GoldenWheels Video Game Closet/Alcove/Under-the-stairs thing

[+GoldenWheels]

***UPDATED3 with youtube link to movie of LCD monitor I mounted inside the cabinet.***

 

 

 

***UPDATED2 with youtube link to room tour***

 

http://youtu.be/KGxnsDNYT28

 

***UPDATED several posts down with new photos, left hand door now also plexiglass, hung guitar in cabinet, a few more details***

 

Well, I have been working on this set up for about a year since we moved into our new house. I have finally finished, short some trim nail paint, the entire thing. Some of these are original systems to me, some are ones I always wanted as a kid and simply never got a chance to have.

 

Of course, within two days of me "finishing" the cabinet, my Onkyo receiver crapped out. There goes the use of my 7.1 via the Polk speakers I just bought. But that's Murphy's Law I suppose. But it did all work and it still looks like it works (LOL) so I want to show it off.

 

Here is an exterior shot of the cabinet.The door on the right is 3/8 inch plexiglass (I have kids so real glass was out of the question and this stuff, while not EASY to work with, is far easier to work with than glass--you can cut it CAREFULLY with a circular saw. You can also see a small latch at the top, out of the reach of little hands). The cut-in on the left-hand door allows my cable box to be accessible to my remote, while also allowing me to run controller cords out of the cabinet, to play with the doors closed. That left door is sagging a bit but I have plans for it anyway (more plexiglass!).

 

Lit up. I have an LED light strip hidden up top in a "U" formation that covers the front, left hand side, and back of the cabinet.

 

Shot with the doors open. I think you can see the cable box side-mounted to the AV Rack (painted Edsal shelving cut to fit) and that lines up with the opening in the left hand door. Systems are, from top to bottom, left to right:

Onkyo NR-609 (has analog upconvert over HDMI--well...had it when it was working!)

Korean 8 way A/V switch off of E-bay/PS3/Wii

Gamecube with Gameboy Advance Player/N64

SNES/Generation NEX (NES ripoff that also plays famicom carts)

TG-16/Atari 7800

Sega Genesis/Master System

 

Side view. I used part of the 4x8 plexiglass sheet to cover the side of the rack, them mounted the box to that.

 

Close up shot of rack.

 

I bought some cheapie-bookshelves from Target and cut them to fit (and boy is cutting that melanine stuff a nasty job. Don't inhale the dust. Trust me. It's way worse than wood sawdust!). I ripped backer-pieces for each shelf. So whatever systems' games are supposed to be on that shelf, they are always properly placed RIGHT to the front. This is all installed under the 90 degree turn of stairs coming into a basement, so there is actually space behind the shelf with the logos over it, but there is a sloped "ceiling" (underside of stairs there) that made the top space somewhat hard to use.

 

So I cut some left over plexiglass, and ordered some videogame decals. Bought some "push" door magnets that you find on cheap entertainment centers, and some piano hinge and made a door.

 

If you push on the black bar that frames the bottom of the "door", it pops open.

 

 

The 8-way A/V switch. This has two composite outs (I don't use the second one but I can someday) and one runs to the Onkyo. Once the Onkyo is on the proper setting, all systems are one button push away.

 

As my 7800 and TG-16 are sent via RF (I know, I know!) I had to hide a VCR up top to handle the signal; that then runs into the AV switch. As the RFs are daisty chained together, the TG-16 and 7800 thus share one button on the switch. (the white cords are the side and rear channel speaker wires from the receiver going up into the drop ceiling. I plan to clean up that port a bit with trim, but I made it wide deliberately to allow heat to escape).

 

 

The power center for all of this. Two power strips. One above handles new stuff (Cable, PS3, Wii, etc), one below handles all the old systems. I had to have a plug put in here anyway as there was none (electrical work is the ONE thing I did not do myself) but now all of this has a dedicated heavy circuit on my electrical board.

 

Here is a shot of the 60 inch Sony Wega I run these too. The HDMI and speaker wire exit the cabinet through the wall, into my shop, and come back in on the bottom left hand by the door. I put some oversized trim there to create a U-channel to hide all the wires, while still making it easy to mess with them when I have to. (No dedicated CRT set for the oldies, but it is a possibility in the future. I have considered building one INTO the left hand door....either always facing out, or when you open the door the TV could swing out to reveal. But not sure it will work...things are so damn heavy.) My movie shelf runs along the top right, for about 25+ feet.

