Had a couple razer mice cause of the hype, and sure not getting any more. They surely don’t live up to the hype now adays. Their not any better than the cheapest crap you can find.
Two things: 1. Mousepads for trackball mice used to be very rough and sticky, so the ball would track correctly (with very high static friction), relying on the glidepads of the mouse itself to minimize friction with the chasis of the mouse. 2. The old way of DPI scaling mice was to adjust the mouse cursor speed in windows itself. This is why the old Razer drivers "don't seem to work" outside of Windows XP (they attempt to change the mice speed on an API that has changed since then). In other words, mice back then always worked on their highest DPI, and relied on the OS to scale down the speed.
The 3M Precision Mousing Surface was a great pad. It was an array of pyramids. One thing I noticed is that the old ball mice seemed to need less cleaning with that pad. I loved it and think I still have it around somewhere.
Hey, there was a mouse pad I loved for its lack of friction, it was just like that! Sadly it was small so kept going off of it constantly, if ever so effortlessly. :D Makes sense also why a piece of new and fresh PVC flooring serves me well as a mouse pad, with a finely textured surface.
Linus explaining how a ball mouse worked sure made me feel old. I still remember the whole class getting our minds blown on the first day of computer lab in high school and the mice had lasers and no balls! I also remember paying about $50 for a corded laser mouse when I went away to college. I'm only 32 but apparently I'm about to crumble into dust.
I am 23 and i feel old as heck at this. Reason being my country was a good 10 years behind the world in terms of tech back then and I had ball mice up until 2005. The first time I ever saw a laser mouse I was blown away just like you
It was so surreal hearing Linus talk about mouse cleaning that I thought it was a bit. But no, some people have never experienced having to periodically scratch off that little grime ring with your nail. I remember it being oddly satisfying and as second nature as blowing a cartridge or breathing on a CD.
@@ungabunga6283 The idea behind it is that the water would wash away most of the peanut butter but not the peanut butter that filled the scratches in the CDs, a dog tongue would lick the CD clean and probably make it worse lol. It either worked really well or made it worse, it was my go to strategy when my console couldn't even detect what game I wanted to play.
5:48 - Yes, I remember selling the 3M mouse 'pads', which were nothing more than a plasticized silicone sheet with tiny 'pyramids' of texture. In truth, it was a great product. Awful name though: Precise Mousing Surface ........... so yeah, we called them the PMS pads.
I still have one of those, its stuck upside down under my frosted glass icemat and is on my nightstand, the exact same one PicoPlanet Developing described
That's the mouse pad I'm using right now! I checked my Amazon purchase history, and I bought it roughly fives years ago. Does 3M not still make mouse pads?
You know.. for a Time, hard plastic but flexible mouse pads were the fucking King, and it got to a point where it was actually kind of hard to find them LOL like there was a time when you can get them for a dollar, then the Dollar store only had the soft ones.. which are always kind of useless, certainly by comparison to the king, and for the longest time I kept mine way past its due date, to a point where it was actually having problems because it becomes so Warren it was starting to reflect back in and track wrong.. I finally broke down and bought a very inexpensive fancy cloth pad, which was really hard to find one that had a semi hard surface or at least a semi-coated surface.. which as it turns out it's not really, but it still works LOL and I kind of like it now I have one of the hard ones which cost a lot more, it's basically the 3M pad but sold as a speed pad for more money, the original 3M style was way better.. 3M still sells these for some fucking reason LOL but never in sizes that are kind of acceptable certainly not for the price LOL, now you can still get the regular ones with all manner of assorted pictures and shit on them, unfortunately it seems that about 90% of these are are still just cloth ones that don't tell yet and just searching for it's a pain in the ass in the first place LOL searching for anything is a pain in the ass these days but fucking searching for specific computer tech that's not the thing that all the kids with their jelly brains from random fucking strobe light RGB are all doing, which you know.. clearly apparent because they don't buy full keyboards anymore they buy by half keyboards for more money, likes you know something's broken in there.. and apparently it's easy to sell things cuz they they sure bury the results that way LOL.
Still picking my jaw up off the floor that Linus has never heard of 3M precision mouse surfaces before. The first optical and ball high performance mousing surfaces that made a measurable difference in performance and are still sold today last I checked.
As a Swede I must say that the line “This is not your mothers mouse” becomes extra hilarious because we call the special lady parts also the same as the peripheral in Swedish… 😳
3M still makes first-party mousepads. For a while I was using a laser mouse that didn't work well on the dark surface of my desk or any of the commonplace plain black mousepads, but 3M's white/gray patterned one worked amazingly.
PFAS.... they probably used them in their mousepads too- makes sense since it'd keep things from sticking to them (dirt, hand sweat/grime? IDK) They put it in everything- and now it's a widely known toxin that is related to birth defects and many other serious illnesses. But yes, use a mouse pad people. Seriously 👍 (but maybe research the product's materials first, probably a good idea)
@@saturnity6 Try a piece of plain white paper. It works better than my desk, but nowhere as good as my 3M self-adhesive mouse pad. (My desk surface has a slight texture which makes the Logitech mouse slightly glitchy, but completely destroys a lesser mouse.)
@@austin3171 No. They put their names on them. They dont "make them" or do any research. 3m specialize in adhesives like tape and the stuff of sticky thermal pads.
My first “gaming mouse” was a Microsoft IntelliMouse optical. And after that the Razer Diamondback. biggest game changer for me back then was a hard mousepad.
Ah nostalgia! As soon as Linus mentioned cleaning the ball, I was already thinking "don't forget the rollers too!".... takes me back, even having similar icky experiences with what was caked on the rollers :)
When I was growing up, I was taught to take the ball out and clean the rollers regularly. I never thought of cleaning the ball too. I guess I was the opposite of everyone else.
Those 3M mouse pads were 90's office lore, saw them in large orgs a lot when I was a coop student. Viewers half my age probably found this video weird, but I'm a few years older than Linus (so old) - and this is ringing a lot of memory bells for me :)
One thing I've always appreciated when it comes to gaming tech is that it never lost it's sense of fun. I feel like all other modern tech has become boring and sterile design-wise.
As someone who played competive Counter-Strike with a Boomslang it was amazing, and wasn't surpassed before the MX510 or the Intellimouse 3.0/1.1. If I could get a boomslang with a modern sensor, at a reasonable price, I'd buy one in an instant.
*MX300/MX500, MX510 came later (and is inferior to the MX300/MX500 due to not having stable 500/1000 Hz polling rate), but I would say the Logitech Wingman Gaming Mouse was its main competetitor before the optical era, and it was better despite having no scroll wheel and less buttons. One thing is certain though; the Boomslang would look nice in my little collection. : >
I played somewhat competitively and I was on the Boomslang day 1. I loved it at first, but after a while I just couldn't deal with the dust and whatnot being built up compared to my intellimouse and others. Could be fine 90% of the time until right when i needed it and then the ball dragged a bit :(
I had one of these back in the day. Absolutely loved playing Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 with it. A common 'mod' was to integrate an LED into the housing so it would light up. Super cool mouse for its time. This brought back memories to a 36yr old kid who still loves gaming. Great video!
