Spot Killers - basement arcade build

animesuperj

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Been meaning to start this for a while to show the progress on my basement arcade, dubbed: Spot Killers. The wife and I, and 2 kids, just moved into this place December 15th. Before moving all the games went to a friends warehouse for storage, so I wanted to start working on the build asap to get the games home by spring/early summer.

It's kinda an odd layout, but it should be fun once the games are here. I'm also building my wife her drum room that she's been bugging me about for years; we never had the space at the old house.

Here's the initial layout with dimensions. The room behind the red line will be her drum room. The arc is the door where you'll enter and straight ahead of that (the dead space) is the utility room I'm framing around; hence not showing it on the layout. Also, on the other side of the door where you enter is a playroom/multi purpose room for the kids. It'll have a couch and tv; eventually a small fridge and counter space for drinks/food; so I'll have relaxing space that's still right by the arcade but doesn't have to be IN the arcade.

The plan for the overall build on the arcade is:
- Open ceiling sprayed flat black
- Recessed lights for "work" lighting and fluorescent fixtures for blacklights
- Drylok the walls and paint color over the drylok
- Build partition walls for utility room and wife's drum room
- Blacklight carpet in arcade and normal carpet in drum room

I need to catchup on posts/pictures, so the initial part of the thread will be a bulk update of everything I've been doing for the last two months.
 

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Couple pictures showing the "before", rough space. This isn't too long after we moved, so it's fairly messy as we just needed to throw things somewhere. I moved with the three games pictures: Omega Race, Ripoff and Space War. They're some of the better condition games I have, so I didn't want them in storage; and I just trusted moving with them more. Omega Race is HUO from an ex-bally employee and Ripoff/Space War are new cabinets/fully restored.
 

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The first thing I had to get done was upgrading power. The house only had a 100amp service with the main and sub completely full. No room for all the power I'll need! Found a local company that came and upgraded the service to 200amp. Lots more power!

Also, for lighting, I'm planning on doing recessed lights for "work"/main lighting and reusing the fluorescent fixtures that were already there for blacklights. I was able to find 29 can lights on craigslist, with bulbs and trims for $100. Big savings over having to get them new! Plus, I like the idea of reusing old materials if possible, less waste going to a landfill.
 

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Did some demo on the shelving units the previous owner installed. Need more room for games! Cleared them out up till where the new partition wall will be built. I was careful (kinda) while taking them down, as the plan is to reuse the wood when building the walls. Again, why buy new when the wood is fine and can be reused! Also, started to hang some of the can lights.
 

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As soon as I started planning this build, I knew I wanted to do blacklight carpet. I looked into carpet squares, rolls, area rugs; pretty much any option and what the pros/cons are. I found a seller with a lot of variety and very well priced. After a couple emails back and forth on pricing/ordering, they mentioned they could send a sample of some of the patterns I was thinking to see them in person. Of course I jumped on this right away. After a few weeks, samples arrived!

I'm planning on going with the less busy pattern. I really like how it lights up, it's not as busy as the other one, and the pattern repeat is MUCH bigger (72x72 vs 36x36) so it won't seem to repetitive in the space. The awesome thing was they didn't charge for the samples, or even to have them shipped! They'll make nice rugs for when you enter the arcade, or whatever my daughter decides to do with them; as they're apparently "hers" now.
 

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It would be really sweet (and spendy) to add Philips Hue color changing lights to those cans. Could dial in any colorscape you wanted from your phone.
 
It would be really sweet (and spendy) to add Philips Hue color changing lights to those cans. Could dial in any colorscape you wanted from your phone.
That'd be a cool idea once the room is finished. It'd be fun to be able to set some colors around the room in addition to the blacklight. Thanks for the idea!
 
Very cool room coming together there! I did a basement game room a while back and learned some things.

I'd suggest - wiring your lighting into multiple zones so you can control them separately. I can turn up the lights in the bar/lounge area if needed. Also get dimmable bulbs and dimmer switches - its nice to turn down for atmosphere, but turn up when working on something.

As long as you are wiring, consider running speaker wires for in-ceiling speakers.

Put in some in-ceiling power outlets so you could drop a line to an island of games. Also if you are going to mount a TV, run power to that wall and put an outlet behind the TV mount location.

The carpet is way cool, but I was running out of money when it got to flooring and had my concrete ground/polished and epoxy coated. It turned out great and was very inexpensive.

Devote a good area for bar/lounge space. Non-game nerds get tired of playing and just want to hang around and chat.
 
Catching up on some more work over the last 2 months.

After getting the can lights on craigslist, I needed to go through each one and fix them up a bit and do a quick cleaning. Since these will be spray black, along with the ceiling, I at least wanted the initial layer of dust/junk off them from the warehouse where they were sitting. Didn't take too much work, and they cleaned up nice. Starting hanging them up, in total put up 23 lights.
 

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Finally getting into a bit more construction of the space. I took off the pegboard in what will be the drum room. The plan is to reuse that in a small shop space I'll have behind the stairs. Next had to add support between the joists where the partition wall will be build between the drum room and arcade. Last, I kept one shelf; as it'll be in the utility room. However, with where the wall will be built on that side, it stick out too far. I removed one end, shortened the shelfs up a bit and reattached everything so it'll clear behind the wall.

Also during the time, a buddy of mine; who now lives about 5 minutes from me and also in the arcade hobby; started wiring up the cans. Beginning to have more light again!
 

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Finally catching up with this weeks progress!

I'm beginning to build the partition walls around the drum room and utility room (will come second). Picked up some drylok to at least put behind where the wall is being built for the drum room. Maybe not needed, but it'll tie together nicely when I get to the painting stage; plus it's added protection against any moisture behind the edge of the wall. I also used pressure treated wood for the side against the cinder block.

This was my first attempt at building a stud wall with a rough door opening. Overall didn't turn out TOO horrible. Learned a few things along the way; which should make the utility room walls go a little smooth; hopefully! Especially given those walls will be "U" shaped, so have to deal with two 90 degree angles.
 

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Are you going to put in a subfloor?

I used Dri-Core panels on mine. Well worth the investment in my opinion. Made the floor "softer" and added a little bit of R-Value as well.
 
Are you going to put in a subfloor?

I used Dri-Core panels on mine. Well worth the investment in my opinion. Made the floor "softer" and added a little bit of R-Value as well.
Not planning on doing a sub-floor. The playroom (that isn't part of the arcade) was carpeted when we moved in, glued directly to the concrete. It's been there a while and doesn't show any signs of issues. The plan is to throw the pad and carpet over the concrete. Not overly worried about going this route.

I wonder if you should paint any exposed pipes in a Mario bro colors?
Not a bad idea, just more painting that I want to do at the moment. I could always paint them in the future. Mario colors would be fun.
 
Little progress over the weekend. I had to drive down to Indiana to pickup the wife and kids from her parents place, so didn't get a ton of work in. I was able to start on the "U" shaped wall going around the utilities, first door framed in! The pipe will be just behind the drywall so you won't see it from the arcade side.
 

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Bit more progress today. Next part of the wall built. First time framing around vents, and pretty happy with how it turned out. Feel like I'm getting better and better with building these, which is a plus. Also lots of progress on the lighting, but not the easiest to take pics of that. Majority of the cans and fluorescents connected and on proper circuits. Found one junction box that was a bit overloaded and wires were starting to melt. Glad we caught it and removed about half the load, rebalancing with the new circuits and lights added. Only 8 more lights to go and lighting is all done!
 

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