Remember When... Mice Had Balls?

[rob86 2]

A weird sounding title for sure, but it's very serious! Do you remember when a computer mouse worked with a big ball inside it? It's a nightmare I still try to forget! They used to clog up with dirt and need cleaning all the time. I remember banging the mouse against the mouse pad repeatedly. I used to play games and during crucial moments the mouse ball would be sticking and I would be hitting it and beating it on the desk trying to get it back in action before my enemy wiped me out. Then when the physical abuse proved futile, I'd have to take the ball out in the middle of the game and pick out dirt and pet fur from the inside with a finger or something. It was always sticking too, I think I worked up some Schwarzeneggar style muscles in my arm trying to drag those things across the pad. When the optical mouse was invented -- it was just about the best advancement in home computing ever. I still remember the rage I felt thanks to the mousies of the past. Although, I have to admit the heavy little ball provided "hours" of fun during the long load times back in the day. Roll it baaaack and foooorth across the desk! Weeeeeee!

[deadmad7 4]

Hahahaha. The title sounds really wrong hehe. I still use a ball mouse by the way... it came with my computer and then i got this Microsoft "USB" mouse but then that broke so im back to the old one. Still works pretty good and i don't even use a mouse pad. And i think the last time i cleaned it was like a year ago... but only little bit of dust there (i know cause i checked ). I personally like the old kind of ones though, im more used to it and i like the feel of the ball rolling... it has like a weight to it while the usb one is like plastic or something like that.... totally weightless and if you move around a lot, you just lift that thing right up LOL, the last line made me laugh cause its soooo true!

[Iniyila 2]

Yup i remember that horrible but fun experience, the mice with roller balls where always causing problems after 6 months of buying time, they start to do not obeying your pointed direction and behaving as they like and go everywhere they want . the most problem i had with all of them was right and down direction, most of the times when they start to annoy me they prevented from going to right and after some other time then they prevent from going up either.As i was a game worm from beginning so i always where searching for mices without these problems, when i first bought my firs optical mice i was feeling like flying in the sky, no more problem with pointing your pointer everywhere you want, no more problem in aiming in Half Life 1 so i was enjoying my pc a lot after changing my mice. But you think all problems are solved with optical mouse ? no you are wrong another problem still exist and forces me to change my mice every year, that is the mouse wheel, they almost completely destroy after a year, when you want to scroll down it sometimes scroll up instead and vice versa. i think there is a problem with their opto counter which measures how much you have scrolled, i think they get old and there is no way from preventing that. However i have got a Logitech G5 for better game experience and i should say it is now 1.5 years old and mouse wheel is completely working but i can feel a little difference with its functionality now and 1 year ago. but it is working and its nice to see a mouse wheel keeping its functionality more than 1 year and the mice itself is really ideal for gaming, with its high scanning DPI you can aim very precise and very fast without any problem and because of its high DPI you can lower the sensitivity letting you accurate your aims.I still have my first mice which had a white ball, it is still working with some glitches but if my current mice stop working, i will use it again till i get a new one. These days we see many mechanical parts are going away from PCs like mechanical hard disk replacing with those solid state drives and by this way they will decrease braking downs, but i think mechanical parts are easier to repair and with these new technologies you only can replace the whole part and you can not repair it.

[mahesh2k 0]

Haha that is indeed one hilarious title. And i agree it's one worst thing that you can own by the way. My tracker ball mouse got retired on 2007 and ever since that day using USB mouse from microsoft. It's 3+ years so far and things are going smooth without any issues. I hope things will continue to stay this way because it's hard to get any accessory here in this village where i'm working right now. Oh that last line was funny, used to do that in net cafe.

[anwiii 17]

i personally always liked the mice with the ball over an optical mouse. i've used both and the ball always offered more reliability to what i was doing on my computer. especially if i were moving my mouse fast and quick. in fact, i noticed a big difference depending on what i was doing. i remember when i had an atari and the biggest thing that came out was the cordless joystick. luckily i hesititated on purchasing one because after attempting to use my friends', i soon discovered it wasn't as reliable. it's pretty much the same thing.right now i'm using a laptop and don't need the mouse for precision or gaming so i just use my mouse pad. unless optical mice have changed in the last 2 years, then i would still vote for the mouse ball. it's a no brainer to me. as far as cleaning it, yea, that was a *BLEEP* at first, but i only had to clean mine a couple times a year after taking it to it's limits. it wasn't really the ball you were cleaning though, but the four rollers where the ball fits snugly.one of the BIGGEST differences i found personally was when i was playing the hasbro missle command game that i was addicted to for a year. i started playing it with a ball mouse. after it broke, i bought an optical mouse. in fact, i tried 3 different ones. NONE of them compared to the ball mouse.the optical mouse has it's advantages, but if you are looking for reliability and precision, i would take the ball mouse over the optical mouse any day of the week. oh and btw- the mice i used were always cheap. i am a cheapsakte so i always tried to buy something around $20 or so for a mouse. to me, anything more than that was a ripoff. i wonder what the high end mice are like. maybe different. i'll never know

