Gaming Storage/Game Room

Before I start this thread, I just want to say that I ran a search for this topic on the boards, and I came across a rather large thread about this, which seemed to quickly devolve into an argument about why having a game collection is considered hoarding, and how people should just give their games away. So, since I didn't feel like reading through 15+ pages of that shit, I decided to start a new thread....here it goes:

Basically, after I was hit with my chronic vertigo, I had to stop playing newer systems/3-D games completely. I recently started playing my older systems, and buying 16 bit systems that I never owned, because they don't seem to bother my vertigo as much. So, I've spent the last few months digging my 8 and 16 bit systems out of storage, as well as purchasing a Genesis and Turbo-Grafx 16.

Naturally, this has left me with an overwhelming cluster fuck of different sized AC adapters, controllers, game cases....etc.

Meanwhile, at the moment, I only have one entertainment center, with room to hook up my Blu-Ray player, Cable box/DVR, and one gaming system. In fact, even if I had room to put more than one system in the entertainment center, I really prefer to have only one system hooked up at a time, to avoid a mess of wires behind my T.V.

I also recently bought a 4 bedroom house, and I have two bedrooms that aren't being used for anything at the moment. One of them is a "guest room" for guests that I never have, so I've been kicking around the idea of just turning it into a "retro gaming room." So, with a whole room free to store these systems/controllers/games, what would be the best way to go about organizing everything? How do you guys go about storing your collections...especially the accessories? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Storing these controllers, systems, and their accompanying wires seems to be my biggest conundrum, so ideally I would like to figure out a better organization than just throwing them all in boxes and letting them become a tangled mess.

P.S. - I'm one of those people who enjoys collecting various items, whether it be baseball cards, CDs/vinyl, video games, or movies. Even if I'm not actively playing the games or watching the movies, I enjoy looking at the artwork and instruction manuals. This is one of the reasons why I can never go digital on anything, and why I can't just give my stuff away (hell, I still have a box full of my G.I. Joes in my garage for Gods sake). So, please respect my decision to collect games, even if you don't share the same opinion, and try your best to offer some constructive feedback in this thread. Thank You.

Adjustable shelves, man.

You've already identified what I consider the biggest problem: accessories. An entertainment center works for almost any number of consoles, and, as Josh said, adjustable shelves work great for all the games. It's the odd shaped accessories that suck.

The lowest cost but highly functional solution is to get some of those plastic storage things with slide out drawers. You can label each drawer by console and put controllers, extensions, and other crap in there. If you have a closet in the room, you can shove these plastic things in there without making the room look like a dorm.

Another option, which is what I have right now in my closet, is to get those metal hash shelves that have the little plastic connectors. I built a structure that is three wide and four high out of those to store all kinds of crap. If you go this route, buy some zip ties to reinforce it if you're going to put anything remotely heavy on it.

For the record, I have that same collector gene, but it is possible to convert it to digital eventually. But that's immaterial to this discussion, since a lot of 8/16-bit games aren't available digitally and, in the case of licensed ones, likely never will be.

edit: I'm adding links in case my descriptions aren't clear.

Yoshi has some good suggestions, I use a plastic drawer for a lot of my miscellaneous cables as well. For normal sized controllers, I use some velcro cable ties from Monoprice to wrap the cables neatly and I stick them into a storage ottoman. That way, all the controllers are within easy reach, and I can set whatever system I'm playing on top.

I'm still working on how to store all the games. I recently put all my DVD based games into these sorted by system but I'm looking for a solid rack or something to put them on for permanent storage. I'm also working on putting all my cartridge based games into universal game cases for storage, but that's a huge project. I've got most of SNES and 32x done, but that's about it.

Oh. I have this little footrest that hides all my controllers and rock band mics and shit. I think it was $15. Chux has a larger more luxurious one that you should ask him about.

Anyone have a reasonable Steel Battalion storage solution?

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

The lowest cost but highly functional solution is to get some of those plastic storage things with slide out drawers. You can label each drawer by console and put controllers, extensions, and other crap in there. If you have a closet in the room, you can shove these plastic things in there without making the room look like a dorm.

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Thanks for the suggestions Yoshi. I do have a closet in the extra room, so I think I might start with these plastic storage drawers for the controllers and miscellaneous crap.

