LGR Oddware - MousePen Input Device
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- Overview and demonstration of the ICMS/Appoint Mouse Pen. Why use a mouse shaped like a bar of soap when you could use a mouse shaped like an electric toothbrush?
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● Intro music is "triboscusx1" by Jellica:
cheapbeatsmusic...
I worked in a computer store when the MousePen was released. We had it set up on one of our demo systems. That crazy wood block/stand actually came with the pen!
As for why you'd want one? You missed the killer app. I think it was on the driver disk that came with it... A DOS text-mode version of Solitaire. Worked GREAT with that pen. You could play it using the pen on your jeans while you stood next to the demo system watching over the store. :-)
Solitaire on jeans makes a lot of sense, actually.
That Mouse Pen looks complicated, glad I'd rather use an ACTUAL Computer Mouse for things like that....
Can you use it with Linux? Dose Linux support any such hardware older than itself
It's just a serial mouse. Should work fine. If you still have a serial port. :-)
Scott Duensing How about with adapters? Will there be any input lag?
Insane they made it so square though, it's hardly an ergonomic transition from the traditional pen.
it also looks like a tiny vacuum cleaner :D
Haha agreed
Guru Larry in the comments of LGR videos? That's the best thing since someone put butter on toast.
metalj
Someone put butter on toast!?
It also looks like one of those LEGO brick separator tools
metalj He shows up in the comments sections for videos like this pretty often, actually.
Mr. LGR, companies should put your quotes on all of their packaging. "It doesn't suck. So there is that."
For the next step up in oddware, look for the Soniture "Space Pen"... an ultrasonic 3D controller that you waved around in the air in front of your monitor to control the pointer or other functions. It was introduced in 1985 and was designed to plug into the joystick port of an IBM PC, Apple II, Commodore, Atari, or MSX computer -- plus it comes with a required "receiver frame" that you put on your monitor. There's been one listed on eBay for quite a while now, and I'm sure it's attracting lots of curious and puzzled people, but so far its rather high Buy It Now price hasn't gotten any takers.
Will definitely look into grabbing one of those, that sounds wild. Thanks, man!
My SO gave me a pointer that was basically like the power glove but as a mouse. You wrapped it around your hands and could do the whole Minority Report thing. It worked, but it was so inconvenient. You twitch your finger to click: index for left click, middle for right click. This was from the mid 2000s. I have no idea what it was called or what the brand was.
VWestlife kinda like a blue tooth but less sensible
@@ferretyluv Are you talking about the Essential Reality P5 that LGR recently did a video on?
I can see their reasoning behind this product. It's interesting. Long before mouses and keyboards were a thing, pens were their 'primitive' equivalent. Maybe if this was the original input for a computer it would have been standard, but introducing when they did is the odd part.
Very much so. The reasoning is what most makes this oddware, in the "obsolete thinking" sense.
Well I think in some ways it's ahead of it's time, maybe too ahead. As you said, there are similar products on the market today and in a lot of ways it resembles a stylus that you'll find with certain tablets. You get a much more natural experience with certain things, like paint programs. I think touch screens really enhance that because of how seamless it feels.
By the way, this is becoming my favorite series of yours. I look forward to every video you put out and the fact that you read and respond to the comments makes this my favorite channel. Keep up the good work!
Lazy Game Reviews and that's what makes the oddware section so entertaining Clint.
"This retailed for $129 in 1990"
*I look it up*
*$129 in 1990 is worth $240.21 today.*
Yeah. No. I'm not paying $250 for this. Ever.
***** Modern mouse pens are between 12 and 40$ and come from KYE/Genius on the better end and from no-name Chinese companies on the cheaper end.
Back in 1991, the $130 price tag was highly reasonable, because no mouse would cost below $50, and they went up to about $300 for slightly better made models.
A friend of mine spent 400€ on Intuos 4 pen tablet, and it's GLORIOUS. I have a 200€ Graphire XL pen tablet, and i'm thinking of replacing it with Huion for $40 because i need a bigger tablet for my new monitor, and this particular Chinese brand seems to have matched the Graphire quality, though it certainly won't compare with the best of Japanese products.
