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Input Devices Toys Hardware Entertainment Games

A Pistol Mouse for Your Fragging Pleasure 278

Posted by timothy from the fragging-sharks-with-fragging-lasers dept.
ErgoSeating writes "In my search for an ergonomic mouse I stumbled upon something called the PistolMouse. This mouse is shaped like a pistol and uses a trigger as the left button but tracks with an optical sensor on the bottom, not the sight or barrel. In a twist of irony, the mouse is ergonomically shaped because the pistol grip alleviates stress on your carpal tunnel-ridden wrist. Its Linux compatible and looks like it could be just the thing to brighten up my desk. Here is a review of the item with some good pictures." Not sure how it's ironic -- the modern handgun reflects hundreds of years of user testing -- but it looks fun, and a hoot to travel with by air.
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A Pistol Mouse for Your Fragging Pleasure More

A Pistol Mouse for Your Fragging Pleasure

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  • All that testing... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Amiga Lover ( 708890 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:01PM (#12549508)
    Not sure how it's ironic -- the modern handgun reflects hundreds of years of user testing

    And it's one button. Apple must be onto something...

    • And it's one button.

      Um, what about the safety?

      • Re:All that testing... (Score:4, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:07PM (#12549568)
        What kind of pansy uses a safety?

      • Re:All that testing... (Score:3, Interesting)

        by anagama ( 611277 )
        It's a funny joke. Let me be a wet blanket.

        Some pistols don't have an additional safety beyond those that are built-in. Some incorporate the safety into the trigger itself -- i.e., when you pull on the trigger you automatically deactivate the safety. Revolvers typically don't have an external safety button but are considered safe with the hammer down. If you are paranoid about accidental discharge, you would keep the hammer down over an empty cylinder -- 100% impossibility of firing without pulling the

        • Correct. Glocks have three safeties which means you cannot discharge the firearm by dropping it, but they are all released when you pull the trigger.

          This is why Glocks are a favorite of law enforcement whose buffoons tend to drop their weapons (thus injuring their fellow officers) as well as forget to take off external safeties in firefights (thus getting themselves killed.)

          However, you DO need to practice trigger finger control with a Glock - keep it OUT of the trigger guard until you need to fire.
          • One of the safeties on the Springfield Arms XD's is on the back of the grip right beneath the, uh, barrel...the part that's made of metal on a polycarbonate weapon.

            Anyway, you press it in with the crease between your thumb and forefinger, meaning that it doesn't go off unless you hold it like you mean it. This is in combination with the trigger safety and a firing pin safety.

            It's truly ingenious, and it felt like a good, safe weapon. If I didn't have so many lunatics in my life I'd probably have one at
            • That's the grip safety. You give the impression that you think this is a novel thing. I'm not saying you actually think so, just that your writing gives that impression.

              Since I'm sure you know that grip safeties are, oh, at least a hundred years old, you might want to watch your phrasing a tad more in the future. Ya might give people the wrong impression, ya know. :-)
          • Not forgetting this guy, who accidently injures himself [snopes.com] at a school talk.

    • No, actually, it has a right click on the trigger guard and a scroll wheel (which I'm assuming also acts like a 3rd button).

    • And it's one button. Apple must be onto something...

      Wait a minute. If you want apple, shouldn't it be a CROSSBOW mouse? ^_^
    • Umm, let's see...your typical modern handgun has a trigger, thumb safety, grip safety, slide release, magazine release...

      rj
      • Well....

        Grip safetys are a feature of 1911's (and, admittedly, others -- but primarily 1911s). And while John Moses Browning's design is still extremely popular (I own two and am getting, I think, a third) it's not exactly modern. Even the Browning High Power (P35) doesn't have a grip safety.

        Many modern guns are 'slick slides', as an earlier poster said. My Sig P229 (relatively modern) has no 'active' safety -- it has a firing pin block and a decocker but if you pull at the trigger with a round in the cha
  • in a fight with a PistolCat. I can't bare to think about it....

