Update #2: Shelving consoles sucks butt.

[Cornelius]

*See my latest post w.r.t. the updated title in the first post of page 2*


So my basement is finally ready! Praise be to Gorf! This started about 8 years ago when we added on to the house, including a finishable basement. I had plenty else to do, so I've been working on the basement for about a year now. Anyway, I'm putting in Ikea Bily shelves and as I set them up and start the process of unboxing my games I've run into a couple logistical considerations. So I've come to the experts.

My main question at this point is what you'd do with a collection of boxed and loose games (NES atm), and why. Options I'm considering are 1) shelve them all together alphabetically, putting the boxes on their side. 2) Boxes separate on their side. 3) Boxes separate upright (obviously better, but more space). Another consideration is do I leave the games out of the boxes or not. Space could be saved by putting the games in the boxes, but I've already encountered it being annoying for a game not to be in the main part of the collection, though that's mostly because of cumbersome boxes to shift around.

I'm also plagued by PC game boxes that don't all have their text facing the same way. I mean, c'mon people, isn't this something that should have been settled in the 1800s (with books).

That's all I'm thinking of for now. If you know of other threads that address these kinds of thing, please point me there, as I'm sure they exist. Hopefully you all don't mind that I didn't yet search extensively for them. I have read a LOT about which shelving to use/build, so I'm aware of many of those types of threads.

Work in progress, but here's where I'm at as I ponder (and wait for good weather to modify more shelves outside).

[celerystalker]

Looking great! For my stuff, I just do all of the loose games in alphabetical order, then boxed in alphabetical order. I try to group them for uniformity to minimize space between shelves. Your basement is looking great!

[bb_hood]

I like to keep my boxed/complete nes stuff seperate from my loose carts. I always keep carts in the boxes.. no reason to keep them out unless you play them.

I have my nes carts sorted alphabeticaly, but with the boxed stuff I just arrange that however looks nicest. Like the rare stuff at the top of the shelf.
Your setup looks pretty nice the way it is tho.

[Emperor Megas]

I only have about 10 or so boxed NES games, and I keep them on a separate shelf, and alphabetized. They have their games inside, but not really because I decided they should be stored that way. I just have limited space and I don't think I would have had room for them on the shelf with the loose carts since it's pretty much to capacity.

It looks great down there so far, BTW. Having an organized area with easy access to most of your stuff, and room to display gaming swag, is great.

[Aussie2B]

It's looking good. Alphabetized is a definite for me, but when games or cases look or are shaped particularly different, I keep them separate. I can't think of any system where I have boxed copies stored among loose carts. Same deal with, say, how I have my longbox PS1 games separate from my standard jewel case PS1 games. I even go so far as to separate out Dreamcast games with black spines and white spines, just because they look messy to me when sort alphabetically together. I do, however, mix my Greatest Hits PS1 games with my regular PS1 games. The little bit of green on the spine doesn't bother me, and it's not like I have many GH games anyway.

I do sometimes take games out of their packaging to shelve the game with the rest. I do that with NES games, yeah, if only because I have maybe 5 boxed NES games tops. I especially do this with limited editions, because they come in all sorts of sizes. The boxes usually end up stored away in my closets, while the game itself is on display on my shelves for easy access.

[Cornelius]

Thanks for the thoughts and comments. I was thinking along similar lines as many of you. Starting to implement, but as I dig out the boxes I've now found several items that I missed, so that meant some reshuffling. Plus, I decided to flip all the NES games to match the more common spine direction, probably a dumb choice, but I was shuffling them anyway, so figured that's as good a time as any. I know I'm missing a few NES games that I was playing at some point, but just can't locate them, man is that irritating. SMS is up next.

Progress...

[Emperor Megas]

Oh, man. It's looking great.

[Niku-Sama]

How much were they?

[Cornelius]

How much were they?

Standard Billy Bookcase from Ikea. White is 70, different wood shades are 80, so mine were $80 each and that is 5 units. The bottom and middle shelves are fixed, and there are 4 moveable shelves included. Extra shelves are $15, and I've needed a lot of them

Only real problem with these shelves is the depth (11 inches). There is lots of empty space behind those NES games. Same will be true for jewel cases, Genesis, etc, etc. Then again, I needed that for the big box PC games, and it worked well, I think, the way I did the pre-crash stuff.

[Cornelius]

Progress. Trying to do mostly by system release date, but there is some discrepancy for logistical/aesthetic reasons. Finally found another box of big box PC games I knew I was missing, but really don't want to spill any farther past the first bookcase. So still doing some figuring there.

What do you all do about SNES games? I'm pretty satisfied with them on end like they are here, but I removed all the dust covers so they fit better, and they really waste a lot of space behind. I'm dreading the upcoming N64 set. May wind up buying cases for them, but ugh, this has gotten expensive, fast. I knew it wasn't going to be cheap, but still.

I'm also pondering what to do about the Jaguar collection. It'll barely fill half a shelf. I may just stick the system on there, too, as I don't think I'll need it hooked up often.

