My Game Room/Movie Room - PICS UPDATED !

[mike boss]

It's amazing how time just whips by us sometimes.
Last December my wife and I began the renovation of our basement.
I had always dreamed of a games room ever since I got into the coin-op hobby.
We were blessed that my father in law is a jack of all trades and has been in the renovation business for years. Both he and my mother in law had agreed to help us take on the project.

My wife and I had spent quite some time looking at furniture, artwork, and just over all ideas for the space. I had so much I had wanted to see come to life including built in cubby units to display my sneaker collection. (Yet, I really wanted that !)

In the end we (or I...ok I!) realized that a space more universal would be more ideal and better for resale should we ever decided to move.

I'm very pleased with results, this is a place both the wife and I love and I really feel we both got what we wanted. I have a place to display and play my arcade machines that fits and suits my needs to a T. We've incorporated some cool things like some of my figure collection, neon signs, a Popcorn machine and even my mini Coke fridge.

Here are a few sample videos of one half of the room :

http://www.youtube.com/user/mikeboss416

The room is divided into two sections, the Movie Room and the Game Room.
The Game Room features 4 Nintendo cabinets, Mario Bros MAME, Popeye Jamma, DK Jamma with 60-in-1, and DK JR with MAME. A Japanese slot machine, two neon sings, in wall speakers, mini Coke fridge and a few other cool things.

The Move Room (not yet shown) has my console collection with consoles ranging from the Atari Flashback to Wii and XBOX 360. Full 5.1 speaker set up with 55" TV and sectional seating.

It's a place I think that is both my wife and I. Really I feel we both won with this space and I thought I would share some footage.

Thoughts ?

http://www.youtube.com/user/mikeboss416

[KeithPuetz]

Love the nintendo cabinets!

[mike boss]

Thank you.

The really have become a favorite of mine.
I honestly I'd like more....but nothing else will make it into the house.
I'm still working on the Mario and when it's done I'll have a pair of Aim Trak guns with it.
Driving games would be cool, but no way I'll add a wheel and pedals.

[mike boss]

Going to be making some changes to the gamesroom soon, more just decorations, props, etc.
I'll post some videos when done.

I'm also thinking about taking a paint marker (fat tip) and trying to clean up the DK head painting.
I'm disappointed in what the artist did and honestly shouldn't have paid in full, I am still a customer after all.
None the less what's done is done and I just need to see what I can do.

[ChadTower]

Nice.  We'd definitely be interested in seeing more of the room itself.   Maybe some before and after if possible?  The renovation process is something that people love to show finished results but rarely the process as it happens.

[BadMouth]

You're making more off those Mala layouts than I thought!

What's up with the stretched widescreens in the vert cabs? 

[mike boss]

Hey Bad Mouth !
I wish I could say the MaLa stuff paid for the basement, sadly it didn't.
At best it paid for a few parts on the machines.
On DK JR and DK I used 19" LCD monitors, they are as you pointed out widescreen.
I look locally for good deals to pop up on old 19" LCD (4x3 ratio) monitors. I got a few, but then end up putting them in projects.
The widescreen honestly doesn't bug me, and I think I keep them cause t hey were purchased new. Very few hours on them.

I'll snap some pics, or perhaps take a video of the movie section. I have to remove Christmas from the basement and clean.
So perhaps this weekend I'll add some photos.

For now searching Kijiji for some cool trinkets !

[mike boss]

Here is a link to a gallery with some pics :

http://imgur.com/a/i4WD2

I was having issues with the image hosting site I use, so for now I could not get the thumbnails up.

[mike boss]

I can't believe my luck. I had typed up a description of each picture. Went to post the info and the site tossed me out. Couldn't use the back button to retrieve the info.

[mike boss]

I just noticed the link posted was bad. I modified the link so it should work.
Any thoughts or feedback are welcome. I'd love to know what everyone thinks.
Below I've included a lil write up on the pictures, the contents, etc.

Thanks all

PIC 1 - A shot of the basement as you come down the stairs.
We still have work to do, picture has to be hung between the two sconces.
I've had this gumball machine since I was a kid, early teens perhaps ? Glad to
have a home for it.

PIC 2 - Our Ice Crea/Beverage cooler. Wife and I picked this up recently.
I'd like to perhaps modify it, make it into something Good Humor perhaps ?
She however likes it as is !

PIC 3 - Our media wall. 55" Samsung LED TV, Hi-Def TV, BluRay, Wii, XBOX 360,
and various consoles. I had purchased some color-changing LED lights from Ikea.
The "dioder" they are called. They were to be mounted behind the TV, however using
the low profile braket as I did, my fat hands cant get behind the TV to install them.
I'll need to find another use some place in the basement.

PIC 4 - Close up shot of the component shelf. From top to bottom : Wii, Hi-Def TV,
XBOX 360 (1 of 2), 5.1 Audio reciever, misc storage/part time laptop hook up, Media Binders

PIC 5 - Our electric fireplace and XBOX Kinect holder. Also a great place to mount our
wireless Wii sensor bar.

