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HardOCP In-House News: RatPadz OG

I'd love to snag one or two to see what all the hype is about. Judging by this thread and many others, they seem quite popular :)

I wasn't around these parts for their first iterations, and never was too serious about custom PC's until my first Core2 Quadcore build back in the day (2008 ish?). Gotta get on the hype train at some point right?
 
Good old RatPadz :)

You know what we did to play competitively in those times, besides good pads?

Drive the complete rig to the friend with the best internet connection and warn the neighbors with following message:

"Dear Neighbors,

June 18-20. Once again, 5 brave recluses will come together in this glorious house to show the world who is truly entitled to the Counter-Strike Crown.
The occasional cry of disbelief will surely be heard.
The Guild XYZ sincerely apologizes for this.
If there is a grudge to be had, the master of the house is to be reached under XYZ."


good old times ;)

back again!
 
rinaldo00 said:
Ooooooooh, FragMaster, just dawned on me.
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1.1.2.3.5... said:
lols...better late than never 😉
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So some backstory. Back in the 90s when we were using DWANGO to play DOOM Deathmatch in Houston, my first ever online user name was "KyleX." I figured hey, if Malcolm can do it, so can I. So one of my buddy's wives that I had gone to college with, and hung out and partied with all the time, started calling me, "KyleLicks." I did not like it. The whole leet speak thing was just catching on then, and FragMaster/FrgMstr was born. From then on she called me "Frog Monster." I gave up.
 
FrgMstr said:
#MeToo

So, I am glad you said that. When RatPadz originally launched, and for many years, we had screen printed logos on those. (You would not believe the huge PITA was to get the screening to adhere.) The print wore off and looked like ass. The print also changed the surface texture which changed your mousing dynamic when traveling across it, which is why we finally got away from it 100%. However, I did some tests back in October with a laser etching and dyeing system, which yielded excellent results for putting down logos and hardly changing the surface dynamic at all. You would need to be a 95 percentile player to probably feel the difference. Anyway, I am going to look to that in the future if this all works out, but the "cheap" machine to do it right is about $15,000. So that is a ways down the road, but I already have it figured out.
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I always thought some sort of dye sublimation process (like they do on snowboards) could work for this.
 
Anyone know Elon personally by any chance? Maybe we could get DOGE to buy tens of thousands of RatPadz as a cost saving measure since the government wouldn't need to replace them for at least twenty years.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
It's fun to have the documented memories, I just wish I had more of them that went back further.
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Same. Back during my LANParty days, my friends always used to hate on me for taking pics. Now they are very grateful I did! All my PC builds and all the car work I do, I document with photos so I can remember shit later. My dad had an early Sony digital camera I would carry around with me sometimes in the 2000s, but it wasn't until my first Android smartphone in 2010 that I had easy, regular access to a camera. But most of the stuff I want to remember is from the 2000s and the 90s (and well the 80s too).

FrgMstr said:
Back in the 90s when we were using DWANGO to play DOOM Deathmatch in Houston, my first ever online user name was "KyleX." I figured hey, if Malcolm can do it, so can I. So one of my buddy's wives that I had gone to college with, and hung out and partied with all the time, started calling me, "KyleLicks." I did not like it. The whole leet speak thing was just catching on then, and FragMaster/FrgMstr was born. From then on she called me "Frog Monster." I gave up.
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Good grief!
 
Found my oldest photo of my Ratpadz XT, taken in February 2009. Some other relics in the photo as well.
I'll include an interior shot too, yeah maybe the copper changing color so much would have been a hint that I needed active cooling over the cpu socket. But no, I didn't take the hint, and this motherboard eventually burst into flames.
CIMG7440.JPGCIMG7482.JPG
Edit: Who wouldn't want to see the crispy bits?
CIMG7510.JPGCIMG7511.JPG
 
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If I still have mine it would probably be in a box in a room I use for storage. The surface from memory became uneven/smooth from too much side to side use. The same happened to the func pads I owned. I've been using cloth for the last 10+ years (the ~3 feet in length ones).
 
I bought 2 of the XLs when they first dropped, still have and use both of them. They've also come in handy for many non PC related uses over the years.

I'll be buying at least 2 of these new ones.
 
Those of you who wore these out must have had very abrasive mice. Did you replace your mouse feet once they wore through?

I used the absolute crap out of my first one and never saw much in the way of wear, except for the pad print wearing off. I did have a few divots in it from the metal case of my PC rubbing up against it in transit once though.
 
arnemetis said:
Found my oldest photo of my Ratpadz XT, taken in February 2009. Some other relics in the photo as well.
I'll include an interior shot too, yeah maybe the copper changing color so much would have been a hint that I needed active cooling over the cpu socket. But no, I didn't take the hint, and this motherboard eventually burst into flames.
View attachment 714906View attachment 714907
Edit: Who wouldn't want to see the crispy bits?
View attachment 714908View attachment 714909
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Wow. You'd think with all of those fans, you'd have sufficient case airflow that this wouldn't happen. Must have had a serious overvolt+overclock.

