There weren't really any better options back then from what I remember. Your best options were Microsoft or Logitech.

I use a Microsoft Intellimouse because I find it the most comfortable to use for vintage mice.

I second a good Microsoft Mouse, PS2 or USB either works exceptionally well and the drivers are solid too.

If you can snag one of the PS2 ball models that also comes with a DB9 serial dongle even better ! since DOS support with the PS2 MS mice in serial mode is very compatible.

Ahh. That's unfortunate. 😒 Though at least with a USB mouse, I'd be able to update the drivers. With a PS/2 mouse, it's not really an option.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-02-14, 12:50:

I second a good Microsoft Mouse, PS2 or USB either works exceptionally well and the drivers are solid too.

If you can snag one of the PS2 ball models that also comes with a DB9 serial dongle even better ! since DOS support with the PS2 MS mice in serial mode is very compatible.

Is that DOS compatibility any better than using a mouse driver set up in autoexec.bat? Or is it about the same?

Shponglefan wrote on 2025-02-14, 12:46:

There weren't really any better options back then from what I remember. Your best options were Microsoft or Logitech.

I use a Microsoft Intellimouse because I find it the most comfortable to use for vintage mice.

I seem to recall having this Logitech mouse back then, I think.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-02-14, 12:53:

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-02-14, 12:50:

I second a good Microsoft Mouse, PS2 or USB either works exceptionally well and the drivers are solid too.

If you can snag one of the PS2 ball models that also comes with a DB9 serial dongle even better ! since DOS support with the PS2 MS mice in serial mode is very compatible.

Is that DOS compatibility any better than using a mouse driver set up in autoexec.bat? Or is it about the same?

The MS mouse driver was pretty universal, could be used on any mouse and often was as it was the easiest DOS mouse driver to obtain. IIRC pretty much all mice drivers were ran from Autoexec at start up, I dont remember one that ran from Config.sys but I suppose it may have been possible.

That said there are other mice drivers that are far smaller in resident memory or can be partially loaded high to help save base memory.

Thats the thing with mouse drivers everyone had their favourite for one reason or another..same for CD rom drivers.

Hmm, I see.

What about optical PS/2 mice? How do they fare?

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-02-14, 13:08:

Hmm, I see.

What about optical PS/2 mice? How do they fare?

Depends ..I have a PS2 one and it wont work at all without the special mouse pad it uses for tracking, its got a grid pattern on it so its nothing like modern optical mice that can work on any surface. With the grid mouse pad it works well enough but I wouldn't use it on a DOS system as the good old ball mouse works better there.

I will state that even with the right surface they still dont feel as responsive as modern optical mice but they also dont have the high polling rate modern ones do either so it takes a bit to get used to.

You mention period correct.. but what period? Intellimouse is a late 486-ish thing IIRC and the one with the wheel is even later.
Unless it's an OEM machine, chances are the machine didn't even have a PS2 port if it was a 486 or older. So a serial mouse was the dominant type for those machines (286/386/486). Among serial mice, Genius was the king back then, with good quality and excellent drivers.
If the ball is a big problem to you, there were optical serial mice as well.. not very common but they existed. They work great but don't expect a high-dpi like a USB mouse. If you go hunting for one, make sure it comes with its original mouse pad, as their optical technology was only able to recognize their designated patterns, and don't have image analysis to allow it to move on any surface.

wbahnassi wrote on 2025-02-14, 13:17:

You mention period correct.. but what period? Intellimouse is a late 486-ish thing IIRC and the one with the wheel is even later.
Unless it's an OEM machine, chances are the machine didn't even have a PS2 port if it was a 486 or older. So a serial mouse was the dominant type for those machines (286/386/486). Among serial mice, Genius was the king back then, with good quality and excellent drivers.
If the ball is a big problem to you, there were optical serial mice as well.. not very common but they existed. They work great but don't expect a high-dpi like a USB mouse. If you go hunting for one, make sure it comes with its original mouse pad, as their optical technology was only able to recognize their designated patterns, and don't have image analysis to allow it to move on any surface.

I have one of the serial optical mice and yes it only works with a specific pattern, I had to make my own mouse pad for it as obtaining the original one for it was impossible, thankfully I found a picture of what the original looked like and my made up one was close enough that it worked.

