Any two-car sized garage arcades?

[jkoolpe]

I'm interested in pictures/layouts. I'm likely moving into a different house soon, and I'm thinking of taking a couple bays out of the garage strictly to build an arcade room. I haven't done any layout yet. . just curious what that looks like for other people if you have pictures.

Thanks!
Gary

I've had my games in my 2-car garage for about 10 years...I got 23 games in there and was still able to park 1 car in there. It was never anything fancy, but the games were there and always playable (not blocked, even if the car was in there).

However, my biggest piece of advice for 'ya...do not plan on doing this is you have a Home Owner's Association! I'm currently being evicted by my idiot HOA because I don't park 2 cars in my garage, and apparently they have the power to enforce these sorts of rules on me even if I didn't own 2 cars (I do as my wife has one car of course, but still...)

But...I think we've found a house in the next town over with an even bigger garage so hopefully we'll get it and everything will work out for the best ...

Jon

 

[GaryMcT]

Thanks for all the info!

On an untwisted note, you have a Warlords cocktail!!!! That's the only cocktail that I want!

The garage I'm in is an oversized 2 w/storage cabinets where I keep parts and my pcb collection. We're house shopping so I've been meaning to take measurements to make sure the new house matches or exceeds it. Its pretty packed but I don't have all my games. 4 (Pole Position, star wars, zookeeper, spyhunter sitdown) are offsite awaiting restoration. With another 4 incoming (frontline, mad planets, black widow, asteroids deluxe). Getting rid of 4 games (Dragons lair, crystal castles, crazy climber ur and a lesser condition AD) so the net gain will be 4. Crossing fingers it will all fit. Certain it will but it will be tight. I can take some pix of current setup to give idea, but things are abit messy as I'm restoring afterburner deluxe atm. My lineup is has some odd games that suck up large chunks of space:
afterburner deluxe 6'x8'
spyhunter sitdown
warlords cocktail
crazy climber cocktail
3 candy cabs (wide)

I think for standard uprights, you could arrange 25 fairly easily with space to move around comfortably. I'll be close to 28-29 with some space gobblers so it won't be ideal. I've been to friends arcades where there are less games but the space is opened up and its much nicer than the claustrophobic setup I have, heh. Less is more, but There are just too many great games to be had!

Tom

 

[GaryMcT]

Good god. I thought our HOA was bad!!

The place we are moving too (I hope) doesn't have one.

I've had my games in my 2-car garage for about 10 years...I got 23 games in there and was still able to park 1 car in there. It was never anything fancy, but the games were there and always playable (not blocked, even if the car was in there).

However, my biggest piece of advice for 'ya...do not plan on doing this is you have a Home Owner's Association! I'm currently being evicted by my idiot HOA because I don't park 2 cars in my garage, and apparently they have the power to enforce these sorts of rules on me even if I didn't own 2 cars (I do as my wife has one car of course, but still...)

But...I think we've found a house in the next town over with an even bigger garage so hopefully we'll get it and everything will work out for the best ...

Jon

 

[Arcadenut]

However, my biggest piece of advice for 'ya...do not plan on doing this is you have a Home Owner's Association! I'm currently being evicted by my idiot HOA because I don't park 2 cars in my garage, and apparently they have the power to enforce these sorts of rules on me even if I didn't own 2 cars (I do as my wife has one car of course, but still...)

This is why I HATE HOA's. Luckily mine is pretty tame, but just the idea that they can do something like this pisses me off.

 

[gibbous]

20 games in mine, including two cockpits/sitdowns and an extra wide point blank dedicated. Could fit more, but one wall has my work bench and the other has storage. Pins are in the spare bedroom and I have a couple of other games sprinkled throughout the house.

Found ceiling attached storage to be vital to getting that little bit extra storage without taking up more floor space:

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&rh=n:2423298011&page=1

I also mounted adjustable shelves above the arcade games on the wall above the Robotron-Star Wars row. Works out. I do kind of want some kind of flooring in there next, though.

 

[fatherpain]

That's a pretty sweet layout you have there Edgar, I'm very impressed! Even more so that you are allowed to have games in the house! I haven't crossed that threshold yet, but I might try if we get an extra room in our next house. It will probably get shot down like one of those ICBMs in missile command, but itd be good for an argument! I need to learn how to use that sweet sketchup program, is it hard?

Tom

 

[gibbous]

Thanks, Tom. I've gone through many revisions and layouts before settling on this one. I like it a lot.

I have 7 games inside if you count the pins. Two of vids are candy cabs, and one is my Tempest cabaret. She doesn't seem to mind the candies inside as much, and she likes pinball, so that's why those got inside.

I don't think sketchup is hard, but I've always dabbled in graphics programs and have some CAD experience. You should give it a shot, though. You also don't need any design experience to just drop games in and push them around to try out layouts - a ton of games have already been drawn up, you just have to download them.