What Ambitions Do You Have For Your Game Room?

[fastbilly1]

While what extrarice said is quite important, I just need less furniture, a decently shaped room, or another room completely. Since what use to be the gameroom has become extra storage everything is forced into the office, everything but one tv and the arcade cabinet thankfully. That means not only the videogames, but the minis and boardgames aswell. Already burdened with enough pcs and my R2, well space is my only real problem right now.

Other than that a real sound system with some tower speakers, and a nice green velvet topped foldable table, for the board games you know.

I might just make that last one myself...

[Raz1r]

I'm working on getting an HDTV (check my thread if you have any suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it). I'm looking to get a new TV stand as well, something that can hold at least 5 or 6 of my 10 consoles. I also gotta work on getting some good speakers, but I can't figure out what outputs I need on the TV that I'm going to buy for surround.

I also gotta figure out how to store all these Genesis and Double-wide Playstation games along with the DVD and CD based games.

[RadarScope1]

First: actually get one. We have an apartment now, but when we buy a house my wife is well aware that I'm taking over either the basement or a spare room for a man cave/game room.

Second: Need a real TV. That's coming within the next few months. My current TV is a 27" tuber I bought a decade ago. Upgrade get.

I want to get rid of those wires, too, like others have said. Sadly it's just not going to happen when you have a half-dozen or more pieces of hardware. I really wish some manufacturer would come up with a niche-market input selector for hardcore types, with like 8 or 10 inputs, including a couple of component or S-video ones. How badass would that be?

And I know I'm going to differ with many people on this one, but I want some nice drawers for all of my games and peripherals, instead of shelves. I know, I know, shelving lets you show off your collection. But I'm a really anal person and after a while it just begins to look messy. If I had an unlimited budget I'd even go so far as getting a couple of custom drawer units built to hold those different sizes of carts and cases.

[opethfan]

Well I'm staying with my parents while I'm getting 'educated', so I'm dying for my own place. I think a 27" LCD would be nice, and a good set of bookcases for my games and DVDs, I don't have much space for collecting games at all right now. The TV has to be hooked up the best way possible.

My current PC (The one I'm typing on now) will take care of most gaming and home theater duties, because it's got a desktop home theater case, SPDIF sound out and doesn't make any noise. I'll connect it via DVI, put on a nice Linux distro and configure (or code) a menu that has TV, DVD, recordings and an option for all my emulators. Emulators generally give a better picture and sound quality anyway. The real things go on shelves or in units to stay safe. My multitude of Genesis and Nintendo carts will just be there for collection. I know the Playstation emulator can read real discs. I can buy a Bluetooth PCI adapter and some PS3 controllers to play games with. The d-pad on the 360 is a deal breaker on this one.

Dreamcast will have to be hooked up with VGA (bought my box Friday), and every console that can't be emulated will surely get the RGB mods applied to them, will do. Maybe I'll convert the signals to YPbPr, or I'll use a sync separator and make them VGA. I'm thinking that for the Saturn, don't know what other systems can't be emulated really. PS2 uses component natively, so I'll use that (if I don't have a PS3 by then), and whether I have a 360 or a Wii of my own is yet to be seen, but the Wii has component, and the 360 will have HDMI across the board by the time I get one.

I think my old Yamaha reciever won't be able to handle all this gaming (it doesn't switch HDMI).

[lordofduct]

figure out a cost effective and workable way to use RGB output on all my old school consoles. It sucks that right from the start it's a pain as my TV doesn't even have RGB input (damn NTSC).

[opethfan]

figure out a cost effective and workable way to use RGB output on all my old school consoles. It sucks that right from the start it's a pain as my TV doesn't even have RGB input (damn NTSC).

RGB requires an additional signal for synchronizing the video display. Several methods are used:

* composite sync, where the horizontal and vertical signals are mixed together on a separate wire (the S in RGBS)
* separate sync, where the horizontal and vertical are each on their own wire (the H and V in RGBHV)
* sync on green, where a composite sync signal is overlaid on the green wire (SoG or RGsB).

You'd need a sync separator. Take the RGB sync and use the chip to take it to H-sync and V-sync, package it in a VGA connector. In theory.

Or convert RGB to YPbPr somehow (google).

[grittykitty]

i now have a bigger apartment and 2 roommates. we have a large but old tv in the living room along with my roomies' xbox and snes, my sega cdx will be joining them shortly. we have some big speakers, a couch, and my comfy chair to go with that setup - nothing extravagant, but very simple and effective. my room is pretty tiny and i'm still unpacking my crap. i'm planning on getting a small bookcase for books (some gaming related, heh) and my genesis carts. i'm planning on buying a small nightstand and a small tv/vcr combo to put next to the bed to hold my genesis 3 arriving in the mail soon (with a region mod switch to play my new japanese carts). i should be picking up a new dreamcast tonight, which will likely go near my desk so i can hook it up to my nice new stereo (a denon mini-system) and since the dreamcast looks great with the vga cable hooked up to my lcd, or at least it did before my dreamcast stopped working (hence buying the new one).

i definitely choose simplicity and "quaintness" (ugh, i don't like that word) over excessive extravagance

[opethfan]

My getup right now isn't actually too bad, except it's not mine (hate living with the 'rents )
32" LCD with PS2 and Wii connected via component
Shaw digital cable connected via dollar store composite cables (box doesn't even have S-video, damn cheap Motorola)
Yamaha HDMI DVD player connected with HDMI and digital coaxial audio
Yamaha 5.1 receiver (2 speakers right now).

Problem is my parents cheaped out on the receiver. Sounds great, but it hasn't got enough inputs. We're routing everything through the TV, and just using the receiver for audio, and the TV's out of component inputs. The receiver only has 2 or 3 comp inputs as well, and anything connected via composite ISN'T routed through component. Nice design Yamaha! On top of that, there's no HDMI switching. Grrr. I can't live without component now I've had it. Everything else just looks bad (apart from VGA\HDMI).

[Radical Iceman]

I have been meaning to set up a game room with the Samsung 26 inch HDTV I have now, in addition to a 90's sony trinitron CRT of some sort, but since I live in Europe now, the logistics of getting a good NTSC CRT is expensive.

I pretty much only play older games, so I would really like an older TV to complete the retro feel, it just does not seem right playing my old systems on this new state of the art TV. I mainly use this TV as a monitor for my Laptop and run emulators on it at this current time.

[diehllane]

I was thinking about buying some plywood and 2 x 4's to build my own arcade cabinet. I'd put a regular TV in it, and a shelf inside for consoles. I would probably have the NES in there and hook up advantages to use for the joysticks. Nothing fancy. Just something different and cool. But I would also like to be able to use other systems. Granted I'd need joysticks for most of them since the only other system I have an arcade stick for is the Saturn.