I remember seeing people use these in lan centers back in the OG counterstrike days. Always wanted one because it looked so god damn unique in a sea of beige shitmice.
I had one of these, back when it was the BFG razor boomslang! I loved that thing, once I got used to it, it became the most comfortable mouse I've ever used. You have to lay your fingers out on the buttons, not try to claw them, takes awhile to get used to, but when you do, it's extremely comfortable and reactive. You also had the mouse held wrong altogether, the back of the mouse should be against the heel of you hand, not under your palm like a modern mouse.. It takes absolute minimal effort to move.
So it is a mouse for small hands. Guess I know why I could never get used to razer mice. Currently running a G502 with a mix somewhere between fingertip and claw and 1-3-1 finger position. There is no way I could get the end of the Boomslang into the heel withount overhanging the front by a full inch
@@HappyBeezerStudios actually I have big hands and the original boomslang was a perfect fit, newer models look similar but are not as long. I have to claw them.
I once had the 3M mouse pad in question for the office mid to late 00s. Stationary order. It was designed to be 3M adhesive back stuck to the desk. It had a very grippy texture. It also had a surface almost design to trap dust and "hand gunk" (ball mouse users know about the gunk).
I tried the Boomslang when it came out, I was interning at a computer store and the owner was a gamer as well so we ordered one to test. However it was a very acquired taste and not too long after Microsoft of all companies released their Explorer 3.0 that had an optic sensor quick enough for gaming. You can look at it both ways, Razer was first - at least the first that mattered, gaming mouse manufacturer. While Microsoft seemed to sort of accidentally make the first wide spread mouse actually extremely popular with gamers. In my opinion all current gaming mice come from the lineage Microsoft started.
Using the momentum of the ball rollers for flickshots was my bread and butter when I was a kid. I could snap 180s like nobodies business. Switching from ball to optical was super tough because I was so used to those physics being present.
After years of using Windows acceleration, I found out about it last year and tried turning it off. After a month, I could not get used to it and it felt extremely choppy. I guess the smoothing effect added from Windows has ruined my muscle memory over time as I won't play without it turned on anymore.
Good thinking. I think it would be affecting it. Ball mice had a bit of inertia to it, the "Enhance pointer precision" setting would be exaggerating that inertia.
Windows mouse acceleration has a horrible (and downright arbitrary) acceleration curve that will gladly f you over when it feels like it. If you can't live without acceleration I'd suggest you install some software to implement it properly.
I think you might have had a different result had you used a different mousepad. Precision mouse pads back in the day had some texture to the surface to keep the ball from skidding as opposed to rolling. I wonder if the LTT pad is too smooth to give the ball traction.
I remember that switching to optical, cost me some time. As an daily SOFii player, I pretty much get used to the flicking and other characteristics of ball mouse gaming.
@@brietman_ Same! Except substitute SOFii for TF Classic and you'd have my young boy's life. Due to having a disabled brother we had one of those mice with a big red ball, ya know the type. He's still using a MS Trackball Explorer. They're hella expensive now. Anywho, flinging that ball to get sniper shots was a damn joy and I lost that ability once I went optical.
i was a pretty high level quake player back in the day; always one of the top players at local LANs. i never had trouble with skidding mouse balls, but i used textured gaming surfaces. my preferred was the Glide pad (damn can't even find references to it on google) but the 3M pad was also very nice. i like the weight of the mouse ball cuz it helps cancel out unintended micro movements from your hand. my preferred now is a G502 which is pretty hefty and comes with weights if you need more.
@@oldfrend The back of notebooks was my pad back then. Nice and rough to grip the ball. Also weightmod that G502, I've seen people getting it under 90g without removing any of the buttons.
3:39 FUN FACT: "Kärna" is actually pronounced close to "share-nah" and is a Swedish word meaning "core" or "kernel". It is also the name of a tiny obscure town in on the west coast of Sweden with only about 500 inhabitants.
@@zenstrata optical mice were considered a novelty then and somewhat of an unprofessional, unproven technology especially in the eyes of a pro quake 3 gamer.
@@zenstrata oh yes, I love their wireless as well :) I have the exact same model as you, I was just mentioning my older one since we were all talking about older mice :P I even have a little mini Keychain Bluetooth called a Logi Mouse from Logitech that's about the size of your thumb haha. I use it for my raspberry pi. :)
"For those of you who don't know" Oh dear God, it's quite possible there's adults in their 20's walking around who've never used a ball mouse. I feel old.
I'm 26 and I've never used ball mouse like more than a couple of minutes. My first PC already had a laser mouse. Moreover my sister is 28 and she never used ball mouse either.
I'm 24 I had a ball mouse, N64, windows 95 and XP with a CRT and played all games in 800x600 for many years, got to use PS1 and a PS2 well into my mid teens, a mix of having an older brother and technologically illiterate parents, so not all of us zoomers are smartphone addicts :)
The 3M mousing surface deserves it's own video. Those were highly sought after wafer thin sheets of microtextured plastic with lots of little triangles on the surface that actually worked really well for gripping mouse balls AND providing a reliably rough surface for laser mice.
I have a dell clone of that exact mousepad. They were pretty cool but mine cracked after years of it becoming brittle. I actually don't even know if it's a clone. It just looks similar to what you are describing.
@@imacg5658 It's funny. I bought some 3d filament form Overture a couple of years ago and they came with these printing bed stickers that really come close to mimicking the low friction and trackability of that surface, albeit without the little triangle pattern. I love it as a mousepad and it's the closest thing I've found since those days. Not sure if they still include that with their filament, but it was almost worth the price of the filament at this point. It hasn't really began to wear down after a lot of daily use.
I had the 2007 CE Boomslang, and it was amazing, albeit not as amazing as my friend's lazer mouse that came out at the same time. Side note, Boomslang is a native snake to South Africa, which directly translates to "Tree Snake"...
And it pronounced kinda like "boo"-"um" not like "boom" as you would say in English. Same with slang. Not like "slang" in English, more like "slung". So you would say "boomslang" like "boo"-"um"-"slung".
@@riotza7597 is the oo pronounced as English boo or Dutch bow? Pronounced like a Dutchman it would come out something like boehmslung. Always funny o hear non Dutch speakers try to pronounce stuff like Oranjeboom (Orange Tree, has to be one of the worst beers in the world lol)
10:10 Yeah that's where flicks came from, you use the momentum to spin the character/aim, was a skill you needed to learn in quake etc, actually miss it sometimes.
@Khazandar I almost purchased that one, but decided on another mouse instead, and I still regret that decision. The Boomslang fit well for someone like me with bigger hands and the side buttons were in a useful position and size. Even with the current mouse that I use, the side buttons feel too small. The Boomslang was a good design.
