Garcade coming soon! Tell me about your garage arcade setup! Pics appreciated!

RetroInjection

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 6, 2010
Messages
4,175
Reaction score
594
Location
Sayre, Pennsylvania
I've just received word that my loan commitment has been approved for a place with a garage! The garage will offer more floorspace than the arcade has ever had, which can only mean more machines in the future! :love: There are outlets roughly every six feet on both sides of the garage; the breaker box is on the left side, to the left of the door as you enter. Not sure of amperage, but I'll make due for now, worst case scenario. What's labelled "storage" was a workshop, and it has the necessary venting for a pellet or wood stove. You can enter the garage area from the workshop. The place is finished with woodgrain paneling. It's lit and insulated throughout. I will likely make the former workshop a lounge/toy display area. I will not be parking the car in the garage arcade.

What do you guys use for garcade security? Cameras? Alarms? I don't want to subscribe to anything. I will definitely be getting motion-sensor lights, and the workshop windows will be boarded over on the inside.

How can I easily/cheaply make the place not internally look like a garage? Going to do the black ceiling, as always. Ways to decorate and/or hide the garage doors from the inside? I was thinking a subway "burner" graffitti job, faked with a brush.

Acid stain the floor? Paint and seal? I haven't done the water-flick test, but my guess is that the floor is sealed. I was in there the day after a heavy rain, and the slab was bone dry.

Anything else I should know?

Popular opinion: Keep the woodgrain, or paint over it?

4-D9925-B4-7-FC9-475-E-8036-B1-A93606-B038.png
3903-D45-B-7-F37-49-F3-82-A8-EB9-B200-CF0-A9.jpg

The woodgrain. This poster is definitely staying!
9733-BA02-527-F-4-DB6-8248-CAF265502-BDD.jpg
 
Last edited:
Congratulations scoring the new place. 540 square feet is some pretty good space to work with,

My garcade is similarly sized at 570 square feet. Dimensionally it is 19x30. Have managed to stuff (43) games in there, including several behemoths like Afterburner Deluxe, Spy Hunter sitdown, Star Trek captain's chair and TE Cyberball.

That said, maxing the number of games in your space isn't necessarily the best way to go. In terms of presentation and comfort having fewer cabinets to give it a more open feel and to display sideart is a plus.

How many games do you have now and what is your target?

2" casters are installed in place of leg levelers to all of my games for ease of movement. This makes experimenting with different game layouts and configurations fairly easy and I've gone thru 100s of changes to arrive at what I believed is the optimal layout for the space I have.

Since you mentioned security possibly being an issue, having games on casters may not be a good idea…

Our garage was taken down to the studs to repair termite damage, expand, and install a 125A electrical subpanel, circuits, outlets and can lighting with the game room in mind.

It is insulated and drywalled. Went with a neutral blue gray color for paint. Can lighting is convenient giving option of using regular white light or switching to black light LEDs.

Setting up a garcade can be a massive (and expensive) endeavor depending how far you want to take it. Decorating can be another level of nonsense as well.

Prior to the current set up, we were in a rented house and had games in the garage there…that garage was the typical one found in a fixer upper.. bare wood, little to no insulation and could not handle all the games being on without breakers tripping…and it would quickly get warm in there.

Valuable lessons for when we were fortunate to land our own place.

I'd recommend pursuing your dream garcade doing the following in this order:
  1. Replace any damaged wood. Insulate and drywall,
  2. Decide on a cooling or heating solution. I've used portable ACs, large window AC units and now an AC mini split. The mini split is optimal if within your budget.
  3. Determine how many games you ultimately want to for your space then make sure you have the necessary power for all of the above. Depending on your load, may have to consider an upgrade toelectrical service
  4. Make sure the games you have are working and presentable before acquiring more. Nothing is worse imo that having a bunch of games that don't work and look bad if the goal is having a gameroom. I was there once… several times actually.
  5. Can't offer much security advise other than it may be a good idea to have a separate entrance to avoid opening the garage doors for passersby's to see or hear once the games are moved in. Can you enter the garage thru the storage room? Btw the storage room is great to have. We have one attached to ours garcade as well.
  6. Be mindful of humidity. This is something I've recently come to find to be an issue that can affect games and poster artwork.
  7. Play your games along the way. This is something I've been pretty bad at. If there is work to do, am compelled to focus on that and playing goes by the wayside.
  8. Having some type of music for your garcade. Apps like Spotify and dim lighting help set the vibe for the garcade.
  9. In addition to tweaking the collection, I'd say decor would be towards the end, but can do it along the way. Especially if hard to find items present themselves heh.
  10. Can build yourself a carport. I finally did that recently using unistrut and it came out great. Should have done that years ago.
Apologies for the long reply. Am sure I've missed a few things and not specifically answered some of your questions.

Again, congrats on the new place. Looking forward to seeing the progression of your garcade :)
 
Hello sir.

My garage is a standard 3 car garage (roughly 650 sq feet IIRC) and I wanted to have it be a space where anyone who came over (video game player or not) could hang out and feel comfortable. We've got games (20 total), we've got televisions, we've got music, and we've got a couch with sofa tables so folks can eat/drink out there comfortably. Flooring is a few big rugs, and I've tried to keep the game layout spacious so it doesn't feel cramped. Walls are painted with retro stripes, and the ceiling is black. I've got 3 60w blacklights to help with ambiance. I could fit a ton more games if i wanted it to feel squished, but I'm happy with what we've got. Here are some older pics -

Ytg4BFn.jpg
YuZAcvQ.jpg
i1hknpa.jpg

rHSSe2A.jpgMYTGdIe.jpg
 
Last edited:
Hello sir.

