Theater Room Basics

When thinking about a theater room or even a dedicated TV room, there are a few things you need to think about. In particular for a room that we want to call a theater room, I have four primary things that I’ve thought about. Screen, sound, seating, and snacks, the four important S’s.

Screen

This decision matters on multiple levels. Firstly you need to decide do you want to do like I am, and have a projector set-up with a pull down screen or do you want to have a television and just go with a big flat screen. If I were to do it now, I might lean towards a large television simply because 4k projectors are not cheap. However, 1080p projectors, those are a much more reasonable price. I also like that I can go bigger cheaper. I think that the width of the screen I have is 8′, and that’s width, so it’s notably bigger than a 85″ television and those cost a whole lot more than the pulldown screen and projector. So the projector route is definitely better for the budget. Clarity will suffer slightly, but since I’m putting it into a basement room I don’t have much to worry about with light any time during the day.

Sound

Now, if you pick a television, you can just use the sound from the TV if you want. But we’re talking about a theater room, so you shouldn’t just have a normal sound system. I have a 5.1 surround sound, and I’d consider upgrading it, when we finish off the space to 7.1 surround sound depending on cost. This will give you more of a theater feel and it’s a lot of fun. This generally means getting speakers and a receiver. This now starts adding up in price, but you can get a solid sound set-up for $400 if you look at refurbished options as well as new. We’re really looking to get out enough sound so that it feels like you’re getting a bit of a theater experience with it. A solid sound bar and subwoofer would be another option as well.

Seating

Theater chairs are not that comfortable, though they have gotten way way better during my lifetime. But this is a home theater, so the seating should be comfortable. We have a nice quality futon as well as an arm chair and a 6′ long bean bag chair in our area. These are good items, though I feel like we will eventually want to get something better, some assembly required so we can get it down the basement, that will turn the room into an even more cozy spot to watch movies and television. What I generally look for is something that I can lounge on, we had a sectional at the old place and that was quite comfortable to stretch out on. Now we have an ottoman to use as a foot rest and a foot rest for the arm chair as well. Plus the bean bag chair can either go the long way for full body comfort for one person or two people can lean up against it the other way.

Snacks

Every good movie theater has tons of over priced snacks, but snacks that you expect. Popcorn is of course the biggest. We picked up a table top movie theater style popcorn machine for our theater room. This was about a $60 purchase and it just gives the room a sort of aesthetic that I want in a room that is supposed to be a theater room. We also have a kegerator down there as well for when we don’t want to walk up the stairs to get a beer from the fridge. This is just a fun little feature that I really like with home brewing to have nice access to beer where I’ll be watching television and movies. But that isn’t needed, I think if you want to really lean into the movie theater room the popcorn machine and maybe a minifridge would be what I’d target for having snacks in the room. We, to complete the look, also got plastic popcorn containers that look like the cardboard medium sized popcorn containers you can get at theaters, or maybe the small ones, I don’t get popcorn at theaters all that often.

Taking It Over the Top

So for a good theater room, those four S’s are what I consider essential. Now, snacks could be argued, but at least some place to put out snacks easily is needed. Let’s talk about some things that can take your home theater over the top.

Movie Posters

This is the easiest thing to do because you can pretty easily get your hands on movie posters. But getting some and getting them framed and up is nice aesthetically for a home theater. If you want to go really fancy, do a box of sorts with some light in there to shine onto the posters. This would give you minimal lighting for the room and also add to that theater aesthetic.

A Curtain

This could be done one of two ways. Now most theaters don’t open and close curtains around their screens, but if you wanted to go for that old time charm you could. Or you could get get a curtain to frame the screen. This is more common to what you see, it helps diffuse the light in the room by giving it a soft surface that it won’t reflect off of around the screen, and again aesthetically it’s like a movie theater.

