Where did this mouse crawl in from?

[aplmak]

So bought this recently... Wonder where in history this mouse was born?.... It appears looking at the board it is stamped "ANKO MOUSE".... This came from California.. and I can find an Anko Electronics in Cali.... I had seen in a video at one point that Apple did test out a 3 button mouse with the Lisa... But this could have gone with a Mac...

It's got all design characteristics of a Apple mouse... same trackball.. rear cover... 9 pin connector (2nd generation)...The plastic seems cheaper but with the same design as the period...

 

[aplmak]

Maybe the Motorola chip is a clue????

 

[Cory5412]

"American Anko" looks to be a pretty generic mouse company. The kind of thing where you get a mouse with a too short cable for free with a mail in rebate in the late '90s.

That mouse would look at home beside just about any late '80s or early '90s horizontal AT computer with any early-ish x86 CPU. (I'm thinking ~286, perhaps a cheap Microsoft Mouse knockoff for people who wanted to get into Windows 1/2/3 inexpensively.)

It could be a super special Mac add-on, or it could be a pretty generic piece of beige computer regalia from the era. I notice it makes no attempt at all at chamfered edges, not sure if most Mac specific peripherals did or not.

 

[commodorejohn]

Maybe the Motorola chip is a clue????

Nah, that's a generic 7400-series logic chip.

 

[olePigeon]

Probably came with some drafting software.

 

[Gorgonops]

I'm sure despite its Apple-reminiscent styling it's just a generic PC mouse. It looks pretty much like the first PC mouse I ever used, which came in the box with a truly dreadful desktop publishing program back in the year, man, heck if I can remember. I think the buttons were shaped differently (they were thinner vertical "roundrects" similar to the early Mouse Systems products.) but my memory insists that the bottom looked *identical*.

Honestly I think the only question is if it's intended to go on a serial port or a proprietary mouse card. The "standard" bus mouse for PCs was Microsoft's InPort card but there were other companies that used a DB-9. My guess is serial.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Yep: http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/sn7414.pdf

Lisa like with the proper number of buttons! Looks like a more comfortable version of the Logitec Serial Mouse that was bundled in my Generic CAD box.

 

[aplmak]

Ok... I think I found out some more info... Look at the similarities in this ebay auction of same brand name.. Plastics and such look almost exactly alike.. and the missing label area on my mouse looks like the same label area type on this joystick...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Anko-Game-Joystick-w-16-pin-DIP-Connector-for-Apple-II-II-Computers-/282276764265?hash=item41b9019a69:g:wAEAAOSwA3dYQMKi

The mouse I bought was thought to go to an Apple II.... I just don't see what would use three buttons on an Apple II.....

 

[Gorgonops]

I can't help thinking you're a little too in love with the idea that this is at all related to Apple simply because the plastic is vaguely the same color of beige. That joystick you found is just reinforcing evidence that this "Anko" company was one of dozens of companies rebadging cheap knockoff Taiwanese peripherals under their own name. Heck, possibly *hundreds* of companies made joysticks just exactly like that one, all more or less ripoffs of Kraft Systems "Premium" line... I mean, heck, this one even tries to rip off the look of the label.

 

[aplmak]

I was just stating the color and the plastic similarities... that's all... This could be some knock off from back in the day... Just trying to get an idea of it's origins that's all... The bottom with black mouseball cover resembles an Apple mouse design.. but certainly not Apple..

 

[aplmak]

Now what are your thoughts on this 3D editing mouse??? I've seen logitech ones just like it but instead of Apple logo it's a Logitech logo... I know logitech put their products in some of Apple's stuff... (ie: PB100)... Someone image a color logo on this?? One area of the bite out of the Apple doesn't look even on the bottom between the blue and the purple...

   

 

[aplmak]

Here's the logitech one

 

[Cory5412]

Would such a peripheral (the 3dmouse/spaceball) ever have supported in classic Mac OS? I know there was some 3d software for mac OS, but that market exploded when OS X and the G4s came out, so any kind of spaceball or similar peripheral, I'd expect to be from then.

Is there any evidence that's not a photoshop creation or someone with some time and some plastic labeling skills?

 

[Gorgonops]

I'm kind of inclined to think that *could* be real, in that Apple might have contracted with Logitech to churn out some custom labeled ones. Remember that somewhat abortive push Apple made between 1995 and 1998 to make Quickdraw 3D a cross-platform standard? A peripheral like this might have been packaged with developer documentation or something.

 

[aplmak]

Well we'll see what it looks like in person cause I purchased it.. So I'll keep ya'll posted.. 

 

[Cory5412]

If possible, some better photos of it would go a long way. In the images posted earlier in this thread, it looks highly photoshopped, with odd artifacts (not just normal low end digital camera noise) appearing on the logo, but nowhere else in the image.

I can't tell if that's because it was placed there in a graphics app or if it's because it's the only real color in the image.