So, it was the Razer of its time.
Flashy for no reason, but because of its flashiness, it costs way more.
@@thedawkturr4481 Lol I literally own the first Razor Phone, got for a bargain from Razor for 400 bucks. GREAT deal other than no headphone jack. Ha, love the irony there, gaming phone with no headphone jack.
The Dawkturr Apple*
Tremere no definitely razor I don’t see Apple with $200 products it’s usually more
I can't stress how much I like your videos and how much I would like you to do this for a living.
Im really intrigued my this as someone who uses a digital tablet to draw. I often find myself using my tablet and pen to navigate the web just cuz I fond it intuitive and easy to move my cursor by pointing the pen XD
For anyone curious, the cost on this in 2014 dollars is $235, when adjusted for inflation. The thought of paying $235 for this strikes me as insane. I can't believe they actually were able to sell any of these things to the public.
Different times I guess.
I used to have one of these. It was the"pro" version. The ball was designed and positioned better, and you could just keep it rolling on nearly any surface. At the time, it was my favorite way to play "Purple Saturn Day".
i have a pennnnn
i have a mouseee
ahh mousepen 🎵🎵🎹🎹🍍🍍🍎🍎
You read my mind lol
🖱️🍍🍎 🖱️
Man, I agree the old draw times when filling the screen with colour on paint programs is so satisfying for some reason.
Mm. Supreme satisfaction.
I remember having a computer that loaded plain text just as slowly.
To me that mouse looks like a electronic thermometer.
The concept makes perfect sense since at that time I'm guessing at the time most people were not used to mice so a pen would feel more "natural".
Though I imagine the box surrounding the ball gets in the way too often if you tend to tilt the thing as you move left. If it could somehow work more like the top of a ballpoint pen I imagine it fix that problem, and of course the fixed angle problem.
Just like I´m used to mouse aiming in games and not used to gamepad, it´s the same thing with this. I think we are all used to regular mouse (PC users), so this really feels weird and hard to control. But it´s always nice to see something like this, learning the history and such things.
Wow, looks like a miniature vacuum cleaner lol
I love your comparative measurements for the rollerball size... Didn’t skip a beat with me, lol! I love Oddware, so much fun!!!
the block of wood is for your beer when you see how useless it is
I had something very similar to this. It was called a "Crayon", was blue and a lot more ergonomic than the pen mouse you're showing. I got it back in 1996 at Best Buy and I don't think it was more than $30.00. I loved the thing. It worked great and to be honest, I'd still be using it if it were USB compatible (mine had the Atari 2600/Sega Genesis style plug).
That classic LSL shirt is so crucial. There's no dive bar like Lefty's. Don't forget your left-handed hammer!
I get so nostalgic watching your old PC's and hearing the music on old games. :D
Maybe it'll help if you use your leg as a mousepad, like the people on the different boxes.
That made it even worse!
Lazy Game Reviews You're supposed to use a foam mouse pad not a laminated one.
I used a simple piece of fun foam and it worked like a charm.
There's this new product called the Pocket Mouse. It's a pen-shaped mouse just like the Mouse Pen, but only smaller and sleeker, and requires no cabling at all. Just a USB transmitter that syncs to the device. I own one, and it's good for a backup mouse.
A blast from the past! I remember playing Future wars with it and i'm pretty sure that was the one and only mouse pen in the USSR!
Actually I think you're correct; the block of wood WAS for holding the pen. If you look closely you can see a small lip on the inside so the pen didn't get flipped out by anything.
Ah yes, the mouse pen. Love these odd ware videos. Have you ever done an odd ware on the dip switches? Back in the day when you set up your perifials with a teeny tiny little switch on the motherboard.
People use forks right?...And they love soup...riiggght? I give to you - The SoupFork (TM).
