This Serial "Optical Laser Mouse" from 1996

[@BrianKapellusch]

Nothing seemed to escape the 1990s without teal on it.

[@bigmouthstrikesagain4056]

What about mall goths

[@BrianKapellusch]

@@bigmouthstrikesagain4056 they're teal on the inside

[@TorutheRedFox]

or a crusty CGI render

[@bigmouthstrikesagain4056]

@@BrianKapellusch lol

[@plushifoxed]

@@bigmouthstrikesagain4056 teal hair highlights, babey

[@cheerydan]

I like that the 'package contents' says it includes cardboard box.

[@TheCrazyparrot8]

How nice of them to include a box.

[@SoleaGalilei]

I mean, it's true!

[@coffeemakerbottomcracked]

apple probably will get rid of that too

[@TheCrazyparrot8]

@@coffeemakerbottomcracked And then everyone will do it.

[@VintageTechFan]

This manual you are reading. If it isn't there while you reading it, ask for a new one.

[@kylosalvesen]

Me, watching with the auto-generated captions on: Ah yes, the delicious nine pin cereal.

[@mooniejohnson]

Well, it *does* say "optical fiber engine" on the back, so... at least you'll be regular?

[@ahandsomefridge]

Maybe it's just like eating corn flakes while listening to Nine Inch Nails.. but clicky?

[@bastien-]

The more he says "serial", the more my brain hears "cereal"

[@dregenius]

Not just that, but the delicious nine pin serial *connecter* 😂 (00:56)

[@cromulence]

Ow my teeth

[@sam08g16]

I remember the transition from the mouse with a ball to optical... It was awesome not having to periodically remove chunks of dust for the mouse to work properly again

[@jasonblalock4429]

Yeah, you had to be gentle when cleaning your mouse balls to prevent discharge.

[@wendyokoopa7048]

Hugs both her modern mice completely screwing up things on two computers.

[@nickwallette6201]

Not long ago, I hunted down a cordless mouse I used in the mid 90s. The range is terrible (about 2 ft), but the thing that really impressed me how far we’ve come is that ball. Even when perfectly clean and gunk-free, it has a tendency to move up and down when used on a surface that isn’t perfectly planar, which causes it to stop tracking for just a moment. It is infuriating. Optical mice were a godsend.

[@nickburton9366]

Dust? Lucky sod, with Uk's constant dampness and having pets those rollers created their own ecosystem of pure nastiness.

[@travdump209]

And now, $150 mice are spinning out from dust. Time is a flat circle.

[@shhhquiet3927]

"This feels like um ,some of the mice that came with Compaq Presarios back in the mid 90s." Clint knows is mouse like a wine taster knows is wine.

[@askhowiknow5527]

Technically he is a mouse taster. Don’t ask him about it

[@brianm6337]

​@@askhowiknow5527 "This last one was playful, but had a finish of a hint of Retrobrite..."

[@Hellwyck]

like kids don't know how to put the "h" in "his".

[@huleyn135]

@@Hellwyck cringe

[@shhhquiet3927]

@@Hellwyck English is my second language. Don't mock my spalling.

[@MichaelBennett1]

That 286 is a beauty, one of the nicest looking beige boxes I’ve seen.

[@Hellwyck]

...and if your games don't run on it, you can move into it as an apartment block.

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

@@Hellwyck It's not that computers have gotten smaller by any means it's just they've gotten so much infinitely more powerful. I'm nostalgic for the beige days but I still wouldn't go back to them.

[@johneygd]

Back then when we did everything with just 16bit, these days we have number crunching computers, it’s unbelievible how we have come along way..

[@wendyokoopa7048]

@@johneygd totally.

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

@@johneygd If only my childhood or teenage self could see what we have now. I'm sure it would be like looking at alien technology we've come so far and only the last 20-25 years.

[@squidiskool]

Wonder when the WinRAR CD's gonna come.

[@CommodoreFan64]

With plandemic who knows, I'm in SC, and just had a package(nothing special just a couple of USB WiFi adapters) from fla(seriously a straight shot drive down from my house to the seller according to Google Maps) just show up in my mailbox yesterday that was shipped out on 11-25-20, and it was in the mail so long the eBay seller gave me my money back as we both thought it was lost, as even USPS could not even find it in the system with a tracking number they generated. 🤦

[@squidiskool]

@@CommodoreFan64 oh no

[@DrakeDaraitis]

@@squidiskool oh no @ plandemic I hope. Jesus.