A Marquee

We picked up this for our home theater room. A marquee light box seems like a really fun idea to have in the room. You get a ton of letters, I think the one I got came with 250 of them, so probably can spell out most any movie title. When we can have movie nights again, it’s going to be fun to throw up the name of the movie on the marquee for when people come down into the room. And it was quite cheap as well, I believe the one that I picked up was $20 on Amazon, you can find it here. This one is very simple, but you can get bigger ones that will really make the room feel like a theater.

Lighting

Now, lighting is important. But for a lot of existing rooms where you are just adding to the room instead of remodeling it, you’re limited in lighting. That is my case as well. However, I am sprucing up the lighting in the room. The marquee itself will provide minimal lighting when on in the room. But we also have some curtain lights. Think about a ten foot strand of wire with ten 8 foot strings of lights attached to it. With just that much light in the room, and it’s a soft light, it is easy to see to move around, but not so bright as to diffuse the projector and create a faded image.

Now, this seems like a lot for a home theater, and to do one up so it’s really fancy isn’t a cheap project. I make mine cheaper by getting refurbished electronics whenever I can. Even then, though, with a XBox One and a Wii down there as well as the projector, it is spendy. All of that said, I love it for watching movies and television. There is something about the big screen that is just more fun, and having a place to spread out and watch and be cozy do an in home date night, all of those things are fun and worth it for me. You’ll need to decide how far you want to go with it, but if you do, show me pictures of your home theater set-up.

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10 – 1942

There will be a number of older games that I really like on the list. One of the reasons that I like a lot of these older games is that I can sit down and play a few minutes. 1942 is a WWII flying game, but in classic arcade, it’s top down so you’re just moving up and down and left and right on the screen while firing non-stop. I really enjoy that type of game, whether it is WWII or some crazy sci-fi adventure or alien world, it’s a good time to just sit down and play through a few levels trying to blow everything up and usually failing a lot. A simple game that I can really enjoy.

9 – Jazz Jackrabbit

You’re a crazy rabbit in this side scroller who can jump, and fire a wide array of guns. This was one that I loved and played so much of, even if it was only just the demo version (I’m not 100% convinced there was a full version, I could never find it as a kid). It’s your classic game kind of like Mario, but while Mario tended to be more linear, this had more ups and downs and backtracking and going under what you’d done before. The guns were a lot of fun, and it was a good one growing up that I could again, just sit down and play a level or two and eventually I got really good at those early levels. Definitely a classic style of game that I could have picked a lot of different games from, but I really enjoyed this one a lot as a kid.

8 – Myst/Riven

One thing I like a lot in my video games is puzzles, and while there aren’t many puzzle games on the list, there are some like Chip’s Challenge that just missed the list. Myst and Riven are two of the biggest puzzle games from my childhood out there, and I believe I have at least Myst for steam. They are really though games, but I love their complexity and their story. The puzzles all make sense, but you really need to search and think to be able to figure them out, because a puzzle might be based off of a sound in a whole different part of the world. Definitely challenging, and very hard to get through without hints, but if you want to spend hours on puzzles this works well, and you could save so you could get through a puzzle and then come back later to do more.

7 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Another of those side scrolling games. I like TMNT because it’s TMNT, also because it’s not that difficult a game. I played this at an arcade probably eight to ten months ago, and it was just a blast four player. We were able to get through the whole game in not that much time and without that much money sunk into it. But it’s just a good time. I love playing as the turtles, and I like taking on all the crazy bad guys that they throw at you. I’m not that great at the game, probably died more than the other people I played with, but who cares, it was a fun time and the game is just about a bunch of button mashing.

6 – Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

Another genre of game that I really enjoy are racing games, and in particular the Need for Speed franchise. I started playing with Need for Speed 2, I’ve played the rebooted Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, and others as well, and as long as they are just straight up racing games, they are awesome. There was one that got too bogged down in cut scenes and random locations to go to and that one wasn’t that great, but give me a standard racing game and I love them. Street racing is even more fun because you get to outrun the cops or you get to be the cops trying to keep in contact with the racers, deploy spike strips and do other things to knock them off the road and arrest them. The game is a blast and again, it’s one that you can just sit down and do a couple of races and call it good.

