My biggest arcade project so far: The building of gameroom "Level 42"

[ChadTower]

I love the word gipsplaat.  That is so You Can't Do That On Television.     

[Ummon]

Hey, that was a show wasn't it?  Wow, distant memory.

[Kevin Mullins]

Today is second x-mas day here (yes we celebrate two of them ) so I won't be doing anything. We're going to see Madagascar 2 today and the in-laws will be having dinner here.
But my company is closed until jan 5 so I have plenty of days to work on it. There's another good thing: Lot's of stores start sales here on 2nd x-mas day and the days after it.

Bit off topic -
My girlfriend and I were just talking about all of that and I must say I'm envious.
There's alot of traditions and such overseas I wish the US would pick up on.
Should see lots of good progress on your gameroom with all that extra time. 

[Level42]

Yeah Kev, but remember, we live like rats here.......

Did I already mention I dropped the idea of the SW photowallpaper ? I figured that there were too many drawbacks:
- the machine(s) would cover most part of it
- it will draw away the attention from the cockpit itself too much, which obviously is the "star" here....

I will be painting the wall darkish blue and install the blue neon there plus the great SW-Atari poster that I already had printed.

So now I'm planning on getting the DK blik wall vinyl art for the other "short wall". I found blik has a distributor in the UK which is a good thing for us EU people. Saves on shipping and more important on custom duties and VAT. With the great Euro-UKP rate at this moment it's cheaper for me to buy from them.

http://www.supernice.co.uk/product.php/216/96/donkey-kong

Nice:


Think I will wait with the order until the machines are in the room, that way I can see how many packages I need. The paint has to dry very well (3 weeks) before I can intall the decals anyway so that's no problem.

Well, off to the stores. Found a chain-store for floors offering 40% off today


Patrick: Thanks for setting that straight. As you can see I'm a no-no at this stuff. Knowing myself I probably will be ending up going for the perfect finish anyway.....

[patrickl]

Patrick: Thanks for setting that straight. As you can see I'm a no-no at this stuff. Knowing myself I probably will be ending up going for the perfect finish anyway.....

Well since I'm still fixing my new house I'm knee deep in this kind of mess too   I only used the water proof (green) plasterboards in the batroom though. For the rest I went with Ytong blocks and glass blocks. Just put one of these Ytong walls up and I'm now facing the daunting task of putting plaster on it

BTW you might know this (but it was new to me when they told me) you need to put primer (voorstrijk) on these plasterboards before you put any finish on them (painting, wallpaper, plaster, tiles).

[Level42]

BTW you might know this (but it was new to me when they told me) you need to put primer (voorstrijk) on these plasterboards before you put any finish on them (painting, wallpaper, plaster, tiles).

Yup, actually it's "Diepgrond", just picked up a bucket full of it

We also have a winner on the vinyl. Not bought at any of the stores with lots of discounts, but I saw this at Hornbach when I was getting all the wall materials there and instantly liked it:



Sorry about the poor GSM picture, it's actually really black with white stripes. Not as colorful as I wished for, but it fits the arcade theme IMHO.

[patrickl]

BTW you might know this (but it was new to me when they told me) you need to put primer (voorstrijk) on these plasterboards before you put any finish on them (painting, wallpaper, plaster, tiles).

Yup, actually it's "Diepgrond", just picked up a bucket full of it

Actually, "Diepgrond" is for fixing walls that are loose (caulk or dust comes off). It glues the material of the wall together. "Voorstrijk" is for countering the water absorption. That should have been good enough for plasterboards. but then I guess diepgrond would work fine too. Just sounds more expensive. Plasterboard is not as bad (aborbant) as regular plaster anyway.

I guess you also need something different for whatever you want to put on.

We also have a winner on the vinyl.

Look arcady yes. Although I think the arcades I went to had some sort of "muddy tiles with cigarette bun motif" on the floor    What's with the price though? Is that 40 euro per m2?

[Level42]

So why is it I keep buying the wrong stuff. Yes "diepgrond" is pretty expensive. I read somewhere that that was what would be needed......ahhh well, will swap it ASAP.

No, no not 40 per m2 but per "strekkende meter" so per 4 meter wide. I needed 5,5 m so you can do the calculation.....

O, and they were out of muddy tiles with cigarette burn motif   

[patrickl]

So why is it I keep buying the wrong stuff. Yes "diepgrond" is pretty expensive. I read somewhere that that was what would be needed......ahhh well, will swap it ASAP.

