/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.8835239]

What are /vr/'s opinions on balled mice? Do you use them to get the authentic retrogaming experience?

[Anonymous No.8835241]

I use it for Mario Paint.

[Anonymous No.8835247]

>>8835239
No, that's one bit of technology I'm happy we left behind. I can't think of a single reason to use them.

[Anonymous No.8835250]

Always hated them, absolute garbage. I still having to open them and clean the ball.

[Anonymous No.8835251]

>>8835239
Not really. But at the same time I've noticed some programs seem to dislike optical mice and are always way too oversensitive

[Anonymous No.8835254]

Just ordered an Intellimouse. Should be arriving soon. It'll be the first ball mouse I've used since I switched over to optical about 20 years ago. Might pick up a vintage trackball mouse as well.

[Anonymous No.8835256]

>>8835239
I use modern mouse adapters on most of my retro machines, a lot more convenient and reliable. Mouses for Amigas, Ataris, and pre-ADB Macs are a fucking fortune and it's stupid to pay those prices for a ball mouse anyway.
>>8835251
This is definitely an issue from time to time.

[Anonymous No.8835257]

Trackballs are cool it's like these things evolved.

[Anonymous No.8835263]

Switching to a MS optical mouse (forget the brand name) was, and I've never used this phrase before- a game changer

[Anonymous No.8835264]

>>8835247
>I can't think of a single reason to use them.
Moving the cursor, mostly.

[Anonymous No.8835267]

One time I took out the ball and tried to bounce by throwing it across the room and it split in half

[Anonymous No.8835275]

>>8835267
Having to manually operate the rollers with one hand while holding the mouse up in the air is one of the reasons I'm glad optical tech is the standard.

[Anonymous No.8835289]

>>8835267
it was a lot more fun to throw 3 1/2 floppies like frisbees

[Anonymous No.8835324]

>>8835251
Like what? I used to use Deluxe Paint IIe on the PC with an optical mouse and running on a VGA CRT at 120Hz, it was great, million times better than on the Amiga with the classic mouse.

[Anonymous No.8835332]

>>8835239
>Do you use them to get the authentic retrogaming experience?
No, I use it for work

t. land surveyor from office operating under "ain't broken, don't replace it"

[Anonymous No.8835380]

is the dreamcast mouse balled yes?

[Anonymous No.8835424]

>>8835380
The DC mouse, SNES mouse, and PSX mouse are all ball mice. I can't confirm for the Genesis or Saturn mice since I don't have one.

[Anonymous No.8835449]

some optical mice are more retro than others

[Anonymous No.8835461]

>>8835257
same, i have a few non-laser trackballs I bought way back when and love them.

[Anonymous No.8835474]

>>8835239
It's really annoying having to boil an egg each time I want to replace the ball, but otherwise they were fine for their time

[Anonymous No.8835490]

>>8835239
Used to care, don't anymore, I care more about the switches used than if it's optical or mechanical, both work fine, mechanical just requires a clean once a month. You should also use 200Hz polling rate for PS/2, default is 80, makes a bigger difference than ball or optical.

[Anonymous No.8835938]

I hated them so much
Even the shittiest cheapest laser mouse was a revolution to me

[Anonymous No.8835961]

One thing I hate about optical mice is the red light. The alternative is mice with invisible lasers but I don't like the idea of accidentally staring into an invisible laser.

:(

[Anonymous No.8836594]

>>8835250
>he doesn't clean his appliances normally

[Anonymous No.8836597]

>>8835239
>you will never scrape the gunk off your mouse's balls again

[Anonymous No.8836603]

>>8835239
They're another kind of optical mouse, and they're shit. There are no upsides. Trackballs can be nice though.

[Anonymous No.8836612]

soon musk-senpai will save us from decades of slavery to the mouse

[Anonymous No.8836639]

I remain a luddite when it comes to wireless peripherals, but I'm not going back to a mechanical mouse. There's no benefit to them.

