Mouses – “Joysticks, tracking balls and mouses are used to specify the point on a display where a certain instruction is to be obeyed” (by David Cowan

1990 — Aero Trackball

The Aero Trackball device was introduced to the market by Taiwanese company ICA Technology in 1990. Marketing materials mention the trackball’s “advanced optomechanical technologies”, “dynamic resolution from 100 to 1000 dpi, typically set to 200 dpi” (that is, apparently, a software resolution scaling), and an “improved electronic clock” being the eye-catching part of this retrofuturistic cursor controller[1]Aero trackball reaches your…

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1989 — Prohance PowerMouse 100

The Prohance PowerMouse 100 mouse was released by Prohance Technologies inc. in 1989 as part of a family of several mice and one trackball designed for use with Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets (and some other similar applications). The concept of Prohance is to place a lot of additional buttons on the body, which, according to the developers, save the user from…

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1994 – Trinity Mariqua Mouse

The Trinity Mariqua Mouse was released in 1994 for the Japanese market by the Miyuki Electronic Design company. Following in the footsteps of the Prohance family of mice and trackballs from 1989, the Mariqua Mouse embodies the idea of placing additional buttons on the mouse body, which, according to the developers, eliminates the need for the user to frequently move…

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1993 — Colani Mouse

Apparently, the Colani Mouse was, along with the trackball of the same name, among the first so-called “designer” mice – devices officially developed in collaboration with celebrities in the field of technical design. This mouse was named and shaped by Luigi Colani. Colani is best known in the automotive industry, with about 40 concept cars; no less actively he designed…

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1994 – Elecom Lunaris Mouse

The Lunaris mouse was introduced to the market in 1994 by Elecom, a Japanese electronics manufacturer which was founded eight years earlier and which by that time had already introduced two computer mice to the market. The Lunaris mouse was released in several variants, differing in connection interface and the presence or absence of the mouse resolution adjustment. This one…

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1984 – Mindset Joystick

Mindset Joystick was developed as an additional accessory for the Mindset personal computer. The Mindset computer was released in 1984 by Mindset Corporation, and was on sale for only a year. In technical terms, the computer was partially compatible with the IBM PC. It featured an Intel 80186 processor, 32 to 256 KB of RAM, and a non-standard graphics subsystem…

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1997 – Kensington Mouse, ADB 2nd generation

The single-button Kensington Mouse, marketed and advertised as “Mouse in a Box” due to its cube-shaped packaging, was released by the American company Kensington Computer Products Group as part of a line of several similarly shaped mice. This particular model is a 2nd generationKensington Mouse designed for Apple computers with an ADB interface, presented in 1997 along with its two-button…

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1995 – Kensington Mouse

Kensington Mouse, marketed and advertised as “Mouse in a Box” due to its cube-shaped packaging, was released by the American company Kensington Computer Products Group as part of a line of several similarly shaped mice. In 1995, the manufacturer, which had been using the word “mouse” in the names of its trackballs (Turbo Mouse and Expert Mouse) for ten years…

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1995 – Kensington Thinking Mouse

Thinking Mouse was released by the American company Kensington Computer Products Group as part of a line of several similarly shaped mice. The Kensington Thinking Mouse, the top model in the line, was available for PCs and for Apple computers with an ADB interface, like the company’s other mice and trackballs. This is a PC model, but ADB ones looked…

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1986 – TPX Mouse

TPX Mouse is a cursor control device released by the Brazilian company Tropic Informática in 1986 for the TK90X computer (a Brazilian clone of the ZX Spectrum) and modified a year later for computers with the MSX architecture (a version with the MSX interface was sold by Input Digital under the name “Input Mouse”). The TK90X computer, for which the…

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1986 – Apple Desktop Bus Mouse

The Apple Desktop Bus Mouse was introduced by Apple in 1986, along with its new interface bus for peripherals, the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB). It was the first mouse officially designed in the “Snow White” design language, developed for Apple by Frog Design, the company of industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger. Along with the “Snow White” concept, the mouse body, including…

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1985 – Torrington Manager Mouse

The Manager Mouse was released in 1985 by the Torrington Company, which began its business as Excelsior Needle Company in the mid-19th century — an innovative manufacturer of sewing needles. In the more than a century preceding the release of the Manager Mouse, the company had undergone several phases of product expansion into neighboring markets, such as bicycle spokes and…

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1987 – Genius GM-5 mouse

The GM-5 mouse was released by a Taiwanese company KYE Systems (owner of the Genius brand) for use with Commodore 64 computers (the first mass-produced home computers, which were on the market from 1982 to 1992). The mouse can be dated based on KYE Systems advertising that mentions the GM-2 (a mouse produced by Z-Nix in 1986 and sold under…

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1986 — Honeywell/Asher quadLYNX trackball

The quadLYNX trackball is a modification of the LX200 trackball, made for Apple Macintosh computers. The LX200, better known by its microLYNX and comLYNX variants, was released in California by Honeywell, a subsidiary of Disc Instruments; it proved to be a long-lived product, with many subsequent reissues under different brands, with different connection interfaces and electronics. Judging by the advertising…

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1988 — Asher Turbo trackball

The Asher Turbo trackball is a device for Apple Macintosh computers with the ADB bus. It is developed based on the quadLYNX trackball – a member of the LX200 trackballs family. LX200 trackballs, better known by their microLYNX and comLYNX variants, were released in California by Honeywell, a subsidiary of Disc Instruments; they proved to be a long-lived family of…

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1985 – SMC/Contriver Magic Mouse

The Magic Mouse was introduced in 1985. It was sold under that name in versions for the Commodore 64 and BBC Micro computers. A similar model for the Apple II computers, differing in the color of the buttons and the connection port, was sold under the “Graphic Mouse” name. Reviews usually indicate either SMC Supplies or Connexions as the manufacturer…

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1978 – DEC H3060 joystick

DEC H3060 Joystick was designed for the PDP-11 family of 16-bit minicomputers created by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1970s and sold for about 3 decades – the ones UNIX operating system was initially created for. Particularly, the joystick can be found most often as a part of the VSV11/VS11 video graphics system, which included a cursor control/multi-display sync module…

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1981 – Xerox Alto Optical Mouse

In March 1973, Xerox Corporation announced the Xerox Alto computer, considered the first workstation (or personal computer), as well as the first computer with a graphical user interface. The workstation also came with the first mass-produced mouse in the history of computers, the Xerox Alto Mouse. The original mouse based on two wheels was in several years upgraded and started…

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1989 – Vatek Color-Mouse

The Vatek Color-Mouse was released in 1989 by Vatek USA Inc., a computer hardware distributor incorporated in California the previous year. According to the mouse’s creators, this made Vatek the first company to officially introduce a multi-color mouse to the market. This priority is not indisputable: Hawley Mouse House’s 1982 advertising materials feature a drawing of the Mark II X063X…

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1987 — Microsoft Dove Bar Mouse

The mouse, nicknamed the “Dove Bar Mouse” by users because of the similarly shaped soap bar, went on sale in 1987, becoming the third generation of Microsoft mice. The design was developed by Microsoft in collaboration with Matrix Design (which later merged with Hovey-Kelley, the designers of the Apple Lisa mouse, to become the design company IDEO). The mouse’s production,…

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