Most gamers have to make do with a drab setup comprising couch and standard plasma TV. There’s nothing wrong with that but on the other hand, take a look at nine of these ultimate games rooms below.

These are some of the most elaborate and expensive, home gaming setups and video arcades ever. Playing PS3 or Xbox 360 at any one of these awesome gaming rooms would be like immersing yourself right into the game, rather than just playing it. You can literally feel like you’re in the cockpit, on the battlefield, or surrounded by zombies at any of these ridiculous game rooms.

“The Greatest Show On Earth”

What do millionaires do with all that money?…invest it?…travel?…give it away to charity? Well Jeremy Kipnis decided that he would build a home theater which he calls “the greatest show on earth” - and oh yeah…It only cost him a cool $6 million to build it. This amazing home theater features one of the largest screens ever installed in a home (18-feet wide), and also one of the greatest sound systems on the planet. The sound system consists of 16 subwoofers, 8 tower speakers, 10 tweeters, and 3 center channel speakers, all of which are powered by a group of 35 amps. It’s hard to even imagine what this theater would sound like during a movie or while playing video games. Speaking of video games, this in-home movie theater does include a Playstation 3, and it’s no doubt one of the most engaging video game experiences that any gamer could ever want. source

Three-Screen Theater

Are you kidding me!? This theater is ridiculous. Not only does it have a huge 109-inch Stewart Filmscreen with Runco VX-4000d DLP projector, but on each side of this screen are 2 more 50-inch NEC plasmas. What does this mean? Well…you can watch a movie, the big game, and play Xbox 360 all at the same time – talk about multitasking. The Xbox 360 is mounted right in the center console between two of the 11 comfortable recliners in the room, so you don’t even have to get up to change games. To add to the comfort of your gaming experience at this awesome media room, there is also a full wet-bar at the back of the room, so you can make yourself a drink to sip-on while you play. If you get tired of playing Xbox (why would you?), you can go shoot some pool at the adjacent game room or play on one of the arcade-style games. It’s a rough life! source

Dee Brown’s Game Room

Dee Brown is a former pro basketball player who played with the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, and the Orlando Magic. He has created what he calls “the ultimate game room” inside of his Orlando, Florida home. This game room is 1,000-square-feet in size, and it features not only multiple console video game systems, but also a nice collection of arcade games. Dee is able to easily switch between playing his Xbox, Playstation, or Nintendo consoles since they are all connected to a 4-port switch hidden beneath the sofa. There’s a 61-inch plasma for surfing the web, watching a movie, or for playing video games. This room also has 2 other smaller TVs, surround sound with 2 subwooofers, and an AMX touch-panel to control everything. A row of arcade-style games lines one of the walls of the game room, and are connected to the Internet, so Dee is able to get updates and see other people’s records from around the world for each particular game. He can even download various games to play in his arcade, and he has well-over 2,500 of them including classics like Asteroids, Centipede, and Donkey Kong Jr. source

Jerry Rice’s Home Theater


San Francisco 49er’s ex-wide receiver great Jerry Rice, and his 3 kids, play their video games in this awesome home theater custom built inside of his 20,000-square-foot home. Playing video games in this 30 by 25-foot, $200,000 home theater is about as good as it gets. The screen is an incredible 123-inches, and the 10,000 watt sound system is supposedly better than THX quality. The entire system is controlled by a 10-inch AMX touch-panel screen, which controls lighting, temperature, audio, video, and video games – it also controls the 80 hidden speakers placed throughout the entire house. What’s great about this game room is that it even has a snack bar for when you get hungry, which includes popcorn, drinks, and tons of candy. source