[Anonymous No.8836642]

>mouse
No thanks, I'm straight.

[Anonymous No.8836696]

>>8835239
Soul

[Anonymous No.8836706]

PC gamers aren't idiots like console gamers who need to use the worst possible ways to play their games so it's "soul" and "how the developers intended". They just play using the best of their abilities.

This is why there is nobody explaining to you why balled mice are vastly superior to optical mice like some do with CRTs.

[Anonymous No.8836709]

>>8836706
balled mice offer superior tactical feedback

[Anonymous No.8836747]

>>8836706
>PC gamers aren't idiots like console gamers who need to use the worst possible ways to play their games

The keyboard is a shitty way to move and the only reason it's tolerable is because of the increased aiming ability of the mouse

[Anonymous No.8836750]

>>8836706
based

[Anonymous No.8836758]

I remember we used to steal those balls from the mice at secondary school and throw theht80rm at each other.

[Anonymous No.8836761]

>>8836747
name a better way to move than wasd

inb4 analog stick lmao

[Anonymous No.8836785]

>>8836761
The analog stick uses one finger to move where the keyboard needs three. Something like the wii nunchuk with extra buttons on the back would be ideal

[Anonymous No.8836815]

>>8836785
>wii nunchuk
opinion discarded

wasd literally provides the fastest possible response time for human physiology

[Anonymous No.8836940]

>>8836706
You tried, but fell short. PC gamers will hack and patch their old games to try and get them running on modern windows or even WINE but eventually you'll run into something that will demand a specific version of windows and period appropriate hardware. And when you bring this up you'll be flooded with cope from zoomer pcmr types who will lie about "works for me" on a game they hadn't even heard about until you mentioned it because it would upset their worldview about PC superiority. Unreal Tournament will run, but will do so at a highly erratic gamespeed because it used a combination of RDTSC and vsync for timing because back when it was made RDTSC ticked upwards at a constant rate but since speedstep, hyperthreading and C states it no longer does and it confuses the fuck out of the engine. Some russian made a hacked directx dll which people claim fixes it but it in fact only fixed the fact that vsync was broken on certain modern video cards, it did nothing for the RDTSC issues and anyone who claims it "werks" is either lying or blind.

[Anonymous No.8836941]

>>8836761
The delusion keyboard fags live under.

[Anonymous No.8836948]

>>8836709
+1 or even +2 to your OODA loop rolls

[Anonymous No.8837015]

>>8835239
autism

[Anonymous No.8837110]

>>8835239
I remember that the positional rollers were relatively easy to clean, but the tensioner developed some sort of sticky gunk that had to be scraped off bit by bit (didn't come off in a single continuous chunk). I suspect it was because of the different material used.

[Anonymous No.8837115]

>>8836940
Still works better that back in the day

[Anonymous No.8837156]

>>8835239
did anyone else suck on the ball to clean it?

[Anonymous No.8837206]

>>8836940
>Unreal Tournament will run, but will do so at a highly erratic gamespeed
bull, show proof or stfu

[Anonymous No.8837208]

I used to eat those small computer mouse balls at my dad's office he would take me to. There were tons of empty rooms used for "training" new hires that were never used and he would basically let me have free reign in there. I would take a mouse ball out and suck on it like a gob stopper for hours. I don't know if you guys remember, but they had sort of like a "powdery" feel to them and I thought they tasted good. I probably sucked 500 mouse balls or more dry because I liked the powdery substance on them. I grew up with severe ADHD, behavioral problems, on the spectrum, and suffer from seizures. I never had those issues prior to eating those mouse balls. I asked a few doctors about it and most of them dismissed it but I saw a neurologist once and he was basically like, "yeah who knows what were on those things"

[Anonymous No.8837615]

>>8836815
keyboard is forever gimped by not having the ability to strafe and aim. The nunchuk didn't catch on but those VR knuckle controllers will likely take over one day

[Anonymous No.8837621]

>>8835239
I don't miss 'em a single bit. Well, maybe exactly one bit but eh, we didn't lost anything important when switched to optical.