Basically out of shelves, so not sure when I'll get to Ikea for more. Very lucky that there is one in town here. I'll be sure to post the tallies of games/shelf later on to help others plan if so inclined, although I know that info is out there for at least NES (boxed/loose).

[Emperor Megas]

Only real problem with these shelves is the depth (11 inches). There is lots of empty space behind those NES games. Same will be true for jewel cases, Genesis, etc, etc. Then again, I needed that for the big box PC games, and it worked well, I think, the way I did the pre-crash stuff.

I make spacers for games that have shallow cases, like PSP games, and for loose SNES carts and the like. I just cut pieces of plank wood to size and put them behind the games. The one in this picture isn't, but some I painted the same colour of the shelf so they blended better on the shelves that weren't full at the time.

[Cornelius]

I make spacers for games that have shallow cases, like PSP games, and for loose SNES carts and the like. I just cut pieces of plank wood to size and put them behind the games. The one in this picture isn't, but some I painted the same colour of the shelf so they blended better on the shelves that weren't full at the time.

Great idea! I'll definitely do that once I get things more settled.

[Emperor Megas]

Yeah, I'm not really OCD with it like some, but I am more than a little anal about uniformity, and something like a lot of dead space caused by shelf depth really bugs me. Also, you may find that end labels for N64 games is a simpler, cheaper, and arguably more aesthetically pleasing solution for your loose carts. I don't have any on mine, but I only have like 3 loose N64 carts (so far).

[Cornelius]

What would you do with all the SNES dust covers? I just chucked them in a box, and am leaning towards getting rid of them. Something I'll regret? And what about game cases? I have quite a few of those NES multi-colored cases, and a few N64.

Oh and what about crap like this! I was kind of into these CEs when I was just shoving stuff in the basement, but now that I'm putting stuff out, these just take up sooo much space.



Anyway, this is sort of where things are.



Since this picture I've had to take out the shelf below the SNES games for a surround speaker. This is kind of looking like where I'll finish up. Pretty happy that no (or very few, anyway) games are double stacked and also that very few are stacked vertically. Biggest problems are that I've got no space for any handhelds, included a small LCD collection that I think is cool. I may thin the PC collection, relocate DVDs/Blu/HDDVD(currently behind Blu), and generally shuffle stuff around. The Doctor Who DVDs were a gift/inherited, so those are special to me, but the rest mostly were inherited by default and aren't all that special. I like the effect of having some bits of hardware here and there, so hopefully I can keep that stuff in place. I'm currently working on ideas about where to put consoles so they are playable, likely custom shelves in a corner to the left out of the picture.

All for now. I should get a picture of what's left that I have no place for. Arrrgh.

[Cornelius]

Yeah, I'm not really OCD with it like some, but I am more than a little anal about uniformity, and something like a lot of dead space caused by shelf depth really bugs me. Also, you may find that end labels for N64 games is a simpler, cheaper, and arguably more aesthetically pleasing solution for your loose carts. I don't have any on mine, but I only have like 3 loose N64 carts (so far).

Still haven't gotten to spacers. Not worth it till things are more settled. End labels are another good idea, they'll save space over cases, too.

[bb_hood]

Looks real nice! I like your floors also btw. Wish I had floors like that..

What would you do with all the SNES dust covers? I just chucked them in a box, and am leaning towards getting rid of them. Something I'll regret? And what about game cases? I have quite a few of those NES multi-colored cases, and a few N64.

Oh and what about crap like this! I was kind of into these CEs when I was just shoving stuff in the basement, but now that I'm putting stuff out, these just take up sooo much space.

SNES Dust covers? If you want to get rid of them you could easily sell them in a lot, lots of people need them. I wouldnt just throw them out, if thats what you mean by getting rid of them.

Regarding the collectors editions, you could just put them on the floor in front of your shelves. The Skyrim one is really cool, I would display that one for sure.

[RP2A03]

Oh and what about crap like this! I was kind of into these CEs when I was just shoving stuff in the basement, but now that I'm putting stuff out, these just take up sooo much space.

If you don't want to display the boxes and you are tight on space; you could just flatten them and store them somewhere out of the way.

[Bratwurst]

Do you insure this and to what extent?

[Cornelius]

Looks real nice! I like your floors also btw. Wish I had floors like that..




SNES Dust covers? If you want to get rid of them you could easily sell them in a lot, lots of people need them. I wouldnt just throw them out, if thats what you mean by getting rid of them.

Regarding the collectors editions, you could just put them on the floor in front of your shelves. The Skyrim one is really cool, I would display that one for sure.

Thanks on the floors! It is a hickory engineered floor, and I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Not throwing the dust covers away, but I am quite likely going to sell them.

Still don't know about the CEs. I thought about in front of the shelves, but that'd be a pain for vacuuming and it seems like it would look cluttered.

[Cornelius]

Do you insure this and to what extent?

I have brought this up with my insurance agent, though not with an estimate in hand, and he's always said something like this is covered by homeowners. So other than that, I have no extra insurance on it.

I guess because I've read about people with much more extensive collections, I didn't think about it much more than that. Does anyone reading have extra riders for their collection?