Well you need another primer for every application. It might be that you have the right product. I just thought that diepgrond was for loose plaster walls. The primer you use has to fit with the material you put it on (gipsplaten are not very absorbant) and with the material you want to put on it.  In my bathroom we used some pinkish primer, for the toilet I think it was blueish and on the (plastered) walls I used latex primer. It's astonishing how many different options they have for everything. My "father in law" helped, but he's from Bulgaria so he knew what he needed, but not which brand/type. So we had to go through all the available options to figure out if it was what he was looking for.

If you simply paint it you might get actually away with painting a layer with diluted paint that first. In my case I calculated that voorstrijk as actually cheaper than thinning the paint, but then I wanted it white. In your case you want it dark blue so using a thinned paint might actually be cheaper than buying a spedial primer (it might save you an extra layer). Some paints claim they don't even need primer at all, but I don't trust that. If it dries quicker in some spots than in others you can tell and then you have to put on an extra layer.

[Kevin Mullins]

Yeah Kev, but remember, we live like rats here.......

Oh please .... I know better than that.

BTW - That flooring you chose should look pretty sweet. I like the more simplistic black/white color scheme. For the amount space you're covering it will work well and not distract from the actual machines.

[Level42]

Hehe, thanks for the photo-shopping Kev....

[ChadTower]

Most of the flooring is going to be covered in games, anyway, and it will be dark in there.

[polaris]

Most of the flooring is going to be covered in games,

and cigarette butts when i visit, but dont worry i wont just drop them on the floor, i'll rest them on the control panels when i play the games

[Level42]

Most of the flooring is going to be covered in games,

and cigarette butts when i visit, but dont worry i wont just drop them on the floor, i'll rest them on the control panels when i play the games

If you bring that 24" iMac for me I'll allow you to smoke in the gameroom . And you'll be the one and only ever

[Level42]

Last update for 2008:

Yesterday was a BAD day. Everything that could go wrong went wrong and at the end of the day it felt we had done just about nothing.....then to top it all, I missed the deal of the century (20 classic cabs amongst them a LOT of Nintendo's in one deal for less than €2000, I just don't have the space for a lot like that, what a shame.....)

Anyway this is how it is now. walls are done except for the separating wall. The ceiling is done, but three drywall plates still have to be installed. Got special plans with two of them which require a lot of patient work.....

Insulation is almost complete, also in the shed part.

Pics:

Had to get and install a lot of extra wood for the ceiling as the logs that carry the roof were not exactly spaced for the drywall. Also they need support every 30 cm so that was lots of work extra.





HV supply for the blue neon on the "Star Wars" wall (bought from the US, cheap AND 230V, also completely electronic so energy efficient and constant brightness):


The other HV supply for the red noen on the "Donkey Kong" wall. Also wires for the main (halogene) lighting. Will be used only for working on the cabs etc. More wires for fire alarm (red) and lots of power....

[FrizzleFried]

Not sure if you mentioned this,  but I don't think so.

What are you doing for cooling/heat?  Portable AC/Heater?

[Level42]

Good question, I had some ideas but wasn't sure until a week or two ago. A neighbor couple of doors away is a plumber and central heating installer, and I asked him about the best way to do it. (And he will install it)

Electrical heating would be way too expensive in energy costs. Heating air is always a poor idea compared to radiated heating. Over here in the Netherlands the vast majority of homes have gas powered heating, connected to the gas distribution lines across the country. (there was a really large natural gas supply discovered in the 50's and since then this kind of heating has become "standard" here.) The system has a central heater that heats water which is pumped through the radiators throughout the house. (Sorry if this is obvious, just wanted to explain it).

There will be a radiator installed in the gameroom part and connected to the main central heating in my home. The pipes will run 60 cm. deep in the ground of the yard to prevent them from freezing in wintertime. The pipes will be the modern flexible ("plastic") kind that is fully insulated, apparently there are special pipes for this.

The radiator will have it's own thermostat so I can regulate the heat there. There's only one drawback:
The central clock-thermostat decides if the heater will be fired. That means the gameroom can only be at full heat when the home is also heated, so whenever we're not working etc. Since that will be the case in 99% of the time, it's really no problem. The central thermostat is always at a minimum temperature of 16 degr. celcius so the there will always be a temperature in the gameroom (just like in my home) that is comfortable for the machines, so no damp air etc.

Hope that explains it.

About AC: usually summers are not that hot here. Temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius are exceptions (although the last years we had some pretty hot summers). I hope the roof insulation (which is on the top, so preventing heat from the roof) and the wall insulation will keep temperatures reasonable.

[Blanka]

I visited Bruno's gameroom, and he heats it with.... well.... cabinets 
Pretty comfy even with -5 outside.

[ChadTower]

About AC: usually summers are not that hot here.

