Perhaps the gamer on your gift list already owns every game and system under the sun. You can still surprise them with some game enhancing peripherals, geeky accessories, and chic gear. Check these out.








TrackItBack Gadget Recovery System
From: TrackItBack.com (www.trackitback.com)
Price: $8.95 each (less in bundles) USD & CDN
Tip: Use egeek05 as a Promo Code for a 15% discount - a Gift Guide 2005 Exclusive!

Statistically, only 5% of lost gadgetry is recovered. Someone on your gift list can have that stat boosted to a whopping 88% with TrackItBack Gadget Recovery System.

For a one-time, lifetime fee of eight or nine bucks (or less if you buy multiples), you get a personalized coded sticker (available in various shapes and sizes) to affix to, well, anything lose-able (key chains, game players, cameras, laptops, etc).

Though otherwise unobtrusive, each sticker is tantalizingly emblazoned with "Return for Reward!" You register the code (online or via phone) to its corresponding device so should it get lost, then found by a stranger, they just call a 1-800 number or hit the trackitback.com web site and the reunification process commences.

The finder is rewarded with at least ten coded stickers of his or her own, courtesy of TrackItBack, plus any cash reward you've personally allotted to the lost device, which is optional but recommend (makes sense to add a $30 reward to your $300 PSP, doesn't it?).





All-in-Wonder 2006 Edition
From: ATI (www.ati.com)
Price: $300 CDN; $180 USD

Until now, you either bought a high performance graphics card for extreme PC games, or you bought an All-In-Wonder video card to turn the home PC into a Personal Video Recorder (PVR) for TiVo-like multi-functionality (record TV direct to hard drive, pause live TV, remote control, camcorder capture, etc.) Or, you had two different cards handling the divergent tasks.

Now, the All-In-Wonder 2006 Edition takes the company's respectable, gamer-grade Radeon 9600 graphics card, doubles the onboard memory (now with 256 MB), includes a TV tuner and the classic, "Wonder"-ous Media Center technology, buffs it all up and puts it all-in-one.

It's about three steps up from the last generation All-In-Wonder, but still at that ever-tantalizing, consumer-friendly price point. (Note: the hardcore crowd might want to wait until next year release of the seriously pricey but pleasantly powerful All-in-Wonder X800 XT).





Boosteroo Revolution
From: Up Beat Audio (www.boostaroo.com)
Price: $100 CDN; $80 USD
Tip: Use gamesup as a Coupon Code for a 10% discount - a Gift Guide 2005 Exclusive!

The pocket gamer on your gift list might be quietly lamenting the fact that keeping the volume low on a portable game system or digital audio player is going to extend battery life, but where's the fun in that?

Worse, even when they crank it, max volume can't always compete with traffic din or the roar of air travel. Enter Boosteroo Revolution, a slim, battery operated amplifier (and Y-splitter) compatible with all portable headphones (60 - 300 Ohms recommended).

Running off just two AAAA batteries, Boosteroo can effectively quadruple most any given unit's output (or boost it to regular loud from a battery-saving low volume on the device itself). Not that it's healthful, necessarily, but sometimes you need to go up to 11. Especially in the wing-seat on a 747.


Custom "Skins" for Hardware
From: myTego (www.mytego.com)
Price: $10 and up CDN; $9 and up USD

If you're stumped because that special someone on your list already owns more gadgets than you can count, skin 'em. That it to say, custom design a cover (or "skin") for their preferred gadget with myTego.

This site and service allows you to create one-of-a-kind wraps for nearly any device. Pick from a variety of stock art and color swatches and/or upload your own designs, pictures, or portraits and myTego will turn them into form-fitted, sticky decals and mail them to you within 10 days.

Imagine your smiling mug staring up from their PSP, a favorite movie character on their Game Boy, a family portrait on their iPod or a "do your homework" sign glaring at them from the face plate of that spiffy new Xbox 360.

And you know they don't have one already, because you haven't made it yet. Get on that.





AudioFX Force Feedback Gaming Headset
From: eDimensional (www.edimensional.com)
Price: $60 CDN; $50 USD

To keep games sounding sweet for the player but silent to everyone else, get them an AudioFX Force Feedback Gaming Headset.

Not just another boffo set headphones with a noise canceling boom mic on the side, though it's easily all that, AudioFX also embeds some cool rumble technology that takes the otherwise inaudible audio in the 20-25hz range and turns it into vibrations (like a subwoofer, except skull mounted) - directional vibrations at that, so sneaky footsteps coming from the left amidst the clamor and din of Battlefield 2 warfare actually feel like they're sneaking from there.

Likewise, bang on artillery fire really will really rattle you, literally and figuratively. Thankfully, rumble and volume are both adjustable via faders on the cord. Set up is as easy as plugging in a toaster and it draws rumble power from a free USB port, so no batteries required.

PC games are huge, booming extravaganzas these days, but with AudioFX, it's all on their head.





Geek Gear & Apparel
From: Split Reason (www.splitreason.com)
Price: $8 and up CDN; $6 and up USD

Whether they're a full-fledged gaming geek or just aspiring to be one, a total gearhead or just technologically hip, it's cool. Get them the gear that says as much courtesy of the fine folks at SplitReason (gift certificates also available).

Offering some of the finest apparel known to both terminal nerds and recovering ones, splattered with sass and crass, riffing hilarious on Linux and Bill Gates, Mario the mushroom-popper and the ubiquitous finger-shaped cursor, the SplitReason catalog runs the gambit from Cups, Caps, Ts and Toys to real-live Mario Karts - or real live RC ones, anyway.

Sure, you can get them a brand name thong from a chic boutique in the mall, but SplitReason gear and apparel will make you look like you put some thought into it. And yes, they also sell thongs.

Mouse Much?

It may seem odd to anyone but the serious gamer, but a premium mouse and mouse pad are critical peripherals. Unique in that it's made of glass, the Icemat 2nd Edition ($41 CDN or $30 USD) from Soft Trading is the mouse surface of choice for the hardcore gaming crowd - or just fashion conscious folks, for that matter, because glass is sexy. While the backside is opaque, Icemat's fogged surface is as smooth as, well, glass, which is exactly perfect when it come to accuracy and control (and sex appeal).

Even more important to gaming performance is the mouse itself, with the Razer Copperhead ($90 CDN or $70 USD) currently leading the bleeding-edge with it's freakishly fast, 2000dpi laser light (optical is so last-century) and "always on" sensor engine that's continuously monitoring rather than waiting for movement worth sensing. Boasting 1000 Hz ultrapolling with 1 millisecond response time, the one who gives a Copperhead as a gift will be rewarded instant deity status, even if you don't know what ultrapolling means.

Still, the Copperhead, like all Razer's mouse products, is a little too slim and sci-fi, sleek and skinny for it's own good, or for ham-fisted gamers, anyway. For them, there's the Logitech's G5 Laser Mouse ($75 CDN or $55 USD), which offers sophistication similtude to the Copperhead and is likewise a laser-light year ahead of a conventional optical mouse. On top of its trusted brand-name and 2000 dpi, the G5 Laser Mouse features much more ham-friendly ergonomics; a bulbous, curvaceous form factor that's downright comfy. So there you go.

Also See:

Gift Guide 2005 Part 1: Game Systems

Gift Guide 2005 Part 2: Kid's Stuff

Gift Guide 2005 Part 3: Gamer Gear

Gift Guide 2005 Part 4: Serious Games

Gift Guide 2005 Part 5: Family Fun Games

Gift Guide 2005 Part 6: Value Priced Games