That thread on Twitter where poster made zoomers believe that people were using cooked egg yolks in their mouse back in the day was absolutely hilarious. Probably the only fun thing that came out of twitter

[Anonymous No.8837651]

>>8835961
When do you see it? I've been using optical mice since 2000 and have only ever seen the light when i've picked it up look and see if the mice is broken/unplugged.

>>8836709
>tactical feedback
>sometimes you get feedback, sometimes not
>the mice is playing you

>>8836761
wasdqe is good for 6dof games. i prefer crisp buttons to an analog stick personally.

>>8837615
eh, all retro shooter source ports let you wasd + arrows which is kind of shit compared to mouse aim, but its about on par with analog stick aiming.

[Anonymous No.8837672]

>>8836785
>The analog stick uses one finger to move where the keyboard needs three.
That’s three digits that rarely need to move where they’re from. This might be one of the more asinine comparisons I’ve seen.
Also, playing shooters with a mouse and joystick has been a possibility for awhile now. I first got introduced to the concept with Unreal. I still prefer keyboard movement for shooters or anything first person.

[Anonymous No.8837673]

>>8835239
Used to play an online 2D side scrolling shooter called Soldat and the ball mice were much much better for it for some reason.

[Anonymous No.8838005]

there's a reason why they were ditched. not even the retrozoomers want them.

[Anonymous No.8838929]

I remember someone complaining that it ruined his Doom strats. With a wheel he could just smack the mouse front and back, and the wheel spin would be enough to send him close to pinkies, shoot them and then retreat.

[Anonymous No.8839019]

>>8835239
One time my dog, who let's just say was generally not very bright, got sick and was throwing up everywhere, so we took her to the vet and we were told she had swallowed something and they needed to surgically remove whatever it was.

Once they did, they showed us the object and asked us if we knew what it was. It was a fucking mouse ball, a heavy one, too. We had a lot of computer shit lying around at the time, and I guess a mouse ball got loose at some point and ended up in the yard, and the stupid dog up and swallowed it.

[Anonymous No.8839060]

>>8835239
I used to like taking the balls out of the mice in Jr high computer lab just to be a dick

[Anonymous No.8839089]

>>8837208
From what I was told by my kids doctor, is that if toddlers have an urge to lick walls, floors, or other objects it is because they have an iron deficiency. If this issue is not addressed when you are young it can turn into Pica Disorder. Which is probably what you ended up having as a kid

[Anonymous No.8839195]

>>8839089
Does this explain all those videos of black people eating corn starch?

[Anonymous No.8839216]

>>8837206
>>8837115
Go to bed, zoomer. The adults are talking.

[Anonymous No.8839267]

>>8836940
These are software issues though. Back then games used to be programmed in a very unportable platform-specific way, not unlike consoles really. It's why we need dosbox with a virtual processor with predictably limited speed just to get the timing right in old games.

I had no idea UT99 had these issues though. Nice info.

[Anonymous No.8839317]

>>8839195
Idk I have never seen what you are referring too. But when you take babies off of breast milk/formula you have to make sure they get iron from other places like leafy greens or meat

[Anonymous No.8839620]

>>8835490
>You should also use 200Hz polling rate for PS/2, default is 80
This is something you have to dig through BIOS menus to find isn't it?

[Anonymous No.8839626]

>>8836940
Nice speech

[Anonymous No.8839631]

>>8837208
This autist literally ate dust as a kid.

[Anonymous No.8839674]

>>8835250
fair enough but it was so satisfying when it made it work great again.

