Show me your desk/gaming space

[Choidoken]

Oh, just realised this thread is for gaming areas too. Haven't got a fresh shot so this one from Christmas will have to do (both taken from roughly the same spot coincidentally) :

Looks beautiful!

[subbes]

Anyone else have tasks that should be done right after moving that just linger for... years?

Until six months ago, my husband's car still had boxes in it that were placed there when we moved to Tallahassee. Five years before.

[James]

When we moved into this flat nearly two years ago, my friend and I found the supplied aerial cable wasn't quite long enough to reach where we wanted the TV if you ran it the sensible way around the room (i.e. not posing a tripping hazard), so we haphazardly draped it over the door frame. That weekend we went out and bought an aerial cable extension kit thing, prepared and fitted it, lengthening the cable by more than enough, but my flatmate said that we should put off actually re-routing the cable for a bit, and that he'd re-do the speaker cables so that they ran neatly through the stands like they were supposed to at the same time. Obviously none of this has yet happened. I forget that stupid thing's there for months on end, then notice it again and realize how stupid it must look to visitors.

Before I moved in here, I was still living at home. The centre of my room was dominated by a bunch of boxes I hadn't unpacked since university. I'd decided I didn't want to be at home for long, so it'd be pointless to unpack them. Those boxes sat there for four years. Or was it three? When did I leave university? How old am I?

[Chris]

We finally have both computers set up in the Idle Thumbs office. Here they are, including Sean with Dota 2:

[Gwardinen]

I'm thoroughly intrigued by the big mechanical switches at the top of the computer tower next to him.

[toblix]

I'm intrigued by the wooden garden chair.

[elmuerte]

that's not a garden chair, that's one of those cheap IKEA folding chairs

[Sean]

I'm thoroughly intrigued by the big mechanical switches at the top of the computer tower next to him.

They are intriguing.

[Sean]

that's not a gardain chair, that's one of those cheap IKEA folding chairs

It is indeed that, precisely. We're still trying to find the right office chairs so I brought four of those bad boys from home. Stay tuned for a great office chair reveal.

[Orv]

You guys need to cast in maximal comfort.

Actually incredibly uncomfortable.

[Nappi]

[Ben X]

[elmuerte]

You can't go wrong if an office Terje™

[Thrik]

That looks even less comfortable than the dining chair I'm using.

I'd like to invest in a nice new computer chair, but as you can see from my earlier photo I don't have that much room — so I'd like comfort combined with compactness. Any particularly good chairs for this kind of thing or shall I just do my usual trawl through Staples?

[melmer]

Living the dream mutha fucka

That's where I play my imaginary games machines.

And my current iPad wallpaper just for shits and giggles

[tegan]

Copied over as per request:

Also known in some circles as "battlestations." Show me where you play your video and computer games. I always like seeing these kinds of threads, because I'm the type of creep who, when presented any kind of image with a bookshelf in the background, will immediately try to discern what each item on the shelf is. I also really like interior design.

Right now I've got a pretty decent thing going on. I just moved into this apartment in December, so it's a little sparse right now. The couch was here when I moved in and is going to be replaced by a black sectional somewhere down the line when I can afford it. Right now my biggest shame is the awful cord management (I've been looking all over for something to hide the cords under the computer desk, but I'm not finding much. Keep in mind that I'm in Atlantic Canada, so there's no IKEA here). I've got my work cut out for me, but I'm happy with what I've got.

The compy:

Introducing my love of glossy black rectangles, particularly black glass. The tower (not pictured anywhere in these photos, it's right beside the couch) is an okay prebuilt Acer rig I got a few years back. It does what it needs to, though it could use a new graphics card. I've already gone on at lengths about my mouse and keyboard here, so I won't bug you with the details. Most of what's onscreen in this shot is Steam with a custom skin based on Metro. There's a reskinned Winamp up there too. I like having a clean desk and a clean interface.

Those awful cords! The office chair is nice, but beginning to get a little ragged. I know I have a warranty on it, but I don't think they make it anymore, so I would have to replace it with a different chair. The footstool is still nice and comfy, though! The outside view from the chair is a very nice grove of trees in front of the downtown skyline. If you get up and move to a different part of the room, however, it's the neighbours' roof. The roof is just close enough that I totally want to try jumping out the window onto it, but just far enough that I would probably fall and die if I tried to. Strongly considering buying one of those remote control toy helicopters and using it to tap annoyingly on their bathroom window.

The couch. It's ugly as hell, but it's surprisingly soft and comfortable. This is my first one-bedroom and I've had nothing but futons for years, so it's easily the most comfortable piece of furniture I've ever owned. The black media shelf at the back houses my gradually-shrinking collection of physical games and movies (I do a sweep every spring. If I can't justify owning something I get rid of it, hence having only a handful of games per console). I keep a record of the games on Backloggery. There's also a tiny multi-purpose smoked glass table that gets moved around a lot and a small black basket for storing very frequently-used controllers. I was playing Super Mario Galaxy and left the gold Wiimote+Nunchuk on the couch. Whoops!

