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Best Way To Manage Growing Console Clutter?
An anonymous reader writes "Being the owner of several actively-used consoles, I have found myself in a perpetual state of tangled cords and controller 'land mines' when it comes to my living room. With each console supporting four controllers, and a couple of games having their own unique peripherals, this is becoming more and more of a problem. It's not so much that there isn't a place for all of this. as it is that there isn't a place that's visually pleasing, big enough to survive the growing collection, easy to use, and most importantly, cheap. I find myself having to untangle cords or digging through a box/drawer. no matter what solution I try. What have Slashdot readers resorted to when it comes to keeping all of this in check?"
You could go out and buy yourself wireless controllers. Other than those wires, the power and A/V plugs should be able to be routed through the back of any reasonable entertainment center furniture.
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This would never happen for consoles.
The whole idea of a console is to have a standard, fixed platform. This includes controller layout. The only way this is achieved is having every system come with the same controller.
Think back to playing PC games with gamepads or joysticks. You never know which button is assigned to do what by default. Instead you have to try and correlate the game's controls with the gamepads. It's a clumsy mess. With a standardized controller, you always know that A is accept/fire/shoot/punch/etc, B is go back/kick/drop bomb/etc. The moment you deviate from this, games get difficult to just "pick up and play" because there is no convention that makes sense.
Since you were playing video games just last night, your original post is quite hypocritical because it basically showcased the idea that no one should be playing video games, ever. You may try to shift this position slightly now but that was your original point.
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I currently have 17 console systems...all hooked up to the same tv.
:)
I have a wall dedticated to the tv...with the tv in the center. I put a short shelving unit on each side of the tv and my speakers on the outside. I have a cloth tacked to the back of the shelving units so that you can't see any wires from the front. My wife hates wires so I have managed to not have a single wire visible...with the exception of in-use controllers of course.
To hook them all up to the tv I have one "Parent" switch box with several "Child" switch boxes off of that. I have all my systems and switch boxes labeled very clearly so visitors know what to push to get the system they want.
For storage of controllers etc...I picked up several small plastic baskets for about $1.50 each at Target. Each basket is big enough to hold all the accessories for at least one system. I stack all the baskets on a shelf in my closet.
For power...this is the hard one...I am currently using 6 power strips...but this is something I'm fixing right now. I just picked up the supplies to make my own 60 outlet power strip. Along with the 17 systems I also have 2 computers, the tv, couple dvd players, stero, etc...
This all makes for a very clean and easy to use setup...just don't look behind the tv
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I got some hair rubber bands, pulled the entertainment center out so I could get behind it and wrapped the cables up and tied them to the exact length they needed to be to reach from the console to the TV, or console to outlet. It's not exactly a techy way to do it, but it sure looks a lot nicer than before. As for controller cables, GameCube is easy. Wavebirds are awesome, get them. As for PS2 and Xbox, I know logitech makes a decent wireless pad for the PS2, but they are very expensive at $60 a pop. I don't have an Xbox so I'm not sure if anyone is making decent wireless controllers for it.
My solution would be to get one of those four drawer wheeled contraptions at Target or wherever. Put one console and controllers / accessories in each drawer. Put a hole in the back of the drawer for any cables that need to reach the TV / net / power. Open the drawer when playing a game, close it when your done. Outside of the drawers use cable ties to keep things tidy.
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...when is someone going to come up with a tidier solution around behind the console stack? What I want is a kind of wireless solution - you get a matched pair of modules, each at most one inch cubed; one plugs into the back of your console, the other into the back of your televison/switchbox/whatever. You get a set of these instead of a cable with every new console you buy, and can choose whatever of the many styles of output connector you want... and maybe you'd be able to tune them using a set of tiny digital switches (not an analogue dial of course)... and that way, there are NO WIRES AT ALL (except for power). Would it be so hard? You could even bring out the equivalent of ordinary SCART cables (or whatever) along those lines, and use them for your bog-standard television signal, or TV-to-VCR connections. It'd be amazing!
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