... what if you don't have a game room?

[Senneman]

Always cool to see other peoples massive game rooms! But what if you just don't have enough space?

My girlfriend and I live in a small apartment and our work already takes a lot of space 😀. For example: we both are illustration artists and need a lot of different materials like paper -and LOTS of paper because I'm an 2D animator and still work analog style (light table, 16mm Bolex camera, celluloid, ...), drawing desk, pencils, paint, canvas and so on. And on top of that, we also have a passion for music and film, so our music gear, vinyl records and my camera stuff takes also a lot of space. So damn, nothing to display my game collection!

An example of my 2600 games:

    

Very satisfying when everything fits so perfectly!

 

All the rest of my collection are stored at my parents place: the one I play the least like PSX, nes, snes, N64, GC, C64, Sega Master System

these live in our drawers (for occasional gaming): Philips Videopac, Philips CD-I, Mega CD and 32x

permanently hooked on tv: Dreamcast, Saturn and Jaguar

or at my working desk (for a quick game while rendering or something): Atari 2600 and Vectrex

 

sometime, somewhere in the near future I will inventory my entire collection 🤓

 

[sirlynxalot]

I used to have all my stuff out on a big book shelf and in front of my TV, but then I moved and also had a kid, so space got much tighter!  I had to do something to make the collection take up less space and I settled on storing all my games in these archival boxes that are about the size of shoe boxes so that I can stack them.  You can fit something like 40 or 50 CD style jewel cases in these, but if you're trying to store cib Genesis games, you'll fit much less.  I play this stuff much less now since it's packed away tbh.  

 

This doesn't work in my current room because i have sloped ceilings, but I used to use this 3 cubby storage holder vertically for a store kiosk kind of feel. It took up a much smaller footprint on the floor so was a good use of space when I had a more conventional room.

 

 

 

 

Ah, the good old days!

Edited March 6, 2023 by sirlynxalot

[ClassicGMR]

On 1/13/2023 at 4:44 AM, Senneman said:

But what if you just don't have enough space?

I realize this was rhetorical but...

 

While I do have a basement Man Cave/Office I have done a lot of downsizing over the years. What I have now is almost exclusively 1 system/1 Loader solution. Most of the systems are connected to a monitor in my bedroom and the LCD television in the basement - both via HDMI switchers and AV converters. I also have an Xtension Arcade cabinet for emulation, Raspberry Pi setups and such.

 

Examples:

 - Playstation with PSIO ODE into an AV-HDMI converter

 - Playstation 2 with SATA HDD adapter, Free McBoot and PS2 to HDMI adapter

 - Nintendo64 with an EverDrive64 and EON Super64 HDMI adapter

 - (my favorite system) Nintendo GameCube with GC Loader, Gameboy Player, GBA Everdrive X5 and EON GC MKII HDMI adapter. Plays everything from NES through Game Cube (except N64).

 

Et cetera, et cetera.

[+Gemintronic]

Don't have a Game Room checklist:

 

[_} Projector

[_} Bluetooth Keyboard, Mouse & Joysticks

[_} Ryzen 9 Mini PC

[_] Batocera Linux or De-bloated Windows

[Crazy Climber]

This is my bedroom (not my gameroom, my bedroom where I sleep)

 

My Wife isn't crazy about it but she knew what she was getting into before we got married haha

[Keatah]

13 hours ago, Crazy Climber said:

This is my bedroom (not my gameroom, my bedroom where I sleep)

That looks nice cozy.

 

13 hours ago, Gemintronic said:

Don't have a Game Room checklist:

 

[_} Projector

[_} Bluetooth Keyboard, Mouse & Joysticks

[_} Ryzen 9 Mini PC

[_] Batocera Linux or De-bloated Windows

 

I'd exchange the projector for a monitor or television, for crispness and responsiveness. And the audio solution. You forgot the speakers!

 

I use Windows because everyone is familiar with it. And I've been using it since 3.1 back in the 1990's.

 

Mini PCs are perfect for this sort of thing. They are essentially compact turnkey solutions available from everywhere. They are familiar to everyone. And they tuck right into blanketforts for cozy wintertime fun.

 

Beauty part of such a rig is once you've set up the system you've effectively set up ALL your systems.

[Crazy Climber]

On 3/7/2023 at 2:21 AM, Keatah said:

That looks nice cozy.

 

Thanks man!! Exactly what I was going for

[+sramirez2008]

You get one of these with an SD multicart.😉

[Silver Back]

When I started having kids and lost my extra room, I sold off most of my collection.  Jaguar, PS1, PS2, NES, Genesis, sms, SNES, N64, 3DO, 5200, Saturn, GameCube, Wii, Dreamcast, N64 and tons more I'm sure I've forgotten about along with sizeable libraries for each.  But I still had access to almost every game I lost and tons more by keeping my softmodded OG XBox and 7800. I tricked the Xbox out with a vinyl skin, clear Xbox jewel with LEDs, LEDs in the controller ports and ton more.  And I realized I didn't miss any of that stuff.  Well I missed the Saturn and Jaguar oddly enough but I assume that's just part of some long forgotten brain damage I suffered along the way somewhere. 

 

Point is my obsession to collect things that I realized I would never practically use subsided and I started playing more games than ever once the need to fill shelves stopped. Now today I have made efforts to buy back games that had sentimental value.  After hearing stories of how my parents would pick up shifts to buy me some of these things, I guess they became objects of nostalgia and proof of the extent they went for me out of love. 

 

My collection fits on a single bookshelf along with my movies.  A complete 7800 collection, the previously mentioned sentimental games and a few nick nacks.  I also have a crt in my room with a 7800, the tricked out Xbox, and a 3 in 1 NES, SNES, and Genesis to play the sentimental stuff if I want.  Oh and a softmodded Wii to play Wii and GameCube stuff when the mood strikes. 

 

I'm by no means saying that large collections aren't awesome and if I had the space I wouldn't of given it up probably.  But there's something intimate and fun about having a small curated collection and I love seeing what you guys are doing with yours.  Happy collecting and playing y'all!