A few years back, during a time when I was still rather into retro game collecting and playing on original consoles when I could, I decided that I wanted a cozy corner to enjoy all these old games in. This was while I was still living at my previous home, which was more spacious and worked better toward what I envisioned, but even in the little studio apartment I live in now, I've managed to make the corner work. Mostly!

The corner as of 2024.

For years, I've had TV setups that were a hodgepodge of both old consoles and new, HD-ified ones. The issue with that, as you might imagine, is that the older systems looked terrible on newer screens. That's pretty typical, and at the time the solutions for getting the best picture possible out of these systems was more expensive than simply... finding another CRT TV.

So I did exactly that. Granted, at the time I did still have a CRT from my youth, but I wanted something better than the single input, mono audio, broken internal VCR unit that I had. So I thought about what I wanted out of a CRT, looking at all sorts of units and specs before finally making my decision. I wanted a CRT that had more than one video input, stereo audio, a small screen, and wasn't older than the year 2000. Thus I settled on a Sony Trinitron KV-13FS100, which not only met all my specifications, but has two composite video inputs AND a component one!

The corner in full display. The second middle shelf was lost in the last move. :(

I then went on to find the best furnishings that I could afford that met my needs... which meant particleboard DIY stuff I could order online. After saving up and gathering together what would work for what I had in mind, I finished planning the corner and put it all together. Now, the first version of this corner was a bit more cozy, but sadly I have much time with it before I had to move to my current place. So while the setup pictured here isn't exactly my ideal, it works well for what it is. The biggest difference is that there's no chair, so I have to sit on a cushion on the floor. Not so bad in my 30s, but it definitely isn't as easy to get in and out of as it was when I was a kid.

There isn't a whole lot more to say about the process of putting together the corner itself, so from here we'll take a look at each section, the consoles, and my history with them.

On the top shelf of this little vertical cube extension is the original Xbox. The system being as big and bulky as it is, there was really no where else to put it than here. The Xbox was a gift from my late step-dad waaay back when I finished middle school in the early-ish 2000s. I remember him bringing it home with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which I was super into for the first month I had it. But then I bought Morrowind during that summer break, and I got sooo many hours out of the system. Honestly, for as few games as I had for the Xbox by the end, I got a lot of memories out of it. And I had even more after I softmodded it during my 12th year of school, turning it into a crazy emulation machine that made it the highlight of my brother and my entertainment the summer after I graduated. Sadly, the poor thing doesn't run so well anymore, having first had a clock capacitor leak (which I removed and cleaned the area after), and now the video is flickering out. Hopefully I can get it fixed again someday, because even if I don't see myself using it much, it was a gift from someone who is no longer with us. So I want to take care of it.

Below that is the PS1, which I wish was my original, but I don't actually know where that is. (There's also an SNES controller mint tin, which I use to store UniROM memory cards.) This unit I found at a Goodwill for like $10 some years ago, which I bought on impulse for... I don't know, honestly. The laser works well, and I've unlocked more potential for it with the UniROM cards. (Though these days, I usually play PS1 games on my PC or PS Vita.) I can't even begin to describe how important the PS1 was to me in my earlier gaming years. So many cool RPGs and only a fraction of which I got to play. Those emerald green memory cards and controller are iconic to all my gaming back then. (You can't see it, but the label on the second card says "Squaresoft" in scratchy kid penmanship.) I remember I wanted the console to match too, but I could never find a replacement shell, and at this point I'm not sure it would be worth however much they go for. I've also thought about getting an xStation installed once the laser kicks out, but we'll see what happens when that time comes.

Oh, my beloved Sega Saturn. I remember finding it maybe 15 years ago for pretty cheap, and it's worked well ever since. And while I wish I could say I have hours upon hours of playtime with it, I don't. And that's mostly because for the longest time, I only had the means to play official discs and was terrified of putting a single NA-released game in the drive because of how valuable they were and have become. But despite my measly hours spent with the system and having not grown up with it, I have a serious soft spot for the Sega Saturn. Something about 32-bit (and 16-bit) RPGs just hit me different than many from eras after. And now that I have a Pseudo Saturn Kai cart, which is sorta blocked by the controller there, the library has been made that much more accessible.

Below the Saturn shelf are the composite switches. They're not easy to see, but I went through the extra effort of making little stickers for each switch, representing all my Nintendo, Sega, and Sony consoles, plus the Xbox, PC-FX, and VCR. Sadly, my PC Engine came later, so that one doesn't have a sticker nor is it beside the PC-FX on the list. The button for it is the blank one after the VCR, and then the blank one after that lets the input selected on the top box through to the TV.

There's also some other fun stuff going on with this shelf. We have a perler bead sprite of Terra from Final Fantasy VI that my sister made for me, and a Chrono Trigger diorama that was a gift from my spouse. There's also a bunch of assorted video game and anime CDs. I have more to stack on top of the diorama that are currently on a different shelf, but I just keep putting it off. Maybe I'll finally do that after posting this.

