racketboy.com

samsonlonghair wrote:Hey, I like that arcade stick. Is that a custom job?

Yessir! viewtopic.php?f=25&t=47687

Thanks for reminding me about that thread. Now I gotta see if I can get the pictures migrated from photobucket to imgur.

Some very cool spaces in this thread....

Since moving a little over a year ago, I've been making steady progress on a new gameroom. I'll post a more comprehensive tour later but I wanted to share the latest addition.

For a long time, my entertainment center has been a hodgepodge of free furniture that I have accumulated over the years. While functional, it didn't do much to hide cables and it just didn't look nice.


Over the weekend, I happened to be near an Ikea so I got some upgrades. Nothing too fancy but it made things a lot cleaner.

Everything is hooked up except for the Dreamcast and the Wii. The Wii is my Gamecube machine and I have very few Gamecube games. I sold off my few Dreamcast games and I plan to get some sort of ODE in the future. I didn't have room for the original Xbox but it was never hooked up in the original picture. Many of my original Xbox games are playable on an Xbox One so I'll just bring it out when needed.

If you are wondering why I have two Sega Genesis consoles hooked up, it is so I can play Master System games via my Everdrive. The top Genesis has a 32X attached so it won't play Master System games without removing the 32X and recabling things. Far easier just to have two Genesis units.

Nice! I love it! Thanks for sharing this. That's definitely a nice upgrade from what you had. How long did it take you to hook everything back up?

My Dreamcast isn't currently hooked up either, but it's a long story (mostly of me being to lazy to fix things).

My Wii was also my Gamecube for the longest time, and remains my Gamecube for the HDTV. I did eventually a dedicated Gamecube again though, mostly so I can use the Gameboy Player on a CRT.

I also have multiple Genesis consoles LOL. A model 1 hooked up to a PVM, a model 2 hooked up to a model 2 Sega CD, and a model 3 that's sort of a floater when I want to use composite output.

Ziggy587 wrote:Nice! I love it! Thanks for sharing this. That's definitely a nice upgrade from what you had. How long did it take you to hook everything back up?

Hooking everything back up and figuring out where to put everything was definitely the most time consuming part. I settled on putting my SCART consoles in the center so that I wouldn't have to buy any SCART extensions. The outer cubbies are HDMI, Component, and Composite (NES). With the exception of the NES, everything in the outer cubbies have wireless controllers so there is less need for them to be centered. I got started assembling the furniture around 6PM. Then I moved on to tearing things down and placing everything back in the new furniture. I had just finished when I posted last night so the whole thing took about 4 hours.

I'd eventually like to hook up my SCART to Component converter and my Component switch so I can output SCART and Component devices to either TV (my SCART and Component switches are matrix switches). However, I'm out of electrical outlets at the moment so that will have to wait. I want to get a nice long surge protector. Something like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00019OXF8/

Ziggy587 wrote:My Wii was also my Gamecube for the longest time, and remains my Gamecube for the HDTV. I did eventually a dedicated Gamecube again though, mostly so I can use the Gameboy Player on a CRT.

I know that the Super Gameboy isn't the most accurate way to play Gameboy games on a TV but that's what I've got for now. I don't currently have a way to play Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advance on a TV at the moment. I figured I'd eventually get some sort of MiSTer system for that. DE10 nano prices are still crazy which makes the Analogue Pocket price look pretty good, even with a dock. I haven't done much research on MiSTer vs the Pocket though. Any thoughts?

Ziggy587 wrote:I also have multiple Genesis consoles LOL. A model 1 hooked up to a PVM, a model 2 hooked up to a model 2 Sega CD, and a model 3 that's sort of a floater when I want to use composite output.

No 32X? For shame...

bmoc wrote: I settled on putting my SCART consoles in the center so that I wouldn't have to buy any SCART extensions.