5 – Mortal Kombat

This is kind of a placeholder for a number of games, DC Injustice, Street Fighter, Capcom games, all of those games that just have you moving left and right on the screen, kicking, punching, jumping and trying to figure out the combos, I really like those types of games. Again, it’s just fun to face off against your friends in a few small battles over time and just see who is the “better” fighter or button masher. Mortal Kombat just has some more of the games that I’ve played recently with the Retron system, and always a good time to just sit down and play for a little bit and then give up when I start to run into the computer using logic and then try again.

4 – Super Mario World

So more of that side scrolling action, though last one on the list, it’s hard not to have a Mario game, and I picked Super Mario World as probably my favorite. I have put more hours into the Wii game but this one is probably preferred because I like the older and a bit slower games, more my speed. Though, any game that I can play as Luigi is good as well. A placeholder really for most Mario games, I again like being able to pick it up and set it down easily just to see how far I can get into it and find where the water levels are and figure out if I can avoid them.

3 – Powershot Golf

Kind of different than the rest of my list which is a bit more retro, at least at parts, Powershot Golf is another one of those games that I can play 18 holes of golf in 30 minutes and then be done if I want. And it’s a silly golf game as well. I don’t mind a more serious golf game, but this one is just more enjoyable because who doesn’t want a golf ball that looks like a skull and moans or an enchanted putter. The game plays fast and is pretty simple, I’ve gotten pretty good at it and it’s one that is easy for new players to get into as well. And there are a lot of fun unlocks you can get, overall just a good and relaxing game to play.

2 – Dragon Age

As I said at the beginning, I do like bigger games, it’s just hard for me to get through them. The top two here are bigger games, and even franchises of games. When I say Dragon Age here, I’m talking about the first two games in the system, I was less of a fan of Dragon Inquisition. The main reason is that was too open world for me, Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2 are both open world enough that you can run around and do random side quests, but you can’t just accidentally wander into a whole new area that you maybe shouldn’t be going to yet. I like the story, I like the combat, and I like the way you can build up your power throughout the game. I’ve beat the original game a three or four times now at this point, but doing it the first time took a long time because I’d get distracted, play or do something else for a few months and then come back and restart because I had forgotten where I was and how I was playing my character.

1 – Borderlands

Now, is aid that I don’t love long games, and I don’t love FPS, and I don’t love open world games, but Borderlands, I love. Firstly, I love it because I can easily play it couch co-op or online. With it being couch co-op, it just gets to be a good afternoon or evening sitting around, playing a completely absurd looter shooter and drinking beer. And while it does have a story, I don’t care that much if I’m on the main quest or if I’m doing a side quest or whatever is going on because I’m there for shooting things, dying, respawning, shooting more things, getting crazy guns, leveling up, but really, mainly, the crazy characters who say absurd things. Borderlands, all of them are just a blast and games that even if you don’t love FPS’s I really do recommend.

Ah, so many games that just missed the list as well. The classic arcade Track and Field, I could probably spend a day at an arcade playing just that. The original Final Fantasy is great. Sports games like Madden or Tony LaRussa Baseball 2. Racing games like Mario Kart or Speed Racer (such an awesome game). But I only had room for 10 on the list and I think that those are really my top few. I could have even said something line minesweeper, I got very good at that game.

What are your top video games? Are there any based off of my taste that I need to try, are there any classic games that are a must track down for NES or SNES?

