You guys/gals have some really great game rooms. Sadly, mine is a partially finished basement with only one machine and a tiny little plasma hung on the wall. But.....my wife and I are looking for a bigger house and my requirements are a big a$$ finished basement and a garage that can hold two cars and two motorcycles. She gets to pick the rest of the house.

I want more machines, but she won't let me buy anymore until after we move.

I don't have time to post all the details right now, but an unRAID server steaming to an NUC running Kodi attached to a touch screen would definitely work. It wouldn't be too expensive either. I have a 12TB server in my basement serving all my media (TV Shows, Movies, Music, Pictures, etc).

I'll try and get some time later to point you in the right direction.

Hi Andretti. My storage is handled by a box I built running a Linux based distro called unRAID by Lime Technology. It runs off a flash drive and basically acts as a huge file server and includes parity in the case of drive failure. It's a lot different than most storage solutions as the hardware requirements are very light (depending on what else you want to do) and it's very inexpensive.

http://lime-technology.com/registrationkeys/

As you fill up the server, you just add more drives and keep on going. It's a rock solid platform once configured.

The software is free to use for up to 3 drives, and costs $29 for 4 devices, $69 for 8 devices and $119 for up to 25 devices. A device is defined as either a hard drive, cache drive or parity drive. The free (trial) version does not support a parity drive, which is highly recommended.

Hardware is pretty straight forward and doesn't require much depending on what you want it to do. I have mine doing a bunch of other stuff, but if you're just looking for file storage you can get away with building something pretty cheap.

With the file server in place, you'll want to move on to the computer you'll actually be streaming the media to (pictures, TV Shows, Movies, Music, etc). For this, I would recommend something like an Intel NUC or a Gigabyte Brix. They are very small and easy to hide. Here is an example of an Intel NUC:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102053&cm_re=Intel_NUC-_-56-102-053-_-Product

You would purchase the NUC, a SSD for storage and some RAM. That's the device that would connect to whatever display you decided to use.

The actual interface would be handled by software named Kodi (formerly XBMC). It's an open source platform and I've used it for years.

http://kodi.tv/about/

The actual interface can be controlled with either a remote, iPad, Android or iPhone. The only thing I haven't tested, is controlling the Kodi software with a touch screen monitor. It is reported to work, but I can't say that with 100% certainty since I haven't done it myself. You can control it with an iPad, so if you wanted to install an iPad in the wall and use that to control the interface, that would be one option.

It might sound like a lot to wrap your hear around right out of the gate, but once set up, it's self sufficient. The entire package could probably be done easily for under $1,500 and probably closer to $1,000. The nice thing is that you can then add NUCs other places in the house. I have one at each of my TVs. You can even go so far as to have a SQL database running on the server that remembers watched status for different users. There is also usenet integration if you want to have it automatically download, rename and catalog all your TV shows.....but that's for another day.

I saw that too and was really confused....

My house goes on the market in the next week and my wife and I are buying something big enough that I can actually have a game room. We came to the agreement that I get entire reign over the basement and she can have the rest of the house.

My plan, depending on the layout of the new house, is for most of it to be a game room, part of it to be a media room and a little section to be the fish room for the reef tank. I really want a basement sump for the tank.

Anyway, hopefully in the next few months I'll be able to post up pictures of my game room!

Right now I have a very small house with an even smaller basement and two lonely pinball machines. But.....We just signed a contract on a house with a huge basement. It's unfinished, but hopefully shortly after closing I'll have someone in to finish it for me. For now, I'll be using the second first floor bedroom for the two machines. There are two other bedrooms upstairs, but I have no intention of dragging them up there.

I'm so excited. Add the basement to the 3 car garage and I'm going to be in heaven!

I definitely will. I'm not sure when it will start, but I'm hoping within the next few months. We don't close until July 29th, so it will be awhile before we can even get in the house.