Cant say I liked that mouse because it wasn't that great, likely due to my homemade pad but I found the humble MS ball mouse worked better and was faster.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-02-14, 13:16:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-02-14, 13:08:

Hmm, I see.

What about optical PS/2 mice? How do they fare?

Depends ..I have a PS2 one and it wont work at all without the special mouse pad it uses for tracking, its got a grid pattern on it so its nothing like modern optical mice that can work on any surface. With the grid mouse pad it works well enough but I wouldn't use it on a DOS system as the good old ball mouse works better there.

I will state that even with the right surface they still dont feel as responsive as modern optical mice but they also dont have the high polling rate modern ones do either so it takes a bit to get used to.

Yeah, I did briefly read something about those grid pattern pads. I'd probably stick to ball mice then for DOS.

wbahnassi wrote on 2025-02-14, 13:17:

You mention period correct.. but what period? Intellimouse is a late 486-ish thing IIRC and the one with the wheel is even later.
Unless it's an OEM machine, chances are the machine didn't even have a PS2 port if it was a 486 or older. So a serial mouse was the dominant type for those machines (286/386/486). Among serial mice, Genius was the king back then, with good quality and excellent drivers.
If the ball is a big problem to you, there were optical serial mice as well.. not very common but they existed. They work great but don't expect a high-dpi like a USB mouse. If you go hunting for one, make sure it comes with its original mouse pad, as their optical technology was only able to recognize their designated patterns, and don't have image analysis to allow it to move on any surface.

2000...? That looks to be when this system was bought, which I suspect is OEM. It has two PS/2 ports and is a Pentium III machine. The mouse included also has a wheel. I suppose USB would be the alternative to use then.

I noticed someone mentioned in another thread that Logitech ball mice were pretty good.

Re: A PS/2 mouse for retro gaming

Modern-ish optical PS2 mice will work fine on retro rigs, assuming they have a PS2 port of course. I use a generic A4Tech optical mouse for my DOS systems. It works fine with the standard Microsoft mouse driver.

I hated ball mice back in the day, and despise them ever more now. No reason to use those things if you have a working PS2 port. They are imprecise, and a chore to clean.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-02-14, 12:19:

Okay, I do already have a vintage mouse. A PS/2 Microsoft Intellimouse that came with the build I bought. However, I was wondering if anyone knows of any (somewhat) better 90s mice they can recommend, if any? I totally get that options were more limited back in the 90s, and ball mice were never particularly great in the sense that you would always have to frequently clean them. I was just wondering if there were any decent options that totally went under my radar from back then? The ones we had were pretty generic. Very 'office' standard. Considering the number of tools and utilities I've downloaded recently, which have allowed for various tweaking and life improvements in Windows and DOS, I just figured it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that there's something out there regarding hardware/peripherals etc. 😀 It's true I could just connect a random USB mouse, but I'd still like something that's period accurate, too. Something that would be better suited for FPSs and point n' click adventures. Again, I get that accuracy, sensitivity, and clunkiness were how folk had to play FPSs back then with PS/2 mice.

And yes, I've been increasing the sensitivity options in games, as panning/looking is pretty slow at default settings. I've also been using that PS/2 Rate, which has helped, too. So any additional tool or period accurate gaming mice would be super welcome. 😀

Thanks

2nd optical mouse to hit the mass market after the explorer in 1999. USB with PS2 converter

There is no better choice than this when it comes to mouse up until 2000. I found mine in the trash in late 2000 (broken usb cord). Fixed and been using for the past 25 years (10 as my primary mouse)

I liked serial ball mice. The Genius Easy Mouse is what I had on my 286, I remember.
I've always used a mouse mat, though. Without it, a ball mouse wouldn't have been fun to use.

The PS/2 port is annoying, also. At least with DOS/Windows 3.1 era software.
It causes jerky mouse movement under certain conditions.
It's a protocol issue, it's related to packet length.
MS Mouse v9 driver and later releases do contain a fix for this, but consume more memory than early releases such as MS Mouse 6.x.

https://www.os2museum.com/wp/jumpy-ps2-mouse- … de-windows-3-x/

On bright side, MS Mouse 9 and up support windowed DOS sessions on Windows 3.1x, so seamless mouse works - like with Windows 95.

About mouse drivers.. I don’t understand why CuteMouse is so popular, it looks very limited to me and has compatibility issues, especially with 16-Bit Windows.
Things like mouse acceleration or support for EGA cards are missing, too.