[@mikeey6804]

@@DrakeDaraitis Probably "oh no" at the thought of someone stupid enough to use the term "plandemic" in an actual conversation with other adults.

[@greenpixel_]

@@CommodoreFan64 "plandemic"? Bruh...

[@chang-kp9sp]

Hey LGR, Wow you got a this old mouse .This mouse came from South Korea , assembled in China. This mouse came to market when transition from Win 3.1 to Win 95 A version. I had one of this long time ago

[@sittingstill3578]

Someone sent it to him. It was featured in a mailbag episode a few months ago. The software looks like it was sold in the UK.

[@TFFgeek]

But your comment gives a very specific timeframe for when this came out. Thanks!

[@BOBLAF88]

I had one too! It came with a doom type game on the driver disc,pretty cool 🙂

[@mr-meek]

@@BOBLAF88 Was it Blake Stone? As pictured on the back of the box??? I must know!! Lol ;-)

[@hingeslevers]

@@BOBLAF88 was it Ken's Labyrinth as mentioned in the video?

[@CaptainSpicard]

You can fix the horizontal / vertical sensitivity by printing out your own grid, space the dots vertically or horizontally based on your preference.

[@Ben4Real]

Was thinking the same thing. Might make for a cool video.

[@poweriu2]

I wonder if you also could fix the lack of a dead zone in the joystick mode by printing a blank circle in the center of the grid, and just making sure you switched modes while there. Probably would have to have a separate printout for that mode, as the random pauses while moving would feel like you were back to a ball mouse...

[@djmidnightwolf]

There is an unwritten law that one must go clicky clicky with mouse after one opens it

[@wendyokoopa7048]

Mice, keyboards....

[@austina3567]

And click tongs like a crab person

[@wohlhabendermanager]

So... it's not only me who does that?

[@matguy1000]

This was a particularly delightful blerb. I was expecting it to be old garbage but it turned out to be a strange gem. It works, its odd, will use in the future. 10/10 booya

[@junibug6790]

@@ginxxxxx Except Clint literally said, "This mouse works very well. It's not garbage whatsoever; in fact it's a pretty good little mouse. I like it!"

[@matguy1000]

@@ginxxxxx I think Clint is attempting to be humble by not taking his hobby too seriously because at the end of the day its all just plastic and there are more important things irl. Its nice to have the freedom to geek out about the stuff that makes tou happy and hes worked really hard on making a really nice youtube channel. Why not enjoy the benefits?

[@agenericaccount3935]

That mouse logo on the manual is cute AF.

[@wohlhabendermanager]

Was gonna comment this. An indifferent looking mouse. Can't go wrong with that.

[@CathodeRayDude]

Hey man, I have a unit which turns out to share some DNA with this one and will be doing a teardown on my channel soon. Do you mind if I reference this video and include a short clip? Thanks!

[@woodenpints]

"IBM clone" with a flatscreen LCD is a bizarre combination.

[@Galm_1]

Optical Laser Mouse. Made in Korea. 신개념 광학식 마우스. It's made by a company called Wonyoung Corp. I got the address but it looks like the company disappeared. Looks like the original building isn't there either.

[@geerstyresoil3136]

Maybe they got stuck in the grid

[@jansenart0]

That's from the time when laser diodes were scary concepts.

[@CommodoreFan64]

Yep the era where even a cheap crap laser pointer from Spencer's Gifts was like $20 - $30, and don't dare get caught with one in school as you would get in all sorts of trouble, and same era Axl Rose got in fight with a fan at a concert for having one that got caught on video.

[@mtgAzim]

Hey Clint, you called this mouse "sketchy", and that reminded me of a sketchy piece of hardware that I had. I needed a bluetooth receiver for my puter and my brother in law just snagged a cheap one off amazon. When I got it, it has no discernible brand name, the english on and in the packaging was more like "engrish", and the kicker was the driver. The driver wasn't from a manufacturers website, it was a piece of card with a link to a google drive printed on it. When I checked it out, the driver was just more than 700mb! for a bluetooth dongle... My friend looked at everything and even though it's all strange, he didn't find any obvious red flags, so... I tried it... At first nothing was working, but then I replugged it in after installing the driver, and my entire system locked up, and I had to hold my power button to restart. Needless to say I eradicated it from my pc as best I could. I ran malwarebytes and things, nothing showed up. I think I still have it in a bin somewhere if you watned to look at it.

