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General discussionContest: Show off your (old) gear!(403 posts)(403 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted February 27, 2015
Show off your (old) gear, win shiny new (ROCCAT) gear!

As you know, the GOG.com catalog spans many titles dating back as far as 1980 (, we're looking at you!), in times when computers kind of looked like modern-day [url=http://prepare.icttrends.com/images/2012/06/IBM_PC.jpg]microwaves sat on top of a console, and the first portable computer, the Osborne I, was put on the market in all the glory of its 24 pounds of weight and a steep $1,795 price tag.

We don't expect you to have gear that's quite as old, but we are curious as to what treasures you might be keeping in a box stored away in the basement or deep in an attic drawer. So show us your oldest gear and be greatly rewarded with the some of the newest on the market, courtesy of gaming gear creator and producer ROCCAT!

THE RULES:

- Your entry should consist of 1 or 2 pictures of your old gear and a description of up to 100 words telling us what it is, where you got it, what you used it for or any other fond memories you have with it. Maybe it was your first joystick? Maybe an old Atari controller you kept as a memento? We want to hear about it!
- You can only post one entry per person. If you post more, only the first one will be counted.
- You may not edit your post.
- Use your own photos of your own gear - we do know how to do a reverse image search!

Post your entry in the comments below before the deadline - you have a week, until March 6th, at 1:59 PM GMT. We aim to judge your entries and pick winners by Thursday, March 12th - we'll announce them in the contest forum thread and via PM to the winners themselves.

THE PRIZES:

1st place prize: a ROCCAT Isku, gaming keyboard with blue-tinted illumination, secondary programmable Shift function, and Thumbster Macro Keys below the spacebar to maximise gaming effectiveness

2nd place prize: a ROCCAT Savu, mid-size hybrid gaming mouse with an adjustable, 400-4000 DPI optical sensor, secondary programmable function, customizable illumination, and a powerful driver suite

3rd place prize: a ROCCAT Sense, mousepad with friction-reducing microcrystalline coating for greater mouse speed and precision

All winners will also get GOG.com gift codes to use on games of their choice to test out their new gear!

Honorable mentions: We expect there to be many great-quality entries, so we're reserving the right to give out honorable mentions to all those we find did a brilliant job, but didn't quite make the podium cut. They'll get GOG.com gift codes to use on titles available in our catalog.

Should you be one of our top three winners, we will need some mailing data (name, address, phone number) to ship your prize to you. If the ROCCAT Marketing Team ends up sending the prizes directly to you, we will need to share your mailing information with them. We will not share it with anyone that doesn't need it!

Please note that this contest is also being held on the French and German GOG.com forum - winners will be chosen, regardless of language, from across all three contest topics. :)
Posted February 28, 2015
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jackster79: That got me thinking... wonder how many people jumped onto the Zip drive craze? Or even recall what a Zip drive is? :-D
Zip, Jaz, Peerless. Used them all. There was also the Buz media thingy, and I think my father also used a Ditto for backup.
Fun times.
Posted February 28, 2015
My original ZX81 including a modern SDcard file store adapter (the ZXpand) The ZXpand has more processing power than the ZX81 and provides a 32K memory expansion for the ZX81 as well as storing nearly all the programmes written for the ZX81.
I still use the ZX81 (modified to use on a flatscreen via video in not the aerial cable) there is still programmes being written for the ZX81 with 16K ram expansion as well as plain 1K ZX81.
I would dislike using the original tape loader - I am too impatient. :-)

I have since built up a collection of old computers I or my parents could not afford when I was a teen.
see my collection
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tarkadelphis/sets/72157646180233459/

Tarka
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Posted February 28, 2015
My first handhelds "Space Rescue" and 3D-Gaming handheld Tomytronic 3-D "Planet Zeon". Both still working :) These have been played hundreds of hours and reminds me of my childhood. Both from '80s. Those were the times ;)
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Posted February 28, 2015
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JudasIscariot: Did you have that one Pac-Man clone that looked sort of like an old school vacuum cleaner?
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Russonc: yes...Clean Sweep I think it's called.
Minesweeper (an Asteroids clone) was my favorite
I like Solar Quest the most.
Post edited February 28, 2015 by funkmaster5000
Posted February 28, 2015
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JMich: And speaking of 8" floppies, did anyone else use flippies, or know what they are? I want to believe they were more widespread than I've encountered.
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TheOnlyGamingArc: LOL Back in highschool, freshman year, I brought in my summer project saved on a floppy disk. When the teacher asked me to hand in the assignment, I told her that I needed to print it out first. She gave me access to her computer, but there was no drive for my floppy. Teacher said that the school hasn't been using floppies for years now. After going on a 2 hour scavenger hunt with the custodian, we finally uncovered a dinosaur desktop. This thing had an inch of dust on it. LOL was late to my next 3 classes but it was all worth it. Just felt like sharing. Ha ha
Awesome story!

I think those drives were on their way out already at my school when I used them, as the PCs there were dinosaurs (Tandys!) that had no OS to speak of (at least not like we think of them today). But, since they gave us each a floppy we used it for our our assignments when in the lab. I kept mine thinking: well, I will just print whatever off the disk eventually.

Well, after graduation went to college and found out just how hard it was to locate a 8" (3.5"s were all over the place, but 8"s? Forget it.) So, to this day, I have a floppy with old school stuff on it, still never printed them out, and probably never will. Kind of wish I could just so I can take one last look at whatever is there...