It's as if the CuteMouse driver was written for small size only, rather than good functionality. I don’t like that.
I'd rather use a cloaked version of a full-size mouse driver, like Logitech mouse driver.

What's also important to know, maybe: Mouse speed must be compensated for different graphics modes/resolutions.
Thus, authentic mouse drivers may do a better job on vintage computers.

TrashBytes wrote:

Thats the thing with mouse drivers everyone had their favourite for one reason or another..same for CD rom drivers.

Haha, absolutely! 😄

Living wrote on 2025-02-14, 14:15:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/Microsoft_IntelliEye_mouse_2.jpg/960px-Microsoft_IntelliEye_mouse_2.jp […]
Show full quote

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-02-14, 12:19:

Okay, I do already have a vintage mouse. A PS/2 Microsoft Intellimouse that came with the build I bought. However, I was wondering if anyone knows of any (somewhat) better 90s mice they can recommend, if any? I totally get that options were more limited back in the 90s, and ball mice were never particularly great in the sense that you would always have to frequently clean them. I was just wondering if there were any decent options that totally went under my radar from back then? The ones we had were pretty generic. Very 'office' standard. Considering the number of tools and utilities I've downloaded recently, which have allowed for various tweaking and life improvements in Windows and DOS, I just figured it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that there's something out there regarding hardware/peripherals etc. 😀 It's true I could just connect a random USB mouse, but I'd still like something that's period accurate, too. Something that would be better suited for FPSs and point n' click adventures. Again, I get that accuracy, sensitivity, and clunkiness were how folk had to play FPSs back then with PS/2 mice.

And yes, I've been increasing the sensitivity options in games, as panning/looking is pretty slow at default settings. I've also been using that PS/2 Rate, which has helped, too. So any additional tool or period accurate gaming mice would be super welcome. 😀

Thanks

2nd optical mouse to hit the mass market after the explorer in 1999. USB with PS2 converter

There is no better choice than this when it comes to mouse up until 2000. I found mine in the trash in late 2000 (broken usb cord). Fixed and been using for the past 25 years (10 as my primary mouse)

Oh nice. I'll have to have a look for one of these. 😁

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-02-14, 13:42:

Modern-ish optical PS2 mice will work fine on retro rigs, assuming they have a PS2 port of course. I use a generic A4Tech optical mouse for my DOS systems. It works fine with the standard Microsoft mouse driver.

I hated ball mice back in the day, and despise them ever more now. No reason to use those things if you have a working PS2 port. They are imprecise, and a chore to clean.

Mine is PS/2, but a ball mouse. But I'll give the A4Tech optical mouse a lookie. Thanks. But yeah, even the slightest friction and it involves having to clean whatever's in there.

Jo22 wrote on 2025-02-14, 14:31:

I liked serial ball mice. The Genius Easy Mouse is what I had on my 286, I remember. I've always used a mouse mat, though. Witho […]
Show full quote

I liked serial ball mice. The Genius Easy Mouse is what I had on my 286, I remember.
I've always used a mouse mat, though. Without it, a ball mouse wouldn't have been fun to use.

The PS/2 port is annoying, also. At least with DOS/Windows 3.1 era software.
It causes jerky mouse movement under certain conditions.
It's a protocol issue, it's related to packet length.
MS Mouse v9 driver and later releases do contain a fix for this, but consume more memory than early releases such as MS Mouse 6.x.

https://www.os2museum.com/wp/jumpy-ps2-mouse- … de-windows-3-x/

On bright side, MS Mouse 9 and up support windowed DOS sessions on Windows 3.1x, so seamless mouse works - like with Windows 95.

About mouse drivers.. I don’t understand why CuteMouse is so popular, it looks very limited to me and has compatibility issues, especially with 16-Bit Windows.
Things like mouse acceleration or support for EGA cards are missing, too.

It's as if the CuteMouse driver was written for small size only, rather than good functionality. I don’t like that.
I'd rather use a cloaked version of a full-size mouse driver, like Logitech mouse driver.

What's also important to know, maybe: Mouse speed must be compensated for different graphics modes/resolutions.
Thus, authentic mouse drivers may do a better job on vintage computers.

I only briefly tried CuteMouse in DOS and didn't really notice a lot of difference. I'm guessing it's just because of its small memory footprint...?