[Anonymous No.8839817]

>>8836747
i had a friend playing PC shooters using a xbox 360 pad in his left hand and mouse in right.
best of both world,he was quite good at the game too (quake live)

[Anonymous No.8839901]

Balled mice can have better accuracy than some of the red laser mice. I'm not sure if it's the mouse driver or the mouse itself, but there were definitely a lot of instances in the early laser mouse days where moving the mouse as fast as possible in a direction will scatter the mouse on screen instead of going in that direction. It will appear as if it's "bouncing" off the edge of the screen. My current laser mouse seems accurate and doesn't do this.

[Anonymous No.8840381]

>>8835239
I don't really care as long as it works well.
I still prefer the first Microsoft WOM or optical Intellimouse for old builds, de facto mouse I go for, but I also use ball mice with some machines and it's fine.

[Anonymous No.8840414]

>>8835239
Terrible. Dead for a reason.
Progress is good.

[Anonymous No.8840421]

>>8835239
I used to put a ball in my mouth as a kid. Perfect round object which is soft and hard at same time.

[Anonymous No.8840697]

>>8835239
They worked, and were aedquate for the time. The roller wheels inside always needed cleaning after getting all funked up, but they managed to do what they were supposed to.

[Anonymous No.8840715]

>>8835239
I use an optical trackball. Best of both worlds.

[Anonymous No.8840741]

>>8837208
you know, i don't really mean to look down on your circumstances, but it's somewhat poetic that you were so gay that you became autistic.

[Anonymous No.8840760]

>>8840741
History repeats itself

[Anonymous No.8842001]

>>8840421
A habit which I'm sure you didn't carry into adulthood, right?
Right?

[Anonymous No.8842029]

Only cool thing was that I used to lift the mouse and then roll just the ball, now the mouse has to be completely flat on the table.

[Anonymous No.8842158]

>>8835239
>Do you use them to get the authentic retrogaming experience?
No. I play SNES mouse games on an iphone for the authentic zoomie experience.

[Anonymous No.8842174]

>>8842158
mindbroken.

[Anonymous No.8842297]

>>8835239
No. I've never had a problem with modern mice.

[Anonymous No.8843027]

>>8835239
Looks FCC Part 15 compliant to me.

[Anonymous No.8843154]

>>8835239
I have a Microsoft Intellimouse somewhere but I honestly don't even see the point in searching for it. This isn't something like CRT vs LCD where one technology has clear advantages. I cannot think of a single advantage for a balled mouse. I still use ball mice on my Sun Ultra 1 and my Power Mac 6100, because literally nothing else will work. If I have a choice, I'm gonna be using the MX-518.

>>8836940
I never knew that about UT, good info. On the topic of old shit, I'm still amazed that Brood War runs completely OK on modern computers with basically zero modification. If anything it runs better on Windows 10 than Windows 7, since on the latter you needed to make a batch file that killed explorer when starting SC, just to get the colours to display properly.

>>8839019
When I was a kid, our cat used to play with mouse balls that were drying after being washed, but he was a smart little guy, and knew not to eat them. Our dog was a dumb cunt and did the exact same thing as your pooch- swallowed a mouse ball and ended up in surgery to clear an obstruction. My dad, who was always more of a cat person, suggested putting the dog down, because "the cat was smart, didn't eat it, the dog was not, it will die anyway, this is how evolution works". I do have to say, I have never owned such a stupid dog since, dad was probably right.

[Anonymous No.8843714]

>>8843154
Poor dog wasn't as dumb as the fucktard who left a mouse ball out to dry instead of just drying them off with a dish rag/paper towel/whatever and popping it right back in. Please tell me you're just another dumb baby making up stories for attention. I'm not even a dog lover. Just a fucktard hater.

[Anonymous No.8845103]

>>8837208
why did you put "training" in quotes?

[Anonymous No.8845232]

>>8839216
I asked for proof you nigger, I have played UT99 on a Win 98 pc and played it over the years on a Win XP and Win 7 systems and I have NEVER noticed any difference so either you show your proof or you should stop making things up

[Anonymous No.8846947]

>>8835239
I have one new old stock in my mobo box
it's an emachines from the black/silver XP days