New Zealand Vintage Computer Forums

Here's something that may interest to a few members http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/vint ... 442284.htm

Interesting. I've never seen one of those before!

I've done a pretty exhaustive search on the model no. and come up empty. At a guess I'd imagine it could've been used in CAD/Graphics application of some sort. Maybe one of the other members can enlighten us. The only early three button mouse I've come across personally have been for Acorn boxen. They're all bus port items though.
Found this nice page on the history of computer rodents http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/historydis ... seMain.php

3 button mice were actually common on PCs. I bought one new back in the day (cheaper than a MS mouse too btw). Half of my 'spare mice' box is 3 button DB9 serial - mostly no-name mice - or some brand nobody would recognise.

In the typical serial port generation you most often had Microsoft Mice (two button) or Mouse Systems (three button). Many of the mouse systems mice can be flicked back to two button mode (underneath a switch marked PC or MS). My oldest mouse here is a 3 button Mouse Systems style - a Genius Witty Mouse (cute name) - DB25 serial and it needs a separate +5V power source - looks like the green eyed MS model with one more button.

I'm not going near this one, with that plug it's either parallel or a serial device that piggy backs off something else - either way - getting it running will be a lot of effort for little gain. That's assuming it's even for the PC.

I wouldn't even assume it's parallel. There's a lot of interfaces out there that use a DB25 connector.

If it is for the PC, that one will almost certainly be one of the variety they used to refer to as a "Bus Mouse", and it'll need a card of some description.

This isn't DB25, but I think some of the earlier specialised interfaces were.

It looks vaguely familiar. Can't place it yet though.

The pin arrangement does match up to a parallel port. All the bus port mouse I've come across have one of two types of circular pin arrangements. http://www.oldmouse.com/miscellanea/mousebus.shtml
Green eye MS Mouse for comparison http://www.oldmouse.com/mouse/microsoft/greeneyed.shtml Wonder if Alps produced the one on TM as well?

At the very least it's an interesting curiousity.

caluser2000 wrote:The pin arrangement does match up to a parallel port.

More so than merely being a DB25? Have you got a pin diagram for this beastie?

It actually strikes a memory for me of a self contained advertising monitor. A wierd (and probably expensive) piece of kit that hung around my house for ages that was like a simple computer that could do simple ad graphics on a loop, self contained in a CRT monitor chassis.

Like a dedicated non stop powerpoint or similar display setup? Anyway I've asked the seller to give a bit more info if they can.

caluser2000 wrote:Like a dedicated non stop powerpoint or similar display setup?

Indeed - although it bore more resemblance to the relatively low-res 16 colour stuff you see in 80's TV ads, rather than the high-res vector and bitmapped stuff that you see on the average powerpoint.

We had the mouse for it, but not the keyboard, so it was a boat anchor for us, and eventually went the way of the inorganic. This of course was the mid 90's, long before I considered that any machine might have an enthusiast community capable of sourcing hard to find pieces and repairing hardware without the manufacturer's help.