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5. The American Girls Premiere

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Okay, guys, you’re gonna have to bear with me on this one. I got this game back in the height of my obsession with American Girl dolls and books (an obsession which…may or may not still exist in some form) — it was among the first of the PC games I really loved, right up there with Oregon Trail II and other such goofy educational games I played ad nauseum in the late 90s/early 2000s. But what the heck was an American Girl-themed computer game like, you might ask? Basically, it was a platform for creating plays starring the American Girl protagonists and the side characters that populated their book series. You would pick your backdrop — say, Kirsten’s farm or Josefina’s sala (living room). Then you could add set pieces like furniture or toys (most of which seemed prone to glitching so that you were constantly having characters walking through chairs and other such nonsense). Next, you picked the characters you wanted in your play. You could tell them where to move and what action to take — digital stage directions, if you will, limited though the selection may have been.

And then came the best part — adding the dialogue. Now, if you were one of those fancy people who had a newfangled microphone setup for your desktop PC (an unimaginable luxury to 13-year-old me), you could record your voice to create the dialogue for your play. But for the rest of us peons, there was the computer-generated voice option — think Stephen Hawking’s speaking computer, but with pitch issues and abysmal pronunciation.

Sound terrible? Believe me, it was not. For me, the true fun of this game came not from creating cute little stories for the characters, but from setting the stage, plugging in dialogue, picking a voice and pitch that came halfway near an approximation of what you wanted, and then listening to the computer absolutely mangle the dialogue you typed in. Oh man…it was great, you guys. The amount of hours I and my friends spent trying to finagle our pixel-y characters into moving where we wanted and devising weird phonetic permutations for our dialogue to force the computerized voices to bend to our will was honestly impressive. There are inside jokes that were created by this process that I still think about and giggle over sometimes.

In short, I loved this game for so many reasons that I’m sure the game creators did not intend — the weird memories and dorky jokes this game spawned were worth the price of admission alone.

4. Super Smash Brothers: Melee

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This is a game I’ve probably spent more time playing than any other (not as much as my brother, who I’m pretty sure earned each and every trophy, but still). This was one of the first ones my brother and I got with our GameCube, and it was always the first one we pulled out when friends were over, or when we just had a free afternoon. I eventually stopped playing it one-on-one with my brother — one can only get sent flying into the backdrop so many times, you know? — but I remember many happy hours of whaling on dear friends with cutesy Nintendo characters, and I get super nostalgic on the rare occasion I pick this game up again.

I’ve played the Wii version of the game as well, Super Smash Brothers: Brawl, but Melee remains my favorite (mostly for nostalgia-related reasons; let’s be honest). It was perfect for so many things — hanging out with friends, playing around with it on your own, tournaments at youth group lock-ins, you name it; playing this game was always a good time, no matter how badly I got trounced.

3. Super Mario Galaxy

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One of the reasons I love this game is because it was the first console game I ever played all the way through, and that sense of accomplishment alone makes me remember it with fondness. There are so many more reasons to love SMG, though; it’s arguably one of the best Mario-centric games out there, both technically and story-wise. It’s got wonderful atmospheric music, gorgeous settings, some really unique gaming mechanics, and one of the more heartfelt storylines of the Mario games.

My favorite aspect of this game is the way it plays with gravity effects as Mario travels around from planet to planet. Sometimes he’s jogging around on a tiny planet that’s almost small enough to fit within the screen; other times, he’s slinging between planets and asteroids using special jumping-off points; still others, he’s activating things that change the way gravity affects him on the current plane. It all just feels so innovative and fun, and I’ve never seen anything quite like it before or since. In terms of overall feel and approachable gameplay experience, this game is one of the best as far as I’m concerned; it’s just delightful in every way.

2. Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

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Though I’ve never met a Zelda game I didn’t like (aside from some side-eye in Majora’s Mask‘s general direction), this one stands out from the others for me. It has a great premise, with Link as a denizen of a village in the sky, where everyone gets around by riding on the backs of giant, colorful birds. There’s the usual setup — Link and Zelda are close friends, Zelda is stolen away by a mysterious, nefarious entity, Link must rise up to achieve his true calling as a warrior and go out into the unknown world to save Zelda, picking up new weapons and learning new skills along the way.

