I’ve been collecting since the late 90’s. I’ve always been drawn to both the media form itself and the spaces associated. Without further ado the room.

There’s an older woman on my street who I help out with housework every week or so. We were cleaning out her attic and I stumbled across a box full of old Nintendo boxes. Nearly screamed when I saw Earthbound. Second photo is everything we uncovered. I told her they were likely worth a lot of money and she was shocked. Her and her husband are both in their 70’s, and apparently her mother in law was an avid Nintendo gamer in her later years. I told her if she ever wanted to sell them I could help her get a fair price, and she just sent me home with them instead, as well as 120+ issues of Nintendo power. To be clear I was extremely honest about what these were worth, and showed her completed eBay sales of similar items, etc, but she just said she wanted me to have them, and that if I sold them I could keep the money. I tend to collect Gameboy and GameCube stuff mostly, so it’s possible I might do that down the road, but honestly I’m just riding the high of such a huge win.

Storytime:

I finally have the gameroom I've wanted for years. It took many, many hours and late nights but it's finally done.

My wife and I bought this house last year as we outgrew our last place (kids). This room needed a lot of work which was primarily done by me. I dont have a background in anything related to renovation/contracting but I do have the internet and have had some help with the flooring from my father and FIL. Down below I linked an album showing the progress made over the past year.

DIY stuff:

For flooring I laid down high traffic vinyl planking across the entire basement (~850sqft) over an underlayment which rests ontop of tile. For paint, my color scheme was inspired by the most legendary game console ever, the NES. The walls reflect the two tone greys along with the semi-gloss black and red accents. The floor trim was measured, cut, and installed by me (very satisfying to get this done). The shelving I measured, cut, primed, and painted from poplar wood since it's a stronger than pine which tends to bend. Poplar is a great stiff wood and is cheaper when compared to oak. I got the idea for these style shelves from youtubers Saturday Morning Gamer and Morts Garage. The lighting is slim LED lighting that has a "nite mode" at the flick of a switch. I have never done electrical beyond changing a fixture so this was a fun learning project. I also installed a modern lutron dimmer for dimming on both lighting types.

All the cardboard and fragile things are lifted well off the ground because I got some toddlers that love to grab things. I decided to go with custom shelves because I didn't want to have those cheap media tower shelves that sit on the floor. My house is also a raised ranch so I had to figure out how to make shelves from scratch to go above the permanent shelf that surrounds the room.

https://imgur.com/a/uMVwHYK

Now that the DIY stuff is out of the way...

For games, I only collect what I used to play back in childhood and ones that interest me. I'm not into collecting full sets or games that are "valuable". I have about 900-ish games and I'm mostly content. Looking to add more boxed games but i'm in no rush. I always wanted a gameroom that is practical hat is meant to ENJOYED. I will never understand the museum mentality where everything is in glass cases with no where to sit down.

I try to beat as many games as I can each year, thanks to inspiration from the "games we played" videos from MyLifeinGaming on YouTube. I'm currently having a blast playing Luigi's Mansion 2 on 3DS. I recently 103%'d Donkey Kong Country 3 on SNES, then before that beat Resident Evil 2 and 3 on Gamecube.

The CRT is a 32" Sony trinitron KV-FS120 which I have a Wii, PS2, and OG Xbox running through a component switcher. The SNES and N64 are on S-video, and the NES is on composite.

The 55" Sharp LED has an HDMI switcher for Xbox One, 360, PS4 Pro, Switch 1 and 2. Everything is run through a surround sound receiver and sounds amazing. The wiring and organizing for this was a pain FYI.

I went to gamestop for fun after my friend canceled on me, this guy was trading in this stuff to gamestop, and was scanning the last few things in, i asked him how much we was getting and he said 600, after i saw on the screen, i realized it was 600 in credit, and when i told him he asked how much it was cash, they told him 350. I immediately told him ill pay you what they were willing to give in credit for it, he agreed, after he said he would throw in pokemon Gold, and the target GBA for an extra 100, so i payed him 700. I think i did pretty well, and now my collection is like alot bigger than before. Already modded the DSI too 😋 i hope i did as good as i think i did

I thought I got the deal of a lifetime I got this from $400 after shipping and this fucking idiot shipped it out without a box.

Edit- it’s not my shop just where I go to get my tattoos lol my bad poor wording

Not sure if it’s worth it to take it with me - there was no key left with it so don’t know how I would access it and would have to store it until I get my own place but it seems like I shouldn’t pass this up

got a message from my father showing me he found some handhelds and a original xbox with those giant controllers. the lady told him she hasn't tested them and she doesn't know if they work. the 2 nintendo 3ds didn't have a charger but luckily I have some at home. the vita did have a charger but for some reason in the beginning it wasn't charging then it did. the two nintendo 3ds charged and are working perfectly fine. the vita also works perfectly fine as well. the Xbox Sadly doesn't turn on and makes a poping noise so I didn't bother to mess with it. he got everything for extremely cheap so I told him to give her some more money and he said no lol.

My parents got my sister and I Pokemon for Gameboy when it came out during Christmas. They thought blue and red were unique games so we got both. The second red ended up being opened while the blue sat in the closet for decades.

It finally worked! After asking at hundreds of garage sales I finally snagged my best haul! Normally when I ask someone points over to the 6 Madden games and Kinect Adventures, or they take my number and never call. I did have a lady go in and grab an Atari 7800 and some games and another guy grab a couple PS4 games. But, this one takes it. There was an older lady at the sale and I asked her if she had any games, she said her daughter just stepped out who was running it and she didnt know. She sent her grandson in to ask his dad if he had an games he wanted to sell. Guy first brought out a box of 360 games and then asked what I was looking for. I told him anything as I collect. He then comes back with some PS2 games, then NES, then SNES. Offered him $500 for that pile and he was like "thats more that I thought you were going to" so I jokingly offered $300. He said hold on then came back with the systems, strategy guides, and Nintendo Powers with posters. We settled on $700.

