Designing a game room - help!

rarebucky

Alright guys, the time has finally come - the wife and I just bought a house and I have my very own room in the basement that will be dedicated to games (no windows!).  I know this kind of stuff has been posted before, but does anyone have any advice on where to start?  I want to start getting some really nice display cases for my VGA games, but anything I get I want to be really tall.  I have 9-foot ceilings and want to maximize my vertical space.  I also will be needing some really nice shelving systems, but I want ones that are shallow enough just for games but still sturdy and won't bow.  So please don't recommend Ikea or Target bookshelves  Anyone want to start me off in the right direction?  BTW, money does not factor into the equation here - I have spent so much money and time building my collection that I want to make sure it gets the treatment it deserves!  Thanks guys.

tuxedocivic

If money isn't a question, I'd suggest hiring a contractor (or yourself) to custom build shelving/cases and tailor it to your liking. You'd maximize space by building it to exact size of room/games as well.

stingray2772

if money wasn't a factor at all, contract somebody to make shelves similar to in store displays... just an idea... otherwise yeah, contract somebody to make standard shelves like tons of people have here

arch_8ngel

Custom is definitely the way to go.



Find a DIY/project magazine about home storage and built-in bookshelves.

Sparky1821

Sparky1821

HeartOfDavid

Originally posted by: rarebucky

BTW, money does not factor into the equation here

I WISH that I could ever say that!

MasonSushi

yea me too. I am having a hard time making my own shelves.

rarebucky

Originally posted by: arch_8ngel

Custom is definitely the way to go.



Find a DIY/project magazine about home storage and built-in bookshelves.

any leads?

blarky

I've considered those heavy, high quality store displays that you can sometimes get from stores going out of business. Also, try craigslist for some chance deals on some sweet store displays.

rarebucky

aren't there manufactures you can buy those from? i need ceiling high ones.

Marton

I built one similar ton sparky, and they're pretty simple to do and very nice. Plus they're pretty cheap to build. And just to be a cool guy like him, I'll post a picture too .

arch_8ngel

Originally posted by: rarebucky

Originally posted by: arch_8ngel

Custom is definitely the way to go.



Find a DIY/project magazine about home storage and built-in bookshelves.

any leads?

Make a trip to your local Home Depot or Lowe's.  Browse the front magazine/book racks when you enter the store.

I guarantee that they will have at least one or two "storage solutions"-type books that discuss building custom, built-in shelving.

Zzap

On a bit of a lean there Martin, using a spirit level may have helped

Mario's Right Nut

Cool thread. I am in the process of desigining a gameroom for myself, too. Tips are awesome. I was going to write an ezine article (or 3) about it (and moving a collection) when I got finished. I'm going to build my own shelves based on tips from Sparky.



I was also debating on building some sort of stand up arcade type machine for my M82. I think that would be bad ass. But I will have to see what kind of room I have left.



Good luck, Bucky! I look forward to the pics.

Mario's Right Nut

Originally posted by: Sparky1821

I've always wanted one of those T2 games.  I played it all the time when I was a kid and it was always my favorite.  I'll have to start looking again.

gavmasterflash

^^^^Is that in your house, or just somewhere random?

maximus_clean

^^^ oh man, i hate those Time Killer style cabinets with the buttons on the wrong side for the left controls!!!!!

nma800

I bought a couple of the types of shelves they use in stores - they're called gondola shelving, and they worked out well for me.  You can get the shelves themselves in different depths, going from around 8" or so to around 18" or 24", depending on what you're putting in there, and you can add a bunch of shelves to the frame.  There's a place in town that sells retail fixtures like this, and I have to believe that if there's a place like that here, there's probably places like that just about everywhere.  Here's what one of them looks like in my game room:

stingray2772

Rob, that picture is awesome.. nice stuff.

Jumpman Jr.

What's with the no-love for Ikea shelves?



A lot of it determines how big your collection actually is. I know your into sealed stuff, but is that all you have? Roughly how many CIB's do you have? I know it might be a tough question to answer, but if you have 250, or 2500, the answer will vary drastically.

I've got something around 2500 CIB's in my collection, and there is no way I could present it without IKEA shelves (well, there might be a way, but it wouldn't look as nice, and it wouldn't be so easy to build).



You could always dedicate some of the shelves, or the top-shelf of all of them to your VGA graded games, where they would be facing forward (similar to what I did with my black box collection):









Parpunk actually had a great display system for some of his nicer CIBs. That's where I got the idea for my black box games. I took his design, and mixed it with something that Al Bailey has in his collection (the 2-level thing).