[@Montisaquadeis]

The cheap CSR 4 dongles work fine without extra software drivers at least on newer windows and even linux. You do have to change the mac address on them BUT that is rather easy since there is a software to do just that. AKA they all come with the same MAC address for some reason but easily fixed.

[@wohlhabendermanager]

Reminds me of the PCI serial card I installed in my computer a while back. It had a driver CD with some engrish menu (it was really bad, the Chinese company that manufactured it must have gotten an intern with absolutely no knowledge of the English language to translate it). I managed to install the correct driver after going through a couple, only to find out that it only lasts until the next reboot. After that you needed to install it again. It only proves the old proveb "buy cheap, buy twice", because I had to replace it with a slightly more expensive (but much better working) card.

[@SlimPickins_07]

Thanks for the video! I deal with bad anxiety and your stuff always helps me out for some reason.

[@hey_relaxjack]

Same. His voice is soothing and even-keeled.

[@MarcoMaurice]

Feel ya. His voice and charm is extremely calming which helps me to relax at night falling asleep, even though I’m mostly more interested in watching old tech rather than falling asleep, which is sort of a double sided knife I guess? Ps: Sorry for any grammar mistakes, and my poor sentence forming. I’m not a native speaker, just some 17 yr old German :P

[@choi13a]

That is some classic 90s Korean packaging right there.

[@ThommyofThenn]

Go on

[@ThommyofThenn]

If you have more info I would love to know about Korean packaging

[@alistairblaire6001]

It was just casually shown, but seeing PC Paintbrush really brought me back. We had it on our family PC, an 8088 XT clone. I haven't thought about it or seen it since I was a kid.

[@ParadoxdesignsOrg]

I bought the first Microsoft optical intellimouse back in the day. I remember going from the ball to that was just crazy! I still have it, too.

[@wendyokoopa7048]

I remember that mouse had one myself. Did you know that it wasn't a Microsoft mouse but a rebadged and better engineered Logitech? Which is stranger still as my dad had an actual Logitech optical and it was crap.

[@doltBmB]

@@wendyokoopa7048 MS later produced a rebadged razer mouse, and that was better than an actual razer too.

[@TRCFL]

Way back in 1994, I was in film school studying 3D animation. There was a SGI workstation that used an optical mouse. What was intriguing was it had to be used in conjunction with a special, reflective mouse pad. The pad’s reflective surface was covered in tiny facets that the mouse used to track its X, Y coordinates, much like the one in your video. Looked like a sparkling diamond in the right light. It was cutting edge for the time and sadly drew a lot of attention from the students. I say sadly because someone stole the mouse pad, rendering the pointing device useless. They never replaced it and we were back to using the old opto-mechanical mouse. It would be years until I saw the more common design that didn’t rely on a proprietary pad for tracking.

[@zirize]

신개념 광학식 마우스 => New concept(Type) Optioncal Mouse

[@phoenixsixxrising]

Clint: -Plays flight simulator in joystick mode Plane: -only does barrelrolls

[@MirekFe]

Narrator: -The greatest stunt pilot that ever lived!...

[@nicwilson89]

Oh man, I remember the era of calling all optical mice 'laser' mice

[@pedazodeboludo]

I still thought they were laser mice until recently... just a bright red LED

[@laharl2k]

@@pedazodeboludo and in most cases you can change it for a different color or even an infrared led and it would still work! Imagine being in the 90s with a BLUE laser mouse!

[@vicviper2005]

Laser is faster to say

[@vicviper2005]

@@laharl2k my razor mouse changes color and is the only gaming mouse I own the other mouse is a basic Dell mouse

[@TensaZangetsu1200]

@@laharl2k Most modern mice have invisible infrared ones, which is a shame since I enjoyed the blinding lights. Now the lights are on top lel

[@worrier]

The little mouse on the instruction manual is awesome!

