Greetings to my fellow collectors!

[Venger]

Hi everyone! This is a great forum and one I enjoy reading through daily, though I haven't posted much previously. It is really cool to have a place that is global in scope for those who like to both collect and game. I have been able to import a couple games I wanted thanks to the help of members here who have been top notch to deal with. Thought I would take the opportunity to throw up a post a quick bit about me and with some of my gaming setup.

Anyway, I am from Virginia in the US and have been a gamer for a long time. (Yeah, I like Doritos and Mountain Dew, not just a stereotype) I didn't really start collecting until the Neo Geo AES came out and back then it was extremely expensive to buy a cart and much harder to import. I also collected PS1 and Saturn games, especially JRPG's. When I got into performance cars, I decided I would rather sink my money into that and sold off much of my gaming gear, only keeping what I was currently playing.

After getting married and a place of my own with a dedicated gaming area, I got back into gaming heavily. This time I didn't go the console route initially, but put together a PC. I started playing through all the Infinity Engine games, got into Guild Wars and WoW and played Unreal Tournament heavily. I also am big into ARPG's and have spent thousands of hours with D2, D3, Sacred, PoE and others. After just playing a bunch, I started collecting again, but at first just with original Black Isle games as they were my favorite. I have expanded a bunch since then, but still focus mostly on PC titles as the platform is so vast.

Once my son got old enough and we started gaming together, I jumped in with PS3/Xbox One/PS4/WiiU on the console side. We played a lot of Destiny together and have played a number of FPS and RTS on PC. We are both fairly competitive, he just happens to be much better in most games.

Anyway, here a some pics of my gaming setup and collection:

Most of my relaxed console gaming happens here:



Old school PC Games, some sealed, all complete, from Fallout to Pillars of Eternity. Neo Geo 4-slot MVS Big Red and Capcom Big Blue. The Neo is an original 4 slot and the Big Blue runs the Darksoft CPS2 Multikit that plays all Capcom CPS2 titles. Both are fully 100% restored top to bottom.:



Gaming chair facing an LG 65" OLED (absolutely beautiful picture for gaming) with console A/V setup all under the watchful eye of a cigar puffing Jim Raynor before Blizzard was neutered:



55" LG C9 OLED 4K PC Gaming setup, uses a RTX 3090 and a OC'd X299 etc. Also a PS4 and Switch connected to this setup. At some point I will swap in my PS5, but for now that is connected to a 65" Samsung Q upstairs. The set of Zelda, Fire Emblem and Xenoblade related Amiibo and Borderlands stuff:



Some Monster Hunter, Nier, Fire Emblem and a bunch of Dragon Age stuff:




More games which are next to my son's gaming setup:



Bunch of Souls/Bloodborne and Sekiro stuff from Demon Souls Deluxe to Dark Souls 3 Prestige, Bloodborne pendants and figures and my Sega New Net City with Toshiba PF. It runs a Namco System 256 and was a dedicated Tekken 5 machine back in the day in Japan. Also my Titanfall stuff which I am putting together a display for.




Wasn't easy to get a candy cab in this condition to the east coast, but well worth it.

Here are some closer pics of what has become gaming sprawl:










Anyway, I could go on and on about games both past, present and future, but that's more than enough rambling for now.

[g6t9ed]

I absolutely love your clean setup! You definitely have an eye for space utilization. Also, your Alienware PC takes me back. I remember buying mine back in 2001. Welcome to the Forums!

[Funnnkyyy]

Wow nice collection and set up!

Welcome to CE.org!

[Venger]

Thank you both, very much appreciated!

Originally Posted by g6t9ed

I absolutely love your clean setup! You definitely have an eye for space utilization. Also, your Alienware PC takes me back. I remember buying mine back in 2001. Welcome to the Forums!