If i remember correctly, the dos mouse drivers had command line options to change things like sensitivity and acceleration (or sometimes called 'precision' for some reason). I doubt that the hardware itself has that built in to it in any meaningful way, but its driver is expecting a much larger ball which would have a much slower roll rate and therefore a much wider acceleration threshold.
My uncle was a graphics designer during that era and had one of those... he used it with CorelDRAW on Windows 3.0 and I vaguely remember fiddling with it myself.
The new ones are great for signing documents and work really great with the RF chip that comes with most computers for $10 or with your Bluetooth connection for $50.
That two in one adapter seems like the most useful part of the whole thing.
I love the background SimCity 3000 music!
Dude! I have that Max Payne mousepad as well! Used that thing for years.
i love that you used sim city 3000 music
that thing have the same ergonomic shape as NES controler,jajajaja, but hey that video is awesome, you should do more of them and tech tales are awemose to, keep up the good work
Wacom has really come far... XD
Man the 90`s was a wonderful time.
that peice of wood is used in Quija board because it is similar to the triangle that people use in the paranormal game
I have one of those Max Payne mouse pads from when I was a kid, it's way too small for me to use now unfortunately because it's a cool relic of my childhood
What an odd device! But it's always fun to watch these devices to be put to the test)
I wonder if back then I had MousePen I could actually get used to it.....Maybe notXD
man. OSU came a long way to drawing tablets
the ball on that thing reminds me of the trackball on the blackberry pearl
Man, I had one of those! I totally forgot about it. I though it would help me draw on the computer better.
Googling "mouse pen block of wood" brings up a Jun 25 1990 edition of infoworld which indicates the block of wood was included with the mouse.
Play osu! With it
I bought a paint program on eBay a couple weeks ago called Splash! by Spinnaker Software - I'm pretty sure that it and Telepaint are the same program! Splash! would be the optimal DOS-era paint program, except that it only supports its own format, and that format only supports 320x200, 256 color images. I wonder if Telepaint works the same way.
7:30 how many of you r viewers know how big a buckshot is^^
At least 7
yeah that does look cheap! That's almost $250 in today's dollars! Look's so awkward, too. Couldn't imagine using it on CAD all day without getting carpal tunnel after a week lol. Great video LGR
Must be terrible for Lefty people like me.
It was perfectly ambidextrous, as I recall. Even more so than current designs. The primary button was ahead of the secondary button. I used to frequently switch between hands, with no change in usage.
...memories...
I have a pen I have a mouse
David Holbrook. umh deadmau5
Apple should have made one of this
ooo arkanoid!! and that max payne mousepad! I want one!! even though I don't use a mousepad.
What a piece of crap. Make's trackballs look good.
+CapnHolic what are you talking about trackballs are the shit
justquant The only trackball that was any good was the one in the centipede arcade game.
+CapnHolic I was going to say the same thing, it's so bad it makes a mouse look good.
(Trackball users unite!)
I know i'm 3 months late but, trackball? More like trashball
You know, whenever i see these Oddwares presented, i always wish i'd hear from those business people who actually used these gadgets (more than one day) back in the past. Toys failing and saving in stressful, raw deadline environments. All the sales speech fluff and then it turned out to be something else. Some good stories just waiting to be shared, i'd like to think.
Video responses would be nice ways to get to them, if any come around.
Id like you to make a Frankenstein computer from the 1980s perhaps with an explosion of a external drive on boot up. That paint program reminds me of the Socrates Paint program.
The "paint fill" reminded me of Qix.
Reminding me of the RadioShack CueCat.
Excellent catch on the definition of PPI there. Most people think it means _pixels_ per inch, but that's only relevant to displays, PPI for stepper motors or encoders refers to the pulses.I gather from this and several other tells your tech videos you're somewhat of an electronics tinkerer?
My school had a few of these with the first PC's they got back in 1994.
We never never allowed to use/touch them. Just stick to the regular mouse, but i could never resist fucking about with it even though they were never plugged in ;)
This is basically the old drawing tablet or whatever you wanna call it. Like if the ergonomics where a little better and the input a little better. This would be a drawing tablet in 1990.