    [Shudders]

  • ThinkGeek (Score:5, Informative)

    by LukeTurner ( 803739 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:02PM (#12549516)
    Been on Think Geek for ages... http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/6e04/ [thinkgeek.com]

    • Re:ThinkGeek (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Thank God, I was afraid I wasn't going to see a single "I've known about this forever!" post. I almost had to scroll off the front page to find this one! LukeTurner, you're the coolest!

  • faster than a speeding bullet (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rooked_One ( 591287 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:04PM (#12549533) Journal
    not this new mouse... the slashdot effect. I was really wanting to see those images also.

  • Oops... (Score:5, Funny)

    by rsrsharma ( 769904 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:04PM (#12549539) Homepage Journal

    Looks like the XYZ server got shot. That's what you get for playing with guns kids. :P

  • Firearms: the original point and click interface.

    Apparently that's all I have to say, but amazingly it's on topic in this story.
    • Crossbows were made before firearms. Firearms may be merely an evolution of crossbows, where an explosion of powder was used instead of the release of a tense string. Crossbows themselves are merely bows which store your arm power until released, by, um, pointing and clicking.
      • While the firing of crossbows is certainly point and click, the loading and preparation is not. And my understanding is it's not reasonable to leave cocked crossbows lying around.

        I usually take "point and click interface" to mean "interface that somebody probably smart put a lot of work into so that any unqualified moron can make do more or less what they want to great effect, although the user may not have considered or understand the ramifications of their actions"

        That is why I usually consider cartidge firearms to be the original point and click interface. Sometimes I limit it to semiautomatic weapons and dual action revolvers, because you can click over and over with effect and without thought.

        I respect your opinion, though, even though I think you're on a little bit of a slippery slope. Of course, the most effective point and click device is always a well-trained underling... but I was limited myself to technology.

        Proving once again that I am a nerd.
        • I think it probably depends a lot on the type of crossbow in question. There were the little crossbows that just required a little effort to load, while on the other hand there were the bigass ones that you had to set one end on the ground and use a great deal of strength to winch back into firing position.

          Obviously the former is much more point and click than the latter.

          Gimme a ballista anyday.

        • Try loading a breach loader. That's not point and click, either. But that's irrelevant. In many cases, a well-trained underling such as a squire could prepare cocked crossbows or an infantryman could prepare his own shot earlier in the day. It's the moment of battle where you need an easy interface, which both weapons provided.

        • Re:Firearms the original point and click interface (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Dun Malg ( 230075 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @09:05PM (#12550018) Homepage
          I usually take "point and click interface" to mean "interface that somebody probably smart put a lot of work into so that any unqualified moron can make do more or less what they want to great effect, although the user may not have considered or understand the ramifications of their actions"

          Funny you should phrase it this way, because this is exactly the reason the crossbow was developed. Archers with regular bows required years of training, while even a particularly thickheaded soldier could be taught to use a crossbow in about a week.

          • I'd accept that the crossbow might've been the first ranged weapon designed with that idea in mind, but I sustain the technology wasn't there to accomplish the goal of untrained killing until the cartidge.

            As someone else pointed out, the amount of effort to cock a crossbow isn't necessarily tremendous - but it's definitely there. As I pointed out, using an underling isn't a technological P&C.

            And as you point out, it only takes about a week of training for a thickheaded soldier to use a crossbow. To

            • Teaser: The advice given at the bottom of this comment should be read followed by anyone who has a FIREARM, a CAR, A COMPUTER, A CREDIT LINE/CARD, or a CHILD.

              And as you point out, it only takes about a week of training for a thickheaded soldier to use a crossbow. To use a firearm at close range only requires watching TV - people successfully kill all the time with only that much training.

              Okay, so having watched on TV a firearm being used, I can SAFELY defend my home and cause no risk to myself, my fam
              • I NEVER said you could use a firearm SAFELY only from watching TV. I said you could cause significant effect - the likelyhood is that you can manage to cause damage to someone. And I specifically said you'd need to be at fairly close range.

