Hold On to Your Balls - Razer Boomslang Retroview
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When we found a Razer Boomslang for sale, we couldn’t pass up a chance to relive the glory days of LAN parties, Quake, and endless frags. How does it stack up against the modern mice of today?
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MUSIC CREDIT
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Intro: Laszlo - Supernova
Video Link: • [Electro] - Laszlo - S...
iTunes Download Link: itunes.apple.com/us/album/sup...
Artist Link: / laszlomusic
Outro: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High
Video Link: • Sugar High - Approachi...
Listen on Spotify: spoti.fi/UxWkUw
Artist Link: / approachingnirvana
Intro animation by MBarek Abdelwassaa / mbarek_abdel
Monitor And Keyboard by vadimmihalkevich / CC BY 4.0 geni.us/PgGWp
Mechanical RGB Keyboard by BigBrotherECE / CC BY 4.0 geni.us/mj6pHk4
Mouse Gamer free Model By Oscar Creativo / CC BY 4.0 geni.us/Ps3XfE
CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro
0:52 The G Pro Wireless
1:59 Meet the Boomslang
4:03 Mouse Balls
4:39 Linus' Ball Hairs
5:02 Accessories
6:26 Impressions
9:56 Issues with balls
10:52 Software
11:58 Final Thoughts
13:32 Outro
Razer sure deserves a shout-out here. The fact that the software can still be updated and the links work is shocking.
Or it could just work without proprietary software nonsense. It is just a mouse after all.
A mouse shouldn't need software to work in the first place
@@CianMcsweeney how else would you set any of those settings? It's not necessary, but it gives additional features.
@@sam3317 how else would you set any of those settings? It's not necessary, but it gives additional features.
Had a couple razer mice cause of the hype, and sure not getting any more. They surely don’t live up to the hype now adays. Their not any better than the cheapest crap you can find.
Linus explaining how a ball mouse worked sure made me feel old. I still remember the whole class getting our minds blown on the first day of computer lab in high school and the mice had lasers and no balls! I also remember paying about $50 for a corded laser mouse when I went away to college. I'm only 32 but apparently I'm about to crumble into dust.
I am 23 and i feel old as heck at this. Reason being my country was a good 10 years behind the world in terms of tech back then and I had ball mice up until 2005. The first time I ever saw a laser mouse I was blown away just like you
im 29 and i remember getting hit on the head by a ball from a mouse back in school when someone threw one at me. These things were dangerous lmao
Don't feel old I remember when the mouse first came out. Now I AM old lol
My elementary school had ball mouses and 6th grade of middle still used them. now I'm 18.
im 58 and i remember when we went from pointing at things with sticks to pointing at things with lasers lol
The 3M Precision Mousing Surface was a great pad. It was an array of pyramids. One thing I noticed is that the old ball mice seemed to need less cleaning with that pad. I loved it and think I still have it around somewhere.
Hey, there was a mouse pad I loved for its lack of friction, it was just like that! Sadly it was small so kept going off of it constantly, if ever so effortlessly. :D Makes sense also why a piece of new and fresh PVC flooring serves me well as a mouse pad, with a finely textured surface.
I had it, but didn't like it.
@@YCbCr man using a floor tile as a mouse pad, pure chad shit
Hopefully it didn't contain PFAS ;)
It was so surreal hearing Linus talk about mouse cleaning that I thought it was a bit. But no, some people have never experienced having to periodically scratch off that little grime ring with your nail. I remember it being oddly satisfying and as second nature as blowing a cartridge or breathing on a CD.
I always put peanut butter on the CD
@@innocenthdproductions1508 what have you done
@@ungabunga6283 after that you put it in the toilet and flush it to wash the excess peanut butter away
@@innocenthdproductions1508 i would just give it to a dog
@@ungabunga6283 The idea behind it is that the water would wash away most of the peanut butter but not the peanut butter that filled the scratches in the CDs, a dog tongue would lick the CD clean and probably make it worse lol. It either worked really well or made it worse, it was my go to strategy when my console couldn't even detect what game I wanted to play.
Two things: 1. Mousepads for trackball mice used to be very rough and sticky, so the ball would track correctly (with very high static friction), relying on the glidepads of the mouse itself to minimize friction with the chasis of the mouse. 2. The old way of DPI scaling mice was to adjust the mouse cursor speed in windows itself. This is why the old Razer drivers "don't seem to work" outside of Windows XP (they attempt to change the mice speed on an API that has changed since then). In other words, mice back then always worked on their highest DPI, and relied on the OS to scale down the speed.
this is an awesome comment, just wanted to say thank you for being informative
Thanks. Very good info. I hope the LMG team sees this.