That depends on how much I have finished and how I allocate the space. I'm planning on a media room, a game room and a fish room. I currently have a small reef tank and want to go bigger. I'll be relocating the tank's life support system to the basement and want it consolidated in one room where I can house all the equipment. The basement is already plumbed for a full bath, so that will take some space.

The house has 1978 sqft of below grade, unfinished space so I definitely have some room to work with!!

We finally moved into our new house and I'm using one of the small rooms on the first floor as my temporary game room until my basement gets finished, although I have no clue when that will be.

But for now, here is my room. I just got everything set up last night but still need to level the machines. I need some stuff on the walls, but I'm waiting for my contractor to get back to me with pricing for the basement. If it's in my budget, then there isn't any need to do anything else.

There is room for 2 more.

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A little over 1,900sq ft.

Ignore the center room that says Bar under the steps. It's actually the unfinished part, but I forgot to change the name. There has been a revision to the bar since I made that plan. I'm going to bring the bar out into the game room a few feet to tie the rooms together. My contractor is supposed to be getting my a price on Friday, so I'll know more then. I'm not sure if I want to tackle such a big project myself. I'm "alright" around the house, but my dad offered to help and he's done just about everything.

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I need room to grow!

Excellent question. I'm finishing my basement right now too and am almost done with the framing. I've been trying to determine my electrical layout and haven't decide how to wire up the pins. I've read that you're only supposed to run 4 pins off a single 20 amp circuit, which would be a ton of 20 amp circuits for the space I have laid out. Everything is jammed into a spare bedroom right now and I'm pretty sure all 6 pins, along with my popcorn machine are running off the same circuit. I think the lights in the adjoining bathroom are on the same one too because they dim when I have a bunch of people over playing.

Anyway, is that what everyone is doing that has large collections, 4 pins per 20 amp circuit? So basically I need one circuit for every two outlets?

How many pins do you run per circuit? I was also considering adding outlets up high (or at least running the wire in the wall in case I need it later for signs, TV, etc. Are those on a separate circuit?

I'm going to run out of room in my panel real quick when I combine the machines, the Home Theater and the life support system for the fish tank.

Would it be safe to assume that you're running 6 games per circuit on those 3 outlets?

I was leaning towards wiring for 6 games per 20 amp circuit. I can go with double pole 15 amp breakers for lighting if I start to run low on spots in the panel.

If you knock out that wall over there to the left......

I'd love to throw some of these strips up inside of some crown molding in my game room, but there are 3 windows that would interfere with the crown so I wouldn't be able to wrap the entire room.

Im pretty sure that's the back of my head in one of those shots.

That game I had on TOTAN was a blast!!!

Sounds exactly like my basement, which is currently under construction but much further behind than yours.

How big of a reef tank? I have a 55g in my living room currently, but the basement is provisioned for an 8' tank with a dedicated fish room for the life support system.

The sound proofing in the theater is what's holding up the wagon. I've attached enough decoupling isolators to the wall to sink a ship.

That carpet looks awesome! Do you have any other pictures of it?

Thanks for posting those. Do you have a link where you bought it?

Here is an updated picture of an extra bedroom that's serving as a temporary game room while I finish my basement. WoZ is sitting in the dining room for now since I ran out of room.

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Here is the game room I'm building in the basement. It just needs insulation and return HVAC ducts and then it's ready for drywall. You can see part of the bar / pool table area on the left. Around the side of the bar is a bathroom and right past that, I'm building a theater. The cool thing is that prior to starting this project, I had never even cut a 2x4 in half. I'm doing everything myself except for the drywall. I paid $100 for some streaming "how to finish your basement" videos and learned everything from those. My dad has been helping me every weekend for the last few months.

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Thanks! I was thinking of starting a build thread so I don't clutter up this thread.

Thanks! It's a lot of fun too....well, most of the time it's fun. Other times I want to scream.

I just tapped into the main HVAC feed trunk and pulled off that. The feeds were easy, it's the returns that are going to be tough. There isn't much space to tap in to the return. I can make it work, but the problem is going to be keeping the duct out of the way. The guy in the video said that you pull HVAC wherever you can get it.