[@tandy390]

The middle picture on the back of the box talking about joystick mode shows the game Blake Stone. Cool!

[@marksmithcollins]

Surprised seeing "신개념 광학식 마우스"(Novel-concept Optical Mouse in Korean) stamped(-like printed) bottom right. Is it old Korean stuff? Added) 1:54 Ooh.

[@proCaylak]

@이름 that's looks like a seal mimicking those of the ancient times. those seals were used mostly by the chinese, japanese and korean. there were some vietnamese ones as well before they used latin alphabet. but usually those seals were read from right-top first. this one as you read is modern "left to right" order of writing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_(East_Asia)

[@marksmithcollins]

@@proCaylak Umm, I know about it quite well because of my nationality. I could just say 'ㅋㅋ 인장박아놨네'. What I said 'old' was 'decades ago'. If I was really meant something about heritage, it is not made of plastic, made of han-ji or porcelain.

[@SmeddyTooBestChannel]

I enjoy that there's a Blake Stone screencap on the box. Deep cut.

[@AleksandrBekhtin]

I wonder if Apogee approved this. Like without a title it just looks like some random game screenshot slapped there for no apparent reason.

[@Siphonay]

I feel like the vertical axis is more sensitive cause Windows 2.03 is sort of stretched vertically on your screen, I'm not actually sure what resolution it runs on and I've never used it on an actual machine, but on a virtual machine the fonts aren't that tall, the pixels feel more square

[@big0bad0brad]

I think it wasn't until VGA that we got something close to a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio - for example CGA 640x200 "should" have been 640x400 at least if it were capable of doing interlacing and if it had the video RAM for it. VGA bumped it up to 640x480 and that got it around 1:1 with a 4:3 ratio monitor.

[@Cherijo78]

What really makes the experience complete for me watching this, as well as when I'm using retro hardware, are those PC sounds. The sounds of the old fans and hard drive spins contribute vastly to the nostalgia factor. I think that's what I don't like about emulators or DOS box on modern PCs; It just doesn't sound right. That Zenith Data Systems 286 though absolutely sounds just right. I get the same feelings when I fire up my IBM 5160. Too bad my 5160 is a bit too slow to run a lot of things and only has CGA.

[@woutermollema]

Especially those floppy disk blerbs

[@smeezekitty]

@@woutermollema Bzzzt bzzt click click click bzzzt click click

[@panpaletkalg2550]

everything "Laser" in the 90's is the equivalent of everything "Turbo" in the 80's

[@Hans-gb4mv]

megahertz in the 00's, megapixel in the 10's. Waiting for what we'll get in this era.

[@jbfarley]

@@Hans-gb4mv megahertz and megapuixels are still a thing used in every day life, though, so not the best analogy as nobody uses turbo or laser anything now

[@ejej1187]

@@Hans-gb4mv teraflops?

[@Middcore]

I frickin love that cartoon mouse art on the manual. Is there any reason you couldn't simply print a similar grid on a larger mousepad? The sensors are just looking for that dot pattern, right?

[@gabrielebiffi9018]

Interesting, that mousepad is a hint of how that mouse works, basically it's just like a ball mouse but instead of reading the light pulses generated by the holes on the two wheels connected to the ball, it reads the light reflected by the white or black squares.

[@spitefulwar]

I had one such in '91 for Amiga. After I sold it to a friend in '93 when switching to a 486 he continued to use it until the late 90s. He had worn down the pad by then and it stopped working.

[@briangoldberg4439]

I've recently looked for a serial mouse on ebay and there have been a ton of these showing up over the past couple years. I suspect that someone found a big crate of them and dumped them on the market.

[@nickwallette6201]

I bought a new “Microsoft” serial mouse recently. It is CLEARLY counterfeit. And utter garbage. It is incapable of tracking diagonally in one particular direction because it will just stop sensing vertical movement when moved sideways.

[@briangoldberg4439]

@@nickwallette6201 :( Maybe try looking for an older logitech mouse. They were some of the best at the time. I still have mine and it works great.

