Retro Room - The Bear and Badger

LivDiv

I have been looking at moving recently, I am mainly looking at 2 bed places but inevitably some 3 beds pop up where the third bedroom is laughably small, certainly not a bedroom and not good enough as an office long term working from home.

With that in mind I have been contemplating what I could do with such a room and thought of a tailored Retro Room.

The idea isnt to collect libraries, complete sets. Instead to gather the things that I had or friends had or I genuinely wanted when I was a kid, things with proper nostalgic weight.

The answer isn't "retro pie", the concept is like going through a time warp when entering the room.

So given the limitations of a box room how would you play it?

Consider

Tech
Which TV is the obvious choice (sorry Reg).
Also consider audio equipment, headphones etc.
VHS, DVD, View-Master etc.

Games
Consoles or dedicating the space to a Computer setup. Limited space so do you want to go fishing around behind a TV with cables or stick to one or two consoles that really meant something.
Likewise the games library, what do you choose for that small shelf space?

Movies
VHS or DVD, maybe a mix.
What films? Keeping in mind space and nostalgia. The lure of the presentation of VHS with the forced trailers.

Toys.
One or two extensive collections or choice figures from a few lines. Lego sets built and on display or a bucket of bits and some manuals?

Board Games
Some of you could fill a house with Games Workshop stuff. Or is it better to have neatly stored Monopoly, Scrabble and Ghost Castle?
Maybe Dizzy Dizzy Dinosaur while shit presses more buttons.

Posters/art
Box room remember. How many posters or bits of framed art can you fit.

Books
Novels, school books, school work books, Where's Wally?

Decor and furniture.
Tell me what turns you on. You want that deep pile carpet to take you back to the 70s cool. Maybe it is all about the slobby fat roll 90s leather sofas. Perhaps a single lazy boy.

Peripherals
Maybe an Argos catalogue. TMNT party plates (found these in my Granny's house the other day), general nostalgic stuff of no real monetary value. That complete sticker book.

Moot_Geeza

A good handful of LCD games + replacement batteries would be a must. Greenhouse, Submarine, Karate King and a Tomytronic effort (Sky Attack maybe) would do nicely for starters.

afgavinstan

A Sega Atomiswave arcade machine with Naomi board
Record player and vinyl collection
A shit hot complete coffee machine and fridge for milk/beans
A big ol bag of weed, constantly refilled
Framed picture of Brian Laudrup

And I'm good.

Moot_Geeza

I'd need salt and vinegar Monster Munch and proper tasting Tizer I think. Maybe the same poster of Martine McCutcheon I've got now.

davyK

The TV will need to be CRT for that look. If you are looking to connect an import console to it you will need one with a spec which can be pretty hit or miss.

hylian_elf

For posters/art, suggest some of Dan’s stuff. Maybe Outrun. Wait, did he even do an Outrun one in the end?!

afgavinstan

Yep, Moot very graciously got me one in the secret santa!

Eric

Great idea. As davy said get yourself a nice Sony Trinitron 4:3 CRT or if money less of an issue get yourself a PVM or BVM.
Get some retro Top Trumps and a Big Trak!

davyK

Older board games would be appropriate. Scrabble, Monopoly Cluedo et al. Sourcing them in the older livery for the target era would be better.Some games have been re packaged in more modern boxes etc and a lot of the charm has gone as a result of that.

poprock

Kids’ bedrooms from ’80s movies.

mk64

An upright arcade can of double dragon

davyK

Depending how far back you are going you will be picking DVD or VCR. DVD far more practical of course.

hylian_elf

I will get a Street Fighter 2 (Turbo) cabinet one day.

One day.

Eric

Ahem...
https://www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/video-games-and-tablets/retro-gaming/arcade1up-street-fighter-ii-cabinet-including-riser/p/174309?gclid=CjwKCAjwiaX8BRBZEiwAQQxGx7-34Mdz-dnjq6jzYnfCLfs0wqh-KB6uRc1uKd-Gjaq0L7-XNHKtXxoCR8UQAvD_BwE

hylian_elf

hylian_elf

Except I want an old cabinet, proper CRT screen and the actual PCB board inside. Otherwise it won't properly get my nostalgia glands flowing.

Eric

They are 3/4 size too which may temper your enthusiasm for it further. But seriously cheap still!!

Moot_Geeza

afgavinstan wrote:

Yep, Moot very graciously got me one in the secret santa!

Wait, that was Outrun?

hylian_elf

Also also, comes with CE rather than TurboHF! Strange decision. Just Turbo and Super Turbo would cover the base. The most balanced versions IMO.