2:55 that's SimCity 3000 music!! :D
It seems like something I would have an interest in if it worked fully and had a slightly less awkward shape. I guess for a random invention it wasn't too bad for it's time? I don't know. I'm sure they coulda done better but they probably didn't have the resources to have done such.
I hope you use Covox Lemmings for all of your mouse related Oddware.
it would be cool if you could write out letters and a program can register into words with a specified font
Ok but in that time when the only other drawing option was a mouse or track pad that would be awesome. Because like at least you could draw kinda well
I think I would be driven to the brink of sanity by the mouse cord resting on my forearm.
I had one of these. This was clearly the early days where you could sell the hell out of a piece of crap based on concept alone
If you'd use it on your thigh it's working pretty well. Kind of ergonomic and comfortable.
I saw you picked this up on one of your thrifting videos. You mention above that you ordered this off ebay. Did the goodwill find not work?
SimCity 3000 music, memories right there...
I have a pen, i have a mouse...hum... Mousepen.... read this with the voice from that dude.
Great video!
Yes, please make a video on old painting software :D
I'm sure there were/are people who are more comfortable using a pen shape from years of office work, but for actual productivity the mouse can't be beat. The time lost from frequently picking up and laying this thing down just wouldn't be acceptable after a while.
I've seen more modern versions of this thing geared towards people with repetitive strain injuries, or as a crappy alternative to drawing tablets.
I've seen, held, and was confused about what this thing was before. I thought that the ball was some sort of button and that you held it upside down like a joystick. Now I just feel ridiculous.
+MrSparkzz You remind me of Scotty in star trek 4, where he tries to talk to the mouse lol.
I think if the mouse pad is squishy at all it will interfere with the operation of the mouse due to the small size of the ball when you press down too hard. I'm not sure how squishy the max payne mouse pad is though, but I would have tried it on like some clipboard or something.
Here's what im wondering, why didnt they instead make it a ball point pen but the ball is a trackball. That would have worked perfectly
A far cry from the comfort a Wacom stylus provides.
Might be interesting for left handed people, because you would easily be able to use this thing with both hands.
I wonder how long it will be til my mouse I got around christmas is reviewed... a contour rollermouse free 2
This thing would be completely unusable for me due to the fact that I'm left handed so I would naturally want to use it with my left hand.
But I use a mouse in my right hand.
This means my brain will struggle either way as in one hand it will say "USE THE OTHER!" and when flipping to that hand my brain will still shout "USE THE OTHER!" and just give me a major headache.
block of wood was to make the package over a certain weight so you had to pay more for shipping heheh
Really? Are you being serious?
What-s the point? They-d have to pay for it anyways.
@@Mick_92 Most companies don't charge you the exact price they pay for shipping, they just split the shipping charges into categories based on weight ranges to simplify their logistics. Usually there's pretty substantial price jumps by going up a weight class, which leads to situations where you have packages that are on the very edge of a class (say, 4.95 pounds and the next class is at 5+) that'll effectively cost the shipper the same as a 5 lb package, and not a 2-4 lb package. In edge cases like these, it's pretty common to use extra packaging (or even something like a small panel of cardboard) to bump the package up to the next price tier so they don't lose money on shipping.
That said, this practice is dying out due to the rise of flat-rate shipping in the commercial sector, mainly through the USPS.
@@zOMGREI this guy ships
The stuff about shipping might have been true (and is interesting), but in this case the block of wood was actually part of the device. It was suppose to be the stand for the pen (LGR guessed it right), it was just a really crappy design.
Clearly the entire budget for this product was spent on that block of wood
yep
Looks like a pregnancy test
try not to pee on it D:
looks like a penis to me
The Saint of Dongs would be pretty familiar with pregnancy tests, I'm sure.
so this is the grandmother of pen tablets? Wacom's ancient ancestor?
Nah, in fact pen-based graphics tablets and light pens existed for decades before this thing. It's just a strange mashup between two things that existed already: a mouse and a pen :)
Well then!
the grandfather you feminist
the grandnan you malist
ancientparent
you tablecist
You should make the logo you drew in telepaint your new official logo.
