it's not the video game setup that caused it--just used a kill-a-watt to see how much it consumes, and with the PS3 and TV turned on (along with all the other stuff plugged in in standby), it only uses 1.47 amps on a 15 amp circuit
(and with everything turned off, it consumes 25 watts of idle power... oof. i expect that's mostly the power supplies for the genesis and snes. i wonder if you can get aftermarket psus that are better at that)
-F