Displaying Boxed Games

[Tempest]

I was thinking about how to display my boxed games (2600, 5200, 7800, 8-bit, Intellivision, etc.). Currently they're all sitting in boxes in my basement (boxes of boxes, oh the irony...), but I've always wanted them out and visible. I've managed to clear some space against one of my walls, so I have space to put of some bookcases. I was thinking putting four or five of these next to each other:

 

http://www.wesellsauder.com/Products.aspx?...445F7DAB3350231

 

Does anyone have a similar set up? How well does it work? How does it look? How do you hide it from the wife...

 

Tempest

[Seob]

Make a sliding door in front of it, so you can close it when your wife approces .

[Tempest]

I was thinking that wider bookcases would be better, but I haven't seen any that fit the bill. All the wider ones are only two or three shelves high. These are tall and narrow, but the price is right (six would only run me $280 shipped).

 

I have enough boxes to fill up six bookcases (man I need to cut back on the collecting...), but I'm not sure what that many bookcases together would look like. The way I envision it it would look amazing, but then again it might just look stupid. That's why I was hoping someone had already done something similar so I could see it before I tried it.

 

Tempest

[+Allan]

How do you hide it from the wife...

 

Tempest

 

It's just easier to make a 'Man Space' room in the cellar. That way everyone is happy. I'm in the process of doing the cellar over for my Atari stuff. Rasied floors, sheetrock, etc. The works. I got two 10-foot counter tops to set up all my stuff. Here's my temporary setup.

 

Allan

Edited September 16, 2008 by Allan

[Tempest]

How do you hide it from the wife...

 

Tempest

 

It's just easier to make a 'Man Space' room in the cellar. That way everyone is happy. I'm in the process of doing the cellar over for my Atari stuff. Rasied floors, sheetrock, etc. The works. I got two 10-foot counter tops to set up all my stuff. Here's my temporary setup.

 

Allan

That's where this is going. My basement is seperated into two areas because it follows the floorplan upstairs. Because of this, there is a 'main' basement and a little room that is its own area. This is my 'man cave' so to speak. I'll post a picture of it tonight, as a picture would make more sense than my description....

 

At the moment its just rough concrete walls and a bare concrete floor, but one of these days I'd like to finish it off. The enterance is on the south wall (down three steps), and I have a an old high school lab table (the black slate top ones) that goes against the entire north wall and I have my computers on it. Against the east wall I have nothing, and that's where I was going to put the bookcases (the corner has a sump pump which I can't really do anything about unfortunately). Against the west wall I was going to put my TV and a coffee table so I could set up my game consoles.

 

Tempest

[Seob]

Just wondering, why don't you build own yourself? That way it's just the way you wanted it to be.

I've build my own officedesk and bookcasses.

I have to clean it up, and the 2 bottom shelfs have to be reorganised. Going to make a shelf where i can put my atari 2600, odyssey2, intellivision and colecovision on so i can play the directly.

Now i have te followig systems hookup to my tv, above the tv is a dvd player, next to it on the top shelf is my ps2, next shelf is a saturn, next shelf my n64 and cd-i player, bottom shelf my dreamcast and videoswitch.

The top 2 shelfs contains my games, and boxed jaguar, nes and gamegear. The bottom 2 shelf contains my atari 2600, odyssey 2, intellivision, colecovision, snes, nes, mastersystem, mega drive, atari 800. And a few spare consoles.

[Rik]

What do you mean,hide it from the wife?isnt leaving the toilet seat down enough?....marraige

[iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin]

My self made bookcase!

Last week I have mounted a roller curtain on it--> the result is perfect!

 

 

 

[Albert]

I'm surprised Dan's wall hasn't been posted yet.

 

..Al

[Tempest]

I'm surprised Dan's wall hasn't been posted yet.

 

..Al

Yeah that's a little more than I want to do...

 

The DP Room of Doom area has some nice shots of stuff I'm considering doing, but I can't search it very well and filter out the stuff I don't want (192 pages is too much to go through).

 

Just wondering, why don't you build own yourself?

Yeah I suppose that's one route I could go. I'm not particularly handy, but building a bookcase is sort of high school shop class level. I should look into that...

 

Tempest

[iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin]

Here it is........

 

 

[Recycled]

Here it is........

 

 

Wow....all sealed?

[iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin]

Here it is........

 

 

Wow....all sealed?

 

:rolling:

[Tempest]

Now this page has given me some ideas...

 

http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/users/...sement/current/

 

 

I think the fiancee would kill me though. Still, it's a thing of beauty...

 

Tempest

[SRGilbert]

I don't have any of my boxes out these days, but I've found that shelves made for DVD's are perfect for Atari size boxes in both height between shelves and depth. Just look for media shelves when you search.

 

Regular book shelves are usually way too deep unless you are trying to double up on rows or maybe put other items on the shelves in front of them (joysticks, collectable, ect.)

 

I wonder how many boxes this might hold?

