Munty
12-09-2011, 11:43 AM
I mentioned in another thread that once I'd finished with the hardware part of my new PC build I was hoping to upgrade my somewhat ageing desk. Well would you know I've only gone and done it?
I'm infamous among those who know me as someone who completes approximately 10% of the projects I begin, my better half in particular despairs when I embark on new ventures, but this time I seem to be on a seriously nice completion streak as this desk is nearly finished after less than a week of work!
I decided not to post this up in an 'as it happens' format because I was worried that it would just become another unfinished project if I did. Now that I've reached a point where everything important is finished though I feel a little more confident about sharing the journey with you fine folk!
So the inspiration for this build is actually partially thanks to my afore mentioned partner in crime as she constantly nags me to get rid of the many PC games I've completed to free up some space. (Never-mind the fact that they're all tucked nicely away in a cupboard on the third floor where noone ever goes)
I of course refuse because all of these games represent memories for me and some of them consumed several weeks of my life! Why should I trade them in for 10p a title or spend the next 5 years trying to sell them on ebay when I can find a far more satisfactory use for them?
So I did!
Introducing the Game Desk, a part game, part desk construction sent from the future to totally look good 8)
The basic premise was a desk built entirely out of games from my completed pile which the woman seems so eager to destroy. It was pretty simple to come up with a basic design as the concept comes with massive limitations on shape and size due to the fact it's made from DVD cases which are 135x190mm in dimension. That immediately limited the shape of my build to domething blocky and rectangular and the size to multiples of the above figures.
I spent a little while on Google to see if there were any nice designs that I liked and came across a very specific style which I took a bit of a shine to. This is the kind of thing I'm talking about, there are several different styles but it's essentially an all encompassing gaming table with spots for every kind of interface you'll ever need...
http://www.motifake.com/image/demotivational-poster/0905/the-matrix-matrix-gaming-desk-demotivational-poster-1243389592.jpg
The picture above was specifically helpful in putting together a design I liked as all of the components are rectangular in nature just like my desk would have to be.
Of course I don't want to just go copying someone elses design and building it from a different medium. That would be lame...
So I took it as inspiration and sat down for a doodle. I'm not a fan of simulators (I love space ones but my point is I won't ever need/want/have a throttle or joystick input device) Since that's what two of these sub-platforms are intended for and I couldn't think of any other practical purpose for them I decided to strike them from the plan.
From there I tried to imagine exactly what I WOULD want on the desk and figured I could come up with a nice triple screen design (similar to that shown) and then fit everything else around it. I didn't want the keyboard on a seperate level to the mouse and I certainly didn't want to make any sliding trays and such so I opted for one large desktop area with three raised pedestals for the monitors.
It's a pretty simple design in the end but it kind of has to be as I'm building out of old computer games which, believe it or not, don't have a great deal of strength or adaptability...
To prevent the main desktop being just a big rectangle I went for 3 rows of 9 games but omitted the 2 front corners to give it a slightly less boring shape. The keyboard and mouse will sit on the front row of 7 cases while the back row will be under the monitor pedestals. I chose the height of these pedestals based on a few different things. Mainly I used the height of my current speakers to determine how much space I'd need below the 2 peripheral monitor pedestals as that's where they'd be placed. After that I used the size of the monitors I'll be using to determine how to place the third pedestal in the centre. I wanted the final result to place all 3 monitors so the tops were level so I used the difference in screen height to determine how much lower the main screen would need to be! Simple...
While I pointed out right at the start that I'll be making this desk out of computer games, obviously there'll be no strength in the boxes so I needed some other materials too. Having already got plenty of games to choose from I decided to scrounge some wood to support the main desktop and then splashed out 60-something quid on some nice acrylic for the surfaces. Everything else I used was recycled from elsewhere (as you'll soon see) so to date my total build cost is just the price of the acrylic!