Running 20 cabs in a small enclosed space has a way of changing that.

[Level42]

Yep. But 20 won't fit in there. My guess is 15-16 max.(Remember I have two cockpits and one pinball too.....) Apart from that, won't be running all of them at once all of the time.

On the other side, when it's over the 30's, playing the games/working on them is not on top of my list

[FrizzleFried]

Consider a portable A/C for those hot times...you can roll it around as necessary and keep it in storage aside from the days you use it.

[Level42]

Yeah, that's what I thought, I can always buy one of those. Or install a small fixed unit.

Today I will be creating the "star light roof"....wish me luck, this will be tedious...

[patrickl]

Yeah, that's what I thought, I can always buy one of those. Or install a small fixed unit.

Today I will be creating the "star light roof"....wish me luck, this will be tedious...

Oh cool, the ceiling with little lights you mean? My GF will be so jealous. She likes to go through the carwash with me just because it has a star ceiling at the end

[Level42]

Yup. Thought it would be cool to see it from the SW cockpit

Of course she's always welcome here to see the "star-light" effect (And you too of course  )

[Level42]

First almost completed the separating wall today. Couldn't finish it completely because I'm still waiting for the switch boxes. Damn Conrad said it would be delivered within 2 days and I ordered them dec. 13 !!!! Not a single mail or call from then about the status. Site now says delivery from jan 7 !! 

DO NOT BUY AT WWW.CONRAD.NL ! 

Mailed them today that I want my money back NOW and guess what, NO reply....wow, surprising. 
So far for German "grundlichkeit"......

O well, also worked on the star-lights....

First painted two drywall plates black (remind me to clean my camera lense !):



Carefully layed out the exact pattern of the stars as seen from Alderaan (when it still existed):


Let's see if I got it right:


Drill the holes at the right places:


Install the LED's from the back. At this point I didn't think about the center of the board, where the middle support will be........that meant some changing of LED places and "digging" some slots to get the wire and LEDs out of the way of the center. Else the board would not be tight against the middle support.......O well, we keep learning all the time right ?


So how to fix the LED's ? Well Glue gun of course !


Hard to get a good picture....it looks great in real-life.


I gave it a second layer of paint after this. I installed the LED's so they were still _inside_ the board and not sticking out. This way the paint was not going over the LED's. Some holes did get filled a bit, but actually that's a nice effect as it made some "stars" look smaller/further away than others.

I had to cut the wire to be able to spread the LEDs over two boards. There would be NO way to mount the two boards at once....Will add some extra wire to bridge.

Will mount the boards tomorrow.

[Level42]

My dad helped again today to mount the starlight boards....

The first one went without any problems. I had made a support to keep the board up. I had cut the wiring so we could install the two boards individually and made a bridging wiring to re-connect them once installed.

We held up the second board and I was reconnecting the bridging wire when disaster struck.....somehow the support came loose and we dropped the board....it broke across. I guess you could have learned a couple of nice bad Dutch words from me when that happened. Luckily not all of the paper went through.

I didn't feel much like preparing another board like this one so we decided to take our chances and still install the board. It actually went surprisingly well. The break fitted like a jig-saw puzzle and I could reconnect the wiring and install the boards without much trouble. Of course there were some cracks in the paper top layer. We glued them and will mud and sand them. Will have to mud the tacks anyway so that's not a big thing. I'm pretty sure it will turn out fine in the end.

Tested the lights and to my relief, they still worked !

And of course it will require one more layer of black paint.



It's freaking hard to get a good picture of it, it looks much more impressive in real life



All the tack holes in the walls are mudded, I applied the glassfiber tape so I'm ready to do the mudding of the seams on the walls. The ceiling will keep the seams, I don't mind them at all. Got all unnecessary stuff out of the room and cleaned up all the tools and stuff so we have plenty of room to do the mudding and sanding.

[patrickl]

That's quite cool 

BTW Indeed swear words tend to fly when I'm DIY-ing too. When my "father in law" was here and he heard me say "kut" a lot, he thought I was expressing that I was impressed with my work (he speaks some German and though I said "gut").

[Darth Nuno]

Looks nice 

I've visited the Atarimania game room in the past, and he has done a similar work.

Too bad I only have two pictures (very poor quality) of his game room but you can see a part of the thing 



I don't remember exactly, but I would say he didn't use plaster boards like you, but a kind of 'tight' or 'taut' ceiling ?
Anyway, I remember it was very impressive !

