Finished redoing my game console console today.

[Electronic M]

Those that know me know I like collecting tube TV consoles. But I rarely mention my waning hobby of collecting game consoles. But it should be no surprise I accumulate my game consoles in a wooden console...well make that a vinyl wood grain veneer Sansui stereo equipment rack from the 80's, but console is less of a month full.

When I was a kid an N64 was the first and only new game console I ever owned. Sometime after that I acquired a used Sega Genesis, NES and SNES, then a Atari 2600. I've acquired a few more since then but my playtime has been down and the newer systems I never really got into enough to have much of a game library. Heck between a dead colecovision and Xbox a new Wii I never got around to integrating into the system and not figuring out a way to get my Atari off the floor the whole thing devolved into looking like some disemboweled electronic monster for the last couple years...

So the other day during testing one Xbox popped and hissed when plugged in (I bought a second for $10 years ago when the first got flakey) the other booted but wouldn't stay powered off and the disc tray was stuck shut....I ended up replacing 3 3300uf lytics that failed on the bang hiss unit and it was less flakey than the one that wouldn't stay off so it became my new main unit. My Colecovision just didn't get along with my auto switching RF adapter...But I had that colecovision completely apart and almost declared it beyond hope before trying another adapter in desperation.
My 6 switch Atari became a 5 switch from being on the floor too long but I fixed that with super glue.

My game console console is also the main RF video source for the dozzens of TVs in my basement (via a Blonder Tongue transmitting on CH13) so no surprise there's a bunch of TV and movie sources hooked up. The HIFI Betamax deck needed a new belt and I ended up adding LD, and Blu-ray to the rig to round out the, VHS, Beta, CED/selectavision, cable box combo it already had.

I also added a Sony component tuner/video switcher to the rig it has a switched outlet that will supplant the hard to reach power strip switch I used to control main power with...It makes power control remote and the dual inputs on the tuner and composite A/V switching simplifies some connections. I ended up removing my Game Cube from service since the Wii can run game cube games(same reason I retired my PS1). One lesson I learned is that the old Gamestop octopus cables that had N64, PS2, Xbox and one other connector all Y'd together to a single A/V composite connector don't work when connected to more than one game console at once.... The different consoles short out each other's audio.
There was a lot of work involved cleaning, fixing and testing each system and all the wiring.

So from the top down Cable box (hiding in the rafters), Sega Genesis (with X32 expansion), Atari 2600, Betamax, Transmitter, Blu-ray, CED/Selectavision, LD, Sony tuner. The turntable compartment of the rack contains a VHS deck, the compartment below contains Wii, Colecovision and a Sega Dreamcast. The bottom compartment contains N64, NES, SNES, PS2 and Xbox.

The Atari has too short of control we leads to be usable stacked in the console but LONG power and RF leads so I can just pull the organizer it's in out of the stack when I use it , and later restack it to free up floor space. Hanging my extra controllers and the Atari games that don't fit in the same organizer as the console and it's controllers is is going to make the whole cabinet better.... though I still have a bunch of N64, NES, SNES and Genesis carts that I wish I had organizers for to tack to the side of the cabinet....I may need to find and buy some...

Anyhow, BEHOLD pictures of the organized chaos.
PS : Tomorrow night I'm going to have something interesting to post in things with motors.