Mine was made out of cardboard, but you really can't see it except for when you are standing from the angle that I took that last picture from. I actually made it out of the cardboard from the boxes that the IKEA shelves came in.

Sparky1821

Originally posted by: gavmasterflash

^^^^Is that in your house, or just somewhere random?

Oh yeah!, that's in my gameroom! 

rarebucky

Jumpman - that's really cool stuff.  To be specific, I have about 3000 games across every system imaginable, some sealed, some MIB, and about 150 VGA games.  And tons of consoles (I wouldn't display most of these - only my 3 VGA ones).  I've had terrible experiences with Ikea stuff...in addition to the blah look they generally give all of mine have fallen apart eventually and the shelves bow in.  I also haven't found any that are shallow enough for most games...I don't want them sticking into the room more than the depth of the game.

Jumpman Jr.

Originally posted by: rarebucky

I don't want them sticking into the room more than the depth of the game.

Ah, I see. I'm not sure where you could get something like that, but I know what you mean. For NES its not that bad when they are layed down on their spine, as that takes up most of the shelf-room. But for things like GB games, a lot of space isn't used up

maximus_clean

adam, get off your ass and build them. Then they will be exaclty how you want them.

marvelus10

My idea of a game room is going to be a theme room, more than likely it will be Super Mario Bros. The shelves will be hand made and painted to match the wall of the room they will blend in so to speak. Then I will have an accent wall like all good interior designers rave about. This will be painted to look like a giant control deck.

bunnyboy

Painted walls? That means not every square inch is used for games and posters!



I always thought it would be cool to have huge hinged shelves, somewhat like rug store displays. Then you could pack in tons of games while having them still on display. Would want a small lip on the shelves to make sure they don't all fall when you move it tho...

rarebucky

Originally posted by: maximus_clean

adam, get off your ass and build them. Then they will be exaclty how you want them.

lol believe me, i would.  problem is i don't have a handyman bone in my body

ihavethatpma

I figured that I didn't have to make a new thread for this. All of the wood cost me $67, and I already had the other supplies like a drill, screws and nails lying around the garage. I think it was Braveheart that said in another similar thread that he used a Nintendo clam shell for spacers. I did just that and it came together in no time at all. I made the kind of wide and short because my room's walls come up to a point, they hold (i think) 71 NES games per shelf. My SNES games fit as well, if you can see them down there on the bottom right, but they need to sit at a bit of a slant. You can also see all of my super rare copies of Bases Loaded on the upper left.



But yeah, shelves are really easy to make, I have never tried to build anything like this before and it ended up turning out awesome. I'm kind of weird about things being just so, like neat looking, and this helped tidy up my room quite a bit.

xARSEFACEx

With such specific standards, and lack of handyman ability, I think you should listen to the guys recommending contracting someone to build your shelves for you. They'd be exactly as tall and deep as you want them, and they'd be tailored to fit inside your space.

spoonman

I was going to suggest Wal-Mart bookshelves until I read your comment about not posting Target bookshelves.
 but seriously, I have my entire collection in Mainstays 5-shelf (6 foot tall) book cases. For only $24 ea you really can't beat that price unless you construct your own. The bowing isn't really an issue for my boxed games since they don't weigh a lot (each shelf is rated for 35lbs). What I did was buy some cheap pine wood and had them cut (up to 4 at a time for free) at Lowes. I use those for the heavy things (Neo-Geo AES and magazines). I have about 200lbs of magazines & books on a few and they are holding up great! They have been set up since 2004 btw. I retrofitted some of them to hold much more than they were meant to, but that is easy compared to starting from scratch.

Anyway, I'm not sure why I'm wasting my time on all of this when you probably won't want it. I just wanted to mention that I am using them and you don't have to spend a fortune to set up your collection in a stylish way.

Here's a pic of my setup in 2004, since then I have added about 4 more book cases.

Widescreen, panoramic
collection photo (8000x1334, 2.7MB). Click to enlarge.

For some reason the link isn't working, so click here instead...
http://www.videogameobsession.com/spoonman-gameroom.jpg
Here's a more up to date image
http://www.videogameobsession.com/videogame/nesboxes/NES_Black_Box_Close-up-1.jpg

Good luck with whichever setup you go with and please share your pics with us when it's all finished!