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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. :)
when your mums Christmas present is a Roccat mousepad without a mouse
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My first portable

A Russian programmable hand-held made in 1991. The only peripheral it has is the integrated keyboard. You need to type in whatever programs you want it to run in BASIC. Its memory was measured in steps: 1221.

It was the perfect gear to exercise my programming skills during the summer break, and write a Mortal Kombat clone (with somewhat lower resolution... hopefully you can see it on the first photo). Then we would spend days playing on it (hot seat or against the computer)...

Thanks GOG!
You made me dig it out from the dusty drawer, buy new batteries (I lost the power adaptor somewhere) and brought back memories .
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Microsoft SideWinder.

My husband bought two when they came bundled with a game back in 1999. This Xbox controller precursor features 10 buttons & a gameport pass-through for connecting up to 4 Gamepads. They gave many platformer games a console feel & allowed 4-player co-op in ‘Get Medieval’. All our SideWinder controllers are currently in storage, but I found the USB version he bought last year from a thrift store (pictured). The SideWinder brand is one he looks back at fondly, including SideWinder Force Feedback Pro (‘MechWarrior 3 & 4’), but it was the SideWinder Gamepad that started it all.
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Well, it is not gear, but a small selection of my collection of old games. I have a 2-3 moving boxes to go through.
Just to have something to show.
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My Vic 20 and Commodore 64 along with disk and tape drive are some of the oldest computing / gaming gear I have. I remember spending hours as a kid typing in a great amount of code from compute magazine to play one game and not having the disk drive to save it to. Any way here is the majority of my commodore equipment and software.

Also I got these from my computer programing teacher in High School, he is the one who got me into gaming, thanks Mr. C...
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Post edited March 03, 2015 by Rj48qb
My first computer. An Osborne Executive I got in 1983. I worked at the tool shop that made the Injection Molds that produced the cases, keyboard, etc. and we were able to order one. The kids used it for games (Gusher, Adventure, Desolation), my wife, the church newsletter (Wordstar), and me, the Golf League secretary (SuperCalc). Still works, have all original Manuals and 5 1/4" floppies, plus binders full of FOGHORN, the First Osborne Group monthly publication.
The Joystick you see attached is one of two we used. It was a custom cabled joystick connector to the Printer port built from instructions that came with the Desolation game.
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Welcome to the first portable "Laptop" computer that was capable of being a desktop replacement of its time!
The Toshiba T-1200 portable computer had many features that even after its hayday other manufacturers didn't have on theirs. This was one of the first portables with its own battery, even though they were terrible batteries. This machine could also use RAM as a HDD (running off battery). The general specs of this laptop are listed below:

80C86 Custom 4.77/9.57MHz processor
1Mb RAM/2MB max
20MB JVC custom HDD (NOT standard interface)
720K internal floppy drive
Flip-up Green/Blue scale LCD screen
MS-DOS 3 built in on a ROM chip
A switch to turn off the HDD power
A battery! That was removable! INSANE!
A 1200 BAUD Modem
CGA Graphics card
Card expansion slot
External Ports:
Floppy
Parallel
RGB
Serial
Composite video out
External Keypad

This is not my oldest hardware, but I feel it about the most significant by way of history. An 8086 10MHz, 1Mb, 20Mb, RAMDisk capable, battery equipped, communication ready, upgradable laptop released in 1987 at a huge price of about 6500$. Can you imagine the laptop you'd get now for 6500$?! I can, and thats why this antique is true history and a thing of beauty.
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MY old 8088 and 80286 mother boards that were my main computers in the day.
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This is my Toshiba Satellite Pro T2400CT. I bought it from a thrift shop in during the Pentium Age, and it was everything that I had been looking for in a computer at the time. It was more powerful than my desktop (which was a 486 SX 25 with 4mb ram and a 40 mb HDD), with a magnificent DX2 Processor running a blazing 50mhz! 8GB of RAM guaranteed full speed on some of my favorite DOS (6.22) games and the 8.5 inch Active Matrix Display was the icing on the cake! 640x480 256 color capability meant that Clouds of Xeen and XCom would blow my eyeballs out with their graphical beauty. I topped it off with a 16 bit stereo sound card (literally a card with a dongle) and an external CD Rom that plugged right into the printer port in the back. Ultima 6, Martian Dreams, and Savage Empire were stutter-free and glorious in their new-found portability. Who needs a trackpad or mouse when you can have a giant eraser in the middle of the keyboard? The extra weight is hardly noticeable when running such cutting-edge games like Dune II or Monkey Island, all the while your lap is in flames from the heat given off by this incredible feat of engineering. I saved this puppy in a box for years, waiting for GOG to have this promo, knowing somehow that GOG would exist and look for just such an artifact, which I would triumphantly display today.
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Hi. Some great stuff on these forums. Two items here. The first is Sega's earliest home console the SG-1000 (1983). The first production run of these computers came boxed in very snazzy packaging but were shortly withdrawn and rebranded. This is one such early model.