 

Dimensions: 73.5"(W) x 63.75"(H) x 9.5"(D)

Based on VHS tape size, it looks like it could as many as 416 boxes!

[Tempest]

I don't have any of my boxes out these days, but I've found that shelves made for DVD's are perfect for Atari size boxes in both height between shelves and depth. Just look for media shelves when you search.

 

Regular book shelves are usually way too deep unless you are trying to double up on rows or maybe put other items on the shelves in front of them (joysticks, collectable, ect.)

 

I wonder how many boxes this might hold?

 

Dimensions: 73.5"(W) x 63.75"(H) x 9.5"(D)

Based on VHS tape size, it looks like it could as many as 416 boxes!

Oh yeah, I had forgotten about those. They still wouldn't hold as many boxes as six of those bookcases would (vs the two of these I could put in the same space), although you're right about the depth of regular bookcases...

 

Tempest

[fiddlepaddle]

Before I moved from my last house, I had 49 of those type of particle-board bookcases ($29 at Walmart). Set next to each other, and back to back, with another positioned at the end, they make a nice way to divide up a room into two rooms (if you have a room big enough). I like the extra space in front of the boxed games on each shelf for things like little Mario and Pacman figures, and playing cards, and toy cars, and ... well, you get the idea. Yes, my house was kind of like a museum, but extremely cluttered. I liked it that way.

 

I keep my wife in the basement...

Edited September 18, 2008 by fiddlepaddle

[Albert]

Now this page has given me some ideas...

 

http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/users/...sement/current/

 

 

I think the fiancee would kill me though. Still, it's a thing of beauty...

 

Tempest

Not sure how that would help you display boxed games.

 

..Al

[aftermac]

Now this page has given me some ideas...

 

http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/users/...sement/current/

 

 

I think the fiancee would kill me though. Still, it's a thing of beauty...

 

Tempest

Not sure how that would help you display boxed games.

 

..Al

 

Technically, I guess those games are boxed.

[Tempest]

Now this page has given me some ideas...

 

http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/users/...sement/current/

 

 

I think the fiancee would kill me though. Still, it's a thing of beauty...

 

Tempest

Not sure how that would help you display boxed games.

 

..Al

Well this is turning into a "how to build a game/rec room" exercise now.

 

I found two new storage options that are closer to what I'm looking for:

 

http://www.staples.com/office/supplies/p1_...es_10051_SEARCH

 

and

 

http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Tripl...98/product.html

 

I'm not sure how many boxes either of these could hold though. I assume 2600 boxes are pretty close to video boxes. Of course then I have those huge 8-bit boxes which won't fit on these shelves...

 

Edit: Those 8-bit boxes are 9x11 (or so), so I guess they will fit.

 

Tempest

[video game addict]

I have five bookcases 30" wide 12" deep I think by about 6' tall. I'm currently using 4 of them with 6 shelves on each to hold my collection. I think I bought these at Homedepot, but there are options out there probably local to you as well. Ikea maybe?

 

I like the long rows of bookcases, but then can't ever keep the same setup for too long. I've run them all the way across in alphabetical order before, but then switch it back, bookcase to bookcase.

 

I could be going back to a smaller dedicated Atari room soon though, as we are debating having the babies in the one larger room together. The joys of Children.

[Tempest]

I have five bookcases 30" wide 12" deep I think by about 6' tall. I'm currently using 4 of them with 6 shelves on each to hold my collection. I think I bought these at Homedepot, but there are options out there probably local to you as well. Ikea maybe?

Nice, but how do you keep all the boxes forward? 2600 boxes are only 6" deep IIRC.

 

I keep my games in order by system, then by company (alphabetical), and then by part number (2601, 2602, 2603, etc.). But then again, I'm a bit anal when it comes to organizing things...

 

Tempest

[video game addict]

I have five bookcases 30" wide 12" deep I think by about 6' tall. I'm currently using 4 of them with 6 shelves on each to hold my collection. I think I bought these at Homedepot, but there are options out there probably local to you as well. Ikea maybe?

Nice, but how do you keep all the boxes forward? 2600 boxes are only 6" deep IIRC.

 

I keep my games in order by system, then by company (alphabetical), and then by part number (2601, 2602, 2603, etc.). But then again, I'm a bit anal when it comes to organizing things...

 

Tempest

 

 

I keep mine pushed back a little bit to allow space to sit other items like small toys, patches, cups etc. in front. But It takes just a few minutes to straighten them all out & get them close in line. I like 12" depth the best. I've had some deeper units before, and I did have too much wasted space, but if it were like the dvd racks above, then some games may be hanging over the edge, which I would not like. I'm also able to store larger items on top of these, where the dvd racks wouldn't allow that.

[Tempest]

Yeah you do have to allow for those larger odd shaped boxes. 2600 boxes are pretty uniform, but 8-bit boxes and other computer boxes are inconsistant.

 

Tempest

[hhwolfman]

I use the book shelves to. HHW

Edited September 19, 2008 by hhwolfman