I started a build thread if anyone is interested.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/game-room-build-thread

Although I have a build thread for my basement, I want to jump in on this one too.

Here is my current Game Room which is actually our 4th bedroom. It's full, so my WoZ is actually in the dining room.

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Here is my future Game Room (46' x 17') which is currently in construction. Drywall should be done tomorrow and then it's on to paint.

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It's going to be awhile unfortunately. My wallet is going to need some recovery time after finishing the basement. I still have to buy all the electronics for the theater, flooring, lighting, solid surfaces, cabinets and the list goes on and on.

Hopefully someday, I'll actually be able to add another game to my collection. It seems like forever since I bought one.

Could you post the name / brand of both the black and gray colors? How is the black? I've been considering a black ceiling / gray wall combination so I really like your choice.

Cute kitty.

I love the rug! Oh, and nice machines too.

Question for people that have their ceilings painted black.

Are you happy with it, or does it look weird?

I'm on the fence with painting it black or just going with a standard white. The bar / lounge / pool table area of my basement is adjacent to the game room and I'm not sure if it would look stupid having the game room ceiling black and the rest of the basement a more normal color.

It's really open between the two areas.

The ceiling is 7' 9" high and is sheetrock.

I would definitely start your own build thread. I started one awhile back when I began my basement finishing project. I love build threads!!!!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/game-room-build-thread

I love that room!

I even see my name in one of pictures.

Can't wait for your next get together!

What, no build thread?

I downvoted because it's an ad in a "show us your game room" thread. I think it should be in the classifieds.

Mine has paint! No machines yet, but I'm gaining on it. I need a damn floor first, but my wallet has officially gone on strike.

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Thanks. The game room is 45' x 16.5', so I should be able to get a few games in there.

That's the first thing I thought of too....moving the light.

Nice shack ya' got there.

Looks beautiful. I love the floors.

I love what you did with the ends of the accent wall where the wood is broken. Excellent idea!

I might be able to help with this one. I had some custom movie posters printed for my theater to hide acoustical treatments. I had them done my www.myfabricdesigns.com

You just upload your image, choose your material and punch in your credit card number. They do great work.

How far is the fridge from the tap? Is it close enough not to cause an issue or are you running a Glycol system? By the way, beautiful basement!

The first picture is my current game room (WoZ is in the dining room) and the second picture is my "yet to be finished" game room. Hopefully soon...

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Lets see it!

Any place you can play pinball works for me.

I couldn't watch the entire thing, but I really wanted to. I started to get nauseous.

Can I ask what chairs those are and how much you paid? I need some for my theater, but only two rows of 3.

That's exactly what I did when we bought our house. I get the basement and the garage, she gets the rest of the house.

Sooooo......

If you go all out like I am, your wallet will hate you for it. My wallet on strike for awhile, but after a rest period, I'm ready to get hammering away again.

Make sure you start a thread and document your build. Those are my favorite.

I love the pipe light fixtures. That was my lighting choice in my game room as well.

I have some in my game room / theater / bar build thread.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/game-room-build-thread/page/5#post-4106387

My wife had a party last week with a bunch of her girlfriends. They all decided to play pinball so my wife sent me a picture while I was stuck at work.

My kind of pinball party too.

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The Avatar in that picture looks nothing like my Avatar. I'm confused.

I wouldn't trade my theater for room for more machines, but I use mine all the time. A lot of time it's just me watching a movie or playing some Xbox. You really have to determine what your use might be.

If you're on the fence, you might be able to do something similar to what others have done and put a projector and some speakers in the main room.

I decided on the dedicated theater because I'm a big movie fan.

How big is your basement and how big of a theater are you planning?

15' x 20' isn't a bad size. I think mine is 11.5' x 23.5'. I have enough for 2 rows of seating which takes into account 2' of space behind the AT screen.

