Building an Arcade (Personal) in Realtime

Yes those yellow and orange colors captures the 70's and 80's vibe for sure…. I was born in 69' so am just a little older and grew up hitting arcades, malls, pizza parlors, liquor stores, golflands, laundromats and wherever else had games..

Hit nearly all of the arcades in and around Los Angeles during the golden age and similarly do not recall any establishments that had blacklights or blacklight carpet… I recall arcades all being kind of dark, dimly lit and non descript. The games were all that mattered.

If you stay with the yellow and orange motif it will definitely be like stepping into a Time Machine. :)
 
Yes those yellow and orange colors captures the 70's and 80's vibe for sure…. I was born in 69' so am just a little older and grew up hitting arcades, malls, pizza parlors, liquor stores, golflands, laundromats and wherever else had games..

Hit nearly all of the arcades in and around Los Angeles during the golden age and similarly do not recall any establishments that had blacklights or blacklight carpet… I recall arcades all being kind of dark, dimly lit and non descript. The games were all that mattered.

If you stay with the yellow and orange motif it will definitely be like stepping into a Time Machine. :)
That is the goal! I don't want it to be "novelty" or "retro". Although I do dig that style, I am in fact like you said, trying to make it feel like you took a voyage in time machine to an older arcade. There will be 60 or so uprights and 10 pins contributed by @only68s. The uprights will all have CRT's and range from 70's, 80's, and 90's. The only exception is a Terminator Salvation. The pins will be mostly newer or whatever flavor Justin wants to put in.

It's funny if you ask AI to crap out images of vintage or old arcades they are all glowing with neon and black lights with bright late 80's pop styling.

The balance is gonna be interesting from the front to the back. My design studio will be Mid Century Modern Atomic Ranch/ Danish Modern then you will transition to the bathroom area and that will be swanky gaudy mid 70's Vegas, then into the late 70's early 80's arcade. Ive designed many houses and offices and my style tends to be modern industrial or contemporary modern. So this is way outside of my typical design style. I am having to reprogram my brain to not be afraid of the colors.
 
Chapter 11

I'M JUST PLASTERED WITH EXCITEMENT! (BAD DRYWALL PUN)

Once the drywall goes up, you know you're getting close to the exciting stages. For the office arcade project, the sheets were delivered, stacked, and installed......and then came the dust storm. Just after finishing cleanup from demo, concrete grinding, and insulation, drywall sanding showed up to make sure I didn't forget what dust tastes like. Hopefully, this is the last round of it… hopefully.

The crew knocked out all 3,500 sq. ft. in just five days, which still amazes me every time I watch drywallers work. For the finish, I went with squared-off edges and a level 4 smooth finish. Since I'm sick of seeing baseboards, I had the drywall installed about 5/8" off the floor, it gives it a sharp, clean look. With taping, mudding, and sanding wrapped up, it's finally time to move on to tiling the bathrooms and then… paint!

I love it when a plan comes together..... In the meantime, I snapped a pic of one of the spots where I'm stashing some of the games while the buildout rolls forward.
 

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Chapter 12

ARE HUE KIDDING! WELL, I'M JUST ROLLING WITH IT.

This is the part I've been waiting for. As a designer, this is where I feel like my creativity can finally shine. Not that the project as a whole didn't demand some intense design work.....it absolutely did. But this, right here, is where the ultra-fun begins. Paint is one of those things I've always been passionate about, though I'll admit I wouldn't want to do it professionally day in and day out.

As you can see from the color palette I picked, there's definitely a theme: late '70s for the arcade, and mid-century modern '60s for the design studio. I dedicated hours upon hours researching color schemes, and spent even more time at Sherwin-Williams comparing paint samples to find the ultimate combo. Remember, the design studio is getting black T-bar with architectural 2x2 tiles. The arcade has scrim paper, where I chose to paint it with Promar 200 Tricorn Black in Eggshell. The rest of the walls are Cashmere in Low Luster. I have shared the paint names and Sherwin color numbers in case anybody is curious.

My vision really started to come alive when Trinket (that spicy hot mustard yellow) hit the arcade walls. I was like—yes, yes, YES! And when the stripes went up, my own socks were blow off. I knew I had nailed it when 1978 called and asked for their paint back.

Where the arcade wall meets the scrim paper, I'm installing a 3/8" x 3" baseboard, painted Tricorn Black. That little detail fixes the uneven top line left by the paper. Huge thanks to my painter buddy Eric, who came over with his tools of the trade and helped me pull off this painting extravaganza. Bathroom tile and paint, fixtures are my current project, along with the drop ceiling grid. And yes! I've finally picked carpet colors! I'll share those soon.