But though the game follows the usual formula for the LoZ series, it feels fresher this time around. It includes many of the things that have always made the series great, but it has a lot of new stuff, too — in particular, it has some great new mechanics that really enhance the gameplay. Unlike many Wii games, it uses the Wii remote to advantage, making it an integral part of the way Link’s sword works and the different powers it has. And then there’s the flying aspect — I’ll admit it took me a while to get the hang of it, but once I did, maneuvering Link’s bird around Skyloft became a highlight of gameplay for me. And though some of the weapons Link acquires are the same as those from other LoZ iterations, there are several new ones that are totally different than anything from the preceding titles, and it’s a ton of fun to monkey around with them and test the limits of what they can do.

Overall, this game is a great blend of the familiar aspects that make this series great, and some clever new elements that make the game feel fresh and exciting to play through.

1. Dragon Age: Origins

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This game is honestly the video game I’ve been looking for all these years but had never found until now. I love fantasy RPGs in theory, but they all seem to either have something missing, or have some annoying aspect that I can’t get past. Not so with Dragon Age: Origins — it sounds dumb and sappy to say it’s the video game of my dreams, but you know…it really is. It’s got cool settings that are detailed but nonetheless don’t feel too difficult to navigate. It has amazing characters with complex personalities that you can actually get to know, and with whom your character can have a variety of different relationships, from coldly professional to hostile to warm and friendly to romantic, making the characters and the interactions between them feel  true-to-life. It has a decent fighting mechanic that you can use to hone your characters’ skills in whatever way you like (or even set it on super-easy mode so you can focus on the story, like I’ve done). And best of all, it has a compelling story that gives every gaming session a great sense of depth, and makes it so that you feel like you’re accomplishing something important and weighty every time you play. There’s honestly nothing I would change about this game, and I’ve loved every minute of it that I’ve played so far.

Lastly, we must have some honorable mentions! They are: Animal Crossing (the first console game I really loved–it tends to get boring/repetitive pretty fast, but it still has a special place in my heart) Mario Kart: Double Dash (mainly by virtue of time spent playing it, honestly), Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wario World, Cooking Mama (Gameboy DS version), Oregon Trail II (man did I used to be so impressed by those graphics…), and Virgil Reality (a science-themed video game complete with a goofy protagonist who sang silly songs about science, a couple of which I can still sing most of to this day).

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1. Borderlands[amazon_link asins=’B00SHXKC82′ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’nerdologists-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’8935bf1c-9e5c-11e7-b346-abe9f25fc8a9′]

I am not a fan of first-person shooter games; however, the Borderlands games are amazing. With the irreverent dialogue, the weird but complex characters, and the fun guns, all of the Borderlands games are just great. They are made even better by the fact that you can play local co-op. So you and your friends can just hang out, blow stuff up, go shopping, and repeat. The missions were funny, the bad guys were great, and the whole concept of the game was a weird mix of seemingly sci-fi, shooter, and fantasy done in an absurd way. The best character is the crazy-pants robot, Claptrap, who seems like he is related to Bender from Futurama in some ways with his desire to party and score. The characters you can play are fun as well; each has unique abilities and skill trees, and you can pay a little to reset them and change them up as you want. All of the games in the series are really good, and they got a lot of love when they were released. I always hope there’ll be another one in the works so I can be insulted by Claptrap and whomever the villain might be in hilarious ways once again.

There were a lot of other games that were close to making this list. I mentioned, with Heroes of Might and Magic, Age of Empires, which is a really fun series. There are all the Need for Speed games, as well as sports games like Madden, Tony LaRussa Baseball II (super old game and super easy with tons of classic players like Tris Speaker and Walter Johnson). And there are party games like Mario Kart or Wii Bowling that are always fun to pull out in the right situation. The last honorable mention I have is Jazz Jackrabbit, a classic side-scrolling game where you are a jackrabbit named Jazz who has plenty of awesome guns that seem to run out of ammo pretty often.

What games do you look back on as some of your favorite games to play?

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