The first thing I actually had to do before I even sourced the materials though was probably one of the hardest and probably THE most time consuming parts of the whole project. I have a couple hundred games to choose from but not all of them were worthy of inclusion in the desk. Re-releases of games through things like white label, soldout and the 'best seller series' games have small pictures and ugly borders so none of them could be used. Further to that, I decided early on that I wouldn't have more than one game from any franchise. Kane's Wrath for example was the only Command & Conquer title to be used in the build despite the fact I own almost every single one!
After narrowing down the selection to around 90 games (I only needed 41) it became increasingly difficult to decide which titles would look best in the build and I spent literally days deciding on my favourite games for the project. In the end it came down to a number of factors. I used Act of War : Direct Action because I spend a lot of time playing it with a friend of mine over LAN, despite the fact it has a very boring case... Dragon Age Origins made it into the main pedestal despite the fact I haven't completed it yet (one of several) just because it gave a good contrast to surrounding cases. The Red on White of the case is rather pleasant to look at and I had a lot of dark games everywhere else. I recently played Pirates of Black Cove and HATED it but it's still in the desk because I quite like the picture. Other Games like Evil Genius and The Thing are in the build because I just LOVED the games and I'm quite happy to look at them every time I sit down, regardless of how well known they are!
So I did eventually get it down to 41 titles, all of them standard DVD cases save for 2. These were Crysis (as I bought the maximum edition) and Doom3 and they both have larger boxes due to the number of DVDs contained and whathaveyou. I always wanted to use Crysis as, although the image on the maximum edition isn't great, I really enjoyed the game. It's taken place in the main pedestal and not wanting an asymmetrical build I felt compelled to include another large case to rectify the situation. Doom3 is intended to conceal a DVD drive at this point but we'll talk about that later...
The only 3 games in the build which I haven't completed yet are Dragon Age as mentioned, Metro 2033 (which I chose for the box) and STALKER Call of Pripyat. I own all 3 STALKER games and have completed the first 2 but I felt this had the best looking case so used it pre-emptively as I'm sure I'll be completing that next!
Anyway, that's all well and good, and hopefully you now have some form of picture in your mind as to how this could look but of course, this thread is worthless without pictures... So here they come!
As I mentioned, I chose wood to form the backbone of this build and I did quite well in my hunt for a suitable piece. I found one in a friends shed which was the perfect width and only slightly too long for what I needed. It's about 15mm thick and a nice hard wood so it has plenty of strength and cut like a dream! Here she be...
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk1.jpg
And now after all the writing that started this topic off, you finally get to see the shape of the main desktop for the first time! Not only the placement of games but even the games themselves change drastically between now and the final layout but it gives you an idea of the design at long last! I'm building this desk to fit in a very dimension specific space so the 9-case width means it'll fit perfectly where my current desk is.
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk2.jpg
I already mentioned that this piece of wood cut nicely but it needs reiterating I think. I used a jigsaw to cut all the wood pieces of this build and it cut through this stuff like butter! Getting the right shape out of this piece took me a matter of minutes and gave a beautiful finish too. Not that that matters as the whole point of the build is that nothing but games will be visible. For that reason, the wood is cut several inches smaller than the desktop itself.
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk3.jpg
In an attempt to avoid damaging any of the cases used in this build (all DVDs and manuals have been removed already!) I won't be gluing, nailing or otherwise attaching them to anything. This, coupled with the fact it'll have a clear acrylic top fitted later made it rather difficult to know how to keep everything together. So I improvised... Anywhere that 4 cases meet, I've put a nail to restrict movement of the adjacent games. The real effect of this is felt by the central 5 games which now cannot be moved at all. Of course those on the outside are still completely free but that's another job... Here's the first step of my solution!
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk7.jpg
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk8.jpg
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk5.jpg
With the first hurdle cleared I now needed to stop the outer rows of cases from moving. I'm quite chuffed with the way I solved this problem and you'd seriously be amazed how effective it is! All I've done here is cut some medium weight card into strips that are 3 cases long and 1 case wide. I'll let the images tell the story...
