How much space?

Timber.

rd

If you want to build a game room from scratch, you must first create the universe.

And then visit Home Depot.

rd.

1 new Stern of your liking @ 5k
1 Williams @ 2-3k
1 Sega/Data East @ 1-2k

Personally:
TSPP
T2 / Pinbot
Apollo 13

Every pinball guy should always have a jukebox .always popular with the pin playing guest

Black light decor. A real retro arcade. Mine makes me feel like I left the house and went to an arcade and the whole arcade is on free play.

^This. Cool decor to set the mood. $1000-$2000?

Mini fridge and/or bar $500

Generic sound system $500

1 multicade arcade such as Arcade Legends or Ultimate Arcade $1000 (used)

3-4 $2k-ish pins

Comfy old sofa Free on Craiglist

Unless you've got a massive space I'd advise against a pool table. I had one once and it only got played when I had company over. Plus it required enough open space for a whole pin collection (about 12' x 16').

How big is the room ? How many pins or arcade games can you put in it?

Would follow NorCalRealtor suggestions for an average size game room. Otherwise, if larger, get 2-3 inexpensive EMs instead of one of the $2k-ish pins.

Add darts

Here's my blacklight decor. Carpet and lights ran around 1,500.00. Ed

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For music get a wall mount jukebox. Takes up very little space and with extra speakers it will blast. I paid 500.00 for mine and it came with 100 CDs. That thing is a must have item for your arcade. With the new internet jukes out the cd ones are getting cheaper by the day

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A bowler-- big ball bowler if you have room, a shuffle alley if you don't.

Is $10k the equipment budget or total? Lighting, carpet/flooring/power all need to be considered and could take up a significant portion of that figure.

More pins.. pins everywhere! Ah ha ha ha!

IMO, if you ask which pins you should buy, you will get 100 different opinions but I am guessing you are asking a general question as to what types of stuff you should consider when building a gameroom.

Peripheral lighting is great for playing and overhead is great when working.
Neons are great but placement is critical to reduce glare. Put receptacles behind the neons so you don't have cords hanging everywhere.
Size matters to what to put in there. I always wanted a Chexx but they take up lots of room.

If I had $10K and was starting from scratch, I would get...

pinball:
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Star Trek the Next Generation... or instead of the STTNG, maybe a Demo Man and a No Fear!

arcade:
Final Fight
Raiden Fighters 2
Centipede
Ms. Pac Man
maybe a Defender or a DK Jr.

Plus a jukebox and a pool table if I had space. I think that's around $10K. Maybe a little over.

(I own a BSD and those first 3 arcades, so that's how I know I would like them!)

Sand. Wall to wall. I know a great sand guy.

Foundation, lumber, drywall, electrical conduit, Lighting, Siding and 3tab.

If it is RD's game room then no money left as the sq ft is just too large... Or not large enough depending on the depth of your affliction.

Honestly I think Congo, Shadow, Taxi and Flash Gordon maybe some novus and mill wax.

List would change slightly if Pac Man Battle Royale was cheaper. Great fun with groups and drinks.
Also maybe foosball, pool table, Dartboard, Shuffle board, Slot machine, multicade.

10k not much these days.....1 LE....and a 6pack..... ........Joey

Is that a stripper pole i see ?

Haha! Lucky I had all the games before I built my room.

Seriously though, there is no real answer to the OPs question.

Aside from budget, we don't know
1/ what size are we outfitting?
2/ what sort of games do you like? EMs? SS? DMD?

For $10,000 you can buy a LOT of EMs and 1980s SS machines.

Or, as Breaking_Dad said above (cool name by the way) one STLE and a couple of beers.

If you have the room, and you have a lot of folks over, I would recommend a good air hockey table, like a Fast Track.

My air hockey table gets a thrashing when I have a lot of people around.

rd.

For *me*, using reasonable prices for today...

Iron Man pin - $3800 (just saw a nicely modded one for $4300, this is routed in my mind)
Viper: Night Drivin' pin - $1800
Jurassic Park pin - $1800
4 Square EM pin - $400
Cybernaut pin - $500
F14 Tomcat pin - $1000

Maximum Force arcade vid - $250
Galaxian arcade vid - $200
4 player JAMMA cabinet - $250

I think that is both a really good overall selection of stuff, and it gives me my favorite four pins and top two vids. I wrestled a little with putting IM in there, as when I was starting collecting I constantly was passing on games like MM because I thought (and still do) that three $1200 games are better than one $4000 game - which it was at the time, but IM was the first game that made me immediately think that I would sell three games to pick one up.

Luckily, I didn't have to

Clearcoat playfields.

Build a multicade with a multiplayer control panel
One EM, one early SS, one bang-for-the-buck DMD (ie WCS, JD, NBA FB, JM, DM, BSD, R&B, LAH, LW3, TFTC, etc)
An inexpensive bar and beer fridge
Arcade neons from Gu

Make sure you have a couple of good EMs in the mix. Nothing is better for head to head play when you have friends over. Bang for the buck can't be beat either.

