need ideas for game room

[mas]

So in the last few weeks my wife and I are ready to buy a house. Very exciting to look at houses. My wife agreed to give me my own game room.
Now I know its going to take a lot of time but here is what I'm thinking.

I own a genesis which is for me. I got an Atari 7800 for my oldest and I want a nes for me and middle brother. Damn games are crazy priced for anything Nintendo these days.
I'm going to have to hold on the nes unless I get on cheap, but I also want to know what would be the best size CRT I should get for the retro systems?
And I want to own a couple arcade machines. I definitely want that ms pacman/galaga arcade and maybe golden tee or centipede but how much do they go for?
Also want a pinball machine. But my areas have nothing so where is a good place to shop here around Worcester ma for that stuff.
I know its going to take a year or two but I'd figured if I ask around now I can gather up info from you guys maybe get ideas and start working on the projects now that way when I move in I got some stuff already

[Cronozilla]

Well the best is a PVM with some modded consoles to clean up the RGB signal. I suppose it's not horribly expensive, but $200 for 20" is where it mostly lands.

I've heard of 32" PVMs, but I haven't actually seen any.

[KalessinDB]

First off: Congratulations. But be prepared for everything to cost more than you expect it to It's definitely rewarding though, making a house a home. Trite, but true.

To try to address your questions --

I don't think there's any one best size crt... it's a question of your room. Trinitron/Wegas went up to 36" at least (I have one, it weighs well over 200 lb) but if you have a relatively small room that might be too big. Stick with a good brand, yes a PVM/BVM would technically be the top quality you can get, but it's a serious rabbit hole of time and money that you're going to sink into it. I personally would recommend a nice Wega that can easily be had cheap (I got mine for $40 on craigslist) and won't require heavy modding to work.

If you think an NES is expensive, forget about arcade machines and really forget about pinball machines. Beat to hell arcade games are $100+, for unloved, boring games (I got a beat up World Class Bowling conversion with the intent of gutting it for MAME and it cost me $100, and I thought it was a steal) Popular games can run much higher than that, and that's if you can even find one. Cabinets are way less plentiful on the East Coast vs West sadly

Pins... Pins can get into the thousands if you want a newer one in good cosmetic shape.

Not trying to discourage you, I think it's a great hobby and something to work towards, but just be aware it's gonna be a long time and a lotta money.

[mas]

Yeah I understand all of that. It will take me I believe 5 years or so. At least I got a nes now.

[Kidpanda]

My sweet spots for CRTs are 27 inch. Light enough to move with two normal people and a pretty decent sized screen. A 19 inch is a little more practical though and can be set on a desk in a pinch.

[Ghudda]

Yeah, it's a bit unfortunate how relatively small the standard PVM is and so for a game room, it may not be ideal. My 20" PVM works for me because I sit about 1-2ft away from it when playing it, but I imagine you'd want your game room to be more "loungy". Honestly, a solid Trintron 27in + CRT with component inputs would do a perfectly good job. Especially early on, you may want to invest money in actual games than the whole RGB setup, as it can really add up when you factor in hardware and cables). Craigslist is the place to keep your eyes out for TV's, though. You could also look into the Framemeister route and use a larger flat panel HD TV, but that's another story.

As far as Nintendo stuff goes, yeah it's probably not the best time to start investing in it, as the prices people are demanding is absurd. But if theres a game that you really want to play, I think a lot of the prices are still justifiable (being under their initial retail cost). Though, depending on your views on the matter, multi-carts/flash carts (Everdrive N8/Powerpack) are a popular alternative. I'm simply not even buying for Nintendo consoles at the moment and am focusing on the more obscure systems.

[SamuraiMegas]

Haven't you needed to sell your collections for quick cash more than once? You seem to have a cycle of needing help buying and turning around and selling them due to a need.

[mas]

Haven't you needed to sell your collections for quick cash more than once? You seem to have a cycle of needing help buying and turning around and selling them due to a need.

I'm buying a house and this is going to be a project for my game room. I'm OK financially not to sell. I'm not selling anything.

[fastbilly1]

If you think an NES is expensive, forget about arcade machines and really forget about pinball machines. Beat to hell arcade games are $100+, for unloved, boring games (I got a beat up World Class Bowling conversion with the intent of gutting it for MAME and it cost me $100, and I thought it was a steal) Popular games can run much higher than that, and that's if you can even find one. Cabinets are way less plentiful on the East Coast vs West sadly

Depends on what cabs you are looking at, and how dirty you want to get. Ms Pac/Galaga will run you 1kish. While working Golden Tees can sometimes go for $200, just depends on how long you want to look for it and how much work you want to do on it. The days of buying functioning cabs for sub $50 are not gone, just far flung.

But you are right on pins. If you want a EM machine, they go as low as $350 working, but a working SS machine starts at $600. A well known SS machine starts at 1k. A new machine is 5k to 10k depending on the property and complexity of the machine. Case in point Walking Dead is a soso table* so it is 5k, but Big Lebowski is a very complicated table and starts at 9k pre shipping (it is also brand new).

With both cabs and pins, it helps to troll the places where people sell and trade them, have liquid cash, and a trailer. If I had the money and time to go get it, I could have picked up six functioning cabs for 1k last week.

*soso in complexity.

[mas]

Been looking at different prices. Once I get the house and after a year of paying the bills I'll look around but for now I'll at have game console's and a TV set up and the couches for downstairs