                More importantly, I thought I was very clearly negative about the wisdom of USING point and click interfaces without any knowledge and how it has unintended and negative consequences. Perhaps I was too subtle. I suppose I shouldn't expect people to follow humor on /.

              • And as you point out, it only takes about a week of training for a thickheaded soldier to use a crossbow. To use a firearm at close range only requires watching TV - people successfully kill all the time with only that much training.

                Okay, so having watched on TV a firearm being used, I can SAFELY defend my home and cause no risk to myself, my family, or my neighbors.

                BULLSHIT.

                You're not doing much to improve my sense of safety, NRA fanboy. You're obviously very passionate on this subject. But it'


              • Whoops, my bad. I thought you were responding to someone higher up the chain. Please don't kill me. I didn't mean it.

            • "Practicing proper gun safety generally means not having a round in the chamber."

              Only if you're not entering a dangerous situation - or if you care about accidental discharges.

              When I robbed a bank (using a Glock 19), I didn't chamber a round because I didn't want an accidental discharge under the stress of a bank robbery - at the same time, this put me at significant risk, because if I was attacked by an armed individual in the bank, I would have to jack the slide before returning fire - enough to get me

          • Erm. I learned how to shoot a bow in a day. Sure, took me a while longer to start hitting things more than ten yards away, and I still can't promise a hit at 100 yards on my first arrow.

            But put me with 800 mates and give us a 2000 strong army to shoot at, I think I'll do just fine.

            Bows are incredibly easy to use. Crossbows were never a major part of British warfare; the bows were better. The French used crossbows a lot, but they didn't know how to make a good longbow.

            ~cederic
            • With only a couple of hours of crossbow training, a person can reasonably expect to hit a man sized target at 100 yards or greater. Also, the modern recurve and compound bows are much easier to aim and fire then the Welsh yew bows. A recurve bow is not any more powerful than a medieaval crossbow. It's big advantage is a higher rate of fire. But it takes a bit more training to use effectively. A true long bow (where it is probably taller than most men) is whole orders of magnitude harder to aim and fire

  • they are ok (Score:5, Informative)

    by ImTheDarkcyde ( 759406 ) <ImTheDarkcyde@hotmail.com> on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:05PM (#12549543) Journal
    i myself purchased one of these pistolmouses around christmas for 40 bucks, it is a very neat design, but i caution those with little desk space, as its about 2 inches longer than the standard mouse

    it is also a very sensitive mouse, you'll find yourself turning down mouse sensitivity in some games (max payne, most noticibly)

    my game performance hasnt increased at all, but there are a few games i just cannot play with it, games that rely on alot of scroll wheel usage

    which brings me to the final point, the scroll wheel, if you use firefox (of course you do) chances are you are constantly middle clicking, well doing it horizontally lets you mess up and scroll/click instead at the same time, it gets annoying, but its not a big turn off

    9/10

  • Article slashdotted - repost (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:06PM (#12549562)
    Posted anonymously - I'm no Karma whore :-)

    Monster Gecko PistolMouse FPS

    Every so often you get a chance to play with something that just brings out the inner Geek. This is that product. Designed for the hard core FPS player, the PistolMouse replicates the look and feel of a real pistol in a high resolution 800 DPI optical mouse. The PistolMouse FPS uses a high performance optical sensor that tracks surfaces by sampling an image up to 3400 times every second with a high accuracy of 800 dpi (dots per inch). The PistolMouse FPS responds to any movement in 10.9 milliseconds (1/100 of a second) and can sustain the full 800 dpi capture rate at speeds of 12.75 inches per second over a surface. It all sounds good on paper, but let's test this thing in the real world...

    The First thing I noticed about the PistolMouse FPS is the high quality packaging. This box jumps out at you. Monster Gecko has really put together an attractive product in a stunning box.

