Tom's Hardware Giveaway - Counter-Strike: Global Offensive!

[Staticfx]

The PC was a Vic20. Yes, we are talking Stone Ages. And just to make things absolutely clear as to just how lucky some ppl really are, my one and only game was Space Invaders. That game was loaded from a standard cassette via the earphone jack on a 1970's cassette player and took the better part of 15 minutes to load. Needless to say, it was play for hours, or mom got the TV back.

As far as Impact goes, pc gaming was my first addiction. It opened up avenues of escape for most of my heavier emotions, still does. Many times I'll be up here for a few hours banging away, smashing, shooting, blowing up anything in my way. Its wonderful Therapy 😀

Sometimes Old School is. well. just plain Old....

holy crap!! I forgot about those! My buddy had one that you could connect to local BBS's and download games to the tape cassette!! god we are old

 

[GreatMaster]

i have begun to play star craft. at my school there were some computers and we were enjoying playing very much that game in LAN. we were liking this game so much that we were spending so much time playing it that many of some were not going to home for the lunch. they were entering in the game in the morning and were just leaving the computer room at night. it had influenced me to like strategy game and also to be a computer scientist

ImageLink

 

[loboazul87]

I started PC gaming around 1997-1998 when I got my Starcraft Battle Chest to ply with my Junior high friends. My first rig was as many a windows 98 Compaq which slowly progressed into a Frankenstein build with different parts acquired bit by bit. Ever since I've preferred the PC over consoles and got to build my very own rig around 2012. Currently I'm playing with a cheap Logitech wireless kb/m and would love a copy of CS:GO.

Welcome to a special edition of the Tom’s Hardware Weekly Steam Giveaway!

This week, we don’t have any fancy AAA titles to give away, but we do have a PC gaming staple: five (5) copies of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive! On top of that, thanks to the generous folks at COUGAR, we’re offering a physical prize for once: a keyboard/mouse bundle of the COUGAR 500K and the COUGAR 600M, perfect for a new PC gamer or one in need of some new peripherals!

PLEASE NOTE: Due to legal and shipping constraints, only US residents are eligible for physical prizes, per our sweepstakes terms and conditions. We apologize to our international audience but it’s out of our hands!

Let’s move on to the contest entry! With such a distinctive, classic title, there is really only one question worth asking: Who, or what, got you into PC gaming and what impact has it had on you?

In order to qualify for the keyboard/mouse bundle: Include a photo of your current peripherals! Be sure to have the words ”Tom’s Hardware” and your forum username in there somewhere so we know it’s you! And remember, this part is only open to US residents!

Four winners will be randomly selected from among eligible entries and will receive a copy of the game. One lucky winner will be randomly selected from among those who submitted a photo, and will receive the game as well as the COUGAR keyboard/mouse bundle!

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You guys know I love participating in these, even if I can't win, so here's my story!

I got into PC gaming in the mid-late 90's, on a terrible little machine running Windows 95. The game that got me into it? Pokemon Red, running off of some random emulator. I didn't see the point at first, but the benefits of not needing to replace batteries and superspeed modes won me over quickly.

Since then, PC gaming has always been my first choice—although my input device of choice is probably the Xbox 360 controller!

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Contest will run until 12 PM EST on Friday, December 11. That’s 12:00 noon. Winners will receive their prize as a Steam gift; a Steam account is required to receive and to play the game. One entry per user. Winners will be selected randomly from among eligible entries. Attempts to cheat the system will result in automatic disqualification.



Be sure to join our Steam group!


We’re always looking for volunteers to write community reviews for games, so if you’re interested, please reach out to me for more detail

 

[Karadjgne]

@StaticFx,

Positively ancient considering I remember a time when a computer, any of its components, and anything related to pc's was not something that existed in any household. It was 6 months or so after I got mine that the second one on the block arrived. Spent hours discussing tactics of how to beat the SI boards. Lol.

 

[GObonzo]

What originally got me into PC gaming was the arrival of our first system ~1985, The Apple IIe! Along with the system came a 2-button mini joystick and a cardboard box filled with about 50 games on 5.25" floppy disks.
F15 Strike Eagle, Law of the West, Bard's Tale, Castle Wolfenstein, Chess Master 2000, Buck Rogers, Burger Time...could never get enough PC gaming through the next 5-6 years.