[@Thommygun-qv7um]

So, this mouse has a "Mouse-mode", a "Sketch-mode" and a "Joystick-mode", right? Does it also have a "Practice-mode"? ;-D

[@woutermollema]

This mouse needs a cat to play with

[@fullmetaljacket7]

P R A C T I C E M O D E

[@sameash3153]

Practice mode is included, you just put it on the mouse pad and don't plug it in

[@woutermollema]

@@sameash3153 Isn't the mouse going to run off that way?

[@spartonberry]

@@sameash3153 I think it was an LGR meme. I forget which it was, but there was some game with an awesome-terrible announcer when he clicked the menu options.

[@dabombinablemi6188]

Hey, Blake Stone AOG is on the box. Still have my original floppy of it.

[@roundpan9255]

i really love how the mouse looks

[@theconfusingwords]

That is one of the most beautiful boxes. Envious of that nostalgic beauty

[@johnross7526]

I’d forgotten that particular groan noise pc’s used to make when they were thinking

[@pedrofelck]

I really loved this mouse design.

[@Caarajack]

Poor Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold (as featured in screenshot behind the box), never had a chance getting released just one week before Doom.

[@DreadVos]

Just a Blerb, huh? Nah, 15+ minutes of quality for me to enjoy with my coffee. Love your work!

[@MirekFe]

What kind of coffee? _XCoffee?_

[@Slay1337pl]

Whoever thought "Yes, a sharp rectangle is the perfect shape to rest your hand on for at least 8h a day" should step on a lego. Although all things considered, he'd probably enjoy it.

[@wendyokoopa7048]

Lol

[@alastairward2774]

Shaped and coloured like the repeated patterns you see on other 90s stuff like cartoons or magazine adverts.

[@Nauctshea]

I had this mouse and used it for a number of years. I don't remember if I had a serial or PS/2 connection. I greatly preferred it to a ball mouse because of the precision and lack of cleaning. However, it's ability to function decreased significantly when the dots on the mouse pad started wearing off.

[@cleverlyblonde]

Kudos for sharing this mouse with CRD :)

[@manuell3505]

4:32 Suddenly I hear that evil Blake Stone robot: "you're dead!"

[@mr-meek]

Yesss!!!!

[@hingeslevers]

That sample is so deeply ingrained in my memory. Great game.

[@IRMacGuyver]

LGR: "I want virtual reality" LGR's mom: "but we have virtual reality at home" Virtual reality at home: Joystick mode

[@ThommyofThenn]

that joystick mode is actually really neat! I can see that being cozy to use when having a lazy 90s morning

[@brothertax]

Please keep doing what you’re doing. Thank you.

[@DenilsonSa]

What if you printed a different-sized grid? Would that increase/decrease the mouse speed? Or would it confuse the mouse beyond all hope? Only one way to find out! Do it! Bonus points for printing using time-appropriate printers!

[@stridermt2k]

Love this stuff channel!

[@aserta]

I feel like i've seen this before. Has anyone seen one, but the pistachio button was blue, like the blue on Windows NT's logo?

[@tranka6112]

nothing screams more PC than this 286 12MHz gem - we had an ES-COM just with the same specs... 1MB of RAM - hell yeah, I could play M&M3 on it ;) And I really like this lamp on your desk...

[@DosGamerMan]

Shiny. Played wolf3d on a 286. Had to reduce the screen size to get a decent frame rate.

[@wendyokoopa7048]

Clint is drooling over the 🖱and I'm drooling over the case for a modern era pc build.

[@ende_ohne]

Does this mouse work with modern PC's over a USB to RS232 adapter? It would be nice if this is still working in Win10...

[@briangoldberg4439]

No, they don't. They rely on the old mouse.com driver which can't be run in win 10. They will work in emulation though. For example, if you load up DOSBox, you can load mouse.com and it will work in a dos game, etc.

[@smeegle]

some older motherboards still have rs232, and i can confirm that windows 10 can work with one of those mice (with difficulty)

[@claudiodiaz9752]

Those adapters are hit and miss in my experience.

[@CommodoreFan64]

I have a feeling with the right adapters you would have more of a chance of it working on a good Linux Distro than Windows 10.

[@CptJistuce]

@@smeegle Heck, some NEW motherboards still have RS-232. It is apparently still a mandatory feature for some business purposes.

[@professorpenne9962]

this mouse would have blown my mind back in the day. very cool!