My garage is a standard 3 car garage (roughly 650 sq feet IIRC) and I wanted to have it be a space where anyone who came over (video game player or not) could hang out and feel comfortable. We've got games (20 total), we've got televisions, we've got music, and we've got a couch with sofa tables so folks can eat/drink out there comfortably. Flooring is a few big rugs, and I've tried to keep the game layout spacious so it doesn't feel cramped. Walls are painted with retro stripes, and the ceiling is black. I've got 3 60w blacklights to help with ambiance. I could fit a ton more games if i wanted it to feel squished, but I'm happy with what we've got. Here are some older pics -

View attachment 828747
View attachment 828748
View attachment 828749

View attachment 828750View attachment 828751
it was on this day I became a @jow fan
 
Still building out my half-a-garage space, but it is technically my 3rd 'arcade'.

Things I've learned.

- Put aside some space for socializing and relaxing. First instinct is to get as many games as possible into your space, but I have found that without an area to chill, people won't hang out long in the room unless they are actively gaming.
- Before you bring games in work out your AC, power, carpet, display shelving, lighting etc. It's much easier than trying to work around your cabs later.

Don't lose sight of the fact you are creating a fun and enjoyable place to be, rather than a glorified storage shed.

My original Garcade
2017-02-04 01.41.37.JPEG

My current home Barcade

My work-in-progress new Garcade
IMG_3848.jpeg
 
Last edited:
I agree with others, adding in replace the garage doors. Those are wood framed. Get something in aluminum or steel, as I can already see the base panel rotting on the right side. That can degrade allow pest infiltration (mice) which are not good for games.

Secure the perimeter. Insulate, add HVAC (which has to stay on year round, or you'll get condensation, mold, etc). and go to town.
 
Things I've learned.

- Put aside some space for socializing and relaxing. First instinct is to get as many games as possible into your space, but I have found that without an area to chill, people won't hang out long in the room unless they are actively gaming.
So real.

I've been in this hobby since 2004, and never had a "social" aspect to my garage until 2020. It made a world of difference. So many folks couldn't care less these days about arcade games, so they'd sit unplayed many a time we had get togethers. When I decided to change the whole thing and add multiple tv's, couches, and tables it suddenly made everyone want to hang out in the garage, and the games got played so much more.

I wish I would have done it years ago, but live and learn.
 
I am due for an overhaul. I crowded in a not shown Super Hang On and have some other busted games crowded in the space at the moment. My garage is also a mess.I need to sell off a few games so i can put that space in order as well as take charge of the Kong Room pictured here.

509064698_10160869517466557_4651519852927725297_n.jpg
509433425_10160869517371557_7815679913458330989_n.jpg
505829041_10160818852071557_2006140347302147567_n.jpg

514664919_10160917211081557_2817916429809922706_n.jpg505732248_10160818852326557_5102453269934180980_n.jpg
509207752_10160869517491557_6248191451302572920_n.jpg
511527651_10160869517861557_7934153635312572273_n.jpg

509430236_10160869517386557_8923902712346349792_n.jpg

509432541_10160869517811557_5577235231704339992_n.jpg511102750_10160869517921557_5698304370153490064_n.jpg
 
Some friends helped to move the games in over the weekend! Here are the machines being removed from where they've been stored for free for over a year.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_7709.jpg
    IMG_7709.jpg
    922.4 KB · Views: 10
  • IMG_7719.jpg
    IMG_7719.jpg
    824.1 KB · Views: 10
  • IMG_7715.jpg
    IMG_7715.jpg
    551.6 KB · Views: 9
  • IMG_7713.jpg
    IMG_7713.jpg
    546.6 KB · Views: 11
  • IMG_7712.jpg
    IMG_7712.jpg
    636.8 KB · Views: 11
  • IMG_7727.jpg
    IMG_7727.jpg
    714.8 KB · Views: 11
  • IMG_7726.jpg
    IMG_7726.jpg
    577.2 KB · Views: 10
  • IMG_7725.jpg
    IMG_7725.jpg
    499.4 KB · Views: 10
And here they are, safely in their new (hopefully permanent, after several moves) home!

Five games have been tested so far, with four of them working right off the bat. (Golden Tee took a crap.)

The guys got down with some Metal Slug 4 on the Neo. :)
 

Attachments

  • IMG_7724.jpg
    IMG_7724.jpg
    554.7 KB · Views: 12
  • IMG_7734.jpg
    IMG_7734.jpg
    611.3 KB · Views: 12
  • IMG_7733.jpg
    IMG_7733.jpg
    596.8 KB · Views: 12
  • IMG_7735.jpg
    IMG_7735.jpg
    513.6 KB · Views: 12
  • IMG_7732.jpg
    IMG_7732.jpg
    544.1 KB · Views: 12
  • IMG_7731.jpg
    IMG_7731.jpg
    615.5 KB · Views: 12
Back
Top Bottom