The top of the TV has all these friends atop a thin scarf, which I thought gave the corner a little more character. We have a few stuffed bird toys (back when Beanie Balls were Beanie Ballz and had cute eyes instead of whatever the hell they have now). A little cold cast Marie figure from Atelier Marie, of which I also have the matching one, but it's in the closet right now. And last, a few character charms from Sound Horizon's Moira album. I really wish I had the ones from Roman too, but I can't find them so easily anymore. ;; I knew I should have bought them when I bought the Moira ones.

Beneath the TV is this VHS drawer I found a few months ago at a Goodwill for like $7 and couldn't say no. We had something like this when I was a kid, albeit two drawers and not four. I ended up snapping out the support clips on the inside and using it to store my NES, SNES, N64, Genesis carts and more. I would say that right beneath the TV is not my ideal spot for this at all, but it's all I could do with my limited space. Ideally, I'd love to have it on the floor beside the main unit, with maybe the vertical cube shelf on top of it. Hopefully the next place I move to will let me do this!

I also realized I could have included a photo or two of the inside of the drawers, but it completely slipped my mind. Maybe I'll add them in the future.

N64 getting cozy atop the NES in this space beside the TV. I bought the N64 from a friend so many years ago, but the more sanely-formatted Retro Fighters controller is a recent addition. Having not grown up with the N64 in the way a lot of kids did, I didn't have a strong attachment to the system and mostly viewed it as "that system to play two Zelda games on". Which... I'm not as bad about that now, but I do still look at it like that, plus also an Ogre Battle and a Castlevania. There's a lot of good stuff for the system, but I just haven't had much exposure to the library. I do have an EverDrive 64 though, so there's little excuse not to give the library a solid chance. (Also, please ignore that bit of dust on the right side of the N64. Apparently I've missed that during the past several dustings and didn't notice...)

As for the NES; that is the exact same unit that we've had in our family since before I was even born. It was estranged from us for a few years after we got an SNES, as it was viewed as "irrelevant" and sent out to my grandparent's place. But I retrieved it from there when I was 10 and was sad to find that it didn't work so well anymore. But after some years and a boom of interest in retro games, I was able to replace the 72-pin cartridge connector and it has run fine ever since. And in recent years, I even installed an audio expansion chip in it, so I can play expanded audio games on my EverDrive-N8 with no problem. That was a scary mod to do, since I'm only used to changing out save batteries and not working with such small pins. But I did it, and it was worth it!

Oh god, there's a lot to take in here, so please bear with me. (It also looks way dustier than it actually is and I hate that! Thanks for nothing, phone camera!) I mentioned earlier that there used to be two shelves here, but one of them got lost during the move a few years back. So the top shelf houses two PS2s and a PC Engine Core II with a Super SD System 3 attached to the back. (Though I wish I had a Turbo EverDrive Pro instead, since I like that it plugs into the card slot.) Starting with the PC Engine, I didn't actually get that until a couple of years ago, despite having interest in the system for years. I knew a lot about the SNES and Genesis, but when I first started learning about the PC Engine and how many Japan-exclusive RPGs there were for the CD unit, I became utterly fascinated. So you'd think I would have gotten one sooner, but I didn't. At least I've had a good few hours with it so far, between all the Ys games and uhhh... Lady Sword.

I can't even begin to describe how big of an impact the PS2 had on me. The PS1 was merely an extension of an introduction that began for me with the SNES. But the PS2, with its backwards compatibility, was an RPG lover's dream. I spent SO many hours playing games on the PS2. I'm still spending many hours with it, as you can tell from the signs of my Xenosaga Episode III replay. And if you're wondering why two PS2s, it's because the top one is an NTSC-J unit that I got a year after the other to play imports. It's rendered a bit irrelevant now though, thanks to Free MC Boot and an internal HDD on the original unit. You can also see the Ascii Grip controller for PS2 tucked in there, which I honestly like using if I'm playing RPGs and either in extreme relaxation mode or lifting weights.

On to the bottom shelf, we have the Sega Genesis/Sega CD combo atop the VCR. I didn't grow up with the Genesis, but it was a super cheap Goodwill find in early middle school that led to my love of Phantasy Star, so I appreciate it immensely for that. And the Sega CD, which I bought online a few years later, was dead on arrival. Thankfully Sega CD emulation was totally fine by that time, so even on my tin can of a computer I was able to play the original Lunar games (as I wept that the Sega CD I bought was useless). I tried repairing it a few years after that, but it didn't work and I was convinced that I had broken it further. It wasn't until a mishap after cleaning a PS2 controller a few years ago where I thought I broke it but realized I forgot to reattach a ribbon cable... that my brain realized I had done the same for the Sega CD. Literally ten years later, I opened it up again and... now it works great. I even have a newer, bigger backup RAM cart for it! Plus, of course, a flash cart for all my Master System, Genesis, and Sega CD needs. I do wish I had the Mega EverDrive Pro instead though, as it has a smaller profile and SMS save states. But these things aren't cheap, so I'm stuck. :')

Not a whole lot to say about the VCR. Like the CRT TV, I did a bunch of research into good units that would meet my specifications and ultimately decided on the Mitsubishi HS-U448, which has worked fantastically so far. I've watched plenty of tapes on it over the past few years and have had no issues. Eventually I'm sure it will fizzle out, but I'm enjoying it as much as I can before then.