[@HeadsetHistorian]

I was considering buying this but the sharp cardboard is a deal breaker.

[@woutermollema]

Give it to your partner and let them open the box

[@IRMacGuyver]

0/10 cardboard too sharp

[@Kyle4OH8]

The sharp cardboard is the best feature

[@Quickened1]

the fact that it uses a proprietary pad is actually kinda cool... Now you can kick back on your recliner, put the rigid pad on your lap, and game in the relaxed position!

[@CommodoreFan64]

ahh 96 I was 15 in highschool with a subscription to computer shopper, and in late 98 getting a subscription to Maximum PC for the cover CD's, I don't remember ever seeing this mouse in those magazines, or seeing it in CompUSA(I was in that store fairly often getting stuff for my own systems, or stuff for others fixing their systems making money in high school) nor was it talked about in my computer network technologies classes. so I don't think this was a very common mouse at all.

[@wendyokoopa7048]

I was about 17

[@Karmy.]

Wow it was ahead of it's time with the drift mode

[@MirekFe]

_Deja Vu Theme plays_

[@obvfw]

Man, I wish rectangle mice were still a thing. I love how that one looks!

[@Axonteer]

during my apprenticeship i had to use those Sun Microsystems reflective mice on a CAD station :D

[@ACTNRPLY]

Those ones you have to use the included mousepad at a certain orientation or it doesn’t work?

[@PeacefulAutistic]

This looks like something you’d see on the shelf today as a “retro” throwback design.

[@joshuagibson2520]

Really cool Clint. Thanks. I enjoyed this presentaion.

[@GamerbyDesign]

When he first started moving the mouse I knew it felt good by the motion on the screen.

[@ilfaraone91]

the birds chirping are super relaxing

[@steverpcb]

OMG you are still youtubing, everthing I have been watching from you has been over 5 years old LOL

[@jaybrooks1098]

These mice are based on the xerox parc optical mouse which was converted for use with microsoft windows and was called the M1. Originally these were paired with the alto

[@PinkAgaricus]

Seeing laser mice like these makes me thankful for the current gen laser mice. Today's ones don't try to be multiple things.

[@Ben4Real]

I wonder if you could fix the disparity between vertical and horizontal movement by using a mousepad with a differently spaced grid. Maybe with dots spaced farther apart vertically.

[@vernacular3289]

To address the greater vertical sensitivity couldn't you print out a near-identical dot grid but with increased vertical spacing onto sticker paper then stick it onto the special mouse pad? Would the mouse read the differently spaced dots and reduce the vertical sensitivity or would that not work at all? Sketch Mode is pretty much a DPI switch that most modern gaming mice use for "sniper mode" so that was kinda neat to see.

[@LGRBlerbs]

Interesting idea. Might be fun to try that!

[@cosmicnautilus1345]

That calligraphic stamp is very pleasing to the eye.

[@DAndyLord]

You should scan and print a larger version of that mouse pad. It'd actually be neat to see how different dot spacing would affect the mouse. Perhaps spacing the vertical lines further apart would solve the up/down sensitivity problem.

[@rimmersbryggeri]

I remember these. We so much wanted a none mechanical mose but they didnt get good reviews for quite some time.

[@darthbukowski6894]

We had optical Laser mice/mouses for our Mac classics back in high school.

[@gapf2010channel]

I'd be interested in knowing if I can print the dotted pattern on a regular paper and use the mouse over it. Like if I lose the pad, would I be able to make my own, or does the mouse become useless?

[@emotionz3]

Amazing it pulls enough power from a serial port.

[@robwebnoid5763]

I still have a similar mouse that I got in the 1990's, with a similar mousepad, except the pad had lines in it, not dots. It has to rely on the lined pad, you can't use it on any other surface. The pad was also the same size as this one. You could design a larger surface pad, but I never did. It was probably an early led mouse, as even a ball mouse was so much better, you were not limited to staying on the lined pad. I'll have to connect it & try it again just for fun.

[@phoenixsixxrising]

Came for the laser mouse, stayed for the Zenith 286, way to drop two new oldies at once, Clint! 😁

[@rickrussell]

I had PC and Mac equivalents of the Sun optical mice. Cost a bundle too. The other really interesting mouse from the era was the Honeywell "no ball" mouse that used two wheels at oblique angles to sense movement, requiring much less cleaning.

