Some guy has discovered a rare late Soviet era computer mouse and here are the images posted. This particular device was produced in year 1990, but the model year is 1989, as the papers say. Â It looks pretty weird, unboxed and is red in color. The price tag is also weird – it costs 285 roubles which at time was equally translated in dollars – so almost three hundred for a piece of plastic with a ball inside. See more inside:
The box tells the benefits of using the mouse. “It is the most comfortable graphic input device. You can move a cursor or piece of graphics across the screen, paint or use in business”. Like for those who see this for the first time of their lives.
It has had its own serial number written in pen and was under a warranty.
Also for some reason  a blueprint of the device was included in the box. Like if it gets cracked you can order yourself a spare piece. Because it costed you three hundred dollars.
And here is the fabulous babe itself.
Look at this connector. Its not just red, its red and blue. With black cord.
The size is pretty realistic compared to the modern day hardware.
There is a serial number written by hand on the back of the device itself.
In general this thing looks well built and sturdy and might be pretty much working even this day. If you could find an adapter to this huge controller.
very interesting.
But the price is an enormous, 185 roubles is about monthly minimum wage in the USSR.
Soviet entry-level engineer had net salary of 120 roubles per month. So 185 roubles for computer mouse were serious money.
Well, do you know the price of a PC in 1990? around 5K, couldn’t find the cost of mouse in US but I would assume that was similar. even now good precise one would cost descent money, like http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/razer-usa-razer-naga-epic-chroma-wireless-laser-gaming-mouse-black-rz01-01230100-r3u1/10358209.aspx?path=94c18ad3b8062968a353dc1318fe4cdben02 yes, assuming inflation since 1990 its cheaper but you can get a tablet pc these days for 169$ so wireless piece of plastic now days isn’t cheap either
Ah…. no. The first PC I bought with my own money was $4k in 1990; a 486DX/25 w/ VGA, 14″ CRT monitor, 250 MB HD, 2 MB of memory. It was just a step down from the top end 486DX/33. A brand new mouse was $20-30 (for a nice one), or $10-15 (for a junk one). Which you’d sometimes end up buying to get the OEM version of DOS or Windows (MS required them to be sold “with hardware”, and some stores actually complied with that fanciful notion).
Mice, keyboards, cases, and PSUs weren’t really any more expensive than they are now. Everything else was, however.
What the heck kind of connector is that? It’s gigantic.
It’s not a connector, it’s a harmonica. You blow into it to power the device.
Just normal SCSI connector
Should be 16 bit SCSI connector, isn’t it?
That connector is an 80-pin SCSI. I’ve only ever seen that on ancient hard drives only a handful of times in the past.
I don’t think 80-pin SCSI was around very long. I believe (and I may be mistaken, but I believe…) that IDE came out at nearly the same time, or just after the 80-pin SCSI form-factor was introduced. Because of that – it became obsolete for HDD’s pretty much instantly.