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk8.jpg
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk10.jpg
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk11.jpg
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk12.jpg
See where I'm going with this yet? By clamping the card inside the back of the middle case (remember I said those ones now don't move at all due to the nails) I can slide the next 2 cases onto the same piece of card and hold the entire column completely steady. The best bit about this is that every additional case makes it's neighbours stronger.
Here's the finished process for the central row but I actually had to start from the right side in the end as it was necessary to open the cases in order to slide them onto the card. Can't do that if there are cases already in position to the left of the column you're working on!
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk13.jpg
Of course the reason this process worked for the central 5 columns is because the middle cases were completely surrounded by nails preventing any movement. The next 2 out (not the very ends) only had 3 nails and so weren't completely secure but once the remaining cases were attached these too became completely secure.
The 4 games on the very ends of the desk had no nails to help them but used a similar process to the one used so far. I cut a smaller piece of card just 2 cases long and then used some nice heavy duty staples to fix it to the wood. The remaining games were then slid onto the card as before, their neighbouring cases lending some additional strength.
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk16.jpg
This next image is out of order and was actually taken before the end cases were attached. It's meant as an example of how solid this simple technique has proved to be as the desk is shown almost vertical with no trouble at all to the attached games. (The top 2 are simply placed on for this shot)
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk14.jpg
Here's a closer shot of the excess card that was visible in the last shot. Anyone wondering why it's there will soon be enlightened...
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk15.jpg
This next one is also out of order as I seem to have forgotten to take it until now! It shows the purpose of the card tabs at the back of the desk if anyone hadn't already figured it out. By leaving these strips too long at the rear and subsequently stapling them into the wood, the back row of games becomes as immovable as the middle one! The only issue now is that the front row of cases can technically be lifted UP but since it'll soon have acrylic on it that isn't really an issue. The tabs were just intended to provide a little extra strength to the whole thing and they did so nicely...
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk.jpg
I'm not sure if there's an image limit on these forums but I'm pretty sure I won't be far off it by now if there is! I'll post more now so consider this a brief intermission. Here's a nice parting shot of what Santa bought me to help with this build. What could be in the box???
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk19.jpg
I'm infamous among those who know me as someone who completes approximately 10% of the projects I begin, my better half in particular despairs when I embark on new ventures, but this time I seem to be on a seriously nice completion streak as this desk is nearly finished after less than a week of work!
I decided not to post this up in an 'as it happens' format because I was worried that it would just become another unfinished project if I did. Now that I've reached a point where everything important is finished though I feel a little more confident about sharing the journey with you fine folk!
So the inspiration for this build is actually partially thanks to my afore mentioned partner in crime as she constantly nags me to get rid of the many PC games I've completed to free up some space. (Never-mind the fact that they're all tucked nicely away in a cupboard on the third floor where noone ever goes)
I of course refuse because all of these games represent memories for me and some of them consumed several weeks of my life! Why should I trade them in for 10p a title or spend the next 5 years trying to sell them on ebay when I can find a far more satisfactory use for them?
So I did!
Introducing the Game Desk, a part game, part desk construction sent from the future to totally look good 8)
The basic premise was a desk built entirely out of games from my completed pile which the woman seems so eager to destroy. It was pretty simple to come up with a basic design as the concept comes with massive limitations on shape and size due to the fact it's made from DVD cases which are 135x190mm in dimension. That immediately limited the shape of my build to domething blocky and rectangular and the size to multiples of the above figures.
I spent a little while on Google to see if there were any nice designs that I liked and came across a very specific style which I took a bit of a shine to. This is the kind of thing I'm talking about, there are several different styles but it's essentially an all encompassing gaming table with spots for every kind of interface you'll ever need...
http://www.motifake.com/image/demotivational-poster/0905/the-matrix-matrix-gaming-desk-demotivational-poster-1243389592.jpg
The picture above was specifically helpful in putting together a design I liked as all of the components are rectangular in nature just like my desk would have to be.
Of course I don't want to just go copying someone elses design and building it from a different medium. That would be lame...