 

And a shot showing the relationship of the cabinet, TV, and couch. You sit right there and just...play!

 

Finally, some shots of the cabinet lit up with the LEDs doing other colors (for a 30$ buy on Amazon, these LED strips were damn impressive to me. Comes with a remote, can flash/pulse if I want to disco disco, and can do many colors).

 

 

 

Well, that's it!

 

You might note I have LOTS of empty shelving....I am still building my collection so I needed to make sure I had a lot of room for further additions to the game library. However, there are other systems I'd like to get and I am about out of space on the rack. Someday I'd like to have a Turbo-Duo, and that could replace the TG-16 of course. I'd like a Coleco (right now the Coleco decal is on that window because I am from Connecticut, not because I own one!) and so maybe someday I get rid of the SMS and go with a Power Base Converter...though I always thought the SMS looked cool!

 

I partly regret not mudding and sanding the drywall all the way...but I HATE doing that stuff. Painting it to seal it was enough for me.

 

And yes, I am a Bills fan....go easy.

Edited June 26, 2013 by GoldenWheels

[Chuck D. Head]

Very cool use of minimal space, nice job!

[+GoldenWheels]

Very cool use of minimal space, nice job!

 

Thanks Chuck! Minimal space was a big part of it and keeping little hands off it without having to dig stuff out every time to play it was another.

 

I imagine someday....I will be out of space for games. I wil cross that bridge when I come to it!

Edited January 17, 2013 by GoldenWheels

[wccw mark]

thats awesome.i love the way that looks,way better than the mess i have in my gaming area.im also a bills fan.

[+GoldenWheels]

thats awesome.i love the way that looks,way better than the mess i have in my gaming area.im also a bills fan.

 

Thanks Mark! And it's always nice to find another fan who knows the pain of being a Bills fan.

 

I buy the Sunday Ticket every year....and every year I am like "never again!". Then next year rolls around. Wash, rinse, repeat!

[Ransom]

That is very cool! Nice setup with minimal intrusion.

 

[+GoldenWheels]

Thanks Ransom! Intrusion is a biggie because of the kids. They want to be involved in everything when I am playing, and not playing.

 

I usually give my 1 1/2 year old an unplugged controller to satisfy him while I play, he enjoys hitting buttons and feeling involved etc....then he realized it wasn't plugged in and mine was so he got mad! So now I give him one plugged into one of the other systems but I bet he figures that out soon too.

Edited January 21, 2013 by GoldenWheels

[Nateo]

And yes, I am a Bills fan....go easy.

 

Hey man, me too!! Let's go Buffalo!

 

Also, that's a real slick setup you got there.

[phaxda]

Hilarious, all the Bills fans checking in! All week I have been telling 49ers fans that after they lose 4 straight, then they can complain...

 

Great setup, I really like it! Your custom NES shelving is way cooler than mine, and I thought mine was pretty neat--I modified some IKEA stuff.

[+GoldenWheels]

Haha wow Bills fans in the house! ALWAYS nice to find more of us. Dragonstomper is from Rochester so that makes sense but it's also always neat to see Bills fans in Indiana or Oakland, etc. I'm in CT so, as you can imagine, I just LOVE Pats fans. SIGH.

 

Shelving wasn't cheap by any means phaxda (think it was like 100+$ for the Edsal unit, plus shipping. I had to sawzall the posts to height and then paint it. I was cursing cutting it (hard to get clean cuts with a sawzall, eventually just got the hacksaw and elbow-greased it) but I like it now. Now, if I had an ikea near me...I probably would have started there! Nearest one to me is 1+ hour drive, and bringing my wife in there is...dangerous.

 

I had some free time on the off week between the championship games and the SB (and more importantly finally had some extra $$ to spend) so I got a new (much cheaper) Pioneer receiver that works, and finally finished up the left hand plexiglass door. I also got Rocksmith (which I have fallen in love with) so I hung the Epiphone on the wall behind the cabinet, and added some REALLY hidden/hard to reach shelving up top for stuff I'll only need once in a blue moon (Boxes, cases, etc). Now it's even more "done" than before (HA!). I'll try to put up some new pics soon, The new left hand matching door makes it look SO much better IMO.

[Chris Leach]

man that lighting kicks some major ass...what if?............

