renting a gameroom - what would you do???

[Superully]

as some of you might already know i have a lot of games but no real gameroom. well, my living-room is VERY LARGE, but unfortunately on the third floor, which means (a) carrying all the games upwards and (b) STATICS. the house i'm living in right now is pretty old and (imho) poorly-built, therefore i'm afraid that one day i'll enter my living-room in the morning only to find one giant hole in front of me 

for that reason only a couple of games are up here (most of them for restoration purposes), the others are in storage at different places (where they don't get better because there's no heating there during winter).

i've been thinking about this problem for quite a while now, when suddenly this week i spotted an ad in our local newspaper where someone had advertised a storage room for rent close to where i live (well within walking distance). so i set an appointment for today to check out that location.

i didn't bring a camera, so i don't have any pics to show you, so i can give you only a verbal description: when you enter through the door there's one narrow room which leads up to a second larger room - plus there's an additional very tiny room which will get a toilet and a sink at the beginning of next year (which i think is a good idea to have in a gameroom). i've taken some measures and perhaps i'll come up with a simple drawing tomorrow.

all in all the the space sums up to around 50 square meters and from my drawings i deduced that i could fit in a little more than 20 games. oh, i almost forgot: rental price for this would be 80 euros per month.

there might be an option of extending this space a little bit further, but i guess i'd better get this sketch started to make things easier to understand 

the "gameroom to be" would of course need a lot of work (electronics, walls, floor, ...) - and those of you who've already built a gameroom know for sure what i'm talking about. unfortunately, i have absolutely no experience in stuff like that, so i would have to rely on people who do (and that always includes MONEY  )

fact is that i won't be moving out of my current home for at least a year - and who knows if my new home would have a suitable gameroom then?  perhaps that's the chance i've been unknowingly waiting for ...

i'll stop for now, work on my sketch and i'm curious to hear what you have to say ... COMMENTS PLEASE!!!

[Superully]

UPDATE: just finished a quick sketch 



the garage to the left of "my" gameroom entrance would make an ideal extension (for at least 10 games). however, next to the gameroom building is a pizza place and the owner of that restaurant has a pretty expensive car which he keeps in storage there - i guess this won't change for a while (those italians and their cars  )

another perfect extension would be the extra storage unit behind the main gameroom. a breakthrough could be done easily but AGAIN this is being used by the "pizza guy" as storage for bikes and rubbish. however, i guess it would be easier to get him out of here than to make him move his car from the garage for old arcade games 

NOW YOU

[level42]

80 euro's for that kind of space is _very_ cheap compared to what I would have to pay around here.

Do it.



 

[Superully]

how much space have you got, andré, and how many games can you fit in?

[Superully]

UPDATE: just walked by "my gameroom to be" and took an exterior shot of the building  



this huge neon fluorescent sign (thx etienne, you saved me from the neonpolice  ) above the entrance doors cries ARCADE - can't you hear it?  

[Etienne MacGyver]

80€ is definitely a good price!

and especcially if you count the pain you need to go through of moving the cabinets 3 stories up & down everytime!

I would go for it,

about the work it needs, maybe you have a handy neighbour?

btw, Level42 aka the Neon Police is reading too ully , its a fluorescent sign

you can make a nice sign out of it i think. (if it stays there)

and the last comment, a pizza guy next to a gameroom, perfect ! (i love pizza)

 

[italiandoh]

OK, one can do anything he wants with his money but :

- keeping the games in a different place from your house means that you won't be playing/working on them a lot
- renting a place just to store games is a waste of money

If you are determined to keep the games and start a serious collection, then think about the final place. This would be another temporary solution and you already have one.
I'd think about buying a bigger house, with proper space for all the games I would like to keep. If I can't afford it, then it makes no sense to collect them.
It's just a hobby after all, don't forget it.

Matteo

[Superully]

- keeping the games in a different place from your house means that you won't be playing/working on them a lot
- renting a place just to store games is a waste of money

those are two strong arguments, matteo, and describe exactly why i'm still hesitant to say YES. well, it wouldn't be a place just to STORE the games, i'd try to turn it into a nice gameroom, but no matter what - it wouldn't be mine!!!

moving right now is NOT an option because i'm helping out at another school the coming school year (teacher shortage) and after that i don't know where my next work assignment will be, therefore it would make no sense to buy a house now (although i'm planning on doing so eventually), just to find out in a year's time that my next job is 200 kilometers away 

tricky, isn't it?

[flip971]

Ully, follow your instinct

Having a storage place different from house, IMO, have a big vantage: You can reserve a space to repair/paint the cabs whitout having problem if You dirty around ( and expecially, no wife screams about dirty and/or caos when You work  ).

[Etienne MacGyver]

( and expecially, no wife screams about dirty and/or caos when You work  ).

Flip got a Huge point 

[level42]

( and expecially, no wife screams about dirty and/or caos when You work  ).

Flip got a Huge point 

+1

My gameroom is only about 2.90 by 5 m.  I can get about 13 cab in there I guess. It of course depends on the SW cockpit and the pinball machine....

[vib_ribbon]

if you like playing your games at 11pm at night in your boxer shorts , operating the pedals on your racing games with your bare feet, then you need your cabs at home really...

[level42]

80 euro per month will not even rent you a garage around here....

I think it's a good alternative for now. Luigi and Dirk from Germany have a separate space for their collection too. It has advantages and disadvantages.

I do agree though, that having the machines "in my backyard" was one of the reasons for me building it in my backyard. It does make it easier to work on a machine for a short time....

[yuppicide]

Here's my thoughts on the situation.

I don't know how big the place is, since I'm from the USA and don't have time to do a conversion (it's 12:39am here), but you did describe it will fit about 20 games. Not bad. 80 euros is about, about $113 US. That is cheap.

I would say go for it based on the following:

- Does it have enough power to power everything? If not, will they let you upgrade it? If so, would you mind doing the upgrade even though the building is not yours to own?
- Will you be on a lease? Here you can do month to month renting sometimes. Not sure if that is legal over there. That means if the landlord wants he can kick you out at anytime basically, giving you minimal notice. Lease is better.
- Will they let you pretty much do what you want inside? IE: Can you paint? Put down glow-in-the-dark-arcade carpet?
- Is the building near where people live and if so are you allowed to install sound dampening material? Will you be able to have friends over at any hour even 3am?

I would also consider the following:

- What kind of neighborhood is this in? Maybe you'd be allowed to run this as a business part time and help pay the rent. This one guy about an hour from me does this. He has a house, outside he built a 2 story building. He's open from 7pm - 10pm on Fri, Sat and Sun. It's all you can play for $10 US or $5 for 1 hour I believe. He has about 20 - 30 games downstairs, and upstairs he has about 30 - 40 pinballs. He has a small area for hosting birthday parties. You could do the same and make a deal with the pizza guy because you'd both be helping each other out.