7.5' will work depending on what you do for soundproofing, but it will be close. Mine caps out at 6' 6" when standing on the riser. My tallest friend clocks in right around 6'4", so there is some space.

Keep in mind I lost ~ 2.5" for the clips / channel / DD, another ~2" for the subfloor and the ~10" for the riser. If you aren't doing all that, you won't lose as much space.

That's a lot of incandescent light bulbs you have there!

Looks like a great lineup.

I'll send you my pile of incandescent bulbs if you send me your pile of LEDs.

I keep incandescent bulbs in my EMs, but everything else is LEDs.

I totally thought of doing a few pins in the driveway for trick or treat and I’m not even a kid person. It sounds like fun but I’m pretty sure I’d need some beer to handle the kids.

This isn’t my actual game room, but I’ve consolidated some machines. I still need carpet in the official game room, so I threw them in the bar for now.

It’s cool to finally consolidate some of my games. They’ve been scattered throughout the house. I have more, but this is all I’ve set up.

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Nope. Not yet.

My wallet is on strike right now after buying cabinets and a new car for my wife.

Looks good to me! My last house was 1060sq ft. I had Bad Cats in the dining room and Demolition Man and Safari in the tiny "finished" part of the basement.

If you don’t mind me asking, what does one of those Guitar Hero stand alones cost?

Kick ass space by the way.

I always wondered what people did with slots in their house. I wasn’t sure if it was just for fun with some fake tokens or if people set them up to payout for real.

You don’t feel bad for taking money from your friends?

The theater is what I want to see!

Concrete is porous and allows moisture into the basement through the slab. Regular wood absorbs this moisture and over time will rot. That's the reason for pressure treated lumber on the bottom plate.

I'd go with a ramset to secure the walls to the concrete. It works just as well, is faster and more fun.

I even used the ramset to pin the walls to the basement support poles.

I used an additional layer of insulation in all my exterior walls and all the walls in the theater, but not on any other interior walls.

The system I used didn't require or recommend either a moisture barrier or drylock. Do you have moisture problems in your basement?

Dricore is nice, but gets expensive. It does provide a great thermal break between the concrete and the floor. I did it in my theater, but not in the rest of the basement.

Holy shit. That's the nicest shed I've ever seen. Kick ass job!

Temporary setup until I get carpet in the other room and can move everything over. Carpet goes where you see WoZ and all the games on the side wall move over to that room.

Maybe I'll be done someday.... I still need carpet, granite and some finishing touches.

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Ooooohhhh. Kate Beckinsale. She’s my favorite.

Oh and nice game room too.

You can also do it with a cheap 4K TV and a compute stick. It plays the trailer for the movie displayed every once in awhile and switches as often as you want.

It’s also linked to my server, so when I start a movie, you get the “Now Playing” one that synchronizes with the time left.

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I haven’t tried the Pi. I went with an Asus Vivo Stick ($100) and the MoviePoster App ($10). It’s really nice in that the software has a web based configuration option. So I can control the app from any device in my house.

I definitely wouldn't either. I think they look great and would keep them just as they are. I was more throwing that out there for anyone considering some type of movie poster displays / boxes as an alternative.

Great space you have there by the way.

Just out of curiosity, don't the slots get boring if you aren't winning any money? Unless some people actually use them to take their friends money.

Wow, that's totally bad ass. I'd jump on that in a heart beat if I wasn't going a different direction with the art in my game room.

You definitely aren’t boring me. Looks great! Job well done.

I decided to go with a drywall ceiling. I wanted it to be more of a living space and felt that an open or drop ceiling would make it feel like a basement. I'm sure one day I'll need to punch a hole (or three) in the ceiling, but I'm willing to take that chance. Drywall can be repaired and I'm willing to risk the trade off.

My dad, who helped me finish the basement, was 100% against the drywall. Just like when I was a kid, I decided not to listen.