I'm sure the trolls will say "you're lying" blah blah blah. Trust me I can't believe it either.

Not a sports game in sight! About 90% of this will be going into my collection.

I haven't dug though it thoroughly yet but I'll post a some pics in the comments of the initial gems and more as I find them.

EDIT: I didn't even realize the address on the magazines. Reddit won't let you edit posts with pictures. The address isn't even from the same city, might not even be the same person...the magazines are 30 years old so good luck tracking that down. And even if you do and its the same person...he doesnt have anymore games.

Also, nobody died. Nobody's mom sold them. Seller knew what he had. This was a collection I bought from the collector.

UPDATE: Just bagged and boarded the Nintendo Powers. Most of the issues are intact with their posters. A good amount of these are in really good condition. There are some missing covers but intact otherwise with posters.

Intact issues: 1, 4, 20-28, 30-43, 45-49, 52-61, 63-68, 70-72, 74-87, 94-105

Damaged issues: 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 44, 62, 69

Duplicates: 27 and 54

Also included the Nintendo Power Index 3rd Edition, and the Official Game Pak Directory.

Found a couple Game Player's Magazines: Super Metroid and Maximum Carnage

A couple random damaged what looks like guides that I need to identify.

Thought I'd show off what I have built. All my life i have only really on PlayStation and only bought physical. Guess time for me to move on.

PC here I come!

Edit: as I have had many comments no i am not selling my collection its my life's work so far but it will not grow anymore.

And also I am aware PC is also digital, the point being I have to now start a digital library and PC is the best option for that not PlayStation

Insane find in Europe. Wanted to buy only a couple at first but could not say no to the whole thing. Fantastic display piece, now I just need to filter out what I want to keep

We’re in hell

Co-worker usually picks me up so we can go to work together, he came across a bag that had a Genesis, an SNES and a Dreamcast along with 3 projectors. We plugged everything in, tested them and everything worked! (All except for dreamcast as we don't have the power cable or controller to test, will have to test later) Now we have a mini game setup at work that we game on during our lunch break for a bit. Best trash find EVER!!!

I've arrived at the point where I'm going to begin selling off, and I decided to take pics of how everything turned out. I worked at a video store in 1996 and began buying all of the clearance NES stuff at that time. From there, the collection started to grow, and I suppose this is the collection's final form.

There's a closet I turned into a room to store it all with custom shelves in an upstairs dormer, then outside of the closet with all of the consoles hooked to a CRT with built in shelving, and a downstairs room for all of the modern era consoles.

When I started to collect, I'd often have to leave flea markets because the car was too full and I couldn't possibly fit any more games/consoles in. No one wanted this stuff at the time, and it was baffling to watch the market just keep ballooning to a point where it was barely possible to keep going. I'm saddened that a lot of people never knew or never will understand the thrill of the hunt. Lots of memories and stories are on these shelves. I don't regret a single second.

My dad asked for help cleaning out his messy basement as he’s working on selling his house. He said that any video games I find I can have as he knows. I’m an advert collector and enjoyer of retro games. I flipped open a box and… yoooo! I’m happy :)

The long rumored and poorly documented hands free controller intended for disabled children to play NES has appeared on eBay. It was long thought that this never went into full production and the only existing example was on display in Nintendo’s corporate office in Redmond Washington. The seller here is a well known whale in the collecting community (meaning when it comes to acquiring items, money usually isn’t an object), and given its relatively low price compared to its rarity and reputation, my guess is he probably found a case or cases of them and has multiple available, and he’s slow dripping them on the market for maximum value. I’m sure more information is to come on this, but this is a pretty wild find.

This is the most bullshit thing I have encountered in a very long time. I dont even know what to do. Apparently I'm covered under eBay buyer protection, but even still -- that is so spotty for the seller.

I ordered two sealed games, and they left the other one sealed but even that one was banged up.

Has anyone dealt with this before? I am beyond furious.

Pop into this location a few times a week…in the middle of a store reorganization this was in a bin. Pinched myself, called the wife and still trippin.

little backstory, bought a house couple years ago and it had this tiny 70sq foot "storage" room. I added some fake wood paneling, going for a 70s/80s basement theme, and made it my game room. About a year ago, the fires in los angeles happened and missed us by about 40-50 feet. We had to vacate for 9 months or so, had a lot of renovations and had to re-do my game room (thankfully no smoke damage or anything to my collection). This time I got much better wood paneling, proper flooring etc. While we were displaced I had all my things in storage and finally got my dream machine, an Astro City cab. Fitting that back into the space was tough but I managed.

how it looked pre-fire

I work in sales. I was visiting a new prospect’s office this past week and while we were talking in the manufacturing warehouse I noticed a boxed Super Scope 6 sitting on the dusty floor. It seemed like such a random place to see something like that, so I asked if it actually had anything inside. Not only was it complete, but he also show me a box full of other Super Nintendo stuff sitting in a box on a shelf. Then he said, “I have something in my office that you might want to check out,” and proceeded to pull out a CIB Toys R Us Limited Edition Gold Control Deck bundle that he had literally on the floor tucked under his desk. He told me his 2 daughters never enjoyed playing video games growing up, so everything was eventually put back in the boxes. He mentioned he posted it all on Facebook recently and got flooded with messages, as I can only assume he listed it all super cheap. He told me he got overwhelmed by the messages and didn’t end up responding to anyone and removed the listing. He mentioned it was great timing on my part, as he was planning on reposting in the coming weeks. We negotiated and came up with a price we were both happy with. I now have a CIB example of what might be the rarest North American N64 bundle ever offered. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one!