Win laptops, smartwatches and more in the Ars Technica 2020 charity campaign

It is once again that special time of the year when we give you the chance to do good by doing good. That’s right – it’s time for the 2020 edition of our annual charity campaign.

Every year since 2007, we’ve actively encouraged readers to donate to the Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play charity, which provides toys and games for children treated in hospitals around the world. In recent years, we’ve added the Electronic Frontier Foundation to our annual charity campaign, helping their efforts to defend Internet freedom. This year, as always, we’re providing an additional incentive for those donations by offering donors a chance to earn coins from our large loot pile provided by vendors. We can’t keep it (ethically), and we don’t want it to clog our offices anyway. So now it’s your turn to win.

This year’s loot pile is full of high-value geek goodies. We have 50 prizes with a total value of almost $ 5,000, including game consoles, computer accessories, collectibles, smart watches, etc. In 2019, Ars readers raised over $ 33,000 for charity, contributing to a total of over $ 330,000 since 2007. We want to increase even more this year, and we can do that if readers really dig deep.

How it works

Donating is easy. Simply donate to Child’s Play via PayPal or donate to EFF using PayPal, credit card or Bitcoin. You can also support Child’s Play directly by choosing an item from a specific hospital’s Amazon Wish List on their donation page. Give as much or as little as you feel comfortable – every little bit helps.

Once that’s done, it’s time to register your entry into our sweepstakes. Simply take a digital copy of your receipt (a forwarded email, a screenshot, or just copy and paste text) and send it to [email protected] along with your name, mailing address, phone number from day and email address by 11:59 PM ET on Monday, January 4, 2021. (Only one entry per person, and each person can only win up to one prize. US residents only. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. For more information, see the official rules, including how to participate without making a donation. Also see Ars Technica’s privacy policy.)

We will then contact the winners and ask them to choose their prize before January 31 (the choice is made in the order in which the winners are drawn).

The prices

Here’s a brief description of some of the biggest and most desirable prizes in this year’s competition. See the next page for a full list of available prices.

HP Elite G1 Dragonfly Laptop PC

Ars’ reviewer called the laptop “an incredibly portable and powerful machine, but it’s also expensive.” But it won’t be expensive for a lucky winner of our prize draw, who will receive this little-used exam unit for free! Oh, and it’s a great Linux machine too.

Professional level flight simulator controls

Our own Sam Machokovech used the Honeycomb Alpha Flight Control yoke, the Logitech G PRO flight yoke system with throttle quadrant and the Thrustmaster Pendular rudder while spending a lot of time with it. Microsoft Flight Simulator this year. Now these little used pro-level controls can be yours!

Evercade Retro portable with ten cartridges

When we took a look at this retro-focused portable gaming hardware earlier this year, we found that resorting to swappable plug-and-play cartridges was a concept best left in the past. Still, the device itself is a capable emulation machine, and this collection of cartridges offers a good selection of classic gaming goodness.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2

This Samsung smartwatch sets itself apart from the competition with a nifty blood pressure monitoring feature, in addition to the usual Galaxy Watch features.

Eternal doom Collectors Edition (Windows)

In March, we called the last game in history Condemn franchise a “masterful twitch shooter” who is “almost uniformly excellent.” This Collector’s Edition version of the game comes complete with an 11 x 17 inch lithograph, wearable Doom Slayer headset, knowledge book, steel case, and digital goodies.

Command & Conquer Remastered Collection: Special Edition Limited Racing Games

Party like it was 1995 with this massive physical collector’s edition of this classic real-time strategy series. Comes with patches, reversible beanie, official USB soundtrack and six CDs, over 100 page art book, stickers, figure replicas and more!

None of the big prizes have caught your attention yet? Check out the next page for a list of dozens of additional prizes you can win by participating!