In hindsight, we don't really appreciate how life changing was optical mouse technology. Still, I remember having my first optical mouse in 2002, which was a 15 or 20 bucks and a massive improvement over my old ball mouse, so it does show how Razer has been Razer since its begginings in hyping even the most outdated technology.
I was working at a Staples when the Intellimouse Explorer Optical was released. And you are wrong. I STILL appreciate how much better a cheap $5 mouse is today vs a top of the line mouse from 25 years ago.
@@fordesponja You said we don't appreciate the optical mouse. I do appreciate it. Particularly every time I have to replace one of the cheap ass mice that seem to be the only thing in my budget when I replace it. I appreciate that because of the optical tech, it will still last longer than even the best mouse from when I was a kid.
@@zs4580 Didn't say it was about me. Just Putting forth a voice from one person of the "people in general" who does appreciate how much better optical is than rollerball.
Thanks for the nostalgia. I had the first edition boomslang 2000 as well. Played competitive Unreal Tournament with it until the CPL lan competition when Alien vs Predator was the main game. Came in 5th place I think when fatal1ty won the tricked out ford focus. My boomslang was dying during the competition.
4:26 the funniest thing about this isn't the line itself, it's the crack in Linus's voice and strain on his face going into it. This is probably the 15th take of this line. This is honestly the funniest example of someone putting 100% of their physical and mental effort into a straight line delivery since Tim Curry in Red Alert 3.
This came out right around the time when the Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer was probably the best mouse you could by at the time as it had an optical sensor and the two side mouse 4 and 5 buttons that have become fairly common today. You'd also likely be using this on Windows XP which was in many ways a big step up before as the NT line of OSes had been polished for general release and a lot of features from that line really enhanced the operating system compared to the Windows 98SE and Windows 95 most home users were used to using.
I think that setup procedure is because at that time I remember anything you wanted to use via PS2 had to be plugged in when the system powered on or it wouldn't work. At least a lot of the systems I saw did not have hot-swappable PS2 ports.
Its amazing just how far mice have come in the 2 decades since this came out. Although finding a good mid-range wired mouse in 2022 is a LOT harder than it should be (hopefully when my current mouse dies, I am able to replace it with another Intellimouse Classic :)
I still hold on my G502 from logitech it serves now for over 5 years of daily usage of 2-3 hours in shooters and other games and still works like on the first day.
This was my favorite mouse around in 2003. Optical Mice were available around that time but not nearly had the DPI of the boomslang as i recall. I even modded it to have green LEDs. I still have fond memories of that mouse. It is still around sleeping in its original tin. *edit: spelling error
Tbh, the Logitech MX300, which came out in 2002 with the MX500, is SIXTY grams lighter and has 3,91 m/s (!) perfect control at 500/1000 Hz. It's STILL one of the rawest sensors (Avago ADNS-A2020), ball mice have absolutely nothing on it in terms of precision and responsiveness. Nevertheless, the Boomslang is a cool piece of tech, and I also really like that tin box. Too bad that this kind of presentation went out of fashion. Products with the old Razer logo have a certain charm. : (
Boom slang directly translates to "Tree Snake", it's an Afrikaans word , obviously it's a pretty dangerous snake that primarily is found in trees here. I find it funny how people pronounce it, it's actually pronounced "Booohmslung". Venomous accuracy obviously refers to the name, I feel this mouse can be shy at times and will revert to a tree, being its natural habitat of coarse, so if its missing from your house just look there. Love Linus's pros wrestler persona, I wonder where else he uses it.
I still remember clearly that you would flick the mouse and the ball would keep rolling ( and tracking) while away from the mousepad, and then slam it on the desk to stop it. It made sense back then and it was somehow a smoother gesture even if unprecise compared to later devices that stop tracking the instant you lift em up.
I actually had one of these limited edition mice back when they first came out. I think I still have the install disk and USB to PS2 adapter around somewhere, but pretty sure the tin is gone. The limited edition mice weren't really that great. Mine lasted for a few years, and then I bought one of the newer ones probably in 2000 or 2001. Those were actually much better and more refined than the limited edition version. I used that mouse for at least another 5 years or so until I began developing shoulder problems. I switched to a Microsoft laser mouse, and never looked back to the Razor. Shoulder problems went away. I use a Logitech G502 now and have not used a better mouse since switching to it in 2015.
I loved the boomslang when it came out, went though 4 of them before i got my favorite Razer Lachesis(Best shape and Feel imo) Wish they would re-release that one, don't know why they ever stopped producing mice with that shape Lachesis was Perfect *sad face*.
Interesting how different hands are. Back when my Kone was wearing out and I was looking at a replacement, it was exact that shape the razer mice had that put me off. It just didn't work with my big hands. In 1-2-2 grip the sides aren't high enough where it counts (the front) and in 1-3-1 grip the top was uncomfortable.
5:05 USB to PS2 Adapter? Damn I didn't know you could use a mouse on a PS2, and didn't the PS2 just come out in like late 2000? Talk about cutting edge compatibility!
Did you know that number 3 out of 5000 of this exact mouse sold last year for $7500 in a auction house. Why so much? The pcb that was used in these mice was the first of its kind, it used 0.39 of 24k gold because the thought behind it was (intricate stuff I don’t understand nor can I explain). Pretty cool to see one of these in action. Also everything I just said is a lie becaise I’m sitting on the toilet waiting for Linus to play with the mouse.
I’m 17 and last time I used one was probably Pre-K. I saw one in my HS though but it was just there because no one threw it away I guess ( I might have taken it lol )
I remember my first optical mouse in the 'no gaming mice' era :). And the best experience was using it without the mousepad on a non-reflective table surface. Which of course led to polishing off the poor thing's "legs". But the pointer precision with such flat tabletop grip was insanely good! I mean, it was a cheating level trick for FPS games. Now there are fancy teflon or aluminum feet and buttons and stuff on each modern mouse belly (yeah :), belly buttons) and polishing them off isn't an option anymore. Perhaps the gaming mouse evolution went the wrong way.
@@NothingXemnas By "polishing off" I meant "destroying", "shaving them off", because wood acts like sandpaper (for plastic) with very very slight grit.
Loved watching this. I still have my original Boomslangs on the shelf, both the 1000 and the 2000 (reviewed both for the now-defunct Fragline). The sensors on the 2000 had precision issues and would occasionally skip with rapid movement, most gamers who daily drove the Boomslang used the 1000 as a result. The ergonomics were very controversial, even back then you either loved it or hated it. The other popular gaming mouse of the time was the Logitech Wingman Gaming.
@@zenstrata yup, the Intellimouse was also popular back then, with the caveat that most FPS players of the era preferred low sensitivity/no acceleration. The first gen Microsoft sensors could skip when you used that kind of config and moved the mouse too fast, so a lot of players still stuck to ball mice until optical technology improved.
what is the little nintendo-switch-blue-joycon looking thing that linus keeps fiddling with? I saw him playing with a pink one in his shorts version of this video as well.