And you hit it right on the head Yoshi, a lot of the licensed games are never going to make it onto VC or Xbox Live Arcade, and the ironic thing is that licensed games actually used to be great in the 8 bit and 16 bit eras. A lot of the games I'm getting like Duck Tales, Chip and Dales Rescue Rangers, Goof Troop, Darkwing Duck....all of these will never see the light of day

And thanks for the idea of the Velcro Cable Ties Gohan. Another problem I was having, was just throwing these controllers/wires into boxes...and then all the cables would get jumbled up. These will help keep things more organized!

But yeah, keep the ideas coming guys. If you know of any good sized/nicely priced adjustable shelves, let me know.

I'd suggest just getting a nice big dresser to store all those pheripherals and bits & bobs in, if you've got some excess space. They hold a ton and look classy, you wouldn't have to banish it away to the closet like the chintzy stuff Yoshi suggested.

Gives you a nice big shelf to display some things on top of, too.

I second Yoshi's suggestion of plastic, see-through drawers.

Those drawers look like shit. I mean, they work, but I'd go with Bacon's suggestion.

Billy bookshelves from Ikea!

For controllers and the like, I use the plastic drawers which were previously mentioned and hide them under my sofa. For bigger accessories, I put them in an ottoman that my wife uses as her computer desk seat.

Reusable cable ties are definitely the way to go for organizing wiring.

Console shelving can be difficult. I'd suggest thinking out the scope of all of the consoles that you want to buy for before committing yourself to a solution. The shelving I have is all custom built but before building it, I already had purchase the systems that went on it.

I have two closets in my area of the apartment. I put 8 foot tall metal shelves around the wall of the one I'm not using for clothes.

I keep my extra gaming stuff in boxes in there. Priority mail boxes work pretty good. And they are white, so sharpie labeling works well.

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Originally Posted by Josh

Oh. I have this little footrest that hides all my controllers and rock band mics and shit. I think it was $15. Chux has a larger more luxurious one that you should ask him about.

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Yeah, mine was from IKEA and I think goes with my couch (Ektorp Bromma son). It's large enough to fit a Rock Band guitar diagonally, so all of my controllers go in there.

Ottomans are definitely nice to have to put controllers and such in them.

I keep my rock band drums and guitars and other oversized dumb shit in one of those extra large ottomans. Then my tv sits on a three drawer dresser with controllers and cords and headphones in the top drawer. Games organized in a big Ikea billy shelf and I'm all set.

The best place to store games is on a hard drive.

I haven't figured out how to hook up the hard drive to the Neo Geo yet.

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Originally Posted by magnifiedplaid

I also recently bought a 4 bedroom house, and I have two bedrooms that aren't being used for anything at the moment. One of them is a "guest room" for guests that I never have, so I've been kicking around the idea of just turning it into a "retro gaming room."

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I think this is a kick-ass idea.

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Originally Posted by GohanX

I haven't figured out how to hook up the hard drive to the Neo Geo yet.

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You could fit at least three in one cart, though.

Well, someone figured out how to hook up a hard drive to a 3DO, I suppose anything is possible.

What do those pirate NeoGeo multicarts use?
Bank switching mask ROMs would be expensive, so I'm guessing it's flash memory of some kind.

Eeproms, I think. Nobody has figured out how to do an actual flash cart yet, but the multicarts seem to be easy to make. My assumption is that they use a lot of individual eeproms so the Neo still sees all the individual chips.

Shou asked to see my Genesis collection in the haul thread, so here it is! I need another one of these racks, which hold exactly 100 Genesis games each (regular size, not the mutant EA ones). I have 7 games on another shelf and I can't find anywhere that still sells these things.

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Originally Posted by Melf

Shou asked to see my Genesis collection in the haul thread, so here it is! I need another one of these racks, which hold exactly 100 Genesis games each (regular size, not the mutant EA ones). I have 7 games on another shelf and I can't find anywhere that still sells these things.

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That is pretty damn awesome! I was kind of wondering what shelf would work best for holding a bunch of Genesis games. Where did you get your shelves at?

I bought them many, many moons ago from KMart. They cost around $20 each and are made of solid wood.

I'm still looking for one more. :(

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Originally Posted by Melf

I bought them many, many moons ago from KMart. They cost around $20 each and are made of solid wood.

I'm still looking for one more. :(

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Good look with your search for another one then...

But yeah, I'll need to find a good shelf for the Genesis games, because I've been absolutely floored by the system thus far. I really wish I wouldn't have been a stupid Nintendo fanboy as a kid, because I really missed out on some good games when this system was in it's prime. I can definitely see myself collecting a lot of games for it now though.