Great comment as LMG continues to fail in using old tech outside the environment it was designed for so the older tech operates in unexpected ways.
Best ball mousepads were covered with slightly "rough" plastic so it did not hold dirt...
@@abdurrahmanmoustapha Linus’s comment section always write useful information, especially in the techquickie videos.
I reviewed this in 2020 and was surprised how many people still loved this mouse!
Oh
Yo randomfrankp! Love your vids
"What's up guys, I'm RandomFrankP, and we're back with another episode of cool tech under $__." -This guy probably. ( Hi Frank. I'm subbed. Love ur content :) )
classic is undead
Random you got here fast
Still picking my jaw up off the floor that Linus has never heard of 3M precision mouse surfaces before. The first optical and ball high performance mousing surfaces that made a measurable difference in performance and are still sold today last I checked.
My first “gaming mouse” was a Microsoft IntelliMouse optical. And after that the Razer Diamondback. biggest game changer for me back then was a hard mousepad.
you down graded from an optical to a ball?
As a Swede I must say that the line “This is not your mothers mouse” becomes extra hilarious because we call the special lady parts also the same as the peripheral in Swedish… 😳
Interesting. So there is a normal mouse and a gaming mouse then 🤔
mus?
so you're saying your mouses over there need some balls in them?
Brings new meaning to the phrase "double click"...
🤣
I'm here, balls on hand. I'm ready.
Just like me frfr
Firmly Grasp It
Shake em
Edited this comment so you won’t know what it was before haha 😈
Same
One thing I've always appreciated when it comes to gaming tech is that it never lost it's sense of fun. I feel like all other modern tech has become boring and sterile design-wise.
I once had the 3M mouse pad in question for the office mid to late 00s. Stationary order. It was designed to be 3M adhesive back stuck to the desk. It had a very grippy texture. It also had a surface almost design to trap dust and "hand gunk" (ball mouse users know about the gunk).
I love these old tech reviews. They give great context for how things have changed over the years. Please keep them coming.
I can highly recommend "Classic Game Room" if you are into such reviews
5:48 - Yes, I remember selling the 3M mouse 'pads', which were nothing more than a plasticized silicone sheet with tiny 'pyramids' of texture. In truth, it was a great product. Awful name though: Precise Mousing Surface ........... so yeah, we called them the PMS pads.
LMAO
I have one of those, it was kind of curved like a modern game controller and had a galaxy/nebula printed on it
I still have one of those, its stuck upside down under my frosted glass icemat and is on my nightstand, the exact same one PicoPlanet Developing described
That's the mouse pad I'm using right now! I checked my Amazon purchase history, and I bought it roughly fives years ago. Does 3M not still make mouse pads?
You know.. for a Time, hard plastic but flexible mouse pads were the fucking King, and it got to a point where it was actually kind of hard to find them LOL like there was a time when you can get them for a dollar, then the Dollar store only had the soft ones.. which are always kind of useless, certainly by comparison to the king, and for the longest time I kept mine way past its due date, to a point where it was actually having problems because it becomes so Warren it was starting to reflect back in and track wrong.. I finally broke down and bought a very inexpensive fancy cloth pad, which was really hard to find one that had a semi hard surface or at least a semi-coated surface.. which as it turns out it's not really, but it still works LOL and I kind of like it now I have one of the hard ones which cost a lot more, it's basically the 3M pad but sold as a speed pad for more money, the original 3M style was way better.. 3M still sells these for some fucking reason LOL but never in sizes that are kind of acceptable certainly not for the price LOL, now you can still get the regular ones with all manner of assorted pictures and shit on them, unfortunately it seems that about 90% of these are are still just cloth ones that don't tell yet and just searching for it's a pain in the ass in the first place LOL searching for anything is a pain in the ass these days but fucking searching for specific computer tech that's not the thing that all the kids with their jelly brains from random fucking strobe light RGB are all doing, which you know.. clearly apparent because they don't buy full keyboards anymore they buy by half keyboards for more money, likes you know something's broken in there.. and apparently it's easy to sell things cuz they they sure bury the results that way LOL.
Great content, you can tell Linus is really having fun here, always makes the videos so much better
Using the momentum of the ball rollers for flickshots was my bread and butter when I was a kid. I could snap 180s like nobodies business. Switching from ball to optical was super tough because I was so used to those physics being present.
Those ball rollers were interesting though.
3M still makes first-party mousepads. For a while I was using a laser mouse that didn't work well on the dark surface of my desk or any of the commonplace plain black mousepads, but 3M's white/gray patterned one worked amazingly.
I was about to say - 3M still makes first-party mouse pads! I recently bought one for my retro pc setup and it's just as good as it ever was.
PFAS.... they probably used