    The Pistol itself looks a lot like a replica Air Soft pistol. The design is ergometric with your hand naturally gripping the trigger and resting on the secondary button. The scroll wheel is always in easy reach of your thumb. The design allows the PistolMouse to be used with equal precision both left and right handed.

    Pictures don't do this product justice. The PistolMouse is sturdy without feeling heavy or unresponsive at all. The triggers are crafted from color matched aluminum. Even after several days of twitch gaming it still feels as solid as day one.

    All that aside, the real thrill is gripping the pistol and dishing out frags with a vengeance. The feel of a real pistol in your hand brings a new level of immersion to your favorite FPS. It's also a great attention getter; I can only begin to describe the constant stream of friends that want to try it out, even my wife had to try it! And who hasn't taken liberties with those crazy arcade pistols?

    I put the PistolMouse through its paces using the latest Microsoft Drivers and my favorite twitch games, PainKiller and Battlefield: 1942. For prolonged testing I ran it through a marathon PlanetSide session. My mouse pad of choice was the EverGlide Giganta and the new XTrac Ripper XL. No driver is needed; the USB plug and play was painless.

    There is a bit of a learning curve to the PistolMouse FPS. The most immediate change is the trigger function. Your Trigger acts as the primary fire and will both single and double click. This allows you to hold down the fire button for some nice automatic action. The secondary trigger is tucked under the trigger guard and after a few misfires was pretty easy to use. The scroll wheel is easy to find without looking down and very responsive. Once you get the feel down you notice the natural ergometric design makes your left to right motions much faster than with a traditional mouse. Even after nearly 4 hours of play I felt no wrist strain.

    The larger size foot print over whelmed my Giganta at 6 ½" by 3" but worked nicely on the Ripper XL. Motion was fluid and responsive even during high speed play. The only drawback over my regular mouse is the PistolMouse only supports the functions of a traditional 3 button Scroll mouse. This 3 button limitation means my trusty old mouse won't be replaced yet. $69.95 may be a bit pricy for a FPS specialty mouse but with the level of quality Monster Gecko has put into the PistolMouse FPS, this might just put that smile on your face.

    Right now Monster Gecko is offering a 30 Day money back Guarantee on the Pistol Mouse FPS through www.monstergecko.com. What have you got to loose?

    Club Overclocker Rating

    Innovation:
    10 out of 10

    Performance:
    9.0 out of 10

    Quality:
    9.0 out of 10

    Stability:
    N/A

    Compatibility:
    7.5 out of 10

    Overclocking:
    N/A

    Software Pack:
    N/A

  • Precision (Score:5, Interesting)

    by HoaryCripple ( 187169 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:07PM (#12549567) Homepage
    As a "fast twitch" player who's been playing first person shooters for longer than I care to admit, I highly doubt I would ever use this product. It forces you to use the much less precise muscles of the shoulder and upper arm as opposed to the muscles of the forearm. I'll take my carpal tunnel syndrome thank you.

    • Re:Precision (Score:2, Funny)

      by iPodUser ( 879598 )
      I'm with you, man. You spend your whole life learnig another system, then you have to learn something new.
    • I'll take my carpal tunnel syndrome thank you.

      I'm still thinking that a mouse along with separate buttons (for the keyboard, to use with the left hand) should be much more ergonomic.

      Reason:

      a) You can switch fingers whenever your index finger gets tired (repetitive strain)

      b) you separate the moving from the clicking, allowing better coordination.

      My question is: Why doesn't any friggin' company do it!!
    • It forces you to use the much less precise muscles of the shoulder and upper arm as opposed to the muscles of the forearm. I'll take my carpal tunnel syndrome thank you.
      I used a similar mouse for a couple of years, due to tendonitis problems. I don't recall that precision was really a problem; maybe I had to adjust the sensitivity a little. I think it did help with the tendonitis, although my ultimate solution was just to switch from a mouse-based editor to emacs in a terminal window :-)

      BTW, I think due

      • Yes, it is a standard high precision optical mouse (800dpi). They could have designed it as a standard joystick grip. The gun design is mostly aesthetics, but the sensor is towards the front of the barrel so twisting the grip side to side will produce quick horizontal movement.