Through the 90's i didn't really see much computer gaming but towards the end of 1999 I built my first custom PC and was on my way back. Diablo, Fallout, and then Ultima IX and I was hooked again forever.
Over the passed 15 years or so all the great opportunities with awesome games, mods, and the hobby of building and fixing systems I have never even thought about buying another console system. As nice as it would be to have all the games that haven't been available on PC, I always have had plenty of money and most of my free time tied into my systems and their games that I've never regretted passing them up.

One impact it has had on my life is giving me an opportunity to find a path through all the garbage this world puts in the way of so many of us. My degree in Information Systems, my career in IT. Where many of my friends got lost in the drugs and bad circumstances of our teens & 20's, I am one of the few left here in my hometown that have actually made my way through it.

01. CoolerMaster Quickfire Storm TK Keyboard (Brown Switches)
02. Logitech G600 Mouse
03. XBOX360 Wireless Gamepad for Windows
04. SteelSeries 5Hv3 Headset
05. Corsair Vengeance M95 Mouse
06. EZ-Dock 3 USB 3.0 External 2.5/3.5" Drive Dock
07. Seagate Backup Plus 4TB USB 3.0
08. LG Cinema3D D2743 3D Monitor
09. Cambridge 2.1 Speakers

 

[BeastGTS]

I became interested in PC gaming about 20 years ago. My parents bought my brother and I a shareware copy of Wolfenstein 3D and we played it on our family's 386. Since then, it has become one of my main hobbies and may be partially why I'm into technology and gadgets today.

 

[SinxarKnights]

I love it though!

 

[Joe Porter]

Played Ultimate soccer manager 95 with my older brothers. I will never forget it. I was only 5 years old. We were in charge of Crewe Alexandra, in division 2. We managed to take them to the play offs on a non-existent budget. We lost in the final (Doing slightly better than the real team who got knocked out in the playoff semi final that year). It was a painstaking moment at the start of my (gaming) career in charge of Crewe. It had gone down to Penalties and Dele Adebola missed to lose us the game. We sold him immediately after match (looking back now it was a bit harsh seeing as he was our top goal scorer all season and was pretty much the only reason we made the play offs.)

Anyway We got sacked early the next season after placing a bung on our team to lose and getting caught out. ( Yes you could place bets on your own team to lose in USM 95). From then on I was always into games and it evolved out of management simulators to all sorts of games, racing, rpg, mmo's, fps etc.... But as I said I will never forget my season in charge of Crewe..... I was rehired in football manager 2010, I managed to take them to the premier league in three consecutive promotions before once again getting fired (performance based this time.)

I don't live near Crewe and I don't support them but when ever I play a new managing game I feel obliged to take them over. One day I will win the UCL final with them... One day.

 

[adamcmcdaniel]

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dCUSpmdGCsw/Vmj2_ZObeLI/AAAAAAAAAMU/4ASNzZxwARI/s1152-Ic42/Tom%252527s.jpg


I started out playing doom when it first came out and I was 9. Then, I started playing Ultima Online for a while after that. Finally, I played Everquest for over 8 years and was hooked to MMORPG's... Also, I played WoW for a few years as well. Now, I am on Marvel Heroes when I get bored, but my real passion is Neverwinter with my guild "Essence of Aggression". We are mainly a PVP guild, but I like to PVE and switch back to PVP gear. I am not nearly as good for the guild I am in, but we all get along and make it work. Finally, I am 31 years old and I still love online videos games. Whoever doesn't just hasn't found the right one.

Adam

 

[ThatVietGuy]

The first game I really remember playing was Commander Keen. It was installed on my computer by my uncle on our family's first computer and I played the snot out of it. Still playing PC games to this day because of it.

 

[giogi]

my boyfriend was a pro CS player in CS 1.6, so i begun to play with him and make the same team. today i do not play so much, but i enjoy playing FPS games

 

[vitius]

one of my cousins were playing heroes of might and magic and he was spending very much time playing it. one day i have tried the heroes of might and magic 3 and enjoyed it. after that time i play almost all heroes of might and magic series and enjoy it. we were also playing this game in LAN. we were spending very much time playing it each against other

 

[matthoward85]

Went over to my buddy's house back in elementary school. Played an ancient of days game call Ascendancy. The rest as they call it: history.