CinemaScope Theater


Stepping in to this home theater in Anniston, Alabama is almost like stepping into an actual movie theater, and in many ways, the technology used here is as good as a movie theater’s. This 28 by 35-foot theater/game room features an awesome 13-foot wide screen that is just slightly curved in order to provide the most accurate picture possible. This theater will play DVDs and games in CinemaScope format, which is the ultra-wide format that the large movie theaters use – it’s even wider than the widest plasmas and LCDs out there. What this means is that there are no more annoying black bars on the screen during movies. When he’s not watching a movie in his incredible home theater, William Wesson (the owner) likes to play his Xbox here, and what an experience it is. He describes it best by saying, “you really feel like you’re in there. A couple of fighter pilot games are awesome. In “Ghost Recon,” you’re actually out in the field, and you have the 360-degree field of sound, and you can hear and feel people approaching from behind you in the game.” source

Waterfall Home Theater

Inside of this 9,000-square-foot home in Danville, Pennsylvania, an amazing home theater will provide you with one of the best gaming experiences of your life. This media room was inspired by the homeowner’s award-winning backyard waterfalls and water garden. They decided to give this room a feeling of “the outdoors”, and they created one of the most unique home theaters in the United States. This theater has just about every feature that you can imagine, and on-top of being an incredible room to watch a movie, it also has dedicated hook-ups for their Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. This 16 by 26-foot media room features 3-tiers of seating, plus a unique 3-bench rounded seating area in the rear of the theater. Playing video games on the 95 by 54-inch screen, along with the $17,000 Runco VX-1000ci projector and 7.1 surround sound system, would be the experience of a lifetime for any true gamer out there. source

Luna City Arcade

This backyard arcade has to be one of the best game rooms in the world. This incredible game room was created by Peter Hirschberg, and it’s located in Linden, Virginia. He constructed a 2-story building for the arcade that’ about 2400-square-feet in size – bigger than many houses! Right now, Luna City Arcade houses over 60 arcade-style machines, along with some awesome video game memorabilia, and sweet lighting. Despite Luna City Arcade looking like a public arcade, it’s not, so don’t just show-up there and expect to play. Peter does host “game days” every few months, though, where people can come and play in the arcade – there’s even a dollar bill change machine, so you don’t have to bring a pocket full of quarters. If you’re unfortunate enough to not be able to check this place out in person, you can at least drool over the pictures. source

Gamer’s Paradise

This guy’s set-up would make any true gamer proud. This fully-equipped gaming station features a huge 58-inch Panasonic 1080p plasma TV, and just about every gaming console you can think of from the original Nintendo to the Wii. What good would this game room be without a good surround sound system? This one has got it with a Klipsch 5.1 surround, powered by a Harmon Kardon receiver. He’s even got 4 Guitar Hero axes that are ready to rock whenever you are, as well as the Rock Band drumset and mic (not shown). The only problem with this game room is being able to actually put down the controller at some point, which should be difficult considering there’s no shortage of gaming pleasure here. source

Backyard Arcade
If you’re looking for the ultimate game room, this one created by Barry Evans may just be it. He constructed a huge climate-controlled building in his own backyard that would put some professional video arcades to shame. This awesome game “room” features hundreds of video game consoles, tens of thousands of games, and tons of video game collectibles. Barry estimates his video game collection to be worth over $500,000. Just goes to show you that it pays to be a video game geek.

If you are inspired to improve your home gaming setup, you don’t need to spend as much as some of the above to get the results you want. Explore your options for tv cables, projector screens and vogels wall mounts for your existing flat screen TV.

“Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams” Exclusive Discount for Sanriotown Members!

Sanriotown is offering an exclusive discount for its members if they avail of “Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams”, available on Autumn 2008 exclusively on the Nintendo DS. Simply spend 1,000 of your Kitty Points and you get 15% discount when you purchase the game! You’ll even automatically get an open beta account for the much-anticipated MMORPG, Hello Kitty Online!

For more information about this great deal, please click here.

Transcript of a conference call by Gaming Angels…

Hello Kitty Big City Dreams, a Nintendo DS game on offer by the good folks at sanrio it would seem.

Reposted from the original blog post.

After months of going over player comments and suggestions, and working hard to deliver an even better game to all our supporters, it’s time for the big news. The wait has been long, but we’ve toiled to make sure it’s all worth it! So without further ado, we are pleased to announce the next phase — The Hello Kitty Online Founders’ Beta!