The second item is the first computer game designed in Japan for home purchase. Epoch's Electrotennis (1975). It is a gargantuan Pong machine that also features the first use of wireless transmission in a console. Normally it is orange coloured but this is a prototype and perhaps the earliest known example of a Japanese home computer game.
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Have loads of old gear , yet surprisingly current , I built a retro PC out of an AMD Athlon Slot A 1ghz CPU , fitted a Voodoo 3DFX 4500 and added a Videologic Power VR Graphics card that was way ahead of its time, you can switch between the 2 with a little direct x utility ...now the kiddies would probably call it an APP
Soundcard is a full length Creative Labs Awe 32 and attached to it is a Yamaha DX50 wave card , man you should hear Descent with that lil puppy it sounds wonderful so different .
For control , a thrustmaster FLCS and WCS throttle that was a fantastic design. Then a choice of eye wear , I-Glasses Virtual Reality 3D headset (one of the original O rift style) or a pair of one of the first 3D Lcd glasses called Simuleyes ....still all with their boxes.
I also have a very strange joystick ..the very first true wireless joystick called a VR and its like a star Trek Phaser in design a bit like the vintage Scalextric controllers with a trigger control but all curved...really cool was infra red control that is also boxed .....loads more hard ware and all the original software to go with it cupboards full of early boxed games a lot were 3D so Comanche , MechWarrior , Slipstream 5000 and Descent and of coarse the superb Flight Unlimited .etc etc.. However here is the problem .
I really want to dig all these things out and take the pics but they are boxed as I am decorating ...I will look for something else ....more at hand ... Maybe my Apple Newton or Amstrad PenPad ...no scratch I said I have those ....its embarrassing.
Post edited March 06, 2015 by EviLMeeRKaT
I have already posted my entry, so this is meant to just show off some of my old gear. I have collected some old handhelds and miscellaneous games over the years, and here are a few of them. My favorites have to be the SEGA NOMAD and the ATARI LYNX. The NOMAD is a portable Sega Genesis with its own screen. It was an incredible battery hog in its day, but you could put actual Genesis cartridges in it and even plug it into your TV. There was also a port for a second standard Genesis controller for 2-player mayhem! The Lynx was very advanced for its time, but battery life and games could not compete with the game-boy, even with an active matrix color screen. Some of the games on display are:
Genesis: Phantasy Star III and IV, Landstalker, Shadowrun, shining Force I and II, Dune (Dune II port from PC).
Game Gear: Sonic II, Vampire, Prince of Persia, R.C. Grand Prix, Ren and Stimpy's Quest for the Shaven Yak.
Lynx: Rygar, Warbirds, and Blue Lightning.
Playstation originals (black label): Xenogears, FF VII-IX-Chronicles, Grandia, Chrono Cross, Persona II, and Legend of Dragoon.
Gamecube: Fire Emblem (path of radiance), Baten Kaitos I & II, and Eternal Darkness
Gameboy Advance: Golden Sun I & II, Fire Emblem, Tactics Ogre, and advance Wars II.
I have more games for so many systems that I would never be able to play them in my lifetime. I just enjoy collecting them like some people collect coins or stamps. I am fascinated with the history of video games and have had so many different systems. My first computer was a TI 99/4A, although I learned BASIC on an Apple II. I bought a Commodore 64 and an Amiga 500 (both deceased), and followed it up with a cutting-edge 486SX25. I even owned an original Macintosh. I currently am the proud owner of an original XBOX, PS2, and PSP. My PSP actually gets more use than all my last-gen and current-gen systems, to include the computer and android platforms. Since I am getting along in years (big 5-0 coming up all too soon) I don't have a lot of time to play, but I feel that I have been a witness to so much of the history of gaming. When I was in school in the 70's and 80's I knew computers were going to become an integral part of our day to day lives, I just didn't know how ubiquitous they would be.
edit: In the picture I have "gameboy DS and DS Lite". It should actually say "Gameboy Advance SP". My bad.
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Post edited March 04, 2015 by michael_gry
My contribution:

A perfectly working ZX Spectrum +2, bought together with my brother in 1986 IIRC. After we first saw a 48K at a neighbour's house, playing Jet Set Willy, we got hooked and joined our "savings" to be able to buy one and never regreted it!

I have wonderful memories of using it and it was my introduction to programming. It is a magnific machine and, as primitive as it is compared to today's PCs, it's still a pleasure to use (also thanks to some great games as good or better than many today, in gameplay at least).

The "games" pic shows some of the games I'm playing these days (but I have many more).
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Well I think this one should be the Winner! Its a Cyberman 2 from Logitech. And it has not only history with me but (very fond memories of using it to play MechWarrior 2 and NetMech (MechWarrior 2 Online basically) but also X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter) it was designed in Partnership with NASA as the Controller for the Boom Arm on the Space Shuttles! One of the 1st Controllers that was digital and made use of Logitech's optical technology, I got it for Answering Questions correctly on X Marks the Spot in 1996 and I used it up until gameports were no longer included with soundcards. It came with Descent II but played just about any game of the time just fine (if a bit touchy), but it wasnt until X Wing vs Tie Fighter was in Closed Beta Testing that it really came ito its own. Imagine full 360 degree control thru 6 axis!! I didnt have to make curving turns I could stop and spin on any axis, and in a TIE Fighter and not having any worries about Inertia.....yeah you get the picture. If I could figure a way of converting it to USB I would (but Im no electrical genius, so it will just be a fond memory, right next to those of my Commodore 64 and its tape drive)
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Does my dad count?