Yeah, I hear ya. Luckily, my 13" PVM setup is such a small and tight setup that I don't have to worry much about cable length. RGB SCART is analog, so cable length is a concern (although much less on a CRT versus using a scaler and HDTV). One idea though is to just keep your switcher close to those consoles, then you just have to worry about one cable from the switcher to the TV being long enough.

bmoc wrote:I'd eventually like to hook up my SCART to Component converter and my Component switch so I can output SCART and Component devices to either TV (my SCART and Component switches are matrix switches). However, I'm out of electrical outlets at the moment so that will have to wait. I want to get a nice long surge protector. Something like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00019OXF8/

Yes, those are really cool. I have a long Tripp Lite bar like that. I have it mounted under my 6' long computer desk that I built. Definitely comes in handy, and has more outlets than I'll ever need!

For AV setups and my "regular" computer desks, I've been a fan of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000J2EN4S

I like them because there's plenty of outlets in the center, then you get the 6 outer outlets that work for wall wart plugs.

For my HDTV setup, I have a similar surge protector but from Tripp Lite IIRC. It doesn't have enough plugs. Rough count, I have 20 devices that need power in this setup. I also like having one or two left open. So what I do is just plug other surge protectors into the main one, as a way to expand the number of outlets I have.

bmoc wrote:I know that the Super Gameboy isn't the most accurate way to play Gameboy games on a TV but that's what I've got for now. I don't currently have a way to play Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advance on a TV at the moment. I figured I'd eventually get some sort of MiSTer system for that. DE10 nano prices are still crazy which makes the Analogue Pocket price look pretty good, even with a dock. I haven't done much research on MiSTer vs the Pocket though. Any thoughts?

I still use the Super Gameboy. There's some Gameboy games that can take advantage of the Super Gameboy and offer better color options. The Super Gameboy is still the only (official hardware) way to take advantage of this. I got the Gameboy Player mainly for GBA games.

But yeah, I really want to get a MiSTer as well. I was going to get an NeoGeo MVS board and consolize it. But consider the price of everything, and the quality of emulation on the MiSTer, I decided that the MiSTer was the way to go. Not only can it do NeoGeo, but a TON of other systems as well.

bmoc wrote:No 32X? For shame...

Yeah, I know! I actually use to own a 32X years back, but I traded it away. The real shame is that it was a pretty minty 32X complete in the box. I got basically nothing for it compared for what a loose one goes for these days. In the last couple of years, I realized that I would want a 32X. But looking at the prices of them, even loose ones, I don't think I can justify it. Funny enough that you mentioned the MiSTer because I decided I'll go the MiSTer route for this, too. Unless someone wants to sell me a 32X for a good price.

Just want to say awesome setup, bmoc! The updated media center and setup for the TVs and consoles looks really good. In regards to wiring, did you drill holes into the back of the shelves or how did you manage it?

I'm going to have to get a new entertainment center at some point, as my current one, which my family has had around since the mid 1980s, is beginning to warp under the weight of the 27" CRT on it. Good to know what's available out there.

Note wrote:Just want to say awesome setup, bmoc! The updated media center and setup for the TVs and consoles looks really good. In regards to wiring, did you drill holes into the back of the shelves or how did you manage it?

I'm going to have to get a new entertainment center at some point, as my current one, which my family has had around since the mid 1980s, is beginning to warp under the weight of the 27" CRT on it. Good to know what's available out there.

Yeah, I had to drill some holes. The backing for those Ikea units is really thin so it didn't take much effort. My CRT is a 24" and it barely fits. If I had anything bigger, it would need its own stand.

bmoc wrote:Yeah, I had to drill some holes. The backing for those Ikea units is really thin so it didn't take much effort. My CRT is a 24" and it barely fits. If I had anything bigger, it would need its own stand.

Good to know about the issue with the TV barely fitting on the stand. Hmm, I'm wondering if my 27" CRT would even fit on that Ikea unit. I'll have to compare the measurements later. Might have to keep searching for another type of media center when the time comes!

As part of my gameroom renovations, I've decided that I want to display more of games than just the spine. I've been looking around at what other people have done to get ideas. Here are a few options that I am considering (these images are not my games):

I already have these exact bookshelves. I like the way this looks but I am having a hard time with the idea of wasting all that space behind the forward facing games.


I could make a simple thin custom shelf like this (but bigger)


I could get one or two of these type of glass display cases and make some custom tiered racks to go inside them.


I've also considered the angled display method. It is better than just the spine but it probably won't work well with dvd/bluray cases as they'd just fall over.


Which one would you go with? Any other creative ideas?