I use an old Speedlink Kudos SL-6398-SBK from 2010, it, to me, is absolute perfection and I swear by it. 8ish hours a day for 12 years and I still love it
The start of my Razer misadventures back in the day. Every damn Razer mouse I had back then the right click stopped working within 6 months to a year. Never had much of a problem with Microsoft mice though, and strangely enough my Logitech mice either, still have a Logitech G1 that still works fine. But now I can look at a Logitech mouse and it double clicks. Go figure.
@@TheGingerAvocado I have never learned how to use a mouse with my left hand, so I just use a mouse like most other people and do not have to switch which side the mouse is on when using someone else's computer
LOL I loved this. I bought a razer boomslang when it came out, and it was the single most expensive part in my PC at the time. I can remember how much it improved my accuracy at the time though, it was absolutely an amazing piece of hardware in late 99 early 2000, it took a while before anything else really felt as accurate. I can remember long LAN party weekends on Delta Force Land Warrior with my friends and I screaming obscenities across the house at each other. Man the good ol days
I used the Boomslang back in 2005.... I also used the Tarantula keyboard with the battlelight.... It was weird, but it was a fun time...! I've been using Razer for 17 years now...! So, it has been fun!!!! collecting these amazing products
When I was playing Counter-Strike (Pre Version 1.0) I was an avid gamer and was able to to compete with people who were 'Pro Gamers' 4 Kings and was rated one of the best players in Europe... All the Pro's used the Boomslang and it was the first time I ever heard of 'Razer' I never got to own one, I was always desperate for one. If I had any money now I'd probably buy one. I can't even afford a gaming PC anymore :( Boomslang always has a special place in my heart, A dream I'll never be able to afford.
I remember seeing this model at LAN parties back in the day. I myself bought the original Razer Viper back in 04/05. I passed it down to my mother when it had trouble holding the left click permanently, but other than that it still works like a charm on her office PC today
The memories! I still have my collectors edition Boomslang somewhere in it's original tin. I have really long fingers, so I could palm it and still grip in front of the side buttons with the thumb and ring finger. No one else among my friends and family could use it tho, they were constantly clicking the side buttons trying to move it around, lol. But being so used to it made it hard to find a model I liked when it became time to switch it out, since there's nothing else really like it.
Razer sure deserves a shout-out here. The fact that the software can still be updated and the links work is shocking.
Or it could just work without proprietary software nonsense. It is just a mouse after all.
A mouse shouldn't need software to work in the first place
@@CianMcsweeney how else would you set any of those settings? It's not necessary, but it gives additional features.
@@sam3317 how else would you set any of those settings? It's not necessary, but it gives additional features.
Had a couple razer mice cause of the hype, and sure not getting any more. They surely don’t live up to the hype now adays. Their not any better than the cheapest crap you can find.
Two things:
1. Mousepads for trackball mice used to be very rough and sticky, so the ball would track correctly (with very high static friction), relying on the glidepads of the mouse itself to minimize friction with the chasis of the mouse.
2. The old way of DPI scaling mice was to adjust the mouse cursor speed in windows itself. This is why the old Razer drivers "don't seem to work" outside of Windows XP (they attempt to change the mice speed on an API that has changed since then). In other words, mice back then always worked on their highest DPI, and relied on the OS to scale down the speed.
this is an awesome comment, just wanted to say thank you for being informative
Thanks. Very good info. I hope the LMG team sees this.
Great comment as LMG continues to fail in using old tech outside the environment it was designed for so the older tech operates in unexpected ways.
Best ball mousepads were covered with slightly "rough" plastic so it did not hold dirt...
@@abdurrahmanmoustapha Linus’s comment section always write useful information, especially in the techquickie videos.
The 3M Precision Mousing Surface was a great pad. It was an array of pyramids. One thing I noticed is that the old ball mice seemed to need less cleaning with that pad. I loved it and think I still have it around somewhere.
Hey, there was a mouse pad I loved for its lack of friction, it was just like that! Sadly it was small so kept going off of it constantly, if ever so effortlessly. :D
Makes sense also why a piece of new and fresh PVC flooring serves me well as a mouse pad, with a finely textured surface.
I had it, but didn't like it.
@@YCbCr man using a floor tile as a mouse pad, pure chad shit
Hopefully it didn't contain PFAS ;)
Linus explaining how a ball mouse worked sure made me feel old. I still remember the whole class getting our minds blown on the first day of computer lab in high school and the mice had lasers and no balls! I also remember paying about $50 for a corded laser mouse when I went away to college. I'm only 32 but apparently I'm about to crumble into dust.
I am 23 and i feel old as heck at this. Reason being my country was a good 10 years behind the world in terms of tech back then and I had ball mice up until 2005. The first time I ever saw a laser mouse I was blown away just like you
im 29 and i remember getting hit on the head by a ball from a mouse back in school when someone threw one at me. These things were dangerous lmao
Don't feel old I remember when the mouse first came out.
Now I AM old lol
My elementary school had ball mouses and 6th grade of middle still used them. now I'm 18.
im 58 and i remember when we went from pointing at things with sticks to pointing at things with lasers lol
I love these old tech reviews. They give great context for how things have changed over the years. Please keep them coming.
I can highly recommend "Classic Game Room" if you are into such reviews
It was so surreal hearing Linus talk about mouse cleaning that I thought it was a bit. But no, some people have never experienced having to periodically scratch off that little grime ring with your nail. I remember it being oddly satisfying and as second nature as blowing a cartridge or breathing on a CD.
I always put peanut butter on the CD
@@innocenthdproductions1508 what have you done
@@ungabunga6283 after that you put it in the toilet and flush it to wash the excess peanut butter away
@@innocenthdproductions1508 i would just give it to a dog
@@ungabunga6283 The idea behind it is that the water would wash away most of the peanut butter but not the peanut butter that filled the scratches in the CDs, a dog tongue would lick the CD clean and probably make it worse lol.
It either worked really well or made it worse, it was my go to strategy when my console couldn't even detect what game I wanted to play.
I reviewed this in 2020 and was surprised how many people still loved this mouse!
Oh
Yo randomfrankp! Love your vids
classic is undead
Random you got here fast
YO!!!!!!
5:48 - Yes, I remember selling the 3M mouse 'pads', which were nothing more than a plasticized silicone sheet with tiny 'pyramids' of texture. In truth, it was a great product.
Awful name though: Precise Mousing Surface ........... so yeah, we called them the PMS pads.
LMAO
I have one of those, it was kind of curved like a modern game controller and had a galaxy/nebula printed on it
I still have one of those, its stuck upside down under my frosted glass icemat and is on my nightstand, the exact same one PicoPlanet Developing described
That's the mouse pad I'm using right now! I checked my Amazon purchase history, and I bought it roughly fives years ago. Does 3M not still make mouse pads?
