulations Weasel, without the aid of a sherpa, you have managed to conquer mount 16-bit excess...

[thedeityofhardcore]

How do you emulate an NES on a PS2?

Regards,

Brian

I run an NES emulator on Dreamcast. Genesis on PS2.

[Soviet Conscript]

I'm a big proponent of keeping everything hooked up. Why the hell not? Games are worthless if they're not accessible. Yes, you could hook up that dusty nes any time you want, but do you really want to? My setup, although admittedly on the cheap, is a good example of how to keep things uncomplicated...

I have a black 3.25' x 1.75' x 1.75' tv stand. Sound tiny, right? Well, my TV is currently hooked up for six different inputs. I can watch or play games from the computer, with great 2.1 sound and two ps controller, one cordless, and then I have a Dreamcast, Gamecube, N64, Genesis/32x/cd (with enough room for game+genie) and a teeny DVD player. Sadly, there's a couple black switches that keep the av in line, but $15 is way better than $100+ for a good tuner. I also managed to cram 109 genesis games, 26 32x games, 24 n64 games and 56 Gamecube game into the little black wonder.

It's also worth mentioning that due to Jacqui's and I's bundle of weaselly joy, I zip-tied all the cords the best I could and managed to squeeze the entertainment center as close to the wall as humanly possible. The little bugger was stashing food behind the sega cd... Now he just tried to paw at the glass door on the front now and again. I kinda miss watching him climb to the summit of the 32X though. Congratulations Weasel, without the aid of a sherpa, you have managed to conquer mount 16-bit excess...

agreed, i also have animals to take into considerations. bunnies can be hell on wires. i used to have a very efficent and minimal set up. i live in a 2 room apartment so space is a premium. i did this through a pc to emulate and backwards compatable systems...and i hated it. it just wasn't the same and regardless how people talk about how emulation is almost perfect thats just it, ALMOST is not perfect. besides there is always that great feel of useing the origional hardware.

so as i said i had the opposite happen, i had a small efficiant setup and i went back to a monsterous multi system tangle of cords. my side of the bedroom now consists of 2 tv's a widescreen CRT HDTV and a RGB sony PVM with a combined total of 16 systems hooked up (or ready to be easily hooked up) plus a dvd player.

and I love it

[Trebuken]

ROD = All hooked up in a mess...
Not ROD = Not all hooked up or all emulated...

It's either a Game Room or a Living Room. It's a choice and they're all good. I think the Room of Doom approach is the more hardcore (nerdy if you like). Yet I do understand the need for convenience...I've left so many games unplayed because I don't want the hassle of hooking something up or finding the right selector button...

[Greg2600]

I keep everything in plastic drawers, because I hate clutter, and take them out when wanted. Same reason I don't keep game boxes for cartridges. Xbox stays out because it's too darn big to fit anywhere else. I'm not big on playing emulators on the TV, because I like to be authentic and original (don't use any 3rd party or turbo controllers either). I would however use something like retrousb's cart that stores roms on a flash card. Would like to get a mame cabinet too.

[The Clonus Horror]

I have two TV's in my "living room" (I have a studio apartment), one a 24" Philips on a bookshelf, hooked up to a cheap Yamaha surround setup with a cheap Philips DVD Recorder, a JVC S-VHS (for the collection of MST3K on VHS), and a PS2 and Xbox hooked up to it. This is on the wall opposite of my bed, for ultimate laziness. Directly to each side of the bookshelf are two stacks of Rubbermaid drawers, housing the VHS collection, Atari 2600, Genesis, etc...

The main TV is a 27" Sony Wega (bought the floor model at a local Sears for around $150 right before Xmas) and I currently just have a Wii and DVD player hooked up to the component input and an N64 (been playing No Mercy a lot lately) and a Dreamcast hooked up to the S-Video.

I sometimes question the validity of having more than one system hooked up at a time, as you can only play one at a time.

On a completely different topic, I discovered that-if I hooked up my older systems to the input on my DVD Recorder (which was then connected to the TV via component cables), that they looked absolutely vibrant and amazing. I suppose the DVD Recorder acts as a sort of video converter, or, at the very least, the picture is much more crisp. It was most noticeable on NES, SNES, and Dreamcast games. For that reason alone, I feel like hooking the old systems back up via that method...I showed my brother Sunset Riders via this method and his only response was: "You know, I normally can't tell the difference between all of these different hookups because I just don't care, but THIS looks AWESOME!"

I have the rest of the night off and most of tomorrow...I'm bored...and I'll be having gaming company tomorrow night...

What to do? Re-arrange? Tinker? Or just game...

I guess these are the sorts of problems you WANT to have in your life, right?

[James8BitStar]

I sometimes question the validity of having more than one system hooked up at a time, as you can only play one at a time.

I think it's a psychological thing. In personal experience I've found that if you only have one system hooked up, then you'll only ever want to play that one system--it'll be like the others don't even exist to you.

It's especially miserable when you get the sudden "I want to play that game" urge, and the game in question is on a system other than the one you have hooked up. Just the thought of having to drag out the system and go through the process of hooking it up is usually enough to kill one's enthusiasm (even if its not really that difficult a task), ergo most people's preference for hooking up multiple systems.

[jfroco]

Hi,

I had the same problem, and decided to keep hooked only the current and past generations consoles, the rest are in boxes in other room. Now I have only Wii, CG, PS2, Xbox360, Xbox, DC and Saturn.