...That black line is a lamp, by the way.

I have a big thing for the Gameboy Advance, so I pick up a lot of loose GBA carts these days. I like rifling through them. There's a 3DS/DS game case in there too. That statue is the Club Nintendo Platinum prize from a few years back. I've made Platinum every year since I joined, because I am a consumer whore.

Keen-eyed observers will note that more than a third of this bookshelf is occupied by the work of Osamu Tezuka (at least one version of everything he ever had published in English, with the exceptions of Metropolis and Crime & Punishment. There's a few essays about him in there too). I want to make an effort to read more prose, so I've been filling this up a little bit with some Terry Pratchett books recently. I also have some things to get rid of here, like the Scott Pilgrim books. The black square at the bottom is a fabric drawer stuffed to the brim with less-frequently-used game controllers. I like these shelves a lot even though they're a little cheap and not really meant for books.

The frequently-used-handhelds spot. The PSP gets the least use, but I like having it around. I like to hook it up to the TV and sync it to a Dualshock 3 so that I can treat it like a console. The DS lite serves as a backup for both the Gameboy Micro (the sexiest handheld ever built) and the 3DS. The black and red thing is a GP2X Wiz, a Korean handheld used for emulation. I bought it to play Mother 3, but I also get some Mega Man 2 and Sweet Home in on it sometimes. It is surprisingly nice, but I don't use it too much. Handhelds currently in storage: original-model Gameboy Advance, an iPod Touch that still works fine but has a wonky headphone jack, and the "Elite Beat Agents and World Ends With You DS lite," which has suffered enough damage to be unsellable, but still (mostly) functions. Now used exclusively for touchscreen-destroying games.

And finally, the Gigatron. More black glass and awful cord management. Also, my poor plant that almost died from spending six months in a basement apartment and is ever-so-gradually growing up big and strong again. There is a tiny clay purple Pikmin in the pot, made by me. I need to find a better place for my totally bitchin' TRON phone. Devices currently in rotation: PS3, Wii U, Xbox, PS2, Wii, and a Western Digital TV box thing. Currently out of rotation: the Dreamcast (coming back after I get a VGA adapter and maybe give it a good deep-down cleaning and a fresh coat of paint), the N64, the NES (currently broken; repair attempts have been unsuccessful. May be replaced with a Retro Duo later on down the line), and the SNES (currently hooked up to a tiny TV on my bedroom, but mostly unused). The TV will probably be replaced with a bigger one eventually since it's now much further away from where I usually sit. I also intend to replace the WDTV thing with a LaCie LaCinema. I don't know what to do with the Wii now that it's basically only used for Gamecube games and emulating Earthbound.

I know it doesn't look like much right now, but I've been living in shoebox apartments all alone since I was a teenager. This is a very small lifetime's worth of stuff spread out over a very big room (the biggest place I've ever lived in!) You should see the bedroom; besides that TV and SNES, the only thing in the room is the bed itself, which is actually a worn-down futon. I have big plans for this place; I just need to build up the money to pay for it all.

[melmer]

I'm well jelly of that bookcase

[Roderick]

That's a fine bookcase and I'd like to book a holiday to meet it. Let's see, one week for all of that Sandman? Doable y/n?

[TheLastBaron]

So that's what my desk currently looks like, I guess. You may notice I have some pretty sweet climate control, hot is on the left, cold is on the right. Also I'm pretty proud of my dual monitor setup. You might not be able to tell because of the angle the picture was taken from, but when sitting the bottom of the 4:3 monitor is above the top of my head.

[tegan]

I always wanted one of those white Gamecube controllers. They go so nicely with the white Wii.

Also, one thing on my desk that's not easily visible in the picture that I should really point out: I was tired of losing track of USB flash drives and SD cards and stuff, so now I keep them all in a soap dish. This is probably the best idea I've ever had.

[elmuerte]

What a weird location of a second monitor. First of all, it's on the right side of the primary monitor... I've always had my secondary monitor to the left. For some weird reason that's the default of Windows (and it often resets that position on my laptop at work). And "b"... that monitor is not aligned at all. How does your mouse move from screen to screen!?

Lastly... not a lot of space for your mouse.

[TheLastBaron]

You can adjust how the monitors are in relationship to one another.

It works out fine I guess. As for the mouse, the sensitivity is as high as it goes and space ends up never being an issue.

[elmuerte]

I know that, I just think it's a weird alignment you've got going on there. (And windows sometimes forgets monitor placement)

[Dontwalk]

[miffy495]

I am confused by your two mice. What gives?