[@d2factotum]

Optical mice are surprisingly old tech--they were first demonstrated in 1980 (e.g. they pre-date the original IBM PC!) and I remember using one on a Sun workstation in my first job in 1993. They were the type shown here, where they only really work properly on a special mouse pad with printed grid on it.

[@ArmsOfShadow5]

You should try to print a grid as a mouse pad, if it just needs the grid you could have a custom mose pad printed

[@woutermollema]

It probably needs to be reflective right. Maybe if you laminate it

[@crescentfreshsongs]

I was really curious about this thing since the mailbag video (especially to find out what the hell "joystick mode" was). It didn't disappoint, that's a cool piece of kit for '96! I was expecting it to be jittery and jumpy at best and utterly unusable at worst.

[@misterkefir]

Awesome stuff!

[@Peeps40836]

Fun fact: Windows 2.x is the oldest version of Windows that can support any mouse on any computer. Well, at least the ones I have. I ran it on 9x - XP era machines and even ones that have Windows 10 pre installed. It even recognizes the usb mouse and the trackpad, although I think that it’s emulating a PS/2 mouse.

[@flemmingpedersen567]

It reminds me of the mouse we had for the amiga 500 back in the day - not the looks, but the way it worked - I remember having to use a printed piece of paper with a grid as a mousepad, otherwise it wouldn't work at all, but it worked well playing Lemmings and Cannonfodder.

[@johnny-becker]

5:30 I love how the contents involves the cardboard box. I mean, technically it "is" in the packaging but is that really a reason a necessity for the unit to work?

[@skittyrocks]

If anything, it's a damn good aesthetic

[@T3hBeowulf]

I saw that pop up on Amazon and eBay every time I tried finding a decent Serial (or at least Serial/PS2) mouse for my 486. I was always curious if that needed the grid pad and now I know! On one hand, I'm glad I opted for the Logitech TrackMan Marble because "optical" and I'm used to the daily driver M570 anyway. On the other hand, that would have been a fine mouse if I'd jumped on it. I wonder if the grid can be scanned/printed and taped to the desk?

[@arthurenright4146]

Ha!!! I had one of those in the late '90s (actually I bought a few) The mouse was great compared to non-optical mice of the time. The problem I had was that the squares on the hard mouse pad would wear out quickly causing tracking issues. I bought a 2nd one just for the pad hoping the 1st one was defective. The squares wore off the second one just as quick.

[@thedungeondelver]

Now, this is interesting. IIRC the first PC mouse I owned in the mid 1990s (previously, I had an Amiga 1200, a 500 before that, and a 128, C64 and VIC20 prior to _those_ , and I did have a mouse for the 64 and 128 which was visually identical to the 500's mouse) _looked_ just like this mouse, Clint, but it was a ball-mouse, and was made by Mouse Systems and had their logo on it. Maybe they bought the shell from the same company who made this for Hi-Bon?

[@plan7a]

:D - I kept thinking that the 'Laser' might be short for 'Laser Precision'? Also there might be clues as to the date via the files on the disk - there are 'vendor', 'help' and other files. Somewhere there there could be a clue as to when the manufacture/sale date is? I know that's obvious, perhaps. Would it work better with a different grid; one with less lines going up/down or changed sensitivity, perhaps? Again, just observations and guesses.

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

The only kind of sad depressing part of this is how much you needed that pad. Should you ever go and lose the pad or if you received this or found this in a thrift shop or something without it it would be totally essentially useless.

[@agohl2305]

Yes and no. You could print your own grid out and these old optical mice would work

[@TheClockUpOnTheWall]

Good choice of kitchen scale. I love my Escali Arti.

[@rory_o]

The joystick mode works like how wing commander used a mouse. Difference is with wing commander you have a white cursor on the screen which tells you how far away the mouse is from the center. Without it that would take some getting used to.

[@dustmighte]

That box design is vaporwave af!

[@trophykid1635]

It came out as 116g when you weighed it but the book said it was only supposed to be 75g. Maybe they were specifying the weight of the mouse without the cable since it seems they had 3 different cable types that could have come with it?

[@LGRBlerbs]

Yes indeed, mouse weights are typically measured without the cable!