Tempting...
TPain...
T!
@@LGR do it!!!
Love the Sim City 3000 music in the background. :D
whats good nate!
The mouse pen looks like a mini vacuum cleaner
VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Play Duke Nukem with the mouse pen, and another keyboard replacement oddware (preferably the most ridiculous thing you can find.) Should be hilarious to watch.
That Simcity 3000 music!
Yeah boi! Thought I was the only one too lol
Next on "I can't believe they invented it!" with Troy McClure, the all-in-one mouse-pen-electric-toothbrush...
a video on paint programs sounds like something that would be enjoyable in your style honestly you need your own documentary series XD
The Max Payne mouse Pad is awesome, been looking for big box version that came with it for a long time. Have any extras? :)
No extras, but it shows up on Ebay every so often!
I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure the mouse pen is not ergonomic. The angle one has to hold it in puts too much strain on the users wrist. Using it everyday for work will probably give you a repetitive stress injury like carpal tunnel.
Using a pen mouse like that would really screw with me because I'm naturally left handed yet I use a mouse with my right hand.
Wow, I bet -- that's like double weird.
Better get ambidextrous and fast.
Alex Coulthard
I can use a mouse in my left hand, it just doesn't feel right. The gamer muscle memory in my right hand is so much more refined, and no matter how funny the idea sounds, left clicking with my middle finger will never feel natural to me.
Same here bro, Im also a lefty.
I'm in the exact same scenario as you.
What LGR said about ebay is absolutely true: I once opened a box containing a printer and found a human ear. Imagine the massive paypal controversy that followed, because the seller actually wanted it back.
Honestly, some people...
Ghost81 :○
I still want my ear back, dangit
*Van Gogh wants to know your location*
For retatchment ofcourse.
@uncle ricky a joke
Someone should make a ballpoint pen, but it's a mouse and the ink roller is the trackball.
Blitz that's basically what the mouse pen is or was that sarcasm?
Nope, I was being serious. I am aware that my above statement is basically the MousePen, but I think with a trackball as small or close to as small as is found in a ballpoint pen, it would be magnitudes more practical and comfortable to use. Also, it would probably mean the elimination of the tilt angle problem seen in Mouse Pens thus far.
Blitz why not just get a tablet and a stylist
kyle gregg because he wants a computer
The problem this would face is that you must hold the pen at a specific rotation to make sure it detects the correct directions.
Is that SimCity3000 music I hear? :D
+KillingerDOOM Referring to the song at the end during Lemmings right? Mind sharing what song that is? I like the sound of it!
Lucas Williams when in the video did u hear it. Time stamp please I don't hear it
MunecraftNation 2:55
I knew I recognised it, Thanks for confirming. Man, I played Sim City 3000 into the ground!
Thank you so much for reviewing this!
I'm surprised they had already tried introducing a pen shaped mouse so early in the game since trying to buy something similar now (ie drawing tablets) requires you to spend so much extra in addition to the standard mouse. As a design student I would've thought that the demand to have been pretty high for designers... But I'm guessing this product did not give too much of an advantage to what was already available...
I do wonder if they had made the pen more synonymous with how the present stylus works, (placing the ball at the tip and rounding out the edges) to have helped the sales.
I actually drew a design that looks exactly like that, not knowing that it already existed. I thought it would be great for drawing on Adobe programs or something. Now of course we have touch screen laptops and drawing tablets. Crazy how people think of the same ideas!
The Idiodyssey Then sue them for it if you so wanted to...
The Idiodyssey Did you post the schematics on the web? If so, can I see them?
I'd get this for osu tbh
Now that you mention it, this would rock for osu.
now i can play osu! at school using a "tablet" without carrying my huge tablet to school!
holy shit i was just thinking of making this joke
You don't drag or hover, you roll with it.
I got a drawing tablet for osu, but I really like it for normal use. I just need an easy way to scroll and to get used to putting it down to type (or get used to holding a pen in my fingers while typing