You know.. for a Time, hard plastic but flexible mouse pads were the fucking King, and it got to a point where it was actually kind of hard to find them LOL like there was a time when you can get them for a dollar, then the Dollar store only had the soft ones.. which are always kind of useless, certainly by comparison to the king, and for the longest time I kept mine way past its due date, to a point where it was actually having problems because it becomes so Warren it was starting to reflect back in and track wrong.. I finally broke down and bought a very inexpensive fancy cloth pad, which was really hard to find one that had a semi hard surface or at least a semi-coated surface.. which as it turns out it's not really, but it still works LOL and I kind of like it now I have one of the hard ones which cost a lot more, it's basically the 3M pad but sold as a speed pad for more money, the original 3M style was way better.. 3M still sells these for some fucking reason LOL but never in sizes that are kind of acceptable certainly not for the price LOL, now you can still get the regular ones with all manner of assorted pictures and shit on them, unfortunately it seems that about 90% of these are are still just cloth ones that don't tell yet and just searching for it's a pain in the ass in the first place LOL searching for anything is a pain in the ass these days but fucking searching for specific computer tech that's not the thing that all the kids with their jelly brains from random fucking strobe light RGB are all doing, which you know.. clearly apparent because they don't buy full keyboards anymore they buy by half keyboards for more money, likes you know something's broken in there.. and apparently it's easy to sell things cuz they they sure bury the results that way LOL.
Still picking my jaw up off the floor that Linus has never heard of 3M precision mouse surfaces before. The first optical and ball high performance mousing surfaces that made a measurable difference in performance and are still sold today last I checked.
As a Swede I must say that the line “This is not your mothers mouse” becomes extra hilarious because we call the special lady parts also the same as the peripheral in Swedish… 😳
Interesting. So there is a normal mouse and a gaming mouse then 🤔
mus?
so you're saying your mouses over there need some balls in them?
Brings new meaning to the phrase "double click"...
🤣
3M still makes first-party mousepads. For a while I was using a laser mouse that didn't work well on the dark surface of my desk or any of the commonplace plain black mousepads, but 3M's white/gray patterned one worked amazingly.
I was about to say - 3M still makes first-party mouse pads! I recently bought one for my retro pc setup and it's just as good as it ever was.
PFAS.... they probably used them in their mousepads too- makes sense since it'd keep things from sticking to them (dirt, hand sweat/grime? IDK)
They put it in everything- and now it's a widely known toxin that is related to birth defects and many other serious illnesses.
But yes, use a mouse pad people. Seriously 👍
(but maybe research the product's materials first, probably a good idea)
@@saturnity6 Try a piece of plain white paper. It works better than my desk, but nowhere as good as my 3M self-adhesive mouse pad. (My desk surface has a slight texture which makes the Logitech mouse slightly glitchy, but completely destroys a lesser mouse.)
@@austin3171 No. They put their names on them. They dont "make them" or do any research. 3m specialize in adhesives like tape and the stuff of sticky thermal pads.
I bought an $0.89 Onn one from Walmart it’s just plain black but it works
My first “gaming mouse” was a Microsoft IntelliMouse optical. And after that the Razer Diamondback. biggest game changer for me back then was a hard mousepad.
I almost expected Linus to open the tin just to find it filled with sewing stuff and buttons.
EXACTLY I still don't trust any round tin
I'm here, balls on hand. I'm ready.
Just like me frfr
Firmly Grasp It
Shake em
Edited this comment so you won’t know what it was before haha 😈
Same
Great content, you can tell Linus is really having fun here, always makes the videos so much better
Ah nostalgia! As soon as Linus mentioned cleaning the ball, I was already thinking "don't forget the rollers too!".... takes me back, even having similar icky experiences with what was caked on the rollers :)
When I was growing up, I was taught to take the ball out and clean the rollers regularly. I never thought of cleaning the ball too. I guess I was the opposite of everyone else.
Those 3M mouse pads were 90's office lore, saw them in large orgs a lot when I was a coop student. Viewers half my age probably found this video weird, but I'm a few years older than Linus (so old) - and this is ringing a lot of memory bells for me :)
Totally. I had the 3M "Precise Mousing Surface" and a Boomslang.
Spray it with a little Pledge or silicone based tire shine *chef's kiss*
In the UK it must have been different...
Trust for the cheapos and Microsoft for the big boys or logitech...
One thing I've always appreciated when it comes to gaming tech is that it never lost it's sense of fun. I feel like all other modern tech has become boring and sterile design-wise.
As someone who played competive Counter-Strike with a Boomslang it was amazing, and wasn't surpassed before the MX510 or the Intellimouse 3.0/1.1.
If I could get a boomslang with a modern sensor, at a reasonable price, I'd buy one in an instant.
*MX300/MX500, MX510 came later (and is inferior to the MX300/MX500 due to not having stable 500/1000 Hz polling rate), but I would say the Logitech Wingman Gaming Mouse was its main competetitor before the optical era, and it was better despite having no scroll wheel and less buttons. One thing is certain though; the Boomslang would look nice in my little collection. : >
I was a fan of the Microsoft optical tbh. I played competitive cs too from 1998-2004. But continued to use the mouse until 2008.
I played somewhat competitively and I was on the Boomslang day 1. I loved it at first, but after a while I just couldn't deal with the dust and whatnot being built up compared to my intellimouse and others. Could be fine 90% of the time until right when i needed it and then the ball dragged a bit :(
@@Skirk84 You played competitive CS before it even went into beta?
@@Fertho That's kinda impressive.
I had one of these back in the day. Absolutely loved playing Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 with it. A common 'mod' was to integrate an LED into the housing so it would light up. Super cool mouse for its time. This brought back memories to a 36yr old kid who still loves gaming. Great video!
I remember seeing people use these in lan centers back in the OG counterstrike days. Always wanted one because it looked so god damn unique in a sea of beige shitmice.
I Play UT99 at the Same time with my boomslang and Q3 to
I had one of these, back when it was the BFG razor boomslang! I loved that thing, once I got used to it, it became the most comfortable mouse I've ever used.
You have to lay your fingers out on the buttons, not try to claw them, takes awhile to get used to, but when you do, it's extremely comfortable and reactive.
You also had the mouse held wrong altogether, the back of the mouse should be against the heel of you hand, not under your palm like a modern mouse.. It takes absolute minimal effort to move.
So it is a mouse for small hands. Guess I know why I could never get used to razer mice. Currently running a G502 with a mix somewhere between fingertip and claw and 1-3-1 finger position. There is no way I could get the end of the Boomslang into the heel withount overhanging the front by a full inch
@@HappyBeezerStudios actually I have big hands and the original boomslang was a perfect fit, newer models look similar but are not as long. I have to claw them.
4:27 brilliant writing :D
watching Linus impersonate macho Man Randy Savage had to be the best part of my day.
I once had the 3M mouse pad in question for the office mid to late 00s. Stationary order. It was designed to be 3M adhesive back stuck to the desk. It had a very grippy texture.
It also had a surface almost design to trap dust and "hand gunk" (ball mouse users know about the gunk).
