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Hook
Ottawa, Canada

Posted Fri Dec 03, 2021 8:24 am

Thought I'd show you where I usually lurk when I have a bit of free time... Which is usually outside office hours and where everyone in the house is fast asleep :lol:

I call this room the "Retro Bunker" because it was built as an extension to the house's foundation and is basically a 11'x16' room with four concrete walls and no windows - perfect for protecting aging equipment from UV rays.

Half of my gaming consoles are connected to this 55 inch 3D LCD TV. The older, non-HD machines have been upgraded to either HDMI, component or S-video. The non-HDMI system are scan-doubled in a RetroTink 2X.... Currently entertaining the thought of getting a 5X in the New Year, but I digress. The rest of my consoles are either boxed up or connected to the 4K TV upstairs (PS5 et al.) Next to the consoles is my arcade cab. Built it 7 years ago before the craze of the hacked Arcade 1Up cabinets running on affordable Raspberry Pi's. Mine has an Intel i5, a 500 gb SSD and runs the Hyperspin frontend. Kodi is installed and serves as a jukebox with Iron maiden albums and concerts.
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On the opposing wall, my retro computers. From left to right - Athlon XP for oldskool FPS games, Lenovo i5 workstation that serves as my Winuae machine to swap files around, my new-to-me A4000/040, my beloved A1000 that is begging for a Rejuvenator and my very first computer ever, a TI-99/4A. It doesn't get much use, but it has sentimental value, so it stays in the collection. I'd love to eventually add a C64 in there, as I really enjoyed mine back when I was a teen. Sadly I sold it to buy an Amiga, so now it's on my list of things to buy in 2022!
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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Fri Dec 03, 2021 10:32 am

Amazing setup, Hook! Your organization skills alone deeply shame me. ;)
The non-HDMI system are scan-doubled in a RetroTink 2X.... Currently entertaining the thought of getting a 5X in the New Year, but I digress.
I finally got on the retrotink5x train just within the last month, which I've been meaning to post about. I got one so I could hook my SNES up to our main TV. When I used the original SNES cables, it worked but the picture sucked. Then I got a pair of brand new component cables and ... good lord, the picture is astonishing, even on a way-too-big screen. It's just gorgeous.

My son and I have been playing co-op Donkey Kong Country religiously for the past solid week every single night ever since. Actually, at first we played SmashTV for about 4 nights in a row, then I moved over to DKC when I realized Smash was simply way too hard for us to ever make much progress into the 2nd level as a simultaneous 2-player team.

It's been a total blast.

What consoles do you use with your retrotink? And what about the 5x has been making you want to upgrade?

I love how it auto-tunes itself. It's kinda magical.

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Hook
Ottawa, Canada

Posted Fri Dec 03, 2021 11:19 am

intric8 wrote: What consoles do you use with your retrotink? And what about the 5x has been making you want to upgrade?

I love how it auto-tunes itself. It's kinda magical.
Right now I've got the SNES, N64, Genesis, 3DO, Turbografx-16, Playstation 1 and Saturn connected to the 2X, all via S-video. I've felt that the pic quality varies from console to console; the SNES looks absolutely fantastic, so does the Genesis and Turbografx-16. Overall, the 16-bit consoles look great. It's the others that are a mixed bag. The N64 does not look that great, still blurry with S-video through the RetroTink. The PS1 and Saturn looks not too bad I guess, and the 3DO looks like okayish with the 240p mod. I'm hoping that the 5X will help make the 32 and 64-bit consoles crisper.

Otherwise they'll need an HDMI solution like I have on the Gamecube (Carby) and NES (Hi-Des NES kit), but these tend to be rather expensive and require mad soldering skills. I can do it, but the eyes aren't as sharp as they used to be.

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fxgogo
Twickenham , U.K.

Posted Fri Dec 03, 2021 6:10 pm

So that is one amazing bunker/den. I dream of something like that. I do have a good amount of machines, just no space while living in London. We hope to buy new year which may allow a something. Tell us, how many times have you fallen asleep in there playing games?

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obitus1990
USA

Posted Fri Dec 03, 2021 9:07 pm

That is one sweet bunker...I wish I could reach half of your level of organization. Arcade games are taking over my garage these days, so, now there's even less space for anything else retro :)

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Zippy Zapp
CA, USA

Posted Sat Dec 04, 2021 9:04 am

Wow that is awesome. I am loving how organized you are. I used to be organized and now I am semi-organized with too little space in my home office room to really achieve what I want. Well, that and perhaps I have too much stuff as my wife would say...

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Hook
Ottawa, Canada

Posted Sun Dec 05, 2021 8:26 am

fxgogo wrote:
Fri Dec 03, 2021 6:10 pm
Tell us, how many times have you fallen asleep in there playing games?
More times that I'd like to admit :lol: :lol:

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A1-X1000
Toronto, Canada

Posted Sun Dec 12, 2021 6:43 pm

@ Hook

that's a sweet retro bunker and damn way too neat for me ;) :boing: <3

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Hook
Ottawa, Canada

Posted Wed Dec 15, 2021 11:16 am

A1-X1000 wrote:
Sun Dec 12, 2021 6:43 pm
@ Hook

that's a sweet retro bunker and damn way too neat for me ;) :boing: <3
As they say, cleanliness is next to godliness :lol: :lol:

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austin90

Posted Fri Mar 25, 2022 10:33 pm

This. This is the dream folks.





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