Home Office Move

On moving to our new house in 2014 I made the third of our four bedrooms into a small office space for my computing and video game collection. It worked quite well (though became increasing cluttered) over the years, but by 2019 I was forced to downsize and move to the fourth bedroom to make space for a another bedroom for the second of our mini-people.

As such, a lot of effort was put in to designing the new, smaller space to accomodate the bulk of the computing/gaming equipment, with the advantage of new technology (including HDMI adapters for almost everything, to do away with the CRT monitor) and a need to box up almost all games for those systems where they could be pre-loaded to HDD or flash cards… as a result it's a much busier room, but actually works much better.

Constructing the desk and shelving

Varnishing the desk

Installing shelves and wiring

Scart cabling wiring and switch

Filling up the shelves

Finished Layout

2014 - 2019

Last image before the relocation to the new room:

How the room looked for most of the time:

First room setup after moving in:

Fit or move existing components or route wiring:

FIT Keyboard cable from VGA KVM to desktop keyboard switch
FIT UK and Japanese keyboard connect to desktop keyboard switch
FIT PS/2 Trackball to VGA KVM
FIT Wire up power and scart for Amstrad CPC464
FIT Wire up power and scart for NeoGeo AES
FIT Wire up PS/2 cables (x2) from MSX2 to VGA KVM
FIT Wire up PS/2 cables (x2) from Amiga 500 to VGA KVM
FIT Wire up PS/2 cables (x2) from Atari STe 520 to VGA KVM
FIT PSX HDMI adapter
FIT PS2 HDMI adapter - But it's not particularly great quality, perhaps component output to OSSC instead?
FIT New CF card in Amiga 1200
FIT IDE to CF card adapter and CF card in Risc PC
FIT AztecMonster SCSI to CF reader and flash card in Mac IICi
FIT MIDI cable to run to RS232 MIDI adapter in PC-9821
FIT Vectrex to space on top of desk or shelving (maybe in place of GBA?)
FIT Everdrive GBA X5 flash card to GBA
FIT Power supply to GBA and plug in to remote power switch
MOVE Metal drawers from under old office desk to somewhere
MOVE Metal paint/tool chest to garage
FIT Picture frames to walls
FIT 5v PSU to Atari ST sd card reader - to run off main Atari socket
MOVE Everything from old office desks
MOVE All old, un-needed cables to loft or garage
MOVE Anything else from old office to loft or garage
MOVE All packing boxes from top of stairs to loft or garage
MOVE Reference books to somewhere…
FIT & TEST Wiring for
- PC-9821
  - ~~VGA cable check~~
  - ~~240 to 110v cable and convertor~~
  - ~~PS2 keyboard to check~~
  - ~~PS2 mouse to check~~
  - 3.5mm stereo jack
  - Roland MIDI cable
  - RS232 MIDI cable
- Risc PC
  - VGA cable check
  - PS2 keyboard check
  - PS2 mouse check
  - 3.5mm stereo jack
- Mac IICi
  - Mac to VGA cable check
  - ADB to PS2 keyboard cable
  - ADB to PS2 mouse cable
  - 3.5mm stereo jack
MOVE Boxes of unpainted miniatures to top of bookcases
FIT Remaining ethernet cables
- PC-9821
- Risc PC
- Mac IICi

Install components, solder or build:

INSTALL Amiga 500 internal PS/2 keyboard adapter (plus trailing PS/2 socket)
INSTALL Repair Turbo Duo RGB scart cable
INSTALL Atari STe internal PS/2 keyboard and mouse adapter install
INSTALL Small IDE to CF card adapter (<512MB) in PC-9821
- INSTALL DOS to CF card
- INSTALL EXIDE 486 IDE BIOS modification software to CF card documented here
- REMOVE BIOS chip from PC-9821 SCSI card
- FLASH New EEPROM with EXIDE486 generated ROM images
- INSTALL EEPROM to PC-9821 SCSI card
PC-Engine modification
- INSTALL Either RGB board to PC-Engine, or
- PURCHASE Super SD System interface board (~£200)
REPLACE faulty network cable for main Retro PC
FINISH VME chassis
- Install 2x small (<18GB) SCSI drives
- Mount IO panel to rear of chassis
- Blanking plates to front
- Fit 2x ethernet cables
- Fit 2x RS232 to USB cables
- Power supply cable to remote power switches
INSTALL New 2.5“ SATA drive to PS2 and load up with game images

Buy new parts or hardware:

PURCHASE 2m MIDI cable for PC-9821 RS232 MIDI interface
PURCHASE Turbo Duo power supply
PURCHASE Desktop power strip for airbrush compressor, soldering iron, lamp etc
PURCHASE original Sony Playstation to replace broken one
PURCHASE Buy 3x or 4x shelves for left hand side of desk
PURCHASE PS/2 keyboard adapter for MSX2
PURCHASE a Spectrum 128k or 128k +2a so that I can fit a PS/2 keyboard adapter - not compatible with +3
PURCHASE PS/2 keyboard adapter for Spectrum
PURCHASE Storage units for Vellejo paint dropppers and Tamiya small paint pots
PURCHASE Multi-drawer, wall mounted shelves for small electronics components (above monitor)