/sarcasm ahead

I'm disappointed in the story. I can't believe they didn't say "Pinball Wizard" and play the music from Tommy about 10 times during the segment.

/sarcasm over

Great segment. Looks like you got a few minutes of time. Nice lineup by the way!

https://www.wmur.com/article/wednesday-may-15th-modern-gamers-play-the-classics-1558017851/27493434

Do you know how much your bar top extends over the bar? Did you have to brace it underneath?

You could totally repaint the cabinet while taking a dump. When you're done with one side, flip it around and do the other side.

Don't be shy. Mine has been a work in progress for about 3 years and I still post pictures sometimes.

I want to see the theater.

I made a digital movie poster to put on the wall leading up to my theater, but the walkway isn't very long. It's in this thread somewhere.

EDIT -> Found it.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/lets-see-pic-of-games-rooms/page/256#post-4861870

I think it's the best Enterprise.

Awesome space by the way!

Ouch. I was looking at that too and I'm definitely not spending $250/year for software for my basement.

Not sure if anyone cares, but there are places that print on acoustically transparent fabric. You can build a frame, put damping material behind it and then cover it with the fabric. It will help with acoustically treating rooms with sound issues.

I emailed them and their response was that they are no longer producing a home version and are strictly focused on professional users.

Definitely and I'll report back once I know more.

A friend of mine is hooking me up with a pile of music videos to use, but I think he's still cleaning his house and recovering from the weekend festivities.

Best bathroom ever......Seriously.

Sometimes a vapor barrier isn’t required. You need to do a moisture test on the concrete and then check with the manufacturer of the flooring to determine if a vapor barrier is needed. In my case, the test back back well below the manufacturers maximum.

At that point they advised against a vapor barrier.

I would assume his contractor did the test before putting the flooring down.

Here is mine.

Automated water changes and a dosing setup.

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Looks like you belong in the Cats and Pinballs thread.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/cats-and-pinballs-/

Interesting idea lining the walls of the rack room with Linacoustic. I have a decent amount left from my theater build just taking up space. I didn't do drywall in the rack room, so I'm not sure how effective it would be just on the studs. I do like the idea though of knocking down some of the sound from the rack and the HVAC system.

Beautiful theater by the way. I'm embarrassed to show mine after seeing yours.

Did you build it yourself?

I'm working on something like this right now too, only with Music Videos stored locally on one of my servers. djreddog has software that allows people to choose songs, but I think they stopped selling to the consumer market and only sell it to DJs at a crazy expensive price. He was looking into a replacement at one point, but I'm not sure if he found anything or not. I haven't gotten a chance to talk to him in awhile.

I've been playing with Media Monkey recently which seems alright, but not perfect (at least for video). If I find something good, I'll definitely let you know and please do the same if you run across something that works well.

This is the first time all my games have been together. Just got the carpet in the other day and my buddy spent a few hours last night and then this afternoon helping me move games around.

My basement is really close to being finished. Just some granite and a door to the theater.

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Thanks!

I had thought about making them since they are just galvanized pipe, but it would have probably taken me about 25 trips to Home Depot, so I decided to just buy them. I got them from a small company in Utah.

I have a few pictures of them in my build thread too.

https://haddockindustrial.com/black-pipe-wall-sconce-or-ceiling-fixture-industrial-lighting-steampunk-light/

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/game-room-build-thread/page/5#post-4106387

I'm not even going to ask about the guy with his pants around his ankles.....

ramegoom made some great points.

I just wanted to echo a few of them and add my input. You'll want to think ahead before you start closing up walls. One big thing to remember is that wire is cheap so while you have the walls open run everything you can think of running. I pulled 1 x HDMI, 3 x CAT 6 and 1 x 3.5mm to each of my TV locations. I have a distributed audio / video solution in my rack, so everything is centralized.

I pulled CAT 6 to 5 other locations for VSC (Volume Source Controls) and wall mounted tablets. Keep in mind, that if you never use them who cares. You can get 1000' of CAT 6 for $160 and just leave it in the wall so it's there just in case.