  • Irony (Score:3, Interesting)

    by UserChrisCanter4 ( 464072 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:08PM (#12549582)
    Since (situational) irony is the opposite of what's expected, I would say that the submitter was probably correct in his or her use of "ironic." If I were to encounter something like this, I would immediately assume that it was a lame gimmick built to cheesily cash in on the novelty market, which would probably make me doubt the mouse's ergonomics.

    • Re:Irony (Score:3, Funny)

      by geeber ( 520231 )
      I believe the real irony hear is in the notion of a Slashdot editor trying to correct someone else's grammar usage.

  • safety warning (Score:5, Funny)

    by Stephen Samuel ( 106962 ) <samuel@NOsPaM.bcgreen.com> on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:08PM (#12549588) Homepage Journal
    Just remember: If your company, for some reason, gets raided keep your hand away from the mouse or carpal tunnel syndrome may be the least of your medical problems. Slashdot can safely wait until the cops have gone home.
    • This also is not the ideal mouse to use with a laptop on a plane.
      • Good luck getting it on the plsne, to begin with. You'd be lucky to get away with a strp-search and a warning.

        • I think it was Boing-Boing or somebody who pointed out a case where the guy had a digital camera which was built into one of those steel lighter cases.

          He took the camera out and demonstrated to the idiots at the airport that it was in fact a camera.

          They let him keep the camera, but he couldn't take the EMPTY lighter case on the plane.

          There is no level of stupidity these people will not sink to in the pursuit of "security".

          About on a par with forcing penguins to walk through a metal detector...
  • Back in the day (1983), I used a CAD system that had a light pen pointer and a true vector display. The CAD software drew the picture by plotting the electron beam on a circular CRT screen (i.e., it did not use a raster scan). The base of the desk-sized console had a massive rack of boards that converted the line list into vector scan deflections. The pen (you touched the pen directly to the screen) had a small hole and photodiode that monitored the timing of the trace to determine what you were pointing

  • Hundreds of Years? (Score:5, Funny)

    by serutan ( 259622 ) <snoopdoug@RABBIT ... minus herbivore> on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:17PM (#12549663) Homepage
    the modern handgun reflects hundreds of years of user testing

    Obviously more than the Federation did when they came up with the "dust buster" phasers.

  • Used one, didn't like it (Score:5, Informative)

    by Matimus ( 598096 ) <mccredie&gmail,com> on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:18PM (#12549677)
    The company that makes these pistol mice sponsored PDXLAN [pdxlan.com] 5.05 in March, which I attended. At first they seemed kind of neat, but everyone pretty much figured out that they they were only nice to look at after only a few minutes. For starters the lever arm on the trigger to 'click' the mouse is big, every time you want to 'click' you are moving your index finger nearly 1 cm. 1 cm doesn't seem like much, untill you figure that a regular mouse only takes about 1mm (or less). Also your wrist rests on the table in a strange position and you end up rubbing the bone on your wrist against the table, and it becomes very uncomfortable. Third, you can elevate your arm above the table so as not to rub your wrist, but then you are actually putting quite a bit of work into your arm, which is definitely not ergonomic. Lastly, most of the fine control that you do with your mouse is via your finger tips, with this mouse all of the control is done via your whole arm. Needless to say, by the end of PDXLAN they were giving these away as raffle prizes, and some of the winners wouldn't even come up to claim their prize!

    Oh, and remember what I said about them being nice to look at, that is only the first time you see it, after about a minute the novelty wears off and you realize how dumb looking it really is.

