Trackball 50 Years Old

GRW writes "Rachel Ross in a Toronto Star story called The mouse that soared, writes "Fifty years ago, a team of engineers in Toronto turned a simple bowling ball into one of the most influential gadgets of our time. The trackball they created would grow into a mouse." "Tom Cranston and a colleague, Fred Longstaff, thought up the trackball idea while working on a Lake Ontario military project called the Digital Automated Tracking and Resolving System (DATAR)."" I played a bowling game in Boston once that used a bowling ball sized trackball to run a ball through a bizarre 3D bowling lane. I thought a regular trackball messed with my wrists ;)

Comments

Hyperbowl!

[HeroicAutobot]

The game that Taco mentions (with the bowling ball trackball) is Hyperbowl. It's a mildly fun game. (The more beer you drink, the more fun it becomes.)

A windows version is available, but it doesn't include a trackball. For that, you need to buy the attraction version. (It's only US$29,995.00.)

Laptops...

[Rob.Mathers]

Thought your 5 year old laptop (you know, the kind that used to have a good trackball in it, not that eraserhead or touchpad crap) was heavy? Try it with a bowling ball instead of a 5 cm sphere!