News, comments or suggestions? Send 'em in!
|
|
It has been a little more than two years since the almighty Microsoft introduced to the world it's original IntelliMouse Explorer optical mouse. This mouse was something different. It gave the consumer the first working version of an optical mouse that Microsoft promised would not need a special mouse pad, because the optical technology developed by Microsoft could track anywhere - your bare desktop, pant leg, just about anywhere you could think of! This also eliminated the ball that all mice had up to that point, which as all of you know, needed to be cleaned on a regular basis in order to perform at the optimal level. Optical mice where great when they first came out, and the casual consumer ate them up. The "hardcore gamer" however, did not embrace the technology with quite as wide of open arms. The first version of the optical mouse sometimes lost it's tracking during the quick movements that were required when playing games such as Quake or Unreal Tournament. This was because the original optical mice only captured about 1500 snapshots per second to record movement, while Microsoft's latest technology captures upwards of 6000. After all of the kinks had been worked out of the technology, other manufacturer's decided to jump on the bandwagon and have a go at releasing their own version of the optical mouse. There were some very good entries from the likes of Logitech, Creative Labs and Kensington, but most just replicated what Microsoft had already done, and were considered by most to be for those who could not find, or more likely afford, a real IntelliMouse Explorer. For this reason, up until a few weeks ago, I was a die-hard IntelliMouse Explorer user. Then, I was introduced to the MAPP mouse.
The MAPP (Mechanical Designer-Accelerated Peripheral Products) mouse is, at first glance, the most beautiful computer peripheral I have ever seen. It's elegant and purposeful shape is unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I knew I had to have one. But where would I find one? I knew they where not available in America, and the only place I had ever seen one is in an obscure anime magazine called NewType (The Moving Pictures Magazine), and they gave me no insight as to where I could pick up one of these pieces of art to have as my own. My next step was the internet. As any red-blooded American knows, the internet is where you go to find anything you need, from toasters to Ferrari's, the World Wide Web has it all. So, my search began. I didn't come up with much at first except the occasional mention of the mice on Japanese fan-boy sites that drooled over the design, but left me hanging for how to procure my own. Then I found a site called Shinza . Shinza is dedicated to bringing the best of Japan to the states, and only sells the best of the best in Japanese electronics for the serious consumer. I checked the site, found the MAPP mouse I was looking for (there are two versions, the one I was looking for was designed by anime artist Masamune Shiro, who's done art for Ghost In The Shell, Appleseed and Black Magic M66) and placed my order! Three days later, I had my mouse! The mouse was delivered in a large cardboard shipping box, and was packed tightly by Shinza to protect it from the horrors of UPS, which was much appreciated. After opening the box, I found the mouse itself encased in a snap-lock type of packaging. Now, for the record, I hate this type of packaging, because you need to literally destroy it in order to get to the merchandise within. Since I knew I had something special here, I spent the extra ten minutes trying my best to gingerly open the package without destroying it too much, and I, for the most part, succeeded, which you can see in the picture below (click to enlarge).
The mouse came with an instruction booklet (the cover of which is the third picture at the beginning of the review) and drivers, but keep in mind, this is a true Japanese import, so all of the instructions sans a few "USB" and "Windows XP" exclamations, were in Japanese, and useless to me. The Shinza site was good enough to mention during the original ordering of the mouse that the drivers included where not necessary, and that Windows XP would automatically detect the mouse and it would work fine with my original IntelliMouse Explorer drivers. This came to be true as I plugged the mouse in, booted up, and watched XP do exactly what the Shinza people said it would do. I was able to control and customize all of the mouse's attributes using the Explorer dialogue boxes, and after doing so, fired up my copy of Unreal Tournament 2003 and WarCraft III to have a go. First impressions where overall positive. The mouse is very accurate, and easy to use. It's very lightweight, which is a change for me from the Explorer, and took some time to get used to, but once I did, I found it easier on my hand to move around while fragging my evil opressers. The mouse comes with three buttons (left, right and middle scroll which can be pressed to use as a third button). I don't really miss the side buttons on my old Explorer, as I really needed to remind myself that they were there in order to use them, and never really got used to using them on a regular basis.
Other than the weight of the mouse, the only thing I could find that I really would have improved on the mouse was the overall size. It's very small. The dimensions being only (WxDxH) are 2.7 by 4.0 by 1.4 inches (69x104x35mm). So, for a guy like me with big hands, it was for about the first hour, somewhat hard to get used to. It's not a matter of the mouse not fitting my hand, but of myself accepting a new way to hold the mouse, with a more relaxed and easy grip instead of the hanging on you do with the Explorer. The MAPP mouse is more of a gentle touch sort of peripherial. A marked difference in approach, but one I feel will be a benefit over time to relieve stress on those long nights of playing Quake III, Unreal Tournament 2003 and WarCraft III.
Overall, the mouse is very easy to use, beautiful to look at, and a joy to have as a compliment to my Mach V. If you want something truly unique and special, I highly recommend giving it a try. Plus
• Beautiful design. Limited edition exclusivity. Delta • Small size takes some getting used to.
Falcon Mach V EXOTIX
PLEXTOR CD-R PX-W4824A
Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P4G8X Rev 1.xx 1024 Megabytes Installed Memory NVIDIA 128 MB GeForce4 Ti 4600
Creative Game Port
|