Now we're at the smaller shelves, this side of which houses the SNES and the GameCube. Sadly this isn't the same SNES that our family had had since I was a little kid. Part of it broke in my overnight bag when I was in middle school and I didn't know how to fix it, so I picked up another one from Funcoland while keeping the original broken one tucked away, until one day my step-dad threw it out. :( Despite that, this was the system that got me addicted to RPGs and games in general. While mechanically I would say I probably prefer games from the 32-bit generation more, there's no denying the huge soft spot and high tolerance I have for anything related to this system. And as you can see behind the FXPak Pro, I have yet another Ascii Grip controller, which also has an extension cable so it can be used with the NES. I have one of these controllers for PS1 and Saturn, too, but they're tucked away in a drawer. I'd get one for all of my older consoles if I could. I just really like them for RPGs!!

For as much of my time was occupied by the PS2 during my high school years, the GameCube also carries more memories than I give it credit for. I remember watching my brother play Resident Evil 4 the summer after it came out, and was so blown away that I worked my butt off during the rest of the break to afford a GameCube of my own by the time I went back to school. So many hours spent with Metroid Prime, which it was bundled with. And it's thanks to this little system that I got so into the Tales of series and was able to play GBA games before I finally got a DS Lite a few years later. These days I don't have many GameCube games anymore, since that market also got hit pretty hard. But I'm looking forward to breathing more life into it when the next version of the FlippyDrive comes out.

And finally the last little pocket, which holds the Dreamcast, Wii, and PC-FX. I do despair a little every time I look here and see just how yellow the Dreamcast and PC-FX have gotten, especially since I put them through the re-whitening process a few years ago, which worked great until... they yellow just came back... So I just kinda gave up.

I don't have too much to say about this section, since I haven't spent all that much time with the systems here (minus the Wii) despite having them each for so many years. The Dreamcast was given to me by my brother when he wanted to get another unit for reasons I can't remember. Unfortunately, the most I played it was to play through all of Grandia II and not much else. There's definitely plenty for the system, just that I don't have enough time for everything.

The Wii was given to me by a friend when she upgraded (downgraded?) to a newer model that didn't have the GC backwards compatibility. I played the heck out of some games before turning it into something of a replacement for the Xbox when I softmodded it. Although by that time, I was mostly emulating on the PC again and didn't play those games as much on the Wii. Now I just kinda keep it plugged in for the heck of it, as I also have a Wii U on the main TV that does everything it does and more. I might install a DVD application on it so I don't have to wear the PS2 laser down with those anymore, though.

Then there's the PC-FX. This system was gifted to me by a friend I haven't actually spoken to in years. If you don't know much about it, it was the successor to the PC Engine, although far less successful. It's a neat system with a depressingly small library of 62 games. Being that it's also a Japan-only console, the games have kinda gone up in value and the system is hard to find anyone to do repairs for. Because while mine works now, I don't know if that will be the case by the time I understand Japanese well enough to delve into the library more. Even so, it's fun to play around with from time to time and even has a few interesting exclusives.

I mentioned DVDs earlier, so I figured I'd add in a photo of the anime DVD shelf that is awkwardly tucked beside the TV stand. It used to be for anime VHS tapes, but almost all of those are in storage now, minus the Slayers tapes I've been watching and a few titles that were never released to DVD. But of course, they're way in the bottom-most corner, so you can't see them at all.

I've been slowly but surely buying remastered BluRay releases as they come out, but I still like my DVDs to watch on the old TV. Especially if the BluRay release of a series is still just the standard definition version. Multiple volumes like this isn't practical, but I won't deny that I love them for all the different artwork used on them. And while I'm sure that one day I'll have to do some serious downsizing, for now I plan to have fun with it. And hopefully when I move, it'll be in a much nicer spot that's easy to reach.

I figured that I'd end off this post with a photo of the corner as it looked in 2019, just days before I had to start packing to move. It hadn't been set up for more than a month before I had to take it all down, and to this day I still think it was a touch cozier in this form. There are things I like about both, so I think my ideal setup would be something with a similar layout to this, but with the touched I added to the newer corner that give it more character.

If you're wondering about those shelves, the larger one is facing the foot of my bed now (the new corner is right beside my bed), and the smaller one is now full of books. Unfortunately, I did a lot of downsizing the past few years, so a good number of those English-language games are either long gone or have been replaced with the Japanese import version. I couldn't justify keeping some of the titles I had with how wildly the prices had changed. I could have a much cheaper import and use the leftover money for important quality of life things. And while I thought I would regret, I've honestly been so much happier after the decision. I love retro games, but what I mostly want is to be able to play them. And that's what the corner is all about; playing the games in a way that's comfortable for me.