I felt so old when Linus explained the ball mechanism, and I already knew how it worked.
And how messy it could get in there... 😅
Im 13 and I already knew how it worked
@@rixey 16 here
@@michaeljones5681 woah my name's Michael to
@@rixey no you're rixey
I tried the Boomslang when it came out, I was interning at a computer store and the owner was a gamer as well so we ordered one to test. However it was a very acquired taste and not too long after Microsoft of all companies released their Explorer 3.0 that had an optic sensor quick enough for gaming.
You can look at it both ways, Razer was first - at least the first that mattered, gaming mouse manufacturer. While Microsoft seemed to sort of accidentally make the first wide spread mouse actually extremely popular with gamers. In my opinion all current gaming mice come from the lineage Microsoft started.
Using the momentum of the ball rollers for flickshots was my bread and butter when I was a kid. I could snap 180s like nobodies business. Switching from ball to optical was super tough because I was so used to those physics being present.
Those ball rollers were interesting though.
Wonder if windows acceleration was affecting this mouse overall in the settings of it.
After years of using Windows acceleration, I found out about it last year and tried turning it off. After a month, I could not get used to it and it felt extremely choppy. I guess the smoothing effect added from Windows has ruined my muscle memory over time as I won't play without it turned on anymore.
Good thinking. I think it would be affecting it. Ball mice had a bit of inertia to it, the "Enhance pointer precision" setting would be exaggerating that inertia.
I thought it might be the mouse mat, can't say I remember having any issues with ball inertia on my fellowes daffy duck mouse mat
The ball is also much further to the rear of the mouse than the G Pro's sensor, so your wrist rotation movements will feel a lot different.
Windows mouse acceleration has a horrible (and downright arbitrary) acceleration curve that will gladly f you over when it feels like it. If you can't live without acceleration I'd suggest you install some software to implement it properly.
I think you might have had a different result had you used a different mousepad. Precision mouse pads back in the day had some texture to the surface to keep the ball from skidding as opposed to rolling. I wonder if the LTT pad is too smooth to give the ball traction.
I remember that switching to optical, cost me some time. As an daily SOFii player, I pretty much get used to the flicking and other characteristics of ball mouse gaming.
@@brietman_ Same! Except substitute SOFii for TF Classic and you'd have my young boy's life. Due to having a disabled brother we had one of those mice with a big red ball, ya know the type. He's still using a MS Trackball Explorer. They're hella expensive now. Anywho, flinging that ball to get sniper shots was a damn joy and I lost that ability once I went optical.
i was a pretty high level quake player back in the day; always one of the top players at local LANs. i never had trouble with skidding mouse balls, but i used textured gaming surfaces. my preferred was the Glide pad (damn can't even find references to it on google) but the 3M pad was also very nice. i like the weight of the mouse ball cuz it helps cancel out unintended micro movements from your hand. my preferred now is a G502 which is pretty hefty and comes with weights if you need more.
@@oldfrend The back of notebooks was my pad back then. Nice and rough to grip the ball.
Also weightmod that G502, I've seen people getting it under 90g without removing any of the buttons.
3:39 FUN FACT: "Kärna" is actually pronounced close to "share-nah" and is a Swedish word meaning "core" or "kernel". It is also the name of a tiny obscure town in on the west coast of Sweden with only about 500 inhabitants.
Wow, mice like this make me realize how much computer mice have advanced (especially with regards to polling rate).
I can remember when scroll wheels WEREN'T a thing.
@@zenstrata I use my Logitech Click! mouse that's approaching 20 years old now and it's sensor remains as good as it was the day I got it.
@@zenstrata optical mice were considered a novelty then and somewhat of an unprofessional, unproven technology especially in the eyes of a pro quake 3 gamer.
@@zenstrata oh yes, I love their wireless as well :) I have the exact same model as you, I was just mentioning my older one since we were all talking about older mice :P I even have a little mini Keychain Bluetooth called a Logi Mouse from Logitech that's about the size of your thumb haha. I use it for my raspberry pi. :)
@@neoqueto "especially in the eyes of a pro quake 3 gamer." Nah, we loved our opticals. : >
"For those of you who don't know"
Oh dear God, it's quite possible there's adults in their 20's walking around who've never used a ball mouse. I feel old.
I'm 26 and I've never used ball mouse like more than a couple of minutes. My first PC already had a laser mouse. Moreover my sister is 28 and she never used ball mouse either.
@@WESKERsgm opposite side, I’m 18 and have used many growing up
@@totallynotaliar9912 You grew up poor?
@@SouthBayLA1310 Personally not bad, but my school was very poor haha
I'm 24 I had a ball mouse, N64, windows 95 and XP with a CRT and played all games in 800x600 for many years, got to use PS1 and a PS2 well into my mid teens, a mix of having an older brother and technologically illiterate parents, so not all of us zoomers are smartphone addicts :)
The 3M mousing surface deserves it's own video. Those were highly sought after wafer thin sheets of microtextured plastic with lots of little triangles on the surface that actually worked really well for gripping mouse balls AND providing a reliably rough surface for laser mice.
I have a dell clone of that exact mousepad. They were pretty cool but mine cracked after years of it becoming brittle.
I actually don't even know if it's a clone. It just looks similar to what you are describing.
@@imacg5658 It's funny. I bought some 3d filament form Overture a couple of years ago and they came with these printing bed stickers that really come close to mimicking the low friction and trackability of that surface, albeit without the little triangle pattern. I love it as a mousepad and it's the closest thing I've found since those days. Not sure if they still include that with their filament, but it was almost worth the price of the filament at this point. It hasn't really began to wear down after a lot of daily use.
Linus advancing the teleprompter was exceptionally obvious in this video lol (3:21)
@Nine9 no
ooooh so that's what he's doing when pressing the button on the tiny joystick? xd
@@nohandslucas haha yeah, there's one shot where it's more obvious
XD
They should use a foot pedal
I had the 2007 CE Boomslang, and it was amazing, albeit not as amazing as my friend's lazer mouse that came out at the same time. Side note, Boomslang is a native snake to South Africa, which directly translates to "Tree Snake"...
Pretty cool!
And it pronounced kinda like "boo"-"um" not like "boom" as you would say in English. Same with slang. Not like "slang" in English, more like "slung". So you would say "boomslang" like "boo"-"um"-"slung".
And this South African's ears are offended by the mispronounciation in this video
@@riotza7597 is the oo pronounced as English boo or Dutch bow? Pronounced like a Dutchman it would come out something like boehmslung. Always funny o hear non Dutch speakers try to pronounce stuff like Oranjeboom (Orange Tree, has to be one of the worst beers in the world lol)
@@mycosys not the guy you replied too, but its english boo - um slung
the green of the mouse reminds me that the original xbox, every "black" plastic was actually a very dark shade of barely translucent green.
10:10 Yeah that's where flicks came from, you use the momentum to spin the character/aim, was a skill you needed to learn in quake etc, actually miss it sometimes.