 

[carlosriosness]

I have been into computers and electronics since i was young. my mom had a business out of the house, so i always had access to 1 or 2 computers. i remember having a NEC and one of those old school round grey puffy looking HP pavilions. i think this was in the Windows 95 era.

i do remember the first few PC games i owned after my first custom built pc were Comanche 4 , unreal tournament, Roller Coaster Tycoon and GTA 2. this was in the windows 98 era.

my passion for computer has lead me to a career in the I.T. field. im currently a system administrator.

 

[oasis789]

Who, or what, got you into PC gaming and what impact has it had on you?

As a kid, my dad let me play adventure games on his PC, which is how I got into PC gaming and learning how to tweak DOS settings to get games to run right. That early experience with command prompts, I think, were a major reason why I've been comfortable with coding ever since.

 

[Karadjgne]

Hah, I think I probably spent more time 'optimizing' on my dx2/66 trying to keep startup to less than 16Mb, than I did gaming. I miss DOS...

 

[kireato]

I think I mentioned it before but I discovered videogames pretty much at the same time as I did computers. I was a kid, and we didn't yet have a PC at home, however we had computer classes at school and these had duke nukem, age of empires and plenty of other games installed on them, which we could play when we were done with our assignments.

 

[Traveldog]

Montezuma's Revenge on the Commodore 64, DOOM on DOS & BattleTech MechWarrior on Windows LAN ... my introduction to PC Games.

 

[freejet]

I got starting in gaming in the arcades (Oh yeah, I'm THAT old) when you put a quarter in a machine (What?). I got to the point where I could play "Space Wars" all day on one quarter and even cause the machine to crash and reset (I'm not kidding). When PCs came around I progressed to gaming on a TRS-80 Color computer, to an early Apple, to an Apple clone (I forget the name), to a later model Mac. Now I'm a pure PC gaming guy. I love the escape and adventure PC gaming has to offer...even for dudes like me who are over a half-century old.

 

[RazerZ]

First games I played were some classic arcade games... asteroids, pacman, missile command, and battlezone. I was always a fan of PC gaming mainly because I couldn't get my hands on a console unless it was a friend's. I became hooked on FPS style games later on like A.V.A as well as open world games like GTA and Skyrim although my laptop couldn't play them very well. I started to watch youtube videos on how to build your own gaming pc and later came to this forum. Since then I have taken a great interest in anything computer related. I took a Comptia A+ course and recently became A+ certified. I don't plan to go into that field but I believe it's a good choice to have a second trade in hand.

 

[Titillating]

Some of you guys are so old-school that it makes me feel like a baby.

Let's announce some winners! The first 4 randomly selected winners are:

Traveldog
TheMasterGeneral
ultraglorious
CRITICALThinker

And your Grand Prize winner, who will be getting a copy of CS: GO and a shiny new KB/M bundle, courtesy of the folks at COUGAR, is:

Karadjgne!!

And honestly, from the photo he submitted, I think everybody can agree that he could probably use the upgrade! :lol:


Congrats everybody! You will be receiving a PM from me later today with further instructions on how to claim your prizes. Thank you everybody for participating; we'll be back next week with another!

Have a great weekend!

 

[IWantDatHammer]

Darn it I missed this weeks ;p

 

[Karadjgne]

Yeay! Umm speechless lol. But thanks!!!
But in all honesty, this couldn't have happened at a better time. Between the wife, the kids and grand babys 1st Christmas, a good kb for me was way down on the list.

So yes, my gratitude is heartfelt.

Thank you Tom's Hardware, thank you Cougar, and congrats to the other winners.

 

[GObonzo]

And your Grand Prize winner, who will be getting a copy of CS: GO and a shiny new KB/M bundle, courtesy of the folks at COUGAR, is:
Karadjgne!!
And honestly, from the photo he submitted, I think everybody can agree that he could probably use the upgrade! :lol:

now he needs a contest for a new desk.
congrats, Karadjgne.

 

[Karadjgne]

Oh, you seen that too lol