October 8, 2008 is the big day, and the this next stage will allow a limited number of users to play Hello Kitty Online MMORPG ahead as Founders ahead of launch, while earning benefits and participating in special in-game events.

And now, here’s how you can be one of the Founders of the official Hello Kitty Online launch!

1. Sign up for an account at SanrioTown.com,
2. Using the SanrioTown account, send a BLANK email tohkofounder@hellokitty.com.

Remember, you need a SanrioTown account in order to qualify to be a Founder, and the email account you use will be the one we grant access to for the Founders’ Beta. Also, questions, comments and suggestions should be sent to onlinegame@hellokitty.com.

What’s to look forward to? The new version of HKO will feature animproved interface, new monsters, new maps, new items, and the opening of London and Paris. The Founders’ Beta will also introduce gameplay changes such as an improved skill system, pet systems and team-play oriented enhancements.

So what are you waiting for? Don’t miss out, because we’ll only be allowing a limited number into this stage! More details to come in the following days, so stay tuned!

I for one will be applying right away!

So most of us know what HelloKitty is - the backpacks, shoes, funny little kitty images etc. But the makers of Hello Kitty Online, a.k.a. SanrioTown, have taken these things one step further. They have created a virtual world where players, young and old, can interact with their favorite characters from this franchise in a whole new way. And to some, this is a refreshing take on an old genre. A far cry from the standard hack and slash MMOs, with their world of raiding, loot and punishment of the "enemy", HKO focuses more on friendship, doing things for the greater good and simply having non violent fun in a virtual game world.

I had to see for myself what all the fuss was about so I checked out the beta for this. The first thing I noticed was the color scheme. It’s very open and approachable, with lots of bright pink, yellow and white, colors that look like they are designed to appeal to a younger crowd. When I first logged in, the character creation screen was pretty generic as well, no "overly defined" male or female types, so I think they did a great job of keeping the game as non defining in terms of sexuality as possible. The last thing kids or younger people really need exposure to in a game like this, is a predefined self image.

I created a male character and started off exploring this game. The first thing I noticed was the completely different approach to a city and its inhabitants. There were no "guards" checking to make sure I belonged there, no random "wts xxxx" yells, no fighting in the city, no "so and so lfg". In fact, what I DID find was a variety of HelloKitty characters genuinely happy to see me and help me with quests to gain friendship points, a unique approach, to my way of thinking. So the first series of quests I did led me around the starting city to meet the other "vendors" and quest givers. They were all extremely helpful and willing to tell me the exact same thing if I forgot something. After I spent a few minutes acquainting myself with the town and various quest NPCs, I got my first quests outside. "Oooh, now the fun stuff I am used to starts," I think to myself as visions of EQ, DAoC and WoW dance in my head. So I checked my quest and…I had to collect some items from the starfish wandering around just outside the city along a seashore.

Well, to do this, I didn’t have to kill anything, blow anything up or otherwise permanently injure myself or anyone else. I "bonked" them on the head (with a broom, no less!) until they were "stunned" and collected the item, then moved on. They didn’t have an "aggro" radius, they didn’t gang up on you and they didn’t "kill" your character if the attempt at braining them went badly. In fact, I had to really work at getting my "health" low to begin with. And, even after smacking them on the "head", they just wandered off afterwards. No worry about 5 or 6 of them coming after me and chasing me halfway across a zone. This was extremely refreshing, and actually elicited a chuckle or two from me.

There is happy music, bright colors, smiling faces, and a generally upbeat feel to the whole title, and SanrioTown did a wonderful job in keeping with the Hello Kitty story and theme. With a lack of hardcore violence, players will still find ways to challenge themselves to achieve goals that are more fulfilling in the typical child’s eye: from building a house to successfully taming the wild creatures surrounding the villages.