The Razer Boomslang was one of the best mice I ever had. I loved the design, and wish they had a modern version of it.
They made an optical Collectors Edition in 2007.
@Khazandar I almost purchased that one, but decided on another mouse instead, and I still regret that decision. The Boomslang fit well for someone like me with bigger hands and the side buttons were in a useful position and size. Even with the current mouse that I use, the side buttons feel too small. The Boomslang was a good design.
The modern version of this is the Death Adder.
@@TheAliceQuo The Death Adder doesn't have the same design as the Boomslang with the larger side buttons.
@@Aggie1295 The ouroboros features side grips as buttons but sadly its also discontinued
In hindsight, we don't really appreciate how life changing was optical mouse technology. Still, I remember having my first optical mouse in 2002, which was a 15 or 20 bucks and a massive improvement over my old ball mouse, so it does show how Razer has been Razer since its begginings in hyping even the most outdated technology.
I was working at a Staples when the Intellimouse Explorer Optical was released. And you are wrong. I STILL appreciate how much better a cheap $5 mouse is today vs a top of the line mouse from 25 years ago.
@@AustynSN what has that to do with what I said
@@fordesponja You said we don't appreciate the optical mouse. I do appreciate it. Particularly every time I have to replace one of the cheap ass mice that seem to be the only thing in my budget when I replace it. I appreciate that because of the optical tech, it will still last longer than even the best mouse from when I was a kid.
@@AustynSN He was talking about people in general, not just you.
@@zs4580 Didn't say it was about me. Just Putting forth a voice from one person of the "people in general" who does appreciate how much better optical is than rollerball.
4:39 Linus' Ball Hairs
Thanks for the nostalgia. I had the first edition boomslang 2000 as well. Played competitive Unreal Tournament with it until the CPL lan competition when Alien vs Predator was the main game. Came in 5th place I think when fatal1ty won the tricked out ford focus. My boomslang was dying during the competition.
well now mine are blue
bruh
ayo 🤨🤨
0:23 love how he just completely ignores it, that's when you know everything is completely fine with linus
I've never seen Linus more excited over a mouse
I really like the LTT version of the retro tech review. This felt different than your usual videos and refreshing in a way. Nice work.
Viper Elite is a worthy evolution imo. Love seeing these old tech vids :D
I certainly do remember the Mouse with a Ball, spent so much time unclogging the things, we've certainly come a long way on Mice.
4:26 the funniest thing about this isn't the line itself, it's the crack in Linus's voice and strain on his face going into it.
This is probably the 15th take of this line.
This is honestly the funniest example of someone putting 100% of their physical and mental effort into a straight line delivery since Tim Curry in Red Alert 3.
"I'm escaping to the one place that has been corrupted by capitalism"
**Trying to hold back laughter**
*"SPACE!"*
This came out right around the time when the Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer was probably the best mouse you could by at the time as it had an optical sensor and the two side mouse 4 and 5 buttons that have become fairly common today. You'd also likely be using this on Windows XP which was in many ways a big step up before as the NT line of OSes had been polished for general release and a lot of features from that line really enhanced the operating system compared to the Windows 98SE and Windows 95 most home users were used to using.
I think that setup procedure is because at that time I remember anything you wanted to use via PS2 had to be plugged in when the system powered on or it wouldn't work. At least a lot of the systems I saw did not have hot-swappable PS2 ports.
I think it still works that way on many systems.
@@neoqueto yep, my evga dark boards are that way.
Linus' version of Randy was really great! Do put that character in your repertoire!
Its amazing just how far mice have come in the 2 decades since this came out. Although finding a good mid-range wired mouse in 2022 is a LOT harder than it should be (hopefully when my current mouse dies, I am able to replace it with another Intellimouse Classic :)
I still hold on my G502 from logitech it serves now for over 5 years of daily usage of 2-3 hours in shooters and other games and still works like on the first day.
This was my favorite mouse around in 2003. Optical Mice were available around that time but not nearly had the DPI of the boomslang as i recall. I even modded it to have green LEDs. I still have fond memories of that mouse. It is still around sleeping in its original tin.
*edit: spelling error
Tbh, the Logitech MX300, which came out in 2002 with the MX500, is SIXTY grams lighter and has 3,91 m/s (!) perfect control at 500/1000 Hz. It's STILL one of the rawest sensors (Avago ADNS-A2020), ball mice have absolutely nothing on it in terms of precision and responsiveness.
Nevertheless, the Boomslang is a cool piece of tech, and I also really like that tin box. Too bad that this kind of presentation went out of fashion. Products with the old Razer logo have a certain charm. : (
Boom slang directly translates to "Tree Snake", it's an Afrikaans word , obviously it's a pretty dangerous snake that primarily is found in trees here. I find it funny how people pronounce it, it's actually pronounced "Booohmslung". Venomous accuracy obviously refers to the name, I feel this mouse can be shy at times and will revert to a tree, being its natural habitat of coarse, so if its missing from your house just look there. Love Linus's pros wrestler persona, I wonder where else he uses it.
so good to see that Ridge wallet finally managed to redefine the waller
The fact that Linus had to explained how the ball works made me feel infinitely old
i didnt know about the wheels breaking a light beam. assumed they were potentiometers or something.
I still remember clearly that you would flick the mouse and the ball would keep rolling ( and tracking) while away from the mousepad, and then slam it on the desk to stop it. It made sense back then and it was somehow a smoother gesture even if unprecise compared to later devices that stop tracking the instant you lift em up.
Oh man, this brought back forgotten memories. The lift and SLAM back when we used to game in those days.
I actually had one of these limited edition mice back when they first came out. I think I still have the install disk and USB to PS2 adapter around somewhere, but pretty sure the tin is gone. The limited edition mice weren't really that great. Mine lasted for a few years, and then I bought one of the newer ones probably in 2000 or 2001. Those were actually much better and more refined than the limited edition version. I used that mouse for at least another 5 years or so until I began developing shoulder problems. I switched to a Microsoft laser mouse, and never looked back to the Razor. Shoulder problems went away. I use a Logitech G502 now and have not used a better mouse since switching to it in 2015.
Linus having to explain how a ball mouse works makes me feel so old.
And then came the day - when Linus had to describe how a ball mouse worked... *sobs in old age*
the randy savage skit, that was amazing
I loved the boomslang when it came out, went though 4 of them before i got my favorite Razer Lachesis(Best shape and Feel imo) Wish they would re-release that one, don't know why they ever stopped producing mice with that shape Lachesis was Perfect *sad face*.
Interesting how different hands are. Back when my Kone was wearing out and I was looking at a replacement, it was exact that shape the razer mice had that put me off. It just didn't work with my big hands. In 1-2-2 grip the sides aren't high enough where it counts (the front) and in 1-3-1 grip the top was uncomfortable.
5:05 USB to PS2 Adapter? Damn I didn't know you could use a mouse on a PS2, and didn't the PS2 just come out in like late 2000? Talk about cutting edge compatibility!