I'll leave you with a pic of some more games hanging out at my old office, waiting to move in. Big thanks to @ToddK for The 3 Stooges and Spy Hunter! A couple of rare beasts from his personal collection.

Onward!
 

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I've gotta carve out some time and swing by soon. It's coming along quick . Very happy to see the progress update. Let me know if you need anything
 
Chapter 13 and 14

CUTTING THE CHEESE? NOPE, ONLY THE CARPET and WATT MORE CAN YOU WANT?

This update is a bit behind, by about 2 weeks. It's just been hard to find the time to compile the post. However, it is what it is, and I do what I can. That said, I enjoy sharing the progress with the great folks here on the forum. Carpet, I feel, was a great turning point. Now, the dust is finally gone, and it's clean work!

I feel the carpet landed, style-wise, exactly where I wanted it to. The front has a cool digital pattern and still maintains a modern feel with a sense of mid-century. The arcade area was tough, I went through so many carpet samples and ended up with what you see in the pics. I am very happy with how well it meshes with the mustard walls and stripes. I feel I am getting that true late '70s vibe I'm shooting for. A friend of mine stopped in and said, "Woahhh, man, I feel like I am in a '70s roller-skating rink." For me, that's mission accomplished. Can't wait to start populating games. I still have to do the crown to level off the unevenness of the scrim paper and put in a million electrical outlets. In addition, I have to mount 7 TVs (they came in yesterday), speakers, cameras, Wi-Fi, lights, and and and and and... The nice part is, with 30 years of IT and AV behind me, that's the easy stuff.

My buddy Shaun came in to wire up the sub-panels. There are two Eaton panels, 200 amps each, with about 30 20-amp circuits per panel. He did a remarkable job, and they look neat and tidy. I am starting to build out the network rack. I'm going all Ubiquiti for the infrastructure....so switches, firewall, cloud key, and APs are all Ubiquiti. The camera system is Hikvision NVR with 8MP ColorVu cameras. A/V is Origin Acoustics internal speakers, Sony TVs, Sonance amps, Sonance outdoor speakers, HEOS controller, and Atlona video distribution. The server is running Proxmox with multiple virtuals, and mass storage is a 4-bay Synology rack backing up to the Synology C2 cloud. Lots of cool tech.

Hope you folks are enjoying the voyage. Games rolling in very soon. If questions are out there, I am an open book. :)
 

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I thoroughly enjoy reading these updates. What an epic space this will be!!

I am starting to build out the network rack. I'm going all Ubiquiti for the infrastructure....so switches, firewall, cloud key, and APs are all Ubiquiti. The camera system is Hikvision NVR with 8MP ColorVu cameras.

I too am a huge proponent of Ubiquiti, having transitioned to their products from a certain other network behemoth in early 2021. I am curious, why not also utilize their cameras and NVR instead of Hikvision?
 
HOW DID I MISS THIS THREAD

You absolutely *must* put at least one full-size yellow/orange lightning bolt in your arcade somewhere. Every picture I see where you've put one between the left & right side of the image, I dig it. And it fits the theme.
 
I thoroughly enjoy reading these updates. What an epic space this will be!!



I too am a huge proponent of Ubiquiti, having transitioned to their products from a certain other network behemoth in early 2021. I am curious, why not also utilize their cameras and NVR instead of Hikvision?
I like you, have been a using a certain formula for many years. Depending on the client Cisco Small Business with Fortinet or larger companies all Cisco Meraki.. Within the last few years Ubiquiti has really stepped up their game, in addition I love their management interface. Plus their stuff is perdy! As far as cameras go, I have been pushing Hik and Axis for many years. I have deployed over 2000 cameras of all flavors. In my opinion Ubiquiti's cameras are no that good. They are a pain to deploy, their flavors are few, the quality is not good. I guess it's just not enterprise class stuff. However, saying that I have done a few systems for clients that demanded them. Good for home, better than Nest, Ring, Blink, etc. Currently we are doing a very large Hik install this coming week for a school. 11 32 Channel NVRs! Fun
 

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HOW DID I MISS THIS THREAD

You absolutely *must* put at least one full-size yellow/orange lightning bolt in your arcade somewhere. Every picture I see where you've put one between the left & right side of the image, I dig it. And it fits the theme.
Now that is a good idea. I dig!
 
Getting it done before 2065 I see. Looking good. love the paint choices. Wish I lived closer so I could check it out.
 
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