You are exactly right, I bought this originally in either 2002 or 2003 from Alienware (the Predator or whatever they called it). It was quite the experience back when they were pre-Dell and it took like 6 weeks to get it, with them calling you at each stage of the build. I have rebuilt the guts of it like 4 times since then and even though it is antiquated without the cool convenience features of the new tool less cases, I still love it. It originally came with an AMD FX-53 that was exclusive to Alienware for a while before being available to buy openly and was pretty beastly back in the day. (Took ECC RAM, lol)

Speaking of taking up space, some of my favorite games are the old school big box titles. For example, I have all the original complete Black Isle RPG's, including my longtime favorite, Planescape Torment. These big box games were great because they came with as much or more stuff as new Collectors Editions for standard price - big manuals, fold out multi disc holders, notepads, journals, dice etc.

I hunted down big box original completes of Fallout 1, 2, Tactics, Fallout 3 Survival Edition and Fallout New Vegas Collectors as well as Fallout 4 and 76 Collector sets. Like a lot of people, I really love Fallout. The bigger and more unwieldy the box, the better.

[WaxWeazle]

Solid collection dude!
Welcome to the club!

[Venger]

As I mentioned, in addition to traditional games, I love arcade machines, a throwback to my gaming youth I suppose. Used to collect Neo Geo AES stuff years ago, but got away from it. Always wanted a dedicated cab as that was what I played in the arcade and I finally picked up a Neo Geo Big Red cab and fully restoring it. It has all new buttons, joysticks, paint and decals. I also redid the wiring and routed everything inside really cleanly, with new speakers and EL panel lighting.

I then hunted down my other favorite fighting game setup which was CPS2 based and is by Capcom. The cab is known as the "Big Blue" and it it a first generation version. This thing is a monster and makes the Big Red seem light. It is factory new clean inside and out. I can play all CPS2 Capcom games from Aliens vs Predator to Xmen vs Streetfighter in their original hardware glory:

Next I searched for and found a Sega New Net City candy cab. I wanted this particular model as it was one of the newest of that type and has arguably the best arcade CRT ever produced in the Toshiba PF. Being a Japanese cab, it was not easy to find one in the shape I wanted and get it to the east coast. Once it was here, I put in a Namco System 256 to run Tekken 5 DR and Soul Calibur 3 AE as well as niche titles such as Sengoku Basara X.

[Gazereths]

Sweet setup dude welcome to the forum


How are the SLI 970's at 4k? I was thinking of SLI'ing my 980 but might just wait for pascal. It's sweet enough @1440p right now.

[GameTrigger]

Nice Neo Geo cab

[Venger]

Originally Posted by Gazereths

Sweet setup dude welcome to the forum


How are the SLI 970's at 4k? I was thinking of SLI'ing my 980 but might just wait for pascal. It's sweet enough @1440p right now.

Thanks man! To be honest, I kind of wish I had gone with a pair of 980's. The 970's hit a nice spot at the time for power/performance and are overclocked Gigabyte G1's, but there are some games at 4k that the extra horsepower from the 980's would be huge.

I can generally get 60 frames, but some titles make you cut down the AA/AF to do so, and things like "godrays" or other particle effects really put a beating on them at 4k. You are in a good spot with the 980@1440, it really is a great pairing - I wouldn't add another at this point either.

I have been loving Fallout 4 at 4k with a number of these early mods installed, but much more in the textures and the machine may just catch on fire.

Originally Posted by GameTrigger

Nice Neo Geo cab

Thanks very much, it has been a challenge at some points, but well worth it. I have an Atomiswave setup I may do next.

Working with 20+ year old hardware can be interesting to say the least. The monitor on this is brilliant, (recap w/new remote board) with no burn in and IMO that is the biggest difference between a dedicated cab and emulation. That and the fact that I can set this to coin play and charge my son quarters.

[KnightOfTruth]

Love that cab! I've been attempting to create my own for a few years now and have gone through several iterations of designs (had a gorgeous Zelda one i created and Mala layout and everything) but with always being on the move it just hasn't been something I've been able to complete. Really love that setup though! Hope to see more pics when you get around to it!

Edit: Also, you can set your emulated cab to take quarters as well!