[+GoldenWheels]

man that lighting kicks some major ass...what if?............

 

This is exactly what I got. Very easy to use man.

 

http://www.amazon.co...led wholesalers

 

I was torn because like a lot of things on Amazon, there are 100+ great reviews, 30+ terrible ones...and not much in the middle. Sounds like some people got duds or ones where it looked like the strips were sodered back together (they are sold as solid strips supposedly). Mine did look like it had some sodered joints. But it works great. And the remote lets you do some neat stuff. But there is no hardwired switch (so I keep an extra button cell battery on hand), and my receiver AND TV remote must be on the same signal....if I don't aim carefully, turning down the volume changes the light color!

 

It suggests that you use special connectors or soder your own wiring for 90 degree turns BUT if the turn is pretty gradual/and or you can hide some slack, the strip can easily stand to be twisted to some degree. I did no sodering, just gently turned the slack on the 90 degree turns and peeled the double-sided tape only where I needed it to actually stick. Glue seems very strong too (is 3M tape). Where I put it up I just put some narrow trim in front of it to hide it/mask the glare. The strip+LED is like 3/16 inch tall so it doesn't take much (and that is only where the LED actually sits, where there is no LED this stuff is essentially a ribbon).

 

Though I did not do this myself, you can also buy a Y-conenctor to run two strips to separate spots, OR chain two strips together. I read some folks saying three+ strips was too much for the power supply. I do expect I may add another strip at some point....I kind of want to backlight the window/door thing over the bookshelf. You can also cut the strip at certain regular intervals too, and they are marked right on the strip.

 

For only 32$, I was very pleased. Without the lighting, it is just a cabinet frankly. Everybody who has seen it loves the lights! I get a fair amount of "Oooooooooh!"s.

Edited February 8, 2013 by GoldenWheels

[+GoldenWheels]

Here's the updated stuff. I think the 2nd door really makes a big difference.

 

 

Guitar hung in back.

 

 

Shelving for real long term storage stuff (because it is a pain to get to) in the very highest part of the cabinet over the rack.

 

 

I added some trim and a furnace filter to the port I had cut for the speaker wires...I vacuumed the heck out of that bay of the wall over and over, but with people coming down the stairs right above it, it was shaking down a small amount of dust over time. No good for electronics!

 

 

And a shot in red because for whatever reason red shows up the best to the camera. The LEDs also do green, blue, and purple really well. Orange, yellow, and a few other colors....pretty meh.

 

 

 

Now, I just won an Atari XE on ebay (irony there being I was embarrassed to own the thing around my NES friends as a kid, 20+ years later I am RE-buying one as almost my holy grail system) so the systems are going to have to be switched up to make room. Moving/under mounting the Wii is the easiest solution I guess (it's so small, easy to hide or build a shelf for) but I have to think on that. I might undermount the TG-16 somehow and then put the XE right next to the 7800.

 

The Pioneer, sadly, is way flaky on what it converts over HDMI. So I have just been using it for sound (great stereo sound, man SNES sounds better than I ever imagined as a kid), and ran a 35 ft shielded monoprice AV/subwoofer cable to the TV out fo the AV switch. Sucks to have to do one more switch now (was pretty much the whle point of upconversion to me, simplicty) but at the same time I am now sending the TV a native signal....no matter what setting I used on both my old Onkyo and this one, it had the habit of stretching the picture to widescreen or somehow processing and then distorting the picture.

[RJ]

Too much exposed wiring

 

[+GoldenWheels]

The only place the wires really bother me is the A/V switch itself...there is def a pretty big clump right there over the PS3 but frankly simplicity won out over appearance there. I had to have the switch somewhere that was easy to use.

 

So far as all the hookups to the machines themsevles, power bricks, etc they're all routed with plastic ties and out of the way of possible pinches/pulls/electrical issues, and out of my kids hands because they are IN the cabinet after all. You never see 75% of those wires unless you stick your head in the back, and nobody really does that. That area to me is the "guts" of the thing by design. I suppose the wires could be run up the actual posts behind the rack to hide them a little better from the outside view but I valued not grouping wires together and not bending them at hard right angles wherever I could. Plus any time I make a change now (like when the XE gets here) it is very easy to do and any issues with any systems are very easy to troubleshoot.

