I've been lucky enough to acquire a new room on the house as we have moved the heating system outside. This leaves me with a room 3.5 x 3 m with a pitched roof that the wife will allow me to turn into an office but privately it will be my man-cave. I have stacks of retro C= stuff and spend a lot of time tinkering/repairing hardware gaming (both PC & retro.)

I'm thinking work areas, storage, lighting, power points, flooring etc etc.

It's a blank canvas at the moment with bare concrete floor and brick walls, so this is my chance to make it perfect! I'm looking for both practical and cool ideas to make it perfect that others might have done or wish they had but didn't!

Rob
_________________

What you need is work surfaces, as many as you can get in there, some cupboard drawers underneath, as many as you can fit, up top lots and lots of shelving, then fill the shelves with stuff, make sure the stuff is TEETERING dangerously! (Think many 1541's!), fill work surfaces with various working and non working machines, throw on a few monitors, but make sure you have a foot square of room for soldering, and another foot (underneath the teetering shelves!) for a laptop. Oh almost forgot, boxes and boxes of non working machines and cases that you WILL get to sort out ONE DAY.

.....oh hell, thats my room isnt it?

* Hot Anime Posters

* Desk full of used Jolt Cola and NOS cans

* Street light

* Keg-o-rater

* projector to shine on the wall

I hope this helps.
_________________

Mine's still a work in progress but I'll show you what I have so far..

The work place..




Big box is full of 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 disks.



One half storage area in the next room...




And what every mancave needs...


_________________

ok this is my ideal mancave

1. 2 long desks that hold 6 computers and monitors hooked up ready to play.
2. bar fridge
3. 4 bookcases to hold games
4. 2 big shelves for spare hardware
5. retro posters like cars, games etc
6. big chandalear in the middle of the ceiling
7. 80s component stereo, preferably sony mini
8. on top of bookcases your nike jordan collection
9. magazine racks for all your zzaps, or binders sitting on shelves
10. a bit of desk space to repair sick machines!
_________________

I have 3 commercial shelving units in mine(not the wire kind either), 4 other bookcases, 3 computer desks, and a workbench with wired gfi. Mostly it looks like a giant has picked the house up and shaken it a bit. I have a love seat in mine(originally to watch movies on) that is piles with more works in progress. I have boxes lined around the shelves, and every available area is filled with some or other bauble, goodie, or irreplaceable artifiact. I have a mini fridge, and I use a 32" tv as my pc monitor, so if I ever clean off the loveseat, there will actually be a movie watching space. I love it, my wife hates it, but hey it's got a door that can be closed.

DemongerX

I have a "data dungeon" myself. It's located in the basement, and I have built shelves that serves as storage and as a computer desk. It's functional, it's a bit rough and it has this "true data feel" all over it.

LOL "wife will allow".
_________________

My 2 favourites from http://www.lemon64.com/forum/v...highlight=




_________________

nice equipment, but i cannot handle clutter! i would have pine shelving holding everything with cooling fans here an there!
_________________

I tell you one thing I like about modern hardware (and this goes a long way to helping solve the "clutter" issue)

No floppy disk drives. I count 13 in the pic.
_________________

My advice is that whenever you start building a retro lair, try to do your best to avoid creating a "jungle of cables" or a tangle and clutter of messy wires which can be difficult to manage and organize. By doing so, you make the C64 lair look better, and it's also easier to keep the lair neat and clean. If you manage to resolve the problem of wire clutter you might also be able to free more working space. It's a matter of effort, but it pays off. For example, I don't think the cable chaos that you can see in the pictures below is inevitable. It can probably be eliminated and turned into a manageable system.





(You should also tell your wife/girlfriend to accept the reality that we need a room where we can tinker with computers, gadgets and electrical appliances! )