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A comment on Project mouSTer – Mouse adapter for retrocomputers. Parent comment

Re:Project mouSTer – Mouse adapter for retrocomputers by englishrookie on Wednesday July 08, 2020 @10:48AM (#23770379)
The only trouble I ever had with my Atari ST mouse, which I used for about 10 years, was that the axles got dusty. Well, dusty is an understatement. It was a mechanical mouse, with two axles and a ball with a plastic coating of some kind. As you moved the mouse, the ball brought the axles into motion, thus tracking your (more or less) exact movements.

Every few months I had to use my Swiss knife to scrape the accumulated dirt and dust from the axles. With some finesse, so as not to damage the axles.

The mouse could take quite some abuse too. I used to play Arkanoid (also known as Breakout) a lot, at some point. As well as other games which required a lot of clicking and moving around.

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Re:Project mouSTer – Mouse adapter for retrocomputers by cmrdporcupine on Wednesday July 08, 2020 @11:48AM (#23771043)
Yeah I had a pretty dusty house and had to clean mine probably once a week :-) Gunk collected on those axles pretty bad.

But I had buttons fail, and mouse ports break, both. I have a couple sitting around here which still work, but man are they uncomfortable.

Replacement mice back then weren't cheap, either.

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