Atari arcade games inspired the original Apple mouse

It ’s hard to say if the Macintosh would ’ve been so successful if it had n’t had such a revolutionary interface — namely , the mouse . While Appledidn’t inventthe mouse , itdid commission the now legendary locomotive engineer Jim Yurchencoto make it workable . And he look to Steve Jobs ’ former employer for brainchild .

That ship’s company , of grade , was Atari , and the intake was a relatively new gadget that Atari call the “ Trak - Ball . ” The original mouse that Steve Jobs tinkered with during a visit to Xerox PARC in the former eighties worked a turn like the Trak - Ball , but the whole coiffe up was wildly expensive . Apple contracted the design firm Hovey - Kelley to bring the cost of a comparable gadget from Xerox ’s estimated cost of $ 400 a piece down to $ 25 a piece , and Yurchenco hire the lead .

The problem with the Xerox design , Yurchenco quick realized , was that it was just too complicated . The computer mouse forced a bollock down onto the tabular array and used a serial of switch to track the apparent movement of the nut which would send a signal to the graphic substance abuser user interface to move a cursor around on the screen door . While looking at other input equipment , Yurchenco settled on the Atari Trak - Ball as a marvelous alternative .

As the name implied , the Trak - Ball also tracked the movement of a ball and render that movement on the screen of arcade game . Rather than force the ball onto the table , however , he design simply allowed the egg to float and lease gravity do the work . And rather than rig up an elaborated labyrinth of sensor , the Atari twist used beams of luminance to track the ball ’s movement . It was n’t quite as accurate as the Xerox equipment , though Yurchenco quickly realized that it did n’t make much of a difference to the exploiter who was staring at the cursor and not the mouse .

Apple ’s borrowed purpose in effect decree the mouse food market for decade , until the ball was completely replaced by optical gimmick . Yurchenco himself would go on to secure some 80 letters patent , become one of the first employee at IDEO , and design the Palm V , a truly radical gimmick in its day . If you ’re intrigue , hold out Wired ’s new profile of Yurchencowho started out as a sculptor and is now regarded as one of the most influential industrial couturier of his generation . He seems like a pretty cool hombre , too ! [ Wired ]

Images via Flickr /unabonger/ IDEO

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