Retrogaming room - tips needed
 

Hey,

I am soon going to build my own house. In that house i'm going to have a room that is MINE only (Yes! my wife let me have that! :laughing ).

Since there are so many folks here committed to both retrogaming in general and consoll playing i thought this would be a good start to get some tips:

Is there anyone who has some smart solutions to how they have organized their old Pc's, consolls etc? With smart i mean
- tidy, no mess
- all the machines are "ready for action". Just turn on, and start playing.
- spacesaving, and there should be room for new consols in the future.
- Minimize the need for TV/monitors (ex: PS3 og Xbox use the same TV/projector. In the future there should be possible to hook up Xbox360/PS4 etc in the same tidy manner)
- minimize the need for cabling (in and out with cables, they should be preset)

Anyone understand what mean? :)

What irritates me now is that I have a c64, A500, Xbox, 4 Pc's and a Tiki100. It's only my main PC and the Xbox who stands in the spotlight, i never turn the others on because its to much effort to get them up from the boxes and my wife complains of the mess when i do.

I want to BRAG about my c64 and Amiga, and that means it should be standing there where people see it.
And I really would like to get hold on some other old and new machines too in the future (A1200, Wii, PS3) and those also need some space.

The room dedicated to me is going to be about 25-30 m2, so there should be good space.

Any ideas or links to other sites of inspiration is very much appreciated! :agree

My first suggestion is to get a (preferably remote controllable) av switcher to save you the hassle of swapping cables behind your display device.

Another good piece of HW is one of those console scan doublers (X-RGB2 or similar) that take in RGB, S-Video, composite, maybe even component. Then you can drop the amount of needed monitors to only one. :-)

Good thread topic. I just discovered this, and I'm almost in the same situation as you.

What I did was to buy 2 1084 Amiga monitors from QXL, get a small TV, a switcher for the tv-cable, so now I can run 4 computers on 3 screens. I have a Vic-20, two C64s, a C128 and an Amiga which I want up and running at any time.

This really didn't cost me much, and I'm gonna build a setup where the computers can sort of slide under the monitors, using planks and stuff.

"On the Edge - The History of Commodore" and "Digital Retro" are also part of the collection, as I see these books as essentials.

I also like to have a few CDs with nostalgic music at the side. Now I need a system with some speakers and a switch so I can play MODs and SIDS.

Some old Nintendo Game & Watch handhelds are also nice to have lying around. :)

Finally, my plan is to have an old PC laptop to use as a server for all the computers using serial and XE-1541 cable for transfering stuff.

Grasstust:
I was hoping to reduce the amount of monitors needed, and still be easy to turn on and use the c64/amiga 500/1200/vic 20 etc.

I don't think i have the need for having powered both the Vic 20 and C64 at the same time on seperate monitors. I want them to be turned on at the same time occasionaly, but i only need a system where i just flick through the different computers on the same monitor.

I guess Jope's idea with a AV switcher would help me there (?).

The use of a PC as server sounds neat, and also your system with hiding the computers under the monitors (which i hope will be useless for me since i'm trying to reduce the amount of monitors :p)

Hm... I dunno... Running a C64, Vic 20 and an Amiga 500 side by side brings a tear in my eye, but yeah, I guess for space saving purposes, an AV-switcher should be good. Still, those 1084 Amiga monitors don't take much space, you know.

Anyway, let me here how it's working out, and yeah, I think I'll buy an MMC 64 card for fast transfering stuff...

Jonathan Ross (UK chat show host) has a retro room with an Amiga in it, I remember seeing it on the telly.

He did a great job with the deco, the walls were sort of cushioned and lined with brown suede-looking stuff. A bit like something out of the film Solaris (the original one)!

I'd go for a big rounded desk (or three straight desks arranged in a semi-circle) so I can in the middle and move around to the different machines, then have an area for each (commodore 8-bit, Amiga, PC, etc.)

Given a big-enough room I'd want an arcade cabinet or two, plus a pool table. Then I'd wake up and have my cornflakes.