Furnishing your new game room

Creating a home game room is a two-step process. First, you have to make sure the area is big enough to meet your recreational needs. Once that's settled, then it's time to fill up your available space with fun stuff that the whole family can enjoy.

Here are some popular game room furnishing options. Your choices are limited only by your personal preferences and your budget.

Arcade games
An arcade game or two will give your new game room an authentic feel. One of today's hottest games is The Golden Tee, video golf entertainment from Incredible Technologies. With the 2005 version, duffers can electronically test their skill on five diverse venues, including a nonlinks Scottish course with deep pot bunkers and trees, a volcanic course from New Zealand, or 18 holes based on the Richtersveld National Park in South Africa. Just like its real-life counterpart, arcade golf can be expensive. Eagle Distributing sells home versions that exceed $5,000 before shipping and handling are added. If coming up with the cash for your personal Golden Tee is not a problem, then make sure you don't run into a logistical one when it's delivered. Measure your doorway to ensure you can get the equipment into your game room.

Not a virtual golfer? No problem. If you're a baby boomer, consider Arcade Legends from Chicago Gaming Company. The latest version comes loaded with 50 classic video games from the 1970s and 1980s, including Asteroids, Battlezone, Centipede and Mortal Kombat. If you want even more, additional game upgrades are available. Choose from a full-size version that has real arcade controls (joysticks, trackball and buttons) or a table-style cabinet. Again, get ready to shell out much more than the coins you dropped into machines as a youth. Even on sale, retail for Arcade Legends is around $3,000, but you might be able to find a bargain on eBay or other online auction sites.

Don't overlook the ageless pinball machine. Stern Pinball offers a decidedly modern twist to the standard bells, lights and whistles: Become the top wiseguy via The Sopranos game. It features the real voices of characters from the HBO program (including Tony, Carmela and Dr. Melfi), as well as the Bada Bing! dancing girls, a safe that cracks open after being whacked by the ball, and the show's talking fish that jokes around with you as you try to rise through the mob family's ranks to challenge Tony for the top spot. There are even R.I.P. rollover lanes featuring mug shots of whacked characters; pinballs end up here when your shot is too weak to make it all the way around. You can order the game from various suppliers (BMI Gaming or National Jukebox Exchange), but you might have to pull off a Sopranos-like heist to afford the game: It runs around $4,500 to $4,700.

Multigame tables
If you prefer competing against another person instead of a video screen and you have the space, a pool table is a nice touch. But if your room is too small for regulation billiard matches, consider a multigame table. Several manufacturers offer tables that let you go from standard board games such as backgammon and checkers to foosball, air hockey, table tennis, bumper pool and tabletop bowling or basketball. In addition to their versatility, multigame tables give you a lot of game room action in a relatively small space, typically around five feet long by three feet wide. Check out your local department store or online resources and you should be able to find a multigame table for around $500 or less.

Poker accoutrements
Thanks to the popularity of televised poker, both celebrity and professional, the game's accessories now can be found at almost every department or sporting goods store. Want something a bit more elaborate? Check out Nevada Poker Chips. Although the company is headquartered in Omaha, Neb., it bills itself as the largest specialty retailer of poker chips, poker sets and gaming tables. On the Web site you can find casino-style poker sets that include chips, cards, dice and books on various types of poker games, all nestled in an aluminum carrying case. Choose plain chips, ones with a logo design, chips with your personalized text, or a combination logo-personalization-chip style. Sets start at $60 and can go for as much as $400.

High-rollers can pick up the Texas Hold 'Em Ultimate Package. For $5,249 you'll get two 650-piece clay chip sets and a handmade game table that seats eight and features a velvet-like fabric top and sunken cup holders to prevent spills from marring your game or the table surface. There are not, however, any tips on ways to ensure that what happens in your game room on poker night stays there.

Jukeboxes etc.
Nothing says -- or sings -- game room like an old-fashioned jukebox. Retro Radio Zone offers a selection of reproduction jukeboxes from Crosley, Wurlitzer, RCA and Rock-Ola. You can go small: A $100 will get you a diner countertop "Select-O-Matic" jukebox radio.

Come up with another $8,900 and get a sound system souped up for the 21st century: the Rock-Ola digital downloading bubbler jukebox. With this reproduction of the most-popular jukebox of all time, you use an LCD touch screen to choose from over 150,000 songs that are piped in through the ECAST Broadband Network. While the tunes turn, er, download, a kaleidoscope of bubbles and changing colors flow through the jukebox's translucent plastic panels. If the LCD display is just a tad too modern for your tastes, check out BMI Gaming or National Jukebox Exchange for versions that actually flip your CDs.

Top off your game room with a neon accessory. Amazon has a neon clock (chrome frame with blue-to-pink color changes for $75.99) that features a Rock-Ola jukebox ad on its face. Or proudly display your favorite brew in neon. You'll probably be able to find it among the more than 700 lighted ads for ales, lagers and beers available at NeonSign.com. The brew lights will run you at least a couple of hundred dollars, but you can find a more cost-effective game room decor addition at the site's bar mirror section.

Done fantasizing about the games you can play? Then get down to the details on how to add a game room to your home.