Moot_Geeza

Probably a good place for this as it popped up yesterday:

Eric

hylian_elf wrote:

Also also, comes with CE rather than TurboHF! Strange decision. Just Turbo and Super Turbo would cover the base. The most balanced versions IMO.

It's a 3:1 with Vanilla, CE and Turbo. No Super though.

Paul the sparky

poprock wrote:

Kids’ bedrooms from ’80s movies.

Great stuff

hylian_elf

Eric wrote:

hylian_elf wrote:

Also also, comes with CE rather than TurboHF! Strange decision. Just Turbo and Super Turbo would cover the base. The most balanced versions IMO.

It's a 3:1 with Vanilla, CE and Turbo. No Super though.

Goddammit I can't read!

Time_on_my_hands

Damn - now this thread has got me hoping that Crossrail hurries up so I can trade up for a bigger house... We can't have a loft conversion without lowering all the ceilings.

My retro man cave/ box room would probably cover 2 decades - 80s childhood, 90s teens and early 20s.

On the walls : My original 2000AD artwork that's been stored away for years (got me some Simon Davis' Sinister Dexter, Henry Flint's Nemesis spin-off Deadlock, some Cabalistics Inc. and a Carlos Esquerra Dredd. Plus a page of Chris Weston's Invisibles art).

Posters could include an Iron Maiden album cover (Somewhere in Time?), Akira, Big Trouble in Little China, Star Wars, Reservoir Dogs, Transformers the Movie. Any other wall space would be photos from my college and uni years.

Book shelves : My 2000ADs from 95 to 2004. All my graphic novels, plus art books. My stacks of Andy Capp books that I inherited. Also all my Beano and Dandy annuals from the 1950s to 1980s. Also my Beano and Dandy monthly comic libraries from the 80s. Any original Fighting Fantasy.
Respectable stuff stays in the living room - e.g. not my signed boxed edition of Lost Girls (so glad my mum changed her mind and DIDN'T take that down from the shelf to read)

All my CDs and any cassettes I've still got. To be played on anything that looks like a ghetto blaster.

Board Games stay in the living room, but I reckon some 40k minis would look good.

Hopefully my old portable CRT that's still at my in-laws' is still working. If I can get a VHS player then I might track down some comedy vids like Red Dwarf and Blackadder. Failing this, a hard drive from the high seas will do.

Games would be a PC running Amiga and ST emulators for the mouse and keyboard support (or the real things). Console emulation courtesy of either a bartop or a wall-mounted flatscreen and arcade controls, just depends on space.

If I had space for a full-size arcade cab, I did once find plans online for The Last Starfighter cabinet plus artwork, and also the game itself that someone coded, so this must still be out there.

I'd also have my PS1, 2 and 3 set up.

Furnished with unmatched, scuffed wooden furniture, low sofa, rugs over floorboards. At least 1 lava lamp (pink/ orange) and a plasma ball. Ether a ceiling light with a massive paper lantern shade, or a brass standard lamp and a bunch of candles in empty bottles (it's a wonder I never burned down my student bedsit).

Other stuff? My Transformers, GoBots and Star Wars toys would be rescued from my parent's attic for a start. Tarot cards and runestones.

If there's room, then a desk and easel for painting. Digital's good, but I miss the smell of oil paint.

The rest of the house would be Art Nouveau.

I can dream...

Diluted Dante

Time_on_my_hands

Damn - that's my student flat just with 3 extra tellys.

Diluted Dante

Liv, I've got it

retroking1981

Panini sticker albums. Football, Ghostbusters, Thundercats etc.

nick_md

Some garbage pail kids stickers fading away on the bed posts.

Eric

Yes! I used to love my Garbage Pail Kids sticker collection.

I'd also like to add a full set of (pink only) Muscle Men bluetac-ed to the perimeter of a captain bunkbed.

davyK

My own 80s gaming memories at home are the 2600 and 8bit micros. So a CRT with a woody and CPC464 with colour monitor would fit the bill (I only had the green monitor but I'm treating myself). Always wanted an Atari 800 though - the old shape with the proper keyboard. 4 controller ports. Took cartridges as well as tapes and discs. Blissfull that would be. Damn expensive nowadays!!

I still have a VCR....just need some VHS darlings like Beverley Hills Cop (my first), Ghostbusters, National Lampoon, Evil Dead, Dawn of the Dead et al). Some third gen copies of porn videos too. My VCR is too swanky though - a Sony front loader. Need a huge Ferguson top loader that takes 20secs to start playing with a wired remote control.

We need the BBC to start the teletext service up as well.

2000AD collection, pocketeers. Cans of Tennants lager with the girls on them.

A cassette player and some Billy Connolly cassettes.

Or better still - a music centre - turntable, tape deck and radio with smoked plastic lid and some light up analogue meters on the front. Crackly.

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