Year: 2003

Ahhhh, sweet victory, to have the house in one piece. And this room in it.
Aside from some very minor finishing touches, the new and improved room of doom is done. Here’s a look at the finished Odyssey 2/Atari 5200 section, with and without the overhead light:

You may have noticed that the light behind the Dig Dug and Kickman marquees also underlight my toy shelf, some of which is game-related, some which…isn’t so much.

I’ve got a thing for astromech droids and light cycles.
Atop the bookshelf right next to my desk area, I went back to a tried and true idea that’s been there for over a year, the old Star Trek marquee/model display. I had dismantled it for moving purposes, but now it’s right back where it was, and ready to be backlit again. As for the wall you really haven’t seen (because there’s really nothing there, it’s the wall that both the bed and desk are up against), here’s a look:

The three-head tree light has three different-colored bulbs in it. This means that the only white light in the room that isn’t behind a marquee is the overhead light. And that’s just how I like it.
This brings us back to the A/V rack, where I propped up a few sturdy marquees. I really have no way to backlight these, sadly – I’m quite literally out of power outlets, and out of fluorescent lights to plug into them anyway. But that’s okay. It’s a nice bit of ambience. As is the whole thing, really:

The gap on the upper right hand of the rack is awaiting an identical broadcast monitor for video duplication work.
All in all, it’s pretty much turned out how I hoped it would. Colorful, dark and bright all at the same time, bursting at the seams with some of my favorite stuff from my childhood and from now, and actually pretty functional and ready to rock when all is said and done. It’s almost as much fun to sit back and admire as it is to play games in here. There are a few finishing touches waiting to be made, but nothing major, and probably nothing you’ll be interested in at this point.
Whew. I’m bushed. OK, it’s someone else’s turn to do this.… Read more

What a day, what a day. Cancelled a planned afternoon of thrifting because I got a call from work that severe weather will more than likely mean I’ll be called in tonight (see here to look at my local radar – I’m in Fort Smith, and red = bad). So I’m watching KTUL do wall-to-wall coverage of a major tornado outbreak near Tulsa, feeling unusually strong breezes blasting through my open window, and wiring up a killer game setup. Sadly, I’ve realized that I’m running out of room for systems and may have to revise some plans – and I still have more consoles en route to me from recent trades and eBay conquests. Sheesh. This room ain’t big enough.
But that’s not gonna stop me.
Today’s shots aren’t very photogenic, but they’ll show you where I’m headed. Some of my least-often-played consoles will live in the bottom of the entertainment center, as well computers which need additional dust protection due to keyboards, vents, etc.

This means the Apple IIc, the 7800, the Atari 400 (still not a single game for the poor thing yet, but ain’t it pretty?), and perhaps the NES will go down there. I have no idea where the Vic-20, C64 or TI 99/4A will go. I’m open to suggestions. I had to find a stable brace to prop up the IIc at an unusual angle so it would fit inside the compartment with its power supply and joystick connected.
You can also see that special sections have been reserved for my frequent flyers, my favorites: the 2600, the Odyssey 2, and the 5200. There’s also some other bric-a-brac sitting there that I’ll find other places for, namely the alarm clock, the stack of VHS tapes, and the TARDIS. On top of the hutch that houses the O2 and the 5200, there will soon be more backlit marquees. The compartment immediately below the 2600 usually has a drawer in it, but the space below that drawer houses a power strip which will drive all of the marquee lights, and will have one slot open at all times for whichever console is currently in action. All of the AC adapters and power cords for all of the consoles and classic computers will live on the same shelf (and yeah, I will be labeling them to avoid things getting too comedic when I try to plug one in and play it). Hopefully it’ll be less of a rat’s nest than it appears to be now. In the shelf below that will sit the dilapidated sound mixer that I now mainly use to monitor audio levels for my video duplication work. It’ll also come in very handy when I start committing direct game footage to DVD-R for use in that mysterious TV project I keep talking about (you see, there is a method to my madness in connecting the games to the A/V gear).
These storms are getting nasty and getting close. Lots of tornado warnings to the west. Hopefully my collection isn’t going to be strewn across the countryside in about three hours, that’d be about my luck.
The home stretch is in sight. More photos soon, hopefully lit up like an arcade and with games up and running. Let me know if you’ve got any ideas for where the Commodore machines can live, ’cause I’m just about out of ideas.… Read more