Did you know that number 3 out of 5000 of this exact mouse sold last year for $7500 in a auction house. Why so much? The pcb that was used in these mice was the first of its kind, it used 0.39 of 24k gold because the thought behind it was (intricate stuff I don’t understand nor can I explain). Pretty cool to see one of these in action.
Also everything I just said is a lie becaise I’m sitting on the toilet waiting for Linus to play with the mouse.
And did you know that a Bot has copied your comment and Left out the part that says It's a joke ? Good job !
@@Gatorade69 that bot better hold onto it’s balls! Cause the 1999 gaming mice market is about to boom, I can feel it.
Time to watch Linus experiment with balls
He used to clean balls at least one time in the month
1999! The year I graduated high school, thanks for making me feel old! I'm still loling at the opening of the video! :D
It just occured to me there's a generation that has grown up without ball mice.🤦🏾♂️
I’m 17 and last time I used one was probably Pre-K. I saw one in my HS though but it was just there because no one threw it away I guess ( I might have taken it lol )
3:23 Was it just me who felt uncomfortable with Linus getting turned on by a ball mouse while stroking a baby controller?
I loved my Boomslang. Got mine back in 1999, and used it to the point where the buttons no longer worked several years later. I still miss it.
I remember my first optical mouse in the 'no gaming mice' era :). And the best experience was using it without the mousepad on a non-reflective table surface. Which of course led to polishing off the poor thing's "legs". But the pointer precision with such flat tabletop grip was insanely good! I mean, it was a cheating level trick for FPS games. Now there are fancy teflon or aluminum feet and buttons and stuff on each modern mouse belly (yeah :), belly buttons) and polishing them off isn't an option anymore. Perhaps the gaming mouse evolution went the wrong way.
Teflon and PTFE are the same thing. Mouses new and old use the same material, idk why its bad to polish it.
@@NothingXemnas By "polishing off" I meant "destroying", "shaving them off", because wood acts like sandpaper (for plastic) with very very slight grit.
@@0ecka Not even wood, also skin. The points where I hold my mouse and the keys on my keyboard I use most are basically reflective at this point.
Loved watching this. I still have my original Boomslangs on the shelf, both the 1000 and the 2000 (reviewed both for the now-defunct Fragline). The sensors on the 2000 had precision issues and would occasionally skip with rapid movement, most gamers who daily drove the Boomslang used the 1000 as a result. The ergonomics were very controversial, even back then you either loved it or hated it. The other popular gaming mouse of the time was the Logitech Wingman Gaming.
@@zenstrata yup, the Intellimouse was also popular back then, with the caveat that most FPS players of the era preferred low sensitivity/no acceleration. The first gen Microsoft sensors could skip when you used that kind of config and moved the mouse too fast, so a lot of players still stuck to ball mice until optical technology improved.
100% astonished the editor didn't immediately zoom in on the globe Linus knocked over.
what is the little nintendo-switch-blue-joycon looking thing that linus keeps fiddling with? I saw him playing with a pink one in his shorts version of this video as well.
fart
*I was literally holding on to them*
Now you'll need to hold them tighter
0:28 LTT has more respect for the intercontinental championship than wwe themselves
BoomSlang is such an era- appropriate name 😂
Rip Razerguy
I use an old Speedlink Kudos SL-6398-SBK from 2010, it, to me, is absolute perfection and I swear by it. 8ish hours a day for 12 years and I still love it
I love your videos. Linux you are the best youtuber
The start of my Razer misadventures back in the day. Every damn Razer mouse I had back then the right click stopped working within 6 months to a year. Never had much of a problem with Microsoft mice though, and strangely enough my Logitech mice either, still have a Logitech G1 that still works fine. But now I can look at a Logitech mouse and it double clicks. Go figure.
00:23 linus destroys the world. thx linus >_>'
Who actually uses a mouse with their left hand? I use my right hand even though I write with my left hand
Motion on left-camara/look on the right...even on controlers. 👍
I use the mouse on my left, Full lefty ;)
@@TheGingerAvocado I have never learned how to use a mouse with my left hand, so I just use a mouse like most other people and do not have to switch which side the mouse is on when using someone else's computer
And they said buff guy from that one WoW ad was unrealistic because "what, is that a weighted mouse?"
Still have mine. Including tin, booklets and everything (i never throw that stuff away) 😊 The presentation still really is nice.
I can't believe you have to explain a ball mouse. I never knew a day would come. I feel old
this is my favorite video ever the randy savage impression is on point
someone remembered wrestlemania was on when this video was scheduled for, and planned for this weeks ahead and whoever that was deserves a shout out
I remember that mouse all too well. Those were the days, thank you for reminding me :)
Fun fact 3M STILL make first party mouse pads
0:25 I was so worried that shiny globe would fall and shatter into pieces, nearly had a hearattack then It was saved!
LOL I loved this. I bought a razer boomslang when it came out, and it was the single most expensive part in my PC at the time. I can remember how much it improved my accuracy at the time though, it was absolutely an amazing piece of hardware in late 99 early 2000, it took a while before anything else really felt as accurate. I can remember long LAN party weekends on Delta Force Land Warrior with my friends and I screaming obscenities across the house at each other. Man the good ol days
I used the Boomslang back in 2005.... I also used the Tarantula keyboard with the battlelight.... It was weird, but it was a fun time...! I've been using Razer for 17 years now...! So, it has been fun!!!! collecting these amazing products
This really brings back memories of setting up quake 2 servers on my highschool's network.
When I was playing Counter-Strike (Pre Version 1.0)
I was an avid gamer and was able to to compete with people who were 'Pro Gamers' 4 Kings and was rated one of the best players in Europe...
All the Pro's used the Boomslang and it was the first time I ever heard of 'Razer'
I never got to own one, I was always desperate for one. If I had any money now I'd probably buy one.
I can't even afford a gaming PC anymore :(
Boomslang always has a special place in my heart, A dream I'll never be able to afford.
I saw a Slim Jim with Randy Savage on it at a grocery store a couple months ago. This intro makes much more sense to me than that packaging.
I remember seeing this model at LAN parties back in the day. I myself bought the original Razer Viper back in 04/05. I passed it down to my mother when it had trouble holding the left click permanently, but other than that it still works like a charm on her office PC today
This is so cool and reminds me of gaming in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Things have changed so much do fast.
Linus explaining how a ball mouse worked made me realize that there are a lot of people who have never used one of these, and now I feel old.
The memories! I still have my collectors edition Boomslang somewhere in it's original tin.
I have really long fingers, so I could palm it and still grip in front of the side buttons with the thumb and ring finger. No one else among my friends and family could use it tho, they were constantly clicking the side buttons trying to move it around, lol.
But being so used to it made it hard to find a model I liked when it became time to switch it out, since there's nothing else really like it.
I guess you lifted your pinky up?
I remember my friend back in the early 2000's had this mouse and I loved the shape and feel of holding it.