At least the Ratpad survived :p
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Wow. You'd think with all of those fans, you'd have sufficient case airflow that this wouldn't happen. Must have had a serious overvolt+overclock.

At least the Ratpad survived :p
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I seen to recall the q6600 running at around 3.85ghz, which wasn't extreme for the time. I think there's just as likely a chance I just didn't have good adhesion and the copper tilted, making contact with the traces.
 
FrgMstr said:
The OG is better than the XT. I spent the last six months looking for an upgrade to the XT. Was not easy, but I found it. I know everyone thinks they just go buy a cutting board and DIY it, which is fine, I have sat in that wheelhouse many times. But this was sort of a personal challenge as well. Make it better.
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I remembered my purchase from long time ago - I absolutely loved the GS pad. I would love to purchase them, several of them - Can't wait to do so :D Very glad this is making a come back.
 
FrgMstr said:
This is actually a HUGE part of this. Without our community, this will never be a successful business model. I hate to say that, but without community excitement, it will not be successful. I am basically going up against SteelSeries, Logitech, Razer, Fnatic/Func, and Corsair in the hard pad arena. I simply do not have the ability to buy as much influencer access as those companies. Any sane person would probably not even dip their foot in this pool. I want to obvious build the best mousing surface out there, period. I want to push hard on the Made in the USA benefit. At the end of the day however, those companies can market me into oblivion if they want. It has to be a grass roots effort.
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I can tell you this - They don't have much competition chance against the pad. I've gone through so many mousepads and I have bunch of them lying around. Out of all in I've really liked the GS as a hardpad far better than Icemat, I do although would like to see the func to make a comeback, it was popular for a good reason. At the moment, the only pad that I have and I do like is a Steelseries DeX which I still use to this day which I felt is the next best replacement for the func in the softmat segment...

1741287866858.png


I absolutely would love a hard mat and I've had nothing like the GS and haven't since then. You're right - we've got the community here and you know we've got this in it for you because we will absolutely back these products of yours in a heartbeat. It delivered back then and will do so again today. I look forward to acquire the RatPadZ-OG whenever it launches, I'm in for at least two pads at the minimum right off the bat.

I don't think I've been this excited over a mousepad in like ever. :D
 
I have 4 or 5 ratpads someplace. Wasn't there one with the Quake III logo on it? I think one has a logo.

Pretty cool to bring these back Kyle!

What will the surface be like?
 
GoodBoy said:
What will the surface be like?
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The new surface is way smoother, makes a bit less noise.

We had always used Pledge in the past, and furniture polish always worked great for bringing down the coefficient of friction and reducing noise (not that it ever bothered me day to day).

I did use the Turtle Wax 53413 Hybrid Solutions Ceramic 3-in-1 Detailer, mentioned above, which I happen to use on my cars, so I had some handy. It does make it just as slick as Pledge. It is probably much better for the pad's lifetime as well. Pledge furniture polish does contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which could cause premature leeching of the plasticizers in the surface which leads to warping.
 
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FrgMstr said:
Please give us a follow on X.com to help build up the reach of our account. Thanks!

https://x.com/RatPadzOG/status/1897737727262572831
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I don't have an account. I never liked Twitter and its character limits, so I never signed up. Any other way we can support the effort?

I think it goes without saying, but feel free to use any of my comments here as testimonials, should you so desire.
 
Will there be thinner models? I am using a powerplay setup from Logitech, I don't think the mouse would charge through the older thick RatPadz
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I don't have an account. I never liked Twitter and its character limits, so I never signed up. Any other way we can support the effort?

I think it goes without saying, but feel free to use any of my comments here as testimonials, should you so desire.
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No biggy, X is social platform I am leaning on and need to get an instagram in the works as well.

The best thing HF'ers can do for RatPadz is sharing your experience with them once you get pads into your hands.
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
Will there be thinner models? I am using a powerplay setup from Logitech, I don't think the mouse would charge through the older thick RatPadz
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Not at this moment, going to start with the OG model. That said, I already have multiple ideas for RatPadz moving forward. A lot of this will depend on interaction with our customers.
 
I'm in.

I have the one with the printing, and it has worn off a lot. Feet are missing, and it has warped (spent years in an attic). It was a big spend when I was a broke college student, as I recall.

Can't wait to get another that I can use, instead of just putting it on a shelf.

-bZj
 
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