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jackster79: That got me thinking... wonder how many people jumped onto the Zip drive craze? Or even recall what a Zip drive is? :-D
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JMich: Zip, Jaz, Peerless. Used them all. There was also the Buz media thingy, and I think my father also used a Ditto for backup.
Fun times.
Since you have used so many kinds, just curious:

Did you ever get to see a Bernoulli drive in action?

Only place I saw that was a text book, so not sure if those things were more than just theoretical (though I did find the concept interesting).
Post edited February 28, 2015 by jackster79
Posted February 28, 2015
This is my old gear that has served me well in many years, my son uses it now although complaning alot over it :-)
It have helped me through many raids in world of warcraft :-)
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Posted February 28, 2015
[i]Ok, I thought about showing my (still working) C64, or my (still working) Atari 7800 first, but seeing so many Commodores already, I decided to go for my "Sonnesta Hide-away-TV-game" and my "Vectrex" - Console, instead.

As you can see in the pics, both are in working condition.[/i]

My Contest Entry:

Now, the "Sonnesta" from 1977, was my very first contact with Videogames. As a five year old, I was often visiting my Aunt and Uncle, and they had this wonderful toy, that you could hook up to your TV and play Ping Pong, Tennis,...even Skeet (shooting clay pidgeons), if you connected a "gun" to the Paddle.
Countless hours were spent with this lovable device.

I inherited the "Sonnesta" some years ago.

Unfortunately, the gun was lost in a Moving, but this little piece of Entertainment will always keep a very special place in my heart. :o)

The "Vectrex" from 1982 / 1983, I only bought recently, after stumbling over the history of the best -and only- vector gaming system ever made!

It's absolutely amazing, and I love it!

Oh, btw: The game running in the pic is "Clean Sweep"; it's the "Pac Man"-Clone, Judas mentions in his first post.
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Posted February 28, 2015
Behold: my beloved ZX Spectrum 48k, modded with a Multiface 1 (which allowed for in-game saving to cassette, and cheats!). The Speccy was for my 7th birthday, I believe: best present ever! Note the original WH Smith(!) tape deck, for slow, wobbly loading of data. Fave games too many to mention: JSW, Viper III, Monty Mole, Krakout... I don't think I ever used that Cheetah Mach I joystick more than a couple of times; I always preferred gaming with the keyboard (and I still do). :-)
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Posted February 28, 2015
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jackster79: Did you ever get to see a Bernoulli drive in action?
Never had the pleasure of doing so, since those were quite a bit before my father started using the Iomega brand that extensively. I do think they did make it to production though.
Posted February 28, 2015
Who would have thought that one day I would take a photo of my 48k ZX Spectrum using a phone that has 1GB of RAM?!
I loved this thing. I spent so many hours laboriously typing out programs from the back of CRASH magazine, only to have to spend a few more hours laboriously looking for the errors in my code that stopped it from working. I was determined to be the next successful bedroom programmer - And with the Spectrum, that really felt like a possibility. Without flashy graphics and with limited memory, games really were made using ingenuity and creativity.
When a game took 15 minutes to load (usually after at least one failed attempt), you made sure you enjoyed it. They all seemed devilishly hard then too - I don't recall finishing many, and yet I kept going back to try again.

I have a much older TV games system I could have entered here, but I don't have the same love for that as my Spectrum.

Bridget xx
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Posted February 28, 2015
Ok, back in times, this little device saved me lot of floppy disks, one picture only showing the device, the others showing also the cartridges and some software from the same old computer age.

It is an Archive 31250Q Tape Drive, with Mini Data Catridges DC2120 and DC2080 (120 and 80 MiB).

It was one of slowest but also one of safest devices, and also the most space saving - in the consumer market.
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Posted February 28, 2015
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funkmaster5000: I like Solar Quest the most.
I don't remember playing that one much, I think I was no good at it! :)
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BreOl72: The "Vectrex" from 1982 / 1983, I only bought recently, after stumbling over the history of the best -and only- vector gaming system ever made!

It's absolutely amazing, and I love it!

Oh, btw: The game running in the pic is "Clean Sweep"; it's the "Pac Man"-Clone, Judas mentions in his first post.
Nice Pic... mine still works as well (sound cuts out on occasion, a known issue with Vectrex)
Post edited February 28, 2015 by Russonc
Posted February 28, 2015
No.
Posted February 28, 2015
My gear is a two-button serial mouse, the M-CJ14 Tandy Combi Mouse. My very first mouse, bought it new at Radio Shack. I remember using it for the game Heaven and Earth. In H&E you used the mouse in it's many puzzle games, to slide blocks and fit tiles. Another aspect was a pendulum game, moving the mouse influenced how the pendulum swung. And in it's card game it made arranging the cards possible. I spent many hours playing that game and others with my Tandy Mouse, on my Tandy Computer.
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Posted February 28, 2015
My oldest, most trustworthy keyboard. It was only meant to be a temporary replacement. My gear improved but the Keyboard is still the same. It was a cheap 15 DM (Deutschmark) (around year 2000) Logitech keyboard from our local computer store. But it survived. I am worried my new pc wont have a port for it, haha. Fond memories? It survived some tantrums. I accidentally shut my pc down during Starcraft matches with those annoying Power and Sleep Buttons in the top right corner. But most fascinating, the left ALT Key is still working despite its big dent. I used it as my standard Push to Talk Button in every game and teamspeak.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionContest: Show off your (old) gear!(403 posts)(403 posts)
(403 posts)