Just finished my custom Retro Entertainment Center!

[varkias]

I pickup up a 36" CRT Sony television awhile back and have been hunting for an entertainment center for it.  My problems were that it weights around 220lbs and most entertainment centers are not large/strong enough for this television.  The ones I did find won't hold all my retro consoles so I decided to build one  I started with using Google Sketchup, an amazing and free 3d drawing program.  I knew I wanted a drawer for each shelf so I could easily store the accessories for each console in an organized way, and that it needed to be plenty strong to hold the TV.  After coming up with the design in Sketchup I headed off to Home Depot to do some pricing.  I was able to get 2 4'-8' sheets of cabinet grade ply-wood for about $70.  Brought it over to a friends house with a table saw and got started.







Once the frame was put together I pulled out some stain that I had used on another project but it didn't look right.  Headed back to Home Depot and picked up some nice paint that would still let the wood grain show through.









After that it was time to work on the shelves and drawers, easily the most difficult part of this project. After another trip to the hardware store and my friend's place to cut the wood I started to assemble everything.  I am no woodworker and this took me quite a few hours to get the gaps correct and level.  But persistence paid off in the end.





A little more paint...







I still have to put some trim on it and get glass doors cut for the bottom.  But, I've been gaming on it too much to finish it lol.

[scott]

Nice work! That looks like a quality job, for sure. I was thinking about building an entertainment system for all of my stuff too, But what I want would be a monstrosity that needs to wait until I own my own place and will not need to move it more that a few feet, haha.

[varkias]

Thanks! I really had fun doing this.  It took about 10 days to complete.  One thing I forgot to take a pic of is the 40 inch power strip I mounted vertically behind the drawers.  It works so well for plugging in all those fat power bricks, plus I only have one cord going into the wall.  Now my Gen 1 Genesis and Sega CD don't have to fight for plug space.

[matt]

This is so awesome. Good job!

[varkias]

Thanks Matt.  I'm also working on modding my spare Saturn, I've got about 3 hours just into the lid.





Just about ready for paint.

[scott]

You should mod-chip it while you're at it to allow you to play burned discs, so you can translate Shining Force III pt 2 & 3 and play them.

[varkias]

So the 4 in 1 cart that allows region bypass doesn't allow backups to be played?  I plan on ordering the jp scenarios very soon!  I looked into the chip... My mobo has the lowest success rate  you're right though... I should still do it!

[scott]

Not as far as I know, though I haven't really looked into playing back ups. I was more interested in by passing regions for Castlevania: SotN.

[desocietas]

Great entertainment system!  You should be very proud.  I love the details of having the display area for the individual consoles and the drawers underneath them... intuitive design for placing proper peripherals, controllers, games in the proper spot.  Totally envious of your skills! (power tools terrify me)

[scott]

Don't forget to put resistors on those LEDs if you want them to last.

[varkias]

@desocietas: Thanks!  I like how functional it's been so far, and it fits the TV perfect.
@scott: Where were you a few days ago!?  I already burned two of them out lol... did some reading afterwords and discovered that info  I've only replaced LEDs in the past.

One thing I forgot to plan for was the crazy height of a Gen 1 Genesis and Gen 1 Sega CD, I guess it's going in a spot under the TV!

[scott]

I only just thought about it, ha. LEDs are power hungry and don't know when they are "full" so they gorge themselves on it until the pop. Its one of the things I learned from building my arcade cab.

[byron]

Oh man, that is one hell of a nice television. I love Trinitrons.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

[varkias]

@byron: Yeah, I've heard of these having some board issues.  Where when they go out it's like $600 to fix, but as long as my local classifieds are drowning in these I may as well have one and Thanks!

[darko]

For what it's worth I've had mine for 8-9 years without a problem.