What is your favorite piece of of gaming gear and what have you always wanted?

ohoh ill go first!

when i was youngin i loved my zipper controller for the nes... yea when i found teh pic i was embarrassed by it's light blue case and over cheap look... but i loved it.
there was a little notch in the center where the player could attach a small joystick piece. AND it had the turbo buttons, which didn't make Megaman shoot any faster, but on some games it cause unpredictable effects =D

What i always wanted was a Game Genie :( never knowing the joy of swimming !unharmed! through the electric seaweed on the dam level.

and the pic

Generally, I use the controller that came with the system. There are a few exceptions...
For NESing, nothing beats the classic. And by classic, I mean of course the dogbone controller as released with the NES-2! Same Nintendo feel, but with all that nice ergonomicality.
Anything that calls for an Atari joystick gets a Kraft (LOL CHEESE) joystick instead. It's got a much looser feel to it, with a more responsive button, and you can adjust which directions it "snaps" into.
XBox gets the beefy controller, Saturn gets the fighting pad...I think that's about it.

yes i remember the zipper i had 6 of those by 1999 for me my favorite gear i use to like playing with many years ago was that big and bulky wireless gamepad i dont remember the name it was like 2 time heavy then the normal game pad and you had to stand very still or else the charecter went crazy in the game but i like it anyway

i disagree i think the xbox beefy was gross.. i liked the see thru plastic controller you got with the xbox crystal.

just for shits and giggles, i loved my NES advantage. remember? the supposed arcade equivalent.

I have fairly large hands, so it helped out. Plus it was great for 1942, 1943, and turbo shooting on the Mega Mans.