Best home arcade setup ever?

[ballzdeepx]

I was cruizin around the youtubz and found this vid of a guys home arcade. He must have people clamoring to hang out with him 24x7 with this setup. Even the stuff he has offline in his basement is pretty amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qYsUfF8DZk

Have you all seen any better in home arcade setup? Would be cool to see & share.

 

[WupWuh]

Woah. That is impressive! He essentially has Funspot in his house. Really nice selection of games and you gotta appreciate all the effort and $$$ that went into that setup. That outerspace blacklight carpet really ties it all together.

Hopefully he throws in NBA Jam, Killer Instinct, and a Virtua Fighter at some point down the road.

 

[SNKorSWM]

It doesn't look like the guy plays any of these cabs. The power cord of each cab just dangle in front of the screen.

 

[Chempop]

FFS now I'm looking at blacklight reactive carpet prices... lol

Seems like this is the one to get if you can find it

Spoiler:

 

[MegaGraffin]

Well he's got a lot of money. Okay, so he's rich...But on the flipside he did decide to use that money to buy a ton of cabs and I have to respect that. It'd be nearly exactly what I'd do if I had a ton of money to burn.

I was watching the video initially not impressed saying to myself, "big deal, you got a 720?" Just as they stroll by a 720....Then I watched the next 8 minutes and yeah, he's got a lot of stuff...

 

[ebinsugewa]

This is a friend of mine. Excuse the yelling and intro. He has more stuff not in the video as well.

is also a friend. He has an insane lineup of cabarets and also a nice TurboGrafx collection.

 

[Neorebel]

That mancave is UNREAL! What a champion

 

[K1ngArth3r]

Really like the layout of this guys arcade, the guy in the video said the owner was a pest exterminator! I think I'm in the wrong job

Nuno from DragonsLairForums got an incredible collection also, he's from Belgium.

 

[Mugicha]

another comment about the carpet here that was cool. It really reminded me of the arcades at the movie theatres and whatnot, that's a great idea! quite a few machines too!

 

[OMFG]

We shot that video of John's place during one of his gatherings. The owner of those machines hosts gatherings from time to time. When the machines aren't all in use, he also holds a couple of poker games in the main arcade area.

Something that we strive to showcase on our channel are home arcade setups. Since the decline of commercial arcades, we've been filming private collections. The stories of how some of these were found and restored are amazing.

 

[kuze]

Pretty awesome collection, sad to see there weren't any MVS cabs though.

 

[codecrank]

yeah , the carpet is definitely a nice touch.

 

[cornerstone]

You know all those old guys on KLOV? Some of them have been fairly successful in life.


http://www.thebasementarcade.com/

 

[kuze]

/drools

 

[shadows]

Gorgeous setup, and all the cabs look be in pristine condition.

 

[ballzdeepx]

Man bless you for filming that, I just happened to stumble on to your channel the other night and I'm glad I did. I love seeing stuff like this and would love to hear some stories as well.

Thanks to everyone posting in here though, I love the fact that people still keep these arcades going. I can't imagine what the electrical must cost!

We shot that video of John's place during one of his gatherings. The owner of those machines hosts gatherings from time to time. When the machines aren't all in use, he also holds a couple of poker games in the main arcade area.

Something that we strive to showcase on our channel are home arcade setups. Since the decline of commercial arcades, we've been filming private collections. The stories of how some of these were found and restored are amazing.

 

[DanAdamKOF]

It's definitely neat having a lot of cabs, and if it's something you treat as a hobby with stuff like deal hunting, finding period-authentic accents like carpet or tokens, restoration, and finding buyers, then I can definitely respect that, playing the games themselves is just a nice extra after the fact.

However, from a practical standpoint, it's your business if you want to have an arcade's worth of machines, but personally the most I'd want would be a generic JAMMA cab with a stack of PCBs, and maybe two other unique cabs that I already play a lot with a lot of room to grow your skill (DDR for example).

So in other words, a part of me hopes that people like the guy in the OP's video are actually good at almost all of their games. At the least, he opens up his house for others to play in, so there's that, but the idea of someone out there who doesn't do anything like that and just accumulates machines and can't 1CC a single one of them, that's kinda sad. Hopefully it doesn't happen quite that often.

 

[Chempop]

While that is a good point that I do see eye-to-eye on, the sort of collecting seen in the video is more about bringing people together than anything else. It is the experience of game rooms that some of us grew up on and are now a distant memory for most. I would never want a home arcade on that level, but it is a spectacle to appreciate. I too am far more enthusiastic about having a small collection of only my favorite games which I can work towards mastering. Even at 3 cabs and 10 PCBs i already feel that I have more than enough for this lifetime.

 

[ebinsugewa]

Everyone I know with a similarly sized collection has other people playing their games more than they do. I don't think you'll have to worry.

 

[SNKorSWM]

You know all those old guys on KLOV? Some of them have been fairly successful in life.

View attachment 9042
http://www.thebasementarcade.com/

Nice! He has pics of kids playing all those games. It's not just a private arcade collection.

 

[cornerstone]

Nice! He has pics of kids playing all those games. It's not just a private arcade collection.

Yeah. I think a lot of older guys are just trying to emulate the feeling they had when they walked into an arcade back in the day, and pass that along to their children, friends and family. I think that's pretty noble.

 

[ballzdeepx]

I can only commend someone who wants to recreate the arcade scene at home, and still get people over to play. Once home console systems reached parity with arcade quality, it was the beginning of the end, but online gaming can not replicate playing in person with or against someone in the flesh. You actually had to back up your shit talking back then, it's way too easy behind a firewall of anonymity.
Not to mention the music and the carpets were amazing

 

[cornerstone]

Yeah. Both the competitive and friendly experiences with total strangers was something to hold on to.

I can't really think of any other avenue in life where you can walk up and help out a total stranger or civilly force them to the back of the line.

 

[ebinsugewa]

I can't really think of any other avenue in life where you can walk up and help out a total stranger or civilly force them to the back of the line.

Good way to put it. Arcades were the great meritocracy, if you got skills you got skills.

 

[caldwert]

I've been to The Basement Arcade before, he's not too far outside of St. Louis. Really nice setup and a super nice guy. You should see some of the pinball collectors in town though. Mindblowing collections.