Games cockpit - playseats evolution gaming, who wouldn't want one? For those of us who love our games, sliding around on a sofa, controller in hand as you scream around the streets of Monaco on your TV is about the ceiling on fun, it seems. Until you get to the arcade, plonk into a race seat behind a steering wheel, vibrated by bass, blasted by surround sound, and all of a sudden the whole racing experience comes alive. This is all great except the equipment is always sloppy and worn out, not to mention having to dodge the gum and dried sticky soda, and then pouring dollars down the spout to keep the whole thing running. Damn, another $5 for five minutes - poof.

What about putting that coin towards buying your own racing cockpit?

So, what's out there? All the way from Morphis to playseats evolution gaming seat, there are some pretty fancy names and numbers bouncing around so here's a useful outline of gaming cockpit choices.

• The Morphis ESP, UK, is the high water mark in gaming. It offers aviation simulator style of simulation and movement, seats up to eight depending on configuration, or a single seat, in an entirely enclosed cockpit with internal 2D and 3D viewing screens. The price? $300,000.
• Ford Racing Arcade Game, USA. Two arcade style game machines side by side. They are big and bulky, just like stand up arcade machines but they do have force-feedback wheels, driving pedals and racing seats. Smallish screens arcade style. The bonus is you can race your buddies side by side. Price? $20,000.
• Home Pro Racing Simulator, USA. This is an entirely integral unit, a medium height seat and a semblance of a dashboard/instrument panel and facing a large monitor that's mounted in front. Comes with steering wheel, foot pedals, 10-inch woofer, a handful of tweeters, and joystick. The overall unit scores well for its style but loses for its upright seating position and the overall bulky appearance. The large monitor is nice but may be an extra expense. The price? $4,000 plus.
• Hotseat Racer GTX, USA. A low/medium pipe work chassis with a race seat, a place to mount your steering wheel and pedals. More in the right direction for home use, but suffers from looking like a roof rack with a seat. The Price? $700, monitor extra.
• Vision Racer, UK. This is a bare bones curvy pipe work chassis with a race seat that supplies attachment points for controllers, pedals, steering wheels. It's a good quality and attractive looking assembly. The monitor mounts separately. The Price? $1200 plus.
• Rally Office Chair, USA. An upholstered car rally seat perched on a secretaries 5 legged chair on wheels. For a laugh you could buy one of these, that is if the expense tickles your funny bone. The Price? $400-$1300.
• Playseats evolution gaming, USA. Good value for money. Streamlined designed chassis with race seat in a low racer position, and mount points for race wheel, gear change, pedals etc. Compact, foldable and somewhat portable. Good quality, expanding range of cockpit choices, accepts most game controllers. Good marks for allowing the home racer to personalize the equipment used, and sexy extras like base chassis vibrators. The Price? $350-$600.The best price of the bunch.

So that's a quick cross section of the types of games cockpit that are out there. The most common stand out feature is that prices seem excessive for what's being offered, and out of context for the average home gamer's budget, but there is a clear trend to lower prices and better offerings. Good luck fellow gamers, its going to be a great year for us, look out for the home games cockpit concept to grow even more this year, with some great offerings coming from companies expanding their range.

For more information and pictures of the games cockpit s described above follow the link below.