He also used lights inserted in the floor, like in the theaters ->



Good job so far André   

[Level42]

Thanks Bruno. It's weird. When the starlights are off, the black is really "coming at you" and gives a feeling like the ceiling is very low. However when the stars are on it gives a really roomy feel   (Or should I say "spacey")

Closed all the seams in the walls today. Yes, I'd decided to do it properly while I'm at it now. No way to "fix" it later. Also filled a couple of thousand (?) tack-holes, which is especially fun overhead....

I never minded painting, but the long and tedious process of preparing the subject takes away all the fun....

Sorry no pics today. The lamp that I had lend from my dad burned out and I thought it was a good time to quit for the day.
So, getting a new bulb will be the first thing tomorrow. That plus some dustmasks since sanding is next on the list ....... hooray !!!   

[orion]

Closed all the seams in the walls today. Yes, I'd decided to do it properly while I'm at it now. No way to "fix" it later. Also filled a couple of thousand (?) tack-holes, which is especially fun overhead....

I kinda had a feeling you would do just that!  That star field is really cool! 

[Level42]

Thanks, yeah I figured I'd do it now or never.
Seams in the ceiling stay though....

So today was a lot of fun. Sanding, sanding and some more sanding. I looked like one of those guys from Home Alone after a while.

So how did the starlight sky look after mudding and sanding ? Like a POS:



However, it already looks a lot better now, gave it another layer of black paint and it came out nice. Bad thing was that my son walked up there and asked why I left some of the staples in there......those are the extremely rare times that you want to kick a six year old's butt, bet then again, he _was_ right. Due to the blackness I missed quite a few of the tackholes on the black part while mudding.....ahhhhh...Why don't they make black mudding-stuff........anyway I didn't take a picture of how it looks now, but it's close to perfect.

Walls after mudding and sanding...





Now, I am in doubt. I don't think I did the mudding nice enough to paint the dryboards directly. There are some holes and "slots" in the mudding that are going to be irritating I think when it's painted. So I guess I will go with the glassfiber-wallpaper thing. Will make it look tight, classy and will hide those little bad parts in the mudding. Also it will enforce the wall which is always a good thing.

I just applied a kind of primer on the dryboards so they won't suck up all the glue.

Got a SMS from the store that my vinyl is ready to be picked up (although I have no clue how I'm going to get a 4x5.5 m piece of vinyl in my car....... :S

Also, I'm not ready for it yet.

Mains plugs for the 19" switchboards arrived from the UK.

Ordered one set of Donkey Kong wall-art from Supernice in the UK.

Now if only I'd get those damn switchboxes.....

[FrizzleFried]

I'd simply texture the walls and go from there.

[Level42]

Texture ? Like something like this:



or

this:

[Neverending Project]

Here in the US, walls are typically textured using either an "Orange Peel" texture, or one called "Knockdown". Orange Peel tends to look like the skin of an orange, and knockdown has larger areas of flattened texture. Both are very common on interior walls here.

Orange peel can be done by a novice (e.g. me) relatively easily with a sprayer from a hardware store, but I believe knockdown requires a little bit more experience to get it looking good.

[Blanka]

My 2 cents: just paint it white. No glassfiber wallpaper, no structure, just white paint. That still looks the best!

[patrickl]

Weren't you going to paint the walls dark blue? If you sanded the spots smooth enough it shouldn't be visible after painting. Shine a light along the wall and you'll quickly see any imperfections that need to be sanded or filled.

I simply painted my (plastered) walls too and I think it looks fine. Took us days of sanding and filling and sanding again etc etc. Sure, spachtelputz or something like that is prettier, but that costs a fortune and there is no way you can get that done yourself. Most of the walls will be covered anyway (either with cabs or posters).

[Level42]

White ? It's not going to be a dentists room......

Yes blue(ish) and red will be the colors. One wall will be black to host the DK art.

I'm sick and tired of sanding and filling and mudding and stuff so I figured the glassfiber would be a good option. Cheap, quick but still tight looking.

Spachtelputz etc. are absolutely out of the question, waste of money as 3/4 of the walls will be covered by cabs anyway (guess mostly I'll only see the top 1/4).


I haven't made up my mind about the color for the rest of the ceiling. How about Pac Man yellow

[FrizzleFried]

Yes..."orange peel" is the way to go.  You can buy cans of it from the local hardware store and it's pretty easy to apply...

[patrickl]

Low light levels and dark paint are going to hide a whole lot of imperfections.

[Blanka]

Blue, sure, I wanted to suggest that, only I saw Jan des Bouvrie passing by so I wrote White 
I can give you the number of the best blue in the market. It's from Praxis, and it covers on gypsum in 1 layer perfectly, even when its not smoother than smooth. Its close to RAL 5017, but I'll post the Praxis number soon.