New house, new ideas!

RedXIV

Hey guys!

I know I haven't been around the last while enjoying the retro market, but that was house deposit saving time! That's done now though and now I'm in the fun part of planning a house build!

I'm wondering what any of you serious collectors would love to have in a house/games room, knowing what you do now. From space considerations, lighting, electrics, or comfort, anything is on the table. The boss knows I want a man cave and I've 4 kids who will play games with me if it helps I have about 15 different consoles (pretty much popular 8-bit consoles up to modern entries) and maybe 300 physical games?

At this point my concerns are around a few things:

• Space - I'd love at least one arcade cabinet. Maybe more but definitely one
• Switching inputs, cables etc - I remember Cider had a smart system for this from a beers but I can't remember what it was
• Storage options - games, consoles, controllers etc

Any tips, ideas, concerns, now would be the time to get into the plan while negotiating with architect (and the better half )

Thanks!

Best tip I'll give you is draw up a plan and then double the size of the room.

geotrig

if its being planned as a games room ,loads and loads of socket points to plug **** in ! extension cords are a pain in the arse.

hellsing101

You can never have enough space, plus sockets in convenient places. If I had the space I would look at setting up some sort of projector with a screen.

Jimmy Bottlehead

I will be following this thread with interest. Congrats on the upcoming build, Red!

hellsing101

I would also add some sort of storage room, you will always have bits and pieces that you dont want to display but dont want to throw away or have too far away from your games room like spare controllers, duplicate games, console boxes, parts, cables etc. In my own room I have a small built in wardrobe in the room that was never used, can throw all my spare stuff in there and its out of the way but if the lads come over I can quickly pull out some spare controllers without going to the attic.

RedXIV

BrownFinger wrote: »

Best tip I'll give you is draw up a plan and then double the size of the room.

Yeah that's making me consider moving it out of the house and putting it in a separate building where I'd have a bit more control over the size I'd like. But then I'd have to go outside to get to it. Pros and cons still to work on!

geotrig wrote: »

if its being planned as a games room ,loads and loads of socket points to plug **** in ! extension cords are a pain in the arse.

Holy crap I never even though about this! Good thinking!

hellsing101 wrote: »

You can never have enough space, plus sockets in convenient places. If I had the space I would look at setting up some sort of projector with a screen.

Good shout on the sockets too! A projector screen would be pretty awesome too Def one for the wishlist if I have the space!

Jimmy Bottlehead wrote: »

I will be following this thread with interest. Congrats on the upcoming build, Red!

Cheers! 3 years of saving is starting to finally feel worthwhile! (I mean other than the actual getting of a house )

hellsing101 wrote: »

I would also add some sort of storage room, you will always have bits and pieces that you dont want to display but dont want to throw away or have too far away from your games room like spare controllers, duplicate games, console boxes, parts, cables etc. In my own room I have a small built in wardrobe in the room that was never used, can throw all my spare stuff in there and its out of the way but if the lads come over I can quickly pull out some spare controllers without going to the attic.

That's a good point, i was looking more at the open front book shelves etc but one of the things that irks me the most about my current gaming corner is the bundles of wires that sit around for when you might need them. And I actually have 2 bags of random cables as well around the house, be a good place to store them all and build up good favour with the missus

I have controlled sockets-
4 gang switch behind the door controls 4 separate double sockets so I can switch on certain machines.
Expensive but very convenient.
Have a fiber optic ceiling too (cheap but took hours to install ,14appox!).

RedXIV

BrownFinger wrote: »

I have controlled sockets-
4 gang switch behind the door controls 4 separate double sockets so I can switch on certain machines.
Expensive but very convenient.
Have a fiber optic ceiling too (cheap but took hours to install ,14appox!).

The gang switch sounds very handy. That I'll have to look into.

What am I missing with the fiber optic ceiling? I'm thinking in terms of data transfer cable which I'm guessing you're not talking about?