[contactskn 2]

Dear friend my first computer was of that time when mouse were having balls. As soon as the optical mouse were launched I bought one for me. But still I am having the old one with the ball. After some days it will be some thing very rare to be seen and at that time I will show it to my kids that this was the first mouse I ever used.

[deadmad7 4]

the optical mouse has it's advantages, but if you are looking for reliability and precision, i would take the ball mouse over the optical mouse any day of the week. oh and btw- the mice i used were always cheap. i am a cheapsakte so i always tried to buy something around $20 or so for a mouse. to me, anything more than that was a ripoff. i wonder what the high end mice are like. maybe different. i'll never know

 

Hmm... I'm not so sure. Optical mouses (saying "mice" is just weird ) ARE actually better in like the movements and everything. Here's the USB mouse i use for my Laptop : https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Compact-Optical-Mouse-U81-00009/dp/B00080DSEM . It's only $11 bucks on Amazon! And i've been using it for 2 years now without a problem. It's probably the best one out there and you can use it for your desktop too. Try it...

[rob86 2]

I agree with Deadmad, I use the cheapest of the cheap optical mice and they work so good I can't understand the need for an expensive mouse other than having a cool looking mouse. I also use cheap wireless ones and I play games on PC and don't have any trouble with lag and I'm a fast clicker. One thing I've noticed is that some mice need a mousepad more than others. I had one wired mouse that worked fine on any mousepad, but when I got a wireless mouse I had to throw out the pads and use a frugal alternative. I took a hard cover book and wrapped a piece of white printer paper around the cover (like a home-made bookcover). It works much better than any of the mousepads I had, even the ones that were mostly one single colour. The all-white works great. Sometimes different colours screw up the mouse and make it jerk around on the screen. They can work on a desk, but not very good in my experience.. and it feels odd and noisy without a mousepad.

[deadmad7 4]

I took a hard cover book and wrapped a piece of white printer paper around the cover (like a home-made bookcover). It works much better than any of the mousepads I had, even the ones that were mostly one single colour. The all-white works great. Sometimes different colours screw up the mouse and make it jerk around on the screen.
They can work on a desk, but not very good in my experience.. and it feels odd and noisy without a mousepad.

Not really, I use my Mouse on a desk and it works great. Better than a mouse pad. The only problem is a like a mouse shaped stain on the desk... but im sure that will go away if i wash it with my back into it.

AHHHHHH! i hate the feel of paper....

[Quatrux 4]

I also remember those times with balls , now when I remembered, I really think it was a pain to use it, after I got my first optical mouse, I felt so much better :DNow I have a quite simple laser cordless mouse, which is good, but sometimes I hate that cordless mouse, due to the batteries need to be recharged once a month, sometimes once 2-3 months, depends on the usage and because it's without wires, it usually falls from my desk board on the ground, I remember having optical mouse with a wire, it usually just hang on the table, due to the wire

Edited February 7, 2011 by Quatrux (see edit history)

[Parubilla 0]

Hahahaha yep I remember the ball mouse, it was annoying, specially when it was dirty and would suddenly stopped working. Optical mouse was a great invention, but I have to say I haven?t use it for a while, because for the desktop I use the tablet mouse, and that mouse just have like a fabric on the bottom, and the rest of the time I use the track pad of the laptop, and that made me remember when laptops had this little ball in the middle of the keyboard as a mouse, when I first saw them I though were the coolest thing ever, and a little while ago I found one of these old laptops in a closet, turn it on, and try to use the freaking ball, it was impossible I could n ?t use I was like "what the hell", it was really hard to make it move, I don?t know if it was because we haven?t use that computer for a long time and the little ball was kind of stuck, or that we are already used to the sensitivity of the newer mice so we cannot use the older ones without getting exasperated.

[PhoenixGFX 1]

The title of the post sounds like something else.I still have a few of them here, but don't use them. They're probably in a box in the attic.I kinda hardly use a mouse nowadays, Love my Wacom Tablet. And it feels uncomfortable when holding a mouse because I've gotten accustomed to my stylus.Does anyone remember Floppy Disks?The future generation will say we're crazy and making stuff up.