mckay@princeton.UUCP (09/11/83)
Just about two hours ago I plunked down my $50 bucks and picked up the mouse Radio Shack is selling for their color computer. It's not too bad as mechanical mice go. It's about 3'' by 2'' with a single red button on the top center. The position sensing is done through a small stell ball on the bottom of the mouse body. The cord exits from the top center and it rests quite flat and steady on a desk top. It seems to be a bit surface sensitive (I've only used a magnetic mouse before this) and tends to slide rather then roll on slick surfaces which is pretty normal. A couple of things became immeadiately apparent when using the mouse. 1) it makes drawing (using a qickie test program writen in basic) on the screen very easy to do, and much more natural then the joystick. 2) It makes for very interesting game play. So far I've played "centeped","othello" and "defender" with the mouse with varied results. "Centeped" is far and away the best game for use with the mouse. This game uses the full resolution of the RS a/d circuit and positions the gun according to the position of the mouse on the desk top. "othello" just uses the mouse as an piece position input which it works well as. "Defender" on the other hand is looking for Atari type joysticks and is confusing to play with the mouse. For the bucks the mouse is a neat device and I highly recommend it.