I mean a kit like this for a staring ceiling.
ceiling is black

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-fiber-optic-light-kit-twinkle-shooting-stars-optical-fiber-ceiling-light/121816422461?hash=item1c5cd3183d:g:sU0AAOSwkZhWSeum

o1s1n

Have a click through the after photos of the gamesroom this dude just made over on reddit, it's absolutely gorgeous

https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/comments/iez4pn/it_was_a_big_day_yesterday_myself_im_the_guy_in/

CiDeRmAn

My AV approach was wonderful, a decade ago!
But, while it saved on cables, being basically a left, right and video cable running the length of the room with junction boxes every so often so you could jack in the consoles, it was taking a poor video standard (Composite) and making it worse!

In the end, I bought a bunch of Bandridge scart switchers, and RGB'd everything.
It's very much not a neat effort, but at least everything looks amazing.

I will be re-organising everything in the coming month or two, so hopefully it will all make more sense then!

RedXIV

BrownFinger wrote: »

I mean a kit like this for a staring ceiling.
ceiling is black

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-fiber-optic-light-kit-twinkle-shooting-stars-optical-fiber-ceiling-light/121816422461?hash=item1c5cd3183d:g:sU0AAOSwkZhWSeum

I actually really like this! Might look at putting it in a few rooms. Unless it's a complete nightmare from your experience? I think it'd be nice in herself's wardrobe/makeup room (trade off for games room)

o1s1n wrote: »

Have a click through the after photos of the gamesroom this dude just made over on reddit, it's absolutely gorgeous

https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/comments/iez4pn/it_was_a_big_day_yesterday_myself_im_the_guy_in/

I love how clean that looks! I just don't know where I'd get that many CRTs??

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

My AV approach was wonderful, a decade ago!
But, while it saved on cables, being basically a left, right and video cable running the length of the room with junction boxes every so often so you could jack in the consoles, it was taking a poor video standard (Composite) and making it worse!

In the end, I bought a bunch of Bandridge scart switchers, and RGB'd everything.
It's very much not a neat effort, but at least everything looks amazing.

I will be re-organising everything in the coming month or two, so hopefully it will all make more sense then!

If you were to say, photo document some of the process, I'm sure there could be beers handed over as payment!

Here's a vid of my room from december last.
Some changes since ,18 wheeler is gone and my PC gaming desk is in there.
I gave up my office for an en suite bathroom.
An arcade and an office was a bit cheeky in fairness !!!

https://imgur.com/gallery/Q1JNGfJ

The fiber optics twinkle and can change colour if you want.
I usually keep them white.

Lemming

If you're doing a new house build, consider having cat6 networking cable installed into rooms when the electrical wiring is going in too. Decide where you want network points to end up and have the wiring run to those. Once plastering and decorating has been done, no sign of cables anywhere, just network plates in the walls. I did that with mine; handed the electricians a roll of cable, told them which rooms and where and paid them an extra couple of hundred for the effort. I just set the network panels up as a relay of sorts back to a designated room that has multiple network points in it, and whatever port I want to use, I plug the corresponding one into my network switch. You could set up a proper network with a patch panel and all that but tbh, the above works and is simple to use and manage with no extra hardware required.

Also +1 on that suggestion for extra power points. Consider getting some facia plates that also have USB ports on them for rooms where you think they might be useful, e,g. bedrooms, kitchen, etc. Very useful if you need to charge something or whatever and saves you having to go looking for a USB plug adapeter whilst freeing up sockets for other things. Only thing being those sorts of power socket facia plates tend to need slightly deeper boxes in which to sit.

The Last Bandit

Think about the layout of the room and where you'll be sitting in relation to the TV's & consoles and place the sockets in a logic place for that layout as opposed to every corner of the room.
Ya networks cables are always a good idea if you can and use dual-gang sockets with USB ports built-it.

Worth bearing in mind that this may not always be a games room (baby's tend to screw up plans) so don't go apesh1te with the sockets

RedXIV

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Worth bearing in mind that this may not always be a games room (baby's tend to screw up plans) so don't go apesh1te with the sockets

Had 4, got myself fixed. Any baby that appears will do so under serious investigation!!!

CiDeRmAn