 

Would be easier to hide some of the composites if they weren't the super thick monoprice ones too. Those things are a pain. No idea why they put yellow IN BETWEEN red and white instead of off to one side (makes plugging a pain where you have to strip them down on either side to get the twist you need to plug them in). And man are they THICK and kind of inflexible.

 

EDIT: looking at the thing today, I had nothing to do, so I did some re-routing, at least on the A/V switch itself, so constructive criticism it was RJ. Looks better now and probably better phyically anyway....my PS3 fat runs pretty hot, which I never noticed before until i had it in this setup. The more air around that thing, the better! The way I did things I'll have to re-do some of the ties now when I add stuff but I only have about 200+ zip ties. I can spare them.

Edited February 11, 2013 by GoldenWheels

[yy958]

Very nice and sleek. I love it!

[+GoldenWheels]

Thanks yy958! I just got my XE in there by removing the Gamecube (I can always play those games on my wii anyway). I'll have to do one more photo at some point.

 

I realized I could have designed the left side shelves better for floor space, but the re-design would mean taking them all out, replacing/remaking the pop door, etc. I'm out of juice for now on this project but maybe someday.

 

Done is never really "done" I guess!

[Ska_music_fan83]

First of all, your setup is really cool!!!

 

I am curious though how do you play games with your setup?

 

Are the cords long enough to reach you from the cabinet? Otherwise it just looks like you'd either have to turn your body and face your cabinet while you play or you'd have to put the system on the floor in front of you while you are playing...

[+GoldenWheels]

First of all, your setup is really cool!!!

 

I am curious though how do you play games with your setup?

 

Are the cords long enough to reach you from the cabinet? Otherwise it just looks like you'd either have to turn your body and face your cabinet while you play or you'd have to put the system on the floor in front of you while you are playing...

 

Thanks!

 

My couch seat there is the left hand one, so most of the newer systemscontroller cords reach right to there with just the right amount of slack. It's only about 4-5 feet away. Anything that uses the sega/atari pattern I have either a Genesis or Master System pad with a 6 ft extension cord on it (It's actually just long enough without the extension but if I move too much, the system gets jerked around). TG-16 also uses a controller extension cord, which sadly is kinda bulky (damn big plugs) but it works.

 

Only system that gets serious multiplayer time is my 64 so for those I have multiple extensions that can reach anywhere on the couch for players 2-4.

[Ska_music_fan83]

Ah... extension cords!

[CarWashGuy]

Nice setup man. I'm all about anti-clutter.

[damcanadian]

it looks great, the blank walls make me a little sad though, where is all the art.

[+GoldenWheels]

Nice setup man. I'm all about anti-clutter.

 

Thanks! I cleaned up the wires and rerouted them, I am hoping to get a video up on a youbue video of the setup now but doing a video (well) was harder than I thought.

 

it looks great, the blank walls make me a little sad though, where is all the art.

 

I know it and agree 100%. I have all sorts of classic movie posters in the other room (Caddyshack, the Jerk, etc), waiting for frames. Then I saw what decent frames cost, even at walmart or target. 6x25$ or so I just dont' have right now for frames. (I should stop buying games for a month I guess!).

 

My idea for the wall behind the TV was to do a projector eventually (so leave that wall blank for projection) but I am kind of off of that idea now. I'm more inclined to just get another 60 inch TV when that one dies.

[damcanadian]

I know how you feel about frames bro, I have most of my stuff framed these days, and it hurts to spend more on a nice frame then it does on the print or poster inside of it, but if you watch for deals, a lot of art supply stores offer coupons on there websites, coupled with in store sales can land huge savings, I have around 15 framed 24x36" prints that ran around 30$ a piece, not to mention a handful of other sizes, but with coupons and in store sales, I got most of them at my local target for less then half of that.

If I were to do a projector Id invest in a screen rather then using a wall, any slight off coloring on the wall can really reflect in the games colors in a negative way, plus then you don't have to leave walls blank, but Id agree with your ladder choice of replacing the TV when it goes as you'll get better picture and not have to play in total blackness to get the best look.

[+GoldenWheels]

Hey guys, I finally did a little movie about it for youtube (my first ever actually). Not much you couldn't already see from the pictures but a neat look around I guess.

 

http://youtu.be/KGxnsDNYT28

 

Edited May 11, 2013 by GoldenWheels