So I took it as inspiration and sat down for a doodle. I'm not a fan of simulators (I love space ones but my point is I won't ever need/want/have a throttle or joystick input device) Since that's what two of these sub-platforms are intended for and I couldn't think of any other practical purpose for them I decided to strike them from the plan.
From there I tried to imagine exactly what I WOULD want on the desk and figured I could come up with a nice triple screen design (similar to that shown) and then fit everything else around it. I didn't want the keyboard on a seperate level to the mouse and I certainly didn't want to make any sliding trays and such so I opted for one large desktop area with three raised pedestals for the monitors.
It's a pretty simple design in the end but it kind of has to be as I'm building out of old computer games which, believe it or not, don't have a great deal of strength or adaptability...
To prevent the main desktop being just a big rectangle I went for 3 rows of 9 games but omitted the 2 front corners to give it a slightly less boring shape. The keyboard and mouse will sit on the front row of 7 cases while the back row will be under the monitor pedestals. I chose the height of these pedestals based on a few different things. Mainly I used the height of my current speakers to determine how much space I'd need below the 2 peripheral monitor pedestals as that's where they'd be placed. After that I used the size of the monitors I'll be using to determine how to place the third pedestal in the centre. I wanted the final result to place all 3 monitors so the tops were level so I used the difference in screen height to determine how much lower the main screen would need to be! Simple...
While I pointed out right at the start that I'll be making this desk out of computer games, obviously there'll be no strength in the boxes so I needed some other materials too. Having already got plenty of games to choose from I decided to scrounge some wood to support the main desktop and then splashed out 60-something quid on some nice acrylic for the surfaces. Everything else I used was recycled from elsewhere (as you'll soon see) so to date my total build cost is just the price of the acrylic!
The first thing I actually had to do before I even sourced the materials though was probably one of the hardest and probably THE most time consuming parts of the whole project. I have a couple hundred games to choose from but not all of them were worthy of inclusion in the desk. Re-releases of games through things like white label, soldout and the 'best seller series' games have small pictures and ugly borders so none of them could be used. Further to that, I decided early on that I wouldn't have more than one game from any franchise. Kane's Wrath for example was the only Command & Conquer title to be used in the build despite the fact I own almost every single one!
After narrowing down the selection to around 90 games (I only needed 41) it became increasingly difficult to decide which titles would look best in the build and I spent literally days deciding on my favourite games for the project. In the end it came down to a number of factors. I used Act of War : Direct Action because I spend a lot of time playing it with a friend of mine over LAN, despite the fact it has a very boring case... Dragon Age Origins made it into the main pedestal despite the fact I haven't completed it yet (one of several) just because it gave a good contrast to surrounding cases. The Red on White of the case is rather pleasant to look at and I had a lot of dark games everywhere else. I recently played Pirates of Black Cove and HATED it but it's still in the desk because I quite like the picture. Other Games like Evil Genius and The Thing are in the build because I just LOVED the games and I'm quite happy to look at them every time I sit down, regardless of how well known they are!
So I did eventually get it down to 41 titles, all of them standard DVD cases save for 2. These were Crysis (as I bought the maximum edition) and Doom3 and they both have larger boxes due to the number of DVDs contained and whathaveyou. I always wanted to use Crysis as, although the image on the maximum edition isn't great, I really enjoyed the game. It's taken place in the main pedestal and not wanting an asymmetrical build I felt compelled to include another large case to rectify the situation. Doom3 is intended to conceal a DVD drive at this point but we'll talk about that later...
The only 3 games in the build which I haven't completed yet are Dragon Age as mentioned, Metro 2033 (which I chose for the box) and STALKER Call of Pripyat. I own all 3 STALKER games and have completed the first 2 but I felt this had the best looking case so used it pre-emptively as I'm sure I'll be completing that next!
Anyway, that's all well and good, and hopefully you now have some form of picture in your mind as to how this could look but of course, this thread is worthless without pictures... So here they come!