I don't know what the hell you call them, but I store my controllers, cables, and AC Adapters in those plastic storage bin shelves you buy at Target or walmart for like $15-20. They fill up fast, but they work...

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Originally Posted by Melf

Shou asked to see my Genesis collection in the haul thread, so here it is! I need another one of these racks, which hold exactly 100 Genesis games each (regular size, not the mutant EA ones). I have 7 games on another shelf and I can't find anywhere that still sells these things.

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Bonus points for you for alphabetization. Negative points for Sega for changing the standard case art template. How awesome would that look in the black with white hashing?

That has always bothered me.

The games that came out in cardboard boxes were the worst.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

Bonus points for you for alphabetization. Negative points for Sega for changing the standard case art template. How awesome would that look in the black with white hashing?

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Someone could always design box art for the red-stripe variety. Didn't somebody do that with GBA games way back so you could display them in DS cases?

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Originally Posted by Mzo

The games that came out in cardboard boxes were the worst.

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Most of those had cased versions and were only re-released in cheap ass Nintendo "style." The irony is that Nintendo finally figured it out like 10 years after Sega let it get screwed up.

Only a handful had re-releases in cardboard, and those were usually titles published by Majesco after Sega gave up the 16-bit ghost (Castlevania Bloodlines, Contra: Hard Corps, Aladdin). After 1993, all Genesis games save for those released by EA were cardboard.

A fellow on my forum is making custom clamshell inserts for those games that had cardboard boxes. They have the same art and everything, but they look great in plastic. My copy of Crusader of Centy has one such insert and I want to eventually replace all cardboard boxes with them.

I'm trying to remember which cardboard crap I had. Phantasy Star IV, Shining Force II, Vectorman, and Beyond Oasis come to mind, though it's been a long time. I (am ashamed to admit that I) had started to focus more on Jaguar shortly after Sega lost its mind on packaging. And then the Neo Geo CD and Saturn came shortly thereafter. That's also about the same time I got my first Duo and Dracula X, so the Genesis got buried by an avalanche essentially. I got a CDX, an X'Eye, and a LaserActive at various times after that, but the golden age had ended.

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Originally Posted by Mzo

The games that came out in cardboard boxes were the worst.

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remember the shitty photocopier quality manuals they shipped with thise too?

God forbid they lose a dollar. Of course a physical bit of software should be packaged and sold like spark plugs.

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Originally Posted by Melf

Only a handful had re-releases in cardboard, and those were usually titles published by Majesco after Sega gave up the 16-bit ghost (Castlevania Bloodlines, Contra: Hard Corps, Aladdin). After 1993, all Genesis games save for those released by EA were cardboard.

A fellow on my forum is making custom clamshell inserts for those games that had cardboard boxes. They have the same art and everything, but they look great in plastic. My copy of Crusader of Centy has one such insert and I want to eventually replace all cardboard boxes with them.

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I need to get an insert and case for warsong. I some how lucked out and got a copy years ago in AL with just the manual. The clerk insisted that I couldn't have the case because that was the store copy and they needed it to sale games. I should have needed him and took it.

We've all run out of things to complain about, then?

Maybe we're just getting started?

Another option for your peripheral storage needs are Glad Freezer bags.

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/att...1&d=1329098049

Don't even need zip-ties for the cables, as the bags ensure that the wire of one peripheral won't ever tangle with another. Moving stuff in these bags is super easy too. I love the look of the blue, translucent bags.

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Originally Posted by Cowdisease

I love the look of the blue, translucent bags.

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Gerontophiliac, huh?

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

Gerontophiliac, huh?

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I had to look that up when your wife told me the same thing. You know, she looks good for her age.

Awesome. I'm writing that off as a charitable contribution.

I bought some of those plastic storage cases that Yoshi suggested. I'm going to start with those, and then re-assess the situation...to see what type of shelving I should buy for the other games/systems.

anyone remember those huge console storage things they used to make for the gen and snes? Like, it was a tub the console sat on, and the extra shit went under it and games went behind it?

EDIT: I never thought of this, but it looks like old tape bags make good storage units for gen cars.

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/att...1&d=1329103139

I have one that stores about 20 length-wise. I use it for when I take games to a friends house and don't want to carry the boxes. It has a carry strap and zips closed, so its convenient.

I got one of those from Ebay for like six bucks, it was sold as a "Nomad Case." I'm pretty sure it was a cassette tape case like IP said.