PIC 6 - Console collection (part of). From top to bottom : Gamecube, NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube 2,
Sega Dreamcast, PS1, PS2, XBOX

PIC 7 & 8 - Console close ups. A couple things I wish I had done with the basement really stand out
when I see these pics. The media wall is built out about two feet. Behind it is a concrete wall.
If you were to remove the fireplace you could get behind the wall to do any work needed.
I wish I had run the wires for the consoles behind the shelving, as opposed to down the side.
I had planned to use white tubing sold @ Ikea to hide the black mess, however I'm yet to do it.
None  the less, would have been better or cleaner to go behind. Sadly I thought I covered all my
bases when doing the basement design, this was an oversight.

PIC 9 - NintendROW :
Mario Bros MAME w/ console emulation and Super Street Fighter IV arcade.
Popeye - 2 player Jamma with a VS style control panel layout.
As of now the cabinet features WWF Wrestlefest
Donkey Kong - 60 in 1 Jamma cabinet with LCD monitor and scanline generator.
Donkey Kong Jr - Vertical MAME w/ custom MaLa layout and LCD monitor.

PIC 10 - One of my newest purchases, a mental Nintendo sign from eBay. $30 shipped !
I plan on trying to mount some cold cathode tubes to the inside back for a cool
effect !

PIC 11 - Candy & Popcorn station (and bar...kinda) . This was the wifes project.
A few candy jars, a popcorn machine, and an assortment of glasses including her
shot glass collection. We added my neon sign and some lighting on the bottom and back
of the unit. Looks great when the lights are off, gives it a floating type look.
Not sure if we still was the baskets on the bottom, or perhaps replace them with
bottles of booze.

PIC 12 - My Fas Foosball table and some random stuff with no home yet ! Popcorn
accessories, iCade and a Ford sign.

PIC 13 - My neon NAILS sign, this was from a slaon, this was a mistake. When I was
all hype over neon I got this cause it was large and cheap. But in reality it will
never be displayed. I just haven't got around to putting it up for sale on the local
Kijiji.

PIC 14,15, & 16 - The seating area. Love the sectional seating as it gives both the
wife and I a place to lie down. That means no fighting ! A few leather chairs and a
barcelona chair round out the seating.
One of the pics I took from the far corner of the space. Gives you and idea how
the space is laid out. I'd like to pick up two more of the red stools (infront of
the cabinets) and get some form of cover built for the foosball table. Giving it
multiple uses, perhaps a games table ?

PIC 17 & 18 - I commissioned a local graffiti artist to do some paintings for the
gamesroom. The DK Jr head is inspired the Donkey Kong Jr sideart. It measures
30" x 36" inches. I'd like to take a fat tip paint marker to it and detail it a lil
better as some of the line work is not that crisp.
The second is the word "arcade" done in typical street style graffiti. It measures
36" x 60". It was supposed to be MegaMan...long story how it went from MegaMan to
the word arcade. I'm just happy its decent. If I could tweak the tweak the DK one
a little I'd be "kinda" happy.

PIC 19 - A shot of the candy/popcorn station with the lights on. Doesn't read well
because of the flash.

PIC 20 - My Japanese slot machine with "Live Nudes" neon sign. A gift from my wife
a few years ago.

PIC 21 - Just another angle of the arcade games.

[honeyjew]

It looks amazing! I would love to have a room like that to chill out and relax in. Though I did think your fireplace was a fish tank with no fish in it.

[mike boss]

 @ honeyjew

Thanks ! I appreciate the kind words.
We took alotta time to map out the room, what we wanted, what we didn't.
In the end we are quite happy. It's been done for a lil over a year. We still need to hang the art, and perhaps a few floating shelves. But over and above that, it's done.

[Gray_Area]

I can't believe my luck. I had typed up a description of each picture. Went to post the info and the site tossed me out. Couldn't use the back button to retrieve the info.

I generally write things longer than a paragraph in a word document, then paste to post.

[mike boss]

Lesson Learned !

Ah well, pics + description up now.
Thoughts/Feedback welcome.

[mike boss]

I had a few ideas I would have liked to have seen in the gamesroom that either (A) didn't make it past the wife, or (B) NO WAY IN HELL THAT MAKES IT PAST THE WIFE !

On the wall with the candy/popcorn station I had wanted to mount a 42" Plasma I bought. The idea was wire it into my audio, and hook up a PC to it. PC was originally used to run Uncle T's jukebox software and was going to be used on a touchscreen project I started. The reality is the touchscreen project (or build if you will) would never get done. I still love the Uncle T's jukebox software and I'm still happy with the custom skin I created for the program.

I thought I could use the TV and hook it up to my PC running the jukebox software. It wouldn't be touchscreen, but I could get a wireless keyboard in mouse (or combo), perhaps a compact one and use it in connection with the TV + PC. Behind the wall with candy station is a closet, so I could put the PC in the closet and perhaps store the reciever for the keyboard/mouse in the candy area.

I really thought this would be a cool project, as I have an external hard drive full of music. I could even connect the PC to the internet allowing people to use YouTube or Vevo for videos.

In the end the wife shot the idea down.

However I'd like to think of a solution using my 55" and perhaps my laptop.
I guess I could always hook up the external HDD to the BluRay or anything via USB really.