As I mentioned, I chose wood to form the backbone of this build and I did quite well in my hunt for a suitable piece. I found one in a friends shed which was the perfect width and only slightly too long for what I needed. It's about 15mm thick and a nice hard wood so it has plenty of strength and cut like a dream! Here she be...
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk1.jpg
And now after all the writing that started this topic off, you finally get to see the shape of the main desktop for the first time! Not only the placement of games but even the games themselves change drastically between now and the final layout but it gives you an idea of the design at long last! I'm building this desk to fit in a very dimension specific space so the 9-case width means it'll fit perfectly where my current desk is.
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk2.jpg
I already mentioned that this piece of wood cut nicely but it needs reiterating I think. I used a jigsaw to cut all the wood pieces of this build and it cut through this stuff like butter! Getting the right shape out of this piece took me a matter of minutes and gave a beautiful finish too. Not that that matters as the whole point of the build is that nothing but games will be visible. For that reason, the wood is cut several inches smaller than the desktop itself.
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk3.jpg
In an attempt to avoid damaging any of the cases used in this build (all DVDs and manuals have been removed already!) I won't be gluing, nailing or otherwise attaching them to anything. This, coupled with the fact it'll have a clear acrylic top fitted later made it rather difficult to know how to keep everything together. So I improvised... Anywhere that 4 cases meet, I've put a nail to restrict movement of the adjacent games. The real effect of this is felt by the central 5 games which now cannot be moved at all. Of course those on the outside are still completely free but that's another job... Here's the first step of my solution!
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk7.jpg
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk8.jpg
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk5.jpg
With the first hurdle cleared I now needed to stop the outer rows of cases from moving. I'm quite chuffed with the way I solved this problem and you'd seriously be amazed how effective it is! All I've done here is cut some medium weight card into strips that are 3 cases long and 1 case wide. I'll let the images tell the story...
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk8.jpg
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk10.jpg
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk11.jpg
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk12.jpg
See where I'm going with this yet? By clamping the card inside the back of the middle case (remember I said those ones now don't move at all due to the nails) I can slide the next 2 cases onto the same piece of card and hold the entire column completely steady. The best bit about this is that every additional case makes it's neighbours stronger.
Here's the finished process for the central row but I actually had to start from the right side in the end as it was necessary to open the cases in order to slide them onto the card. Can't do that if there are cases already in position to the left of the column you're working on!
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk13.jpg
Of course the reason this process worked for the central 5 columns is because the middle cases were completely surrounded by nails preventing any movement. The next 2 out (not the very ends) only had 3 nails and so weren't completely secure but once the remaining cases were attached these too became completely secure.
The 4 games on the very ends of the desk had no nails to help them but used a similar process to the one used so far. I cut a smaller piece of card just 2 cases long and then used some nice heavy duty staples to fix it to the wood. The remaining games were then slid onto the card as before, their neighbouring cases lending some additional strength.
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk16.jpg
This next image is out of order and was actually taken before the end cases were attached. It's meant as an example of how solid this simple technique has proved to be as the desk is shown almost vertical with no trouble at all to the attached games. (The top 2 are simply placed on for this shot)
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk14.jpg
Here's a closer shot of the excess card that was visible in the last shot. Anyone wondering why it's there will soon be enlightened...
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk15.jpg
This next one is also out of order as I seem to have forgotten to take it until now! It shows the purpose of the card tabs at the back of the desk if anyone hadn't already figured it out. By leaving these strips too long at the rear and subsequently stapling them into the wood, the back row of games becomes as immovable as the middle one! The only issue now is that the front row of cases can technically be lifted UP but since it'll soon have acrylic on it that isn't really an issue. The tabs were just intended to provide a little extra strength to the whole thing and they did so nicely...
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk.jpg
I'm not sure if there's an image limit on these forums but I'm pretty sure I won't be far off it by now if there is! I'll post more now so consider this a brief intermission. Here's a nice parting shot of what Santa bought me to help with this build. What could be in the box???
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/aa460/Tim_Munt/Game%20Desk/GameDesk19.jpg