RF Generation Message Board

Took everything apart and gave the ol' gameroom a good cleaning yesterday. Had another collector coming over to check it out so that seemed like as good a reason as any to scrub the place down and give it a long overdue dusting. Why not take some new pics while its at its best?

Entrance

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Towers of Power

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Cabinet 1

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Cab 2

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Right closet

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Left Closet

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/P1010026.jpg[/img]

Need more Shelf Space!!!

[img width=700 height=933]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/P1010028.jpg[/img]

[img width=700 height=933]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/P1010027.jpg[/img]

Overstocked

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Group Photo!!

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I have a nice shelf for that Steel Battalion if you want to send it my way. And that is a mighty fine looking selector switch on top of the TV  ;)

Now thats a man cave to be proud of! I do like the converted walk in closet being used as a well organized storage room. An of course the arcade machines really complete the look.

Looks good sir.  If you need more room, is shelving above the couch an option?

I like that you put the VirtualBoy up.  I also like that you put the Xbox on the bottom shelf to minimize crushing of other systems.

I doubt you'd want to pay for the shipping on that monstrosity so I better hang onto it :). lol @ the selector. I've had it for years now and its been fantastic.


I wasnt sure about the walk in closet at first, but its really grown on me.


My original plan was to build some dedicated shelving straight across the entire length of the wall over the couch from end to end to house my NES stuff and possibly a couple rows for jewel case sized games and have it low enough that I could put some of the display boxes and merch on top. With the TMNT cab in the room now though I'll have to be a bit more creative or do some serious reorganizing.


Best system of all time on the top, worst system of all time on the bottom :P

Lookin' great Crabby. Now don't go having any more kids, or it will end up stacked away like mine ;)

We have a shed outside for the kids if it ever comes to that....

Remember your games are your real children. Your children are just little monstrosities.

Actually a few months ago I had much younger cousins over for a random visit. They loved my man cave and stayed to play a bunch of games from beyond their generation. Seeing 10 and 12 year olds playing the Genesis was awesome. They enjoyed the fact that my room looked like game store. I don't think too much of my game room as I have just gotten used to being surrounded by my game stuff. To a kid it must be awesome.

We have a family dinner that rotates between 3 different houses each week. My wife's cousins bring their kids who are 4,6, and 10 along. They always love coming over to our place the best, especially since I got the TMNT cab. Last dinner they loaded 500 credits into each character (with the $2 worth of quarters I keep in the machine) before starting their game. The time before that they played a bunch of Clay Fighter, Street Fighter II and DK Country on the SNES after dinner. Plus they like borrowing Wii games from me too.

Its awesome to see them enjoy some of the same I did around the same ages.

It was a very special moment that I can't explain. Seeing them having a blast playing on systems most children would consider outdated was a very cool sight to see. They seemed to be stuck on Sonic 3 co-op and Dick Tracey on the Genesis. I grew up playing those games and enjoyed them myself. It made me happy that they enjoyed them too.

The funny thing is when I have people over and they see my collection they assume I'm rich or something. It always seems to be the first words out of their mouths that I'm loaded with money. Actually I'm a cheap-ass and find these things for next to nothing as most collectors will do. I believe you guys said it in your podcast that you can become a collector no matter what your budget is. I don't have a tight budget, but I'm still a cheap-ass.  

  :nono:
The original Xbox is not all that bad.  At the time it was the only system around that you could consistently get games in 5.1 Digital.  In fact, I plan on getting back in Xbox gaming as soon as my financial situation gets better (read: I get a better paying job).

Man, but I've got to get my game room back in order.  It might take a good solid two or three days, but I need to do it.

Not to get too far off topic, but I sometimes wonder if that by giving my kids access to my gameroom so early (now) I am exposing it to them to it too soon and setting them up to not appreciate it as much.  Maybe I should just keep my room locked, like a secret laboratory, and never tell them what's in there until they are like 6 or so and will think it is uber cool.  I could be like the wizard behind curtain.

I was only slightly exaggerating. I REALLY like the Virtual Boy and I REALLY dislike the Xbox. It might have had a lot of features, but very few of them appealed to me and there are just so few games on it that I like to play. I consider it a huge shovelware machine because of my gaming tastes.

You just want to be known as the Pinball Wizard.

bombatomba, it looks like I got to walk down the street and help you build a game room :) Having a game themed room is sweet!