I also ran speaker wires to multiple locations in the basement where I wanted to put speakers for distributed audio.

Outlets up high are a great idea for something like a RunDMD clock, or a back lit translight. I didn't raise my outlets for the machines, but I was still able to get the power cables tied up. I left them standard height for if/when I sell. Also, try to think of outlets in unusual places where you might need them later. Such as an LEDs strip to highlight crown molding, the underside of a bar, etc.

I have two rows of lights that I set more towards the center of the room to reduce the glare. I put each side on its own switch so I could turn one side on and not disrupt play as much on the other. To be honest, when you turn on 22 games and 5 TVs, you really don't need much more lighting.

I'd also go 20a for the circuits. I have 1 circuit for every 4 games, if I remember correctly. If you're hanging TVs, it's a piece of cake to throw in some blocking where you're going to hang the TV. That way you don't have to find the studs when you go to attach the mount.

If you're closing up the ceiling, take tons of pictures. When you think you've taken enough, take more. That way if something happens, you know right were to cut the ceiling out to fix the issue. I also did that for my walls, just in case something crazy happens and I need to get in there for some reason.

Are you running the Movie Poster App on a PC? If so, be aware that there are reports of it not working with anything newer than Windows 10 v1909. From what I've read, the developer tragically lost his 4 year old daughter, so I don't suspect you'll see him for a long time, or perhaps never. I have updates disabled on mine so I don't have to worry.

I initially tried it with a Asus VivoStick, but ran out of space because I wanted to use the trailers functionality. It also just didn't have the power necessary to play HD trailers. I swapped it out with a PC I built from parts I tested for NewEgg and threw it in my rack. The VivoStick was great for posters, but sucked for trailers.

You'll want a portrait mount for the TV too. This is the one I used.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24268

When we bought our house it had an unfinished basement. I had absolutely no home improvement or building skills. I had honestly never even cut a 2x4 in half. I paid $99 for an online course that walked you though everything. What tools to buy, framing, electrical, HVAC, plumbing, etc.

I spent days with a pen and paper taking notes and watching videos.

Let’s just say it worked. I paid an electrician to wire up the breaker box and my dad and I did the rest. Even built a theater.

You can do it if you put your mind to it. I probably saved $20,000 doing it myself, if not more.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/game-room-build-thread

http://basementfinishinguniversity.com/

Any details on the hardware you used for building that rig?

Just when I thought there couldn't possibly be anymore, there were more. Kick ass!

If I can also make a recommendation. The PEX should be going through the center of the 2x4. You have yours really biased to one side. I can see a drywall screw going right into it.

I'd at least put up some metal blocking plates to protect them from puncture.

I wasn't trying to rain on your parade or anything. I just didn't want to see someone plow a 2" drywall screw right through your PEX.

I ran all the electric for my basement myself, but I paid a certified electrician to come in, inspect my work and then terminate it in the panel box.

If you're running into issues now, I'd be searching elsewhere. It sounds like it just isn't going to get any better.

You definitely have the upper hand on that one. And with it being $80k, I'd spend a few hundred to talk to an attorney.

Wait, back up the truck. How did you get your hands on a 3090 GPU?

You’re mining with that when you’re not gaming right? That thing should bring in about $210/month.

Can I ask if you have brackets under the granite? If not, what's your overhang?

If you're bored, I did an entire thread on my basement build which includes my theater. It might give you some ideas. I built it myself after probably a few hundred hours of research and phone calls, so I'm more than happy to offer whatever expertise I have in the area.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/game-room-build-thread

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Wait, you’re not who I think you are, are you? Based on your screen name and the LRS logo on the back, I’m pretty sure we’ve spoke on the phone before.

I have one of yours shirts you sent me a few years back. I still wear it.

What kind of counter is on the lower bar?

Beautiful space by the way.

Is that similar in price to something like granite?

I’d love to see how you handle the backend of that many taps.