While I didn’t delve too deeply into the title, I will say this based on my initial experience - Parents looking to share their love of MMOs with their children or players simply looking for a change in the standard MMO formula may enjoy this. It’s quirky, fun and non-threatening with a decent learning curve sure to appeal to players young and old alike. It focuses more on building relationships with others and social interaction and less on "phat lewts" and "raiding". It was a sheer pleasure to test this game out and see what all the fuss was about.

Originally reposted from here.

Married To:

Barbara Morse, AKA Mockingbird

Good Qualities:

Hawkeye has the typical cachet of better-than-usual abilities. He’s an expert hand-to-hand fighter, accomplished gymnast, all of which we’re assuming lets him perform admirably in the bedroom. If a cut-rate Captain America without the jingoistic overtones gets your motor running, look no further than Clint Barton.

"The High, Hard Shaft" and Other Titles That Marvel Editorial Overlooked

Warning Signs:

As hard as it is to be married to any superhero, it has to be harder to be married to a gimmicky B-lister. You have to imagine that as Mrs. Hawkeye you’d constantly be trying to boost his spirits with such encouragements as:

"I’m sure next time we fight Doctor Doom you’ll get to do something before Iron Man carpet-bombs the area."

or

"You know, you’ll be technologically relevant if we get sent back to the 16 century! It could happen!"

You wind up living with a man who has a crippling inferiority complex, often making weak attempts at justifying the whole ‘bow and arrow’ thing. For instance:

"Are you sure? ‘Cause we could just untie–"

"NO IT MUST BE WITH ARROWS."

The Clincher:

Pop quiz, fellas: Your wife confesses to you that she was raped, and that she allowed the rapist to die after fighting him. Do you:

A) Wholeheartedly support her actions, only regretting that you weren’t there to kill the man yourself.

B) Tell her that all that matters is that she’s OK now.

C) Freak out, refuse to believe her, and take the side of the rapist.

If you picked an answer other than C, congratulations! You’re not Hawkeye.

Yes, all of that happened to Mockingbird (the rapist was Phantom Cowboy, it’s a long story). Mockingbird eventually tells Hawkeye of the events, and we are treated to this bewildering exchange:

By the way, as you can guess by the villain’s name, he’s a phantom. He doesn’t actually die, he just inhabits another body, so basically his "death" was a mild inconvenience for him. Yet, Hawkeye takes his side. "Psychotic Phantasmal Bros Before Hos, Am I Right, Fellas!"

Hello Kitty Big City Dreams is a fun, exciting and cute mini game based adventure for the Nintendo DS, featuring the popular Hello Kitty character.

The story finds our heroine, Kitty White leaving her home in Sanrio Town to try to make her mark in The Big City. Kitty moves into a simple apartment downtown adjacent to The Big City. Although she lives on the bottom floor now, she dreams of the day she can move up to the luxurious penthouse. Help Hello Kitty explore her new home and finds all sorts of people to make friends with! Perhaps by helping others and working hard, Hello Kitty will finally say Hello to her dream suite in the sky!

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/334/feature/1992

MMORPG.com previewed Hello Kitty Online with a generally good review, check it out some interesting comments:

Hello Kitty Online attempts to “Bring Happiness to the World” in the entire experience. The game arrives in a pretty gift box tied up with a pink ribbon. The manual is in full color and video tutorials with voice-overs accessible on the game site eases the entry into the game.

Do I like it? Well, I had my little pink house, my melon patch, my upgraded farm, my red jacket, my brown loafers, my sheep pet, my scorpion pet, my boar pet… Closed Beta is over when Open Beta rolls around, little Sylvene will be wielding her super microphone-of-doom magic wand again.

See you at the Open Beta too Sylvene!

Filefront has a good article on Hello Kitty Online entitled: Tired of WoW? Try Hello Kitty Online.

I am amazed at how there are so often comparisons made between these two games who could not be at more polar opposite spectrums.

But if you read some of the commentary, it would really seem that the two have a lot of comments, as one of the comments puts its:

Obviously WoW and Hello Kitty Online have very different target markets. This is why i’m saying that what WoW did for (or to) boys, Hello Kitty Online will do for (again, or to) girls.