Well......there is that. :)  Wouldn't be a bad topic for a podcast: "When is the right time to expose your kids to video games?"  HA!

Double

We've actually got a couple related topics already on the backburner. We've got a lot of ideas brainstormed between the two of us and shouldnt run out of topics for quite some time.

I can
I've got one, Raz but...  let's just say it's a friggin' mess.  Between the kids, work, and my change from primarily a console gamer to primarily a PC gamer things have gone to crap.  Seeing Crab's Lair really makes me want to change that.  Just going to have to pick a good weekend and have at it, I guess.


Just out of curiosity, how far is your couch to your television, Crab?

Aww. Well I hope you get the game room in order bombatomba.

Well I'm gonna take a guess and say crab's couch is 3 ft and 8 in away from his T.V. Thats about how far my big screen T.V. is away from me.

Cool.  The space I have isn't small, but I share it with a bunch of other things.  I figure my couch will be about that close to my setup.  I'll end up having to mount my projector on the ceiling, but it will work out.  The plan is to make it pretty enough that I can have company down there as well as cram my two monkeys on the couch with me for some old-school Sonic action.

Sonic action sounds cool. I love Sonic! =^.^=

I'm the master of cramming a lot of crap in a small space an keeping it organized. A good chunk of my stuff is in drawers or some sort of other units and can't be seen. My collection isn't as big as Crabs but I think it's somewhat respectable.   

But if you do need help let me know.

You got it, bruda.

I can imagine it now. Just a steady glow of flashing light coming from under the door. Strange music and sound effects coming from the room at all times of the day and night. Kids gathered around the door in the hopes of catching a peak inside when you exit. Yeah, that room would be known throughout the school as the most awesome room in the world.

i don't have kids but my sister has a 16 month old daughter, i've thought about that too because i'm the one with most of the video games in the house. i've figured i would most likely find her a system of her own with some cheap but good games where she can play them at will (under my sister's watch) and do whatever she wants to them without me being paranoid about damage to the games. i don't think i would want kids that young playing with anything from my own collection, unless i was there to handle the games myself and they had controllers bought just for them to use. i would probably relax that stance as she gets older, maybe around 5-7 depending on how good she seems to treat the ones she already had by that point.

i really hope the first game she plays will be super mario bros, if she likes video games i'd like to see her enjoy games from all generations and not just the latest thing that's popular.

This thread is why I started the "Whats the first game you remember playing?" thread. I was 5 when I first got a game system. Why my parents bought me a game system is beyond me. I didn't know what the hell a game was at the time. I'm sure they got it for my older brother.

But the farthest memories I have involve games. Its not something you should be afraid to expose to children. The best memories I have is playing the Genesis as a child. When My father had a heart attack back in '97 I stayed with my neighbors for the night. They had a Genesis also. Well it was my friends house. Playing that damn thing is what kept me sane. I thought my father was dead that whole night. But hes still alive and kicking. A friggin game system kept me sane.

Very nice room Crabby!  I really like that TMNT cab, too.

Oh, and the Virtual Boy is awesome as well. ;D

Like many of you, games have been such an positive part of my life for so long that there was never any way my kids were not going to play games.  The only issue I have has more to do with quantity than anything else.  I am a firm believer that having too many gaming options (for kids, that is) is actually negative.  I remember back in the day my grandparents put me in front of their tv with a Atari VCS and what seemed like hundreds of games.  Out of that I can only really remember two games (Demon Attack and Blueprint), but the few games I had for my Odyssey^2 really stand out, even though the quality of the games was lower than that of the VCS.

I'm of the same opinion - my mother would only pick up games from the flea market when I would finish with my current one, which actually left me with good memories of all of the games I completed. I remember playing through Contra enough to have it memorized and not die through the first playthrough as a kid.

i've considered that way of looking at it too but i worry it might be putting too much pressure on a kid. i wouldn't want them getting so upset or worried about trying to finish a game that it takes away the fun of it.

Yeah now that I think about it if I had a plethora of games as a kid I'd never want to do anything but play games. My parents never bought me a lot of games as they didn't want my brother and me constantly playing games. They would kick us off after some time.

As an adult I have all the games I dreamed of or have played as a kid. But I don't really play games very much. I'm probably the least gamer person on this site. Got too many things keeping me busy. I don't have kids so I guess I don't understand what it would be like exposing them to a vast quantity of games would do to them.

