Shelves for storing my classic games and consoles

[ydcl]

Hi all,

 

Well... Soon I will have an actually room to turn into a gaming center. I have kept all my classic games and systems in shoeboxes and other boxes unless I am playing them since I do not have

a dedicated room for it. Now I will have one as soon as I can paint and fix a few things.

 

I always admire the neatness of the collections and the shelves that our fellow collectors have in their collection rooms, I would like some advice on what would be the best shelves and that sort of thing.

I was thinking about looking through craigslist or some used store for some shelves but it is hard finding one to put your games on display safely.

Any thoughts?

 

Cheers,

Yan

[fiddlepaddle]

I've seen so many different ways. It's all based on your needs and tastes. For systems, you might consider shelves with an open back, for easy access to cords and stuff. For games, you can go cheap (think, walmart bookcases) or elegant. The best looking and most efficient will be custom built for your ultimate collection.

 

If I were to design and build one, it might be cherry or walnut shelves built onto the wall, sized to hold all cartridges for each system I have, with enough space to fit all known games, with a little extra space for other stuff. Other people might prefer stacked cardboard boxes and plastic bins.

 

Good luck!

[SlowCoder]

Pretty much what fiddlepaddle said. I personally don't see any need to display my stuff, especially if I'm not using it. Extra or unused consoles and games are stored in plastic bins and kept in the closet. If I have a multicart for my systems, all of the real games are stored away. If I'm not using it, why clutter?

[Chris Leach]

Nothing is cooler than surrounding yourself with your games if youve got a gameroom to do so in....

 

If you can find anywhere selling shelves. Maybe someone closed down a hollywood video and has shelves for sale. Or maybe there is a hollywood video near you that is closed, but the store still remains unrented. I would contact the landlord and see if they would let you clear out some of the shelves. A blockbuster would be my next stop...

 

The shelves are meant for media and they hold games nicely

 

Good luck !

[Coolhand20th]

Someone posted a picture here not too long ago of their shelving unit setup. The managed to get some shelves with glass doors and they put in there their favorite systems/games. It was a damn nice setup, wish I could find that pic again.

 

It's something that I am very interested in doing as well. i have a 700 square foot basement that I can finish, which if I ever get the money I will do stritctly for a game room. Get a old 25-27" CRT wood case enclosed tv that sits on the ground with a bean bag chair, along with w/e systems I wanna play at that time. Would also kill for one of those 72-1 or 78-1 systems as well to have down there. But alas its just a dream.

 

Think fiddlepaddle is pretty much dead on though for what to do

[Seob]

Someone posted a picture here not too long ago of their shelving unit setup. The managed to get some shelves with glass doors and they put in there their favorite systems/games. It was a damn nice setup, wish I could find that pic again.

 

It's something that I am very interested in doing as well. i have a 700 square foot basement that I can finish, which if I ever get the money I will do stritctly for a game room. Get a old 25-27" CRT wood case enclosed tv that sits on the ground with a bean bag chair, along with w/e systems I wanna play at that time. Would also kill for one of those 72-1 or 78-1 systems as well to have down there. But alas its just a dream.

 

Think fiddlepaddle is pretty much dead on though for what to do

Having the space for it is already a huge step in the right direction. Wished i had space like that to display all my stuff. Most of it is stored away in the closet because of lack of space.

[Ransom]

Don't forget UV protection. Don't want those printed labels, boxes, etc. fading in the sun.

 

I currently keep my collection in a walk-in closet lined with shelves, but if I had big bucks I'd install floor-to-ceiling built-in shelves with UV filtering glass doors in the library. That would give me enough room to store all my books and all my games, and I could see them all.

 

Of course I'd have to hire someone to keep the glass clean...

[BassGuitari]

I'm in the process of covering the walls of my game room with track shelving for my games (mainly loose; I don't have many boxed except for Intellivision, Odyssey, and Channel F). This probably isn't an option if you're in an apartment though, since it involves drilling into the drywall.

 

The closet in that room houses most of my consoles (various Atari 2600s, 5200, 7800, NESes, SNES, Atari/Sears Pongs, Pinball Breakaway, TI99/4a + PBox, Odyssey, Odyssey 2, Odysseys 100-500, Colecovision, TRS-80 Color Computer/2/MC-10, Commodore 64, Playstations, and PS2) and boxes of assorted Atari controllers. By basement houses everything else, mainly computer equipment (Tandy 2, IBM 5150 w/ monitor, IBM RT, spare Apple IIe systems and monitors, Apple printers, a TRS-80 Line Printer II...), my non-Dreamcast Sega systems and games (Master System, Genesis, X'Eye, Saturn...there isn't enough room in the game room!), and extra/miscellaneous/trade-bait items and junk parts.

 

The track shelves are a little bit of a pain to install (gotta make sure they balance and that the rails are close enough so the shelves don't sag too much, gotta make sure you don't drill into wood -or worse, electrical conduits- and have to fill a hole in the wall, etc), but few things look cooler than a wall of game cartridges. Except maybe three or four walls of game cartridges.

 

[CastleofIllusion]

I plan on building some shelves over the summer that will be shaped like various tetris blocks. It will used not only as storage shelves, but the TV stand as well.

[rmo70]

I really love the style of the cover art on the early 2600 and 8-bit software boxes. I'd like a good way to display some of my favorites in my game room?

[GrizzLee]

I use ikea shelf units in my back room.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/121451-atari-pop-kiosk-restoration/page__p__1467341__hl__imagic+display__fromsearch__1#entry1467341

 

In my main room, I installed regular cabinets (thinking future resale of my house). These pictures show my game loft above my garage.

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/167251-picures-of-my-game-room-wjoe-decuir/page__fromsearch__1

 

Enjoy,

-GrizzLee

 

 

[BassGuitari]

I really love the style of the cover art on the early 2600 and 8-bit software boxes. I'd like a good way to display some of my favorites in my game room?

 

I don't have a solution for that, other than some kind of large custom frame you could slide them into. But it does remind me of an idea I had (others have probably had it, too): a poster, or series of posters of some of the [2600] artwork. Sort of like a mosaic of the game boxes. It'd be like showing off the box art without having to actually use the boxes.

[rmo70]

Large posters would be very nice..... I took a box scan of "Atari Assembler Editor" (box was pristine condition) and printed it out on the company's new Sharp colour laser printer - but it was actual scale size.

 

I did put it in a frame from the Dollar store and it looks pretty good, I later did "Telelink 1" and it came out okay.

 

How well do you think these things would crop out to poster size?