  • I'll wait until the next version... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Karl Tacheron ( 841799 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:24PM (#12549717)
    I hear that's when they implement the sideways "gangsta grip" feature.
    • Your accuracy goes way down if you fire a weapon using "gangsta grip" and you're also more likely to have spent cartridges expelled out in the direction of your face. Cops are even trained to dodge a certain way if they're being fired at gangsta style.

      I guess it can look kind of intimidating, but once you realise the logistics of it all, gangsta grip is really, really stupid.
      • It really doesn't look intimidating, it just looks stupid.

        And it seems like the real origin of it was that some movie director realized that if the actors held the guns sideways he could get a better shot of their faces and the guns. Then people saw it and started copying it.

        If someone is ever going to shoot at me, I hope they use the "gansta grip," because their odds of hitting me are pretty low.

  • Chances of getting this into Australia? (Score:4, Informative)

    by B747SP ( 179471 ) <slashdot@selfabusedelephant.com> on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:34PM (#12549797)
    Australian Customs are pretty strict on guns, and things that look like guns. Even the Old Namco Gun-Con for the original Playstation wasn't allowed in until the importers/manufacturers put flourescent orange tape up the sides. I wonder how we'll go with this one.

    Having said that, one does see obviously illegal-import gaming 'guns' for sale at markets and stuff from time to time, and at least one online store in Australia claims to have stock of this PistolMouse, so some folks are sneaking under the radar.

    Vertical mice aren't anything new though. I've been using the 3M 'Renaissance Mouse' for years now - I've got four of them in various places at home and work. A couple of random images [utoronto.ca] courtesy google image [ziffdavisinternet.com] search here.

    A key point I've found with the 3M mice is that they're pretty hard to control for a few days, and you never really regain the fine control that you have with a regular horizontal mouse. I can't help but wonder if the relative lack of control will be a problem for gamers. Remember, this 'gun' must slide around on the surface of a table, so it's going to operate like a vertical mouse, not a free-moving gun. I often keep two mice plugged into my computers - one of these for long-term comfort, and a regular mouse for when I need fine control, say with photoshop or the Gimp.

  • I use a mouse shaped like a steering wheel, with two foot pedals attached - well, that's what I tell my boss it's for, anyway.
  • got one as a gift; its comfy but counterintuitive. not recommended.
  • most/all MAME emulated games that support a light gun also support a mouse but not visa versa. So this means that games like Terminator 2 will work great.

  • and a hoot to travel with by air. (Score:4, Funny)

    by jlowery ( 47102 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @09:06PM (#12550022)
    Oh yeah, those TSA guys are well known for their sense of humor. Why not really laugh it up with:

    1) batteries wrapped together with duct tape
    2) biohazard stickers on your carry-on
    3) a fuse taped to the heel of your shoe
    4) a snazzy tinfoil hat
    5) fond rememberances of the time you met Osama

  • The early Z-80 based Bally Arcade console gaming system (circa 1977) came with joystick hand controls that had a pistol grip. The grips looked like the handles on a Colt revolver with the joystick sticking out of the top. You would hold the joystick by the gun-handle with one hand, work the joystick with the other, and fire the trigger with the 'holding hand'. There was also a potentiometer so you could twist the knob on top of the joystick back and forth.

    The design was very good ergonometrically. Unfortun
  • That's for kids! I glued my 9mm glock to my logitech mouse! People get a lot more scared than with that girly toy gun!
  • looking at the design of that, it looks like it would be COMPLETELY unusable for a left handed person since the scroll wheel would be right under the crease between my thumb and trigger-finger. AUGH!! I know i'm a minority here, but come on! when will they make things for us lefties??
  • The Perific Dual Mouse [perific.com] already does this, except it can also be used as a regular mouse, two-handed, pistol-grip [perific.com], you name it. It's probably even better ergonimically speaking, since it allows for more varied usage. And, it has more buttons and a trackball. Win-win!
  • I thought there was something similar (pistol grip with a tiny mini-joystick on top) for the Amstrad CPC range, oh, um about 10-15yrs ago?! ;)

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