We have to set ground rules for our boys' gaming habits; unless we're on a trip (3DS, DS, GBA SP, in order of their ages) no gaming until after supper, if they've been good, and even then its not an everyday thing.  They know its a treat and not an expectation, and they definitely appreciate it more because so.  My oldest and I finished our first game together last week (Caveman Ninja!  woot!) Having so many choices has so far simply meant more options once we find something he likes.

Anyway, I'm surrounded by more games than I would ever realistically play, a fulfilled dream of my youth, but as a family man with daily responsibilities, my gaming time is almost entirely devoted to gaming with friends and family or while working out on the stationary bike.

Oooh, you have one of those compact Super NESes that I still doubt the existence of.  :P

Perhaps one day, I'll believe.

Until then...

...'Late

I wouldn't worry too much about that.  I find there is something in limiting choices that tend to harden, focus, and later help define a gamer and his/her tastes and gaming habits.  My son, for example, will go to ridiculous lengths to unlock characters in his Lego games, and he is manic about unlocking everythiny single mode and plant in Plants Versus Zombies (I should point out he has both the PC and Xbox360 versions).

Very nice, Crabby.  That group photo has everything short of the holy grail.

Stadium Events isnt grail-y enough for you? Geez, some people...... ;)

Nah, it's played out.  I dont see Faxanadu there either, so don't brag until you do.

lol

Love the set up and the TMNT cab.  I need to load my gameroom pics back up, since my Man Cave topic  was lost during the BIG site shutdown.   :'(

Yeah, one day I'll take some pics of our gaming basement and post 'em.  Though my style's a bit different than the nice, clean layouts often preferred.   I like...visual noise.

That rare NES cart lot pic at the end is drool-worthy. I'd do some crazy things for a copy of Little Samson or Snow Bros. How were the majority of those acquired? Locally? Online? Specifically Little Samson, and Snow Bros.

Snow Bros? I've already sold 2 to forum members here... I've only seen Little Samson once locally though.

Hopefully you'll remember me next time you find a cart.  ;)

I'm sure I'm across another. Rare carts aren't hard for me to find - just expensive.

Get in line bro. ;)

Hey, you already got Dragon Warrior IV from me. Crabby and Duke both got a few decent carts from me, and Bil got his black box games. Give someone else a chance. ;D

Many of the harder to find NES carts I bought online either through ebay or nintendoage. Only a small few did I find locally for super cheap. I bought nearly all of them in semi-unusual circumstances which at the time meant that I got them for less then they were selling for regularly. And I bought them all long enough ago now, before many of them had price spikes, that the prices I paid are basically a steal these days.

For example with that Snow Bros I bought  it off Ebay. This pics and description showed that someone had filled the screw holes on the back of the cart with some kind of goop most likely in order to avoid swapping the board out. I dont know who would do that besides a rental store, but there were no rental stickers on it so it was a bit odd. The price was a bit lower than most other SB at the time so I took a chance on it. I was able to use a small screwdriver and simply pop the crap out of the screw holes VERY easily and had myself a nice looking cart!

Little Samson was a bit less interesting though. Treated myself to a B-day gift a few years back and paid typical online prices for the time.

Some of the other more interesting circumstances were:
Bonk's Adventure - ebay (No pic and low BIN)
Chip n Dale 2 & Duck Tales 2 - nintendoage (bought together when seller needed quick cash)
Die Hard - nintendoage (received as a secret santa gift)
Dragon Warrior IV - Pawn Shop (third one I've found locally for less than $5)
Gun Nac - ebay (bought from seller who wouldn't ship to Canada. Had him send it to Duke.Togo and then he eventually sent it my way)
Bubble Bobble 2 - ebay (no pics, low BIN)
Romance of the Three Kingdoms II - Craigslist (wasnt a game collector, just a guy show LOVED RotTK. Said he had finally moved onto RotTK VI, lol)
TMNT Tournament Fighters - ebay (most recently purchase, very low BIN that I snagged within a very short time of its listing)
Zombie Nation - ebay (no pics, low BIN)
Gemfire, Godzilla 2, Pro Sports Hockey, Jetsons - nintendoage (all from one seller plus other goodies like DK Jr Math and Color a Dinosaur)
Stadium Events - ebay (very poorly listed, by very shady seller. Won auction for significantly less than last 2 sales on nintendoage)

Wow. Thanks for the thorough response.

;)

I don't know about you all but I couldn't really see the other pics through that Stadium Events. :D

Thats why I left it until last :P