A Big Ball Bowler !
Slot Car Track 4-8 Lanes

the Tron Prequel pin

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tron-prequel-pinball

Sorry but these are so incredibly boring. There's no way a bunch of people are coming by to play these. May as well put some cool posters on the wall and have a card table.

Pins aren't the end all be all. Take some of that budget and put in a sauna! I use it more than I play pins. Sauna + Sonos = one of life's simple pleasures.

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Ha, I like the sauna idea...

I would have to buy some rough games & fix/rebuild them to make this happen, but here's my list:

- Mounted TV in the corner w/ cable, Apple TV, & Wii U
- bar table & 2 chairs
- Funhouse
- TSPP
- Space Shuttle
- Galaga
- Burgertime
- Pacman Cabaret
- Mario Bros
- a few posters

10k likely wouldnt go very far, so I'd probably go for (shoot me?) a good quality virtual pin, couple decent multi-arcade machines, one nicer real machine and a few nice EM's or SS. I know a virtual pin isnt going to play the same but the variety is cool, also good for getting more familiar with machines I'd look to pick up later. I'd also pick up a foosball table, good stuff for 2-4 players.

TV
DVD-Blu Ray-VHS Players
Pool Table
Mario Kart Arcade
Tekken 3
WWF Royal Rumble
Judge Dredd
Minibar
Stools
Memorabilia (of selected sport)
Gameroom Lighting
Gameroom Carpet

This is a great topic !

finishing a basement or building a separate gameroom would cost more than that. Assuming the structure is there and ready to go:

NBA Jam TE 4 player (500)
Original Tapper Arcade (800)
Cocktail original Galaga/Ms Pacman (1000)
Sopranos (3700)
T-2 (2000)
Demo Man (2000)

I had 30 people over for a poker game, and most played my pop a shot and my one EM and ignored the Big Game and EBD.

Looking at a lot of these lists and it seems like people are not adding things up. All of us get the ocassional good deal, but for something like this you really need to break it down to what you can realistically get things for.

8 Ft Brunswick/Olhausen pool table - 250 (Just have to wait until someone is moving in a day or two and they sell them stupidly cheap. It does mean you have to be very open as to the style/wood.)

Bottle Vending Machine - 500

Daytona USA 1k for a pair

Stereo for 250 using flea market parts driven by a small SOC style pc.

That leaves 8k for pins.
SF2 - 1k
JP - 2k
SG - 2k
RBION - 3k

If you intend to get a dual sit down they go for well over 2500 still.

People who come over love playing my EMs too. They're really good for group stuff too, because they have short ball times, and you don't have to watch someone trying to get to the wizard mode or play endless multiballs.

very simple rules get people hooked faster. Only takes 1-2 games to get someone hooked on an EM for the night at least. They might not be banging on your door to play everyday, but the casual get together of non-pinheads love EMs.

EATPM
TZ
Popcorn Machine
Shaved Ice Machine
Ping Pong Table

PS4 400.00 and get the pinball arcade game,has 22 tables on it-

Medieval Madness,Twilight Zone,Tales of the arabain nights,Cirqus Voltaire,Star Trek next gen,Attack from Mars,Funhouse,Blackhole,Theatre of Magic,Elvira and the party monsters,Elvira scared stiff,Ripleys Believe it or Not,Creature From the Black Lagoon,Gorgar,Black Knight,Bride of Pinbot,Big Shot,Harley Davidson,Monster Bash,No good Gophers,Genie and Taxi.

Get a 500.00 Flat screen.
New Multicade 1500.00

Would leave 7500 for pins,which could get you a cheaper DMD,and maybe 2 SS machines.

old blue chexx hockey ...... $800 -1000
bumper pool table (slate rectangle) off Craig's List ...... $100 - 200
60 in 1 arcade game .......... around $500
tv with surround sound (doesn't have to be the biggest or best) ......... $1000 - 1200
used Stern game with deeper rules ........ $2500-4500
used classic Bally/Williams from early 80's ........ under $1200
late 80's and up pinball machine ........ $the remaining cash you have after above is bought

That would make a sweet home game room

2 pinball machines at 2-3000
1 612 in one arcade cabinet 1000
7 or 8 foot pool table 2000
a Rowe cd or conversion to mp3 jukebox 500-1000 bucks

If you have any money left over put it into lighting the game room with blacklights or neons.

20 EM's

I would pay someone to build the damn thing instead of doing it myself

I've never felt the need for a Jukebox, I setup a Chromecast on my Entertainment system, and when people come over they can connect and put you tube videos on the screen, you can even add them in a queue. It works great and is a $35 expense.

But I bought a house just so I could buy a pool table