Shelving Nintendo - my first attempt

[Spartacus]

I started simple by using a 12' X 12' spare bedroom to display my Nintendo games.
My main considerations were cost and complexity. I used 3" x 4" metal shelf brackets attached to furring strip boards that I screwed into wall studs to minimize the number of holes. The shelves were made from 6" wide dog-ear fence picket board. Typical cost for a 12' wall was $60 in brackets and $80 in lumber. Labor was free.

I first took physical measurements of the games to be stored to determine shelving height and decided that the top shelf of each wall should provide sufficient headspace for displaying consoles. Then I simplified the process by making shelving heights consistent along an entire wall surface, forcing me to abandon displaying my Nintendo collection in chronological order. The most difficulty I incurred was in failing to account for size variations of special edition games.

I was fearful that large blocks of game spines would be monotonous, so I attempted to intersperse limited/special edition cover art among the rows only to discover this made for a chaotic appearance. I now prefer to keep them separate and acknowledge that quantity does have a quality all of it's own.
At the same time I discovered that long rows of import kanji spines were both unattractive and mystifying. I achieved a more satisfying result by overlaying the cover art of some favorite import games over the rows of kanji titles while still allowing the number of import games to be seen in the background.

I managed to display all of my Nintendo games and most Nintendo consoles in a single room, but sadly few accessories and controllers.
This is the most accessible my Nintendo library has ever been and I'm satisfied with the results.















The Sega room will be my next project and I will take the experience earned from those two to tackle my PlayStation collection, which is orders of magnitude larger than this.

[Aussie2B]

That's certainly a staggering collection and nicely shelved. You probably got more games crammed in that one room than there are in entire video game stores. I assume these are full sets?

[Spartacus]

That's certainly a staggering collection and nicely shelved. You probably got more games crammed in that one room than there are in entire video game stores. I assume these are full sets?

No. I was never bitten by the full set bug. I genre collect mostly, but in the case of the Nintendo Wii, I'm trying to acquire every console exclusive Wii game. I'm still 30 titles shy of my goal.
Don't know if I ever mentioned that the first collection I attempted was games like R-Type on the Super Nintendo. I knew practically nothing about video games and my internet search somehow turned up a forum discussion here about Sega Genesis shoot-em-ups.
Well, I eventually bought myself a Sega Genesis to collect games like R-Type and I have been visiting these forums ever since. By the way, I thought there was only going to be 5 or 6 games like R-Type. Yeah, I was that dumb.

[MidnightRider]

Especially in consideration to what came stateside. Take Japan out of the equation and the Genesis destroys the TG-16 & Saturn in volume. Otherwise, Sega's hardware are among the best for the genre(...and I was never into them myself).

[Greg2600]

Wow, that's impressive there, took a lot of hard work.

[Spartacus]

Especially in consideration to what came stateside. Take Japan out of the equation and the Genesis destroys the TG-16 & Saturn in volume. Otherwise, Sega's hardware are among the best for the genre(...and I was never into them myself).

I have often wondered if I had played R-Type instead of Googling it, if I would have ever started collecting video games in the first place. Forced scrolling is definitely not a style of gameplay I enjoy. However I do love ugly monsters, space ships and friggin lasers, so 3 out of 4 ain't bad. I had been cleaning out a box of old video game stuff belonging to my kids when I found R-Type and Chrono Trigger both boxed and in pristine condition. I know for a fact if they were only carts I would have simply tossed them into the trash without a thought. It was only because I was able to pick up the box and examine the artwork that I suddenly became interested. From that moment on I only collected complete boxed games like the two I started with. Pristine condition wasn't so nearly important to me, but complete in the box was the thing I found most desirable. I never played Chrono Trigger either, but after a period of time discovered it was actually quite valuable. So I began collecting games like R-Type because they looked interesting and games like Chrono Trigger because they might be valuable.
The collecting formula I eventually settled on was to collect all the games like R-Type for a console, then acquire a boxed console in the best condition I could find for display, never to use, then find boxed controllers and peripherals for it to create a shrine of sorts for that console. Afterwards I would find lists of the top 25 - 50 games for that console and add them to my collection. Now I really had something I could be proud of! I would add other games that I thought would appeal to my tastes in games, but every game was bought with some purpose in mind. I never just collected games.
It's a hobby full of research really and one that I find very enjoyable.

[MidnightRider]

So, we're likely opposites. I like the minimalistic approach of console & flash cart(plus I keep ending up with less space over time...). If only the batteries in the cartridge don't seem to die quickly in U.S. consoles. Then again, the more time that passes, the less interested I am in adventure gaming(the types that would need battery saves) anyway.

I might kinda like the shoot 'em genre nowadays. I've beaten some of the easier ones in recent years. Also, somehow Thunder Force II, and Lightening Force(TF4 in other regions). Anything can be beaten if you have enough persistence to try even just once a day.

If you have/can, I imagine you'd love the aesthetic of CIB NES Zelda games. Gold boxes with a cut out part that shows off a bit of the gold cartridge.

[calthaer]

Any way you cut it you've got your own Nintendo museum right there - and impressive collection. Thanks for taking pictures and letting the rest of us live vicariously!