If I want to play with an older console, I have to connect it to the TV like the old times.

I do emulation a lot, mainly to test games, but the experience of playing classic games in their original consoles... is priceless. BTW, the first Xbox is an excellent emulation machine.

Best regards

JF

[swlovinist]

I keep my room of doom with "the essentials" hooked up. I have about 30 systems from Atari to Xbox hooked up to 4 TV sets. This is mostly to test games, and to run retro tourneys that I do from time to time. My living room is the current stuff, Wii and 360. I can totally relate with "retiring" systems to their boxes, and occasionally wanting to streamline a game setup. I have just decided that behind the costco hardware shelves is going to be a wired mess, but a mess that nobody will see but me. If I wasnt so dang obsessive, I probablly would only have 5 to 10 systems hooked up.

[Jimid2]

We have six consoles hooked up to two TVs in different rooms in the house now - there's the XBox, PS2, Game Cube and a Dreamcast on the 27" gaming TV in the home theatre room (it's a wide room, so there's a "gaming side" and a "movie side"), and we also keep the Turbografx-16 and another Dreamcast hooked up to a TV upstairs... The other consoles are packed away, and see very little use (I don't think we've pulled out any of them in the last year)... One of the reasons my son and I decided to collect handhelds is that we could keep the systems out and accessible without needing a lot of space - the handhelds shelves have all our retro portables out, loaded with batteries and ready to play, and they see a lot of use...

[KeyserSoze61]

I'm pretty pleased with the setup I have now...I have 10 systems all hooked up in a relatively compact space. I have 5 systems on either side of the TV, currently, I have Sega Genesis/CD/32x, SNES, N64, PS2, Xbox on the left side, 360, SMS, Saturn, Dreamcast, and NES on the right side.

Everything is easily selectable with 3 video switches (two daisy chained S-video/RCA ones, one component). The only system that is plugged in all the time is the 360, and the rest of the plugs are labelled and sitting in order under my TV next to a surge protector that's turned off. When I want to play the NES, I just press a couple buttons for video selection, and plug the power adapter in.

As far as games, I'm building custom shelving right now; the stain I'm using is being a pain in the ass right now, so I'm taking a break from it . I'm really limited for space, so my bookshelf currently has all sorts of games just sitting in front of the books.

As far as other systems go, I really want to add a TG-16 into the mix, and maybe even a modded PS1. Unfortunately, everything is pretty maxed out for space, so that's probably at least a year away.

[ubersaurus]

I've got a similar thing going based solely on the amount of space I have available; both shelf space and room on the outlet. I've got my more modern systems all hooked up, as well as a saturn, n64, japanese turbo duo, NES, and genesis combo. Then I have rotating game systems for older machines: Currently it's the 7800, Odyssey 2, and Turbografx 16. I am considering rotating the O2 out for something that takes up less space, though.

[GarrettCRW]

Actually, buying an HDTV has allowed me to simplify my setup, since I now have S-Video, component, VGA, and HDMI ports available, which simplifies things greatly.

[c0ldb33r]

I used to have an extra TV in the office just to hook up the older consoles but I gave it up. It was messy and since they were in the office they never got used, just got dusty. Now hooked up to our main TV are an xbox, Wii and PS2. I've got my toploader NES hooked up as well, but I've got to find somewhere to stick it in the entertainment centre.

[The Clonus Horror]

After all that, I ended up doing this:

I put the 27" Wega on top of the bookshelf in front of my bed and hooked up the following, via the Yamaha Surround setup:
-Xbox
-PS2
-NES, SNES, N64, Dreamcast all hooked up through the Philips DVR (hooked up via component video)
-JVC S-VHS VCR through S-video input

The Xbox, PS2, and the Philips DVR are all connected to the component input via a switcher.

On the 24" Philips Tv, across from the couch, I have a Panasonic Bookshelf DVD System (stereo) and the Wii hooked up with component via switcher. Then, I have my old record player and tape deck (!) hooked up via some computer speakers.

So, in the end, the "group" TV only has one console hooked up (the Wii), and the other systems are set up for uber-comfort. My girlfriend and I spent all afternoon in bed playing through a few levels of co-op Stubbs the Zombie and I must say that the set-up is working out great.

Although...I should mention that she did comment on the fact that there were "too many wires," and I have to agree that, though it doesn't exactly look like a rat's nest, it's not the most "Zen" arrangement, either.

[Retromangia]

here ya go guys, this will answer all your problems related to that awful "rats nest".

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-BZ11123.../dp/B000HPX4AQ


I too like to have all my consoles hooked up.. here's how i have it.

In the Living room (I.E were normal/non-nerd people hangout):

I have a 42" plasma hooked up, with Wii, and Xbox 360 all attached to an Onkyo 5.1 surround sound system to help get things rockin'.

In the "Office" (I.E. my Nerd Heaven/ Gaming Island.. and off limits to girls =)

I have a sweet old fashioned 32" JVC tube TV with component ins and s-video galore. I have all my retro systems hooked up attached to a system selector pro... including TG-CD, NES, SNES, N64, Jaguar, 3DO, Genesis/CD/32X, Dreamcast, Saturn, PS2, and Gamecube. Each system is only a click away on the system selector, and there all hooked up to my good ol' Logitech z-6800's.