1983 – Sharp MZ-1X10 Mouse

Sharp MZ-1X10 mouse, known to be the the first mouse in Japan, practically at the same time when the Microsoft’s first mouse, known as the “green-eyed mouse” because of its two green buttons. The real manufacturer of both mice was the Japanese company Alps. The MZ-1X10 mouse was intended for use with Sharp MZ-5500 computers, which were based on the Intel 8086 processor, running MS-DOS and aimed at business users^[1]Ohishi Nobuaki. MZ-1X10 (mouse) [in Japanese] http://retropc.net/ohishi/museum/mz1x10.htm^[2]Sharp MZ – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharp_MZ#MZ-3500/5500/6500_group.

The body of the MZ-1X10 mouse is a cuboid with slightly rounded edges and a pair of rectangular buttons on the upper side.

The bottom side shows steel ball, three small metal balls used as the mouse feet for easier sliding, and a removable ring which would allow removing the ball for cleaning. The latch ring option has not yet been invented, so it must be unscrewed with a screwdriver. The cable has no plastic insert that would protect it from damage in place where it exits the mouse body.

Despite the small size of the mouse, it is quite heavy. It has a fairly simple design; the shape resembles power supply of a player or some other home gadget of the corresponding time period (or, thanks to specific buttons, automatic fuse for power supply networks). Obviously, the beveled back edge should provide a more comfortable palm position, but taking into account the size this does not bring significant improvements to ergonomics. The buttons are not particularly large, which also does not add comfort to the user.

The mouse was connected to the computer via a serial-type interface. The left button was used to return to the origin (upper left corner of the screen), while the right button worked as the main mouse button, that is, it generated a click in the coordinates corresponding to the cursor position^[3]Sharp MZ-1X10 Instruction Manual https://www.manualslib.com/download/900861/Sharp-Mz-1×10.htm.

Disassembled mouse is shown below.

The mouse uses closed contact encoders. When compared with the Microsoft green-eyed 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 top placement of the buttons.