1983 – Microsoft Green Eyed Mouse

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Microsoft’s first mouse was released in 1983 and was also the first product from its hardware division, which the company opened a year earlier. Because of the two green buttons, this model is known as the “green-eyed mouse”.

Since Microsoft at that time did not have enough experience in the hardware development and manufacture, the real manufacturer of the mouse was the Japanese company Alps — the manufacturer of the first Japanese mouse, MZ-1X10, introduced in the same 1983.

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Technically, Microsoft’s first mouse and the MZ-1X10 have a lot in common. However, the body of the MZ-1X10 mouse is a cuboid with slightly rounded edges and a pair of rectangular buttons on the upper side of the body, while the body of the Microsoft mouse has a more complex shape, and the buttons are shifted to the sloping front side.

Clearly, Microsoft placed a lot of importance on the design of their mouse. The light cream-colored case is made in a minimalist style, the only elements are two contrasting green buttons and a barely noticeable company name at the edge of the body closest to the user. Motion is detected by a heavy steel ball located towards the back of the mouse, and three small, smooth-polished balls act as feet to minimize friction. Also, a removable ring is provided in the bottom of the case, which allows you to remove the ball and get rid of the collected debris; however, the snap ring option has not yet been invented, so it must be unscrewed with a screwdriver.

Despite the small size of the mouse, it is quite heavy. Clearly, Microsoft’s focus on body shape was more or less beneficial to ergonomics. Compared to its closest relative, the MZ-1X10 mouse, it allows the palm and fingers to be placed in a more natural position.

Early versions of the Microsoft mouse had a bus interface and were equipped with a special adapter board. Later versions appeared with a serial interface and a 25 or 9-pin connector[1]Microsoft Green Eyed Mouse https://web.archive.org/web/20211205011010/https://www.oldmouse.com/mouse/microsoft/greeneyed.shtml.Mouse resolution was only 100 DPI[2]Hart G. Building a better mouse interface // PC Magazine, February 25, 1986. – pp. 167-170. https://archive.org/details/PC-Mag-1986-02-25/page/173/mode/2up.

The internal structure of the mouse can be seen below. The mouse uses closed contact encoders. When compared with the MZ-1X10 mouse, the technical design is almost identical: the differences come down to the configuration of the printed circuit board and are obviously caused by the front placement of the buttons.

your 360 images

References

References
1 Microsoft Green Eyed Mouse https://web.archive.org/web/20211205011010/https://www.oldmouse.com/mouse/microsoft/greeneyed.shtml
2 Hart G. Building a better mouse interface // PC Magazine, February 25, 1986. – pp. 167-170. https://archive.org/details/PC-Mag-1986-02-25/page/173/mode/2up

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