The wife probably hates the home theater as much as she does pinball, so tear it out.

Keep a big amp and the subwoofer though.

How many do you have with and without the home theater?

Movies get boring pins never do

Wow. I spend hours in my theater every day and hardly watching movies. Video games, TV shows, theater is way more flexible. Playing tombraider in stereoscopic 3d on a 135" screen, for example, is awesome. I would sell every single one of my pinballs before dismantling my home theater.

Like bam said how many would you gain? Not an easy decision, I love my HT and would hate giving it up. I just put one in and I love it. However if your screen is not crazy big then it could be less painful?

I couldn't offer advice without a floorplan

Im with markmon....I went 135 and games are much more fun. I dont use 3d much but its cool.

Well jumping from 8 to 18 makes that decision a little less complicated

I love pins, but I love movies equally. If I had your space I'd make do with my 8 favorite pins and keep the theater. You can always rotate in new titles from time-to-time to keep your lineup fresh.

Still have the media room, but the wife said the kids dont use the play room and offered it as more pin space. She also suggested without my idea "why dont we make the downstairs office another gameroom and well move the office upstairs to the spare bedroom.

....case in point "god i love her"

8 to 10 is a reasonable collection and I think you would probably miss the home theater.

Looks like you have room to get more pins and keep the theater.... line 3 walls with pins, 4th wall with screen, couch in middle. Or maybe the wife will let you move the theater into another room?

Sell TMNT.

I'd lose the MAME cabinet personally.

Get two comfy leather recliners and get rid of the loveseat. you can squeeze two or 3 more pins there and move around the chairs as needed. Nice room btw.

I would not give up the theater. When we were designing the basement last year, the original plan was to have space for more pins and no theater. I was the big fan of more room for pins, but glad my wife, daughter and designer convinced me I would regret not having a theater and they were right (though my theater design cost me far more than expected)

It's very nice to have an area to do something else, get away from pinball for a few minutes or maybe read.

If you're even considering removing it, you probably aren't using it very much. I'd lose the theatre in a heartbeat. Already sit on my ass too much without one.

Your set up looks amazing. Are you sure you're not just making up problems for yourself so you have something to do?

I have one decent sized room as a finished basement and it has 4 pins and my "home theatre", which is basically an $300 720p HD projector shining about 60-70" on a blemished, white wall with no screen. Cheap Onkyo 5.1 home theatre speaker set up. And I think it's absolutely awesome.

I'm positive that you guys with the real deal sets ups are getting a "better than going to the movies" experience, but since I don't know what I'm missing, I'm perfectly happy with what I have. I watch movies and kids love playing their wii down there, etc. Wish I could fit more pins, of course, but I "only" have 4. If I had 8 I'd feel more than satisfied.

Yep, besides you probably already have a living room where you can put theater equipment.

There's no way I would give up my home theater for more pin space. It's even more of a sanctuary than my gameroom.

I would keep it as is.... Looks awesome.

I wouldn't give it up - no way. Get rid of the arcade games first.

The best thing about a home theater is that if you are watching something, your wife wont interrupt you.

But if you are upstairs watching a movie on a TV, she will interrupt your viewing 20 times with some story about her day.

Can you move the love seat up to the center of your room and put 3 pins where the love seat is now? Looks like it could work. No?
You really need a comfortable place to sit and chill in the center of all your toys. Make it work.

I agree.If anything change the lineup occasionally.

You can have BOTH!!! (or at least this is what I've done)...

Get a drop down screen for your projector that pulls down just in front of a row of pins!

. -------- WALL --------------------------
. PIN_1 PIN_2 PIN_3 Pin_4
. PIN_1 PIN_2 PIN_3 Pin_4
. ======================= <<< drop down screen

--- Sorry - my chart above is getting reformatted, so I simplified it ----

With your projector mounted on the ceiling. I also have a love seat on "sliders" that we slide into position when it's movie time.

I wouldn't get rid of the home theater.

I've been fighting the space issue for quite a while and have had the tug of war with lots stuff I want to keep. For me it comes down to what am I going to use the most. If I only enjoyed a movie a month and played my pins 10x a month then the pins win. If it's the other way around then maybe the pins should share the space more appropriately. The things that I have given up I'm okay with because overall I know I'm using my space for more overall enjoyment.

keep the theater

As long as it is not a "Would you remove your bathroom for more pins" Poll...

Is it comfortable watching TV from a hammock?

Then I would keep it... or you will pay for it later.

Id keep the theater
more to life than just pinball machines
(please don't hate me)

I will make a home theater out of my kids room once he moves on to college.
In the meantime I have setup a projector in the backyard and we show movies outside like a drive in.

Mark when you sell all of your pins look me up....

I must say I might feel the same if my theater was as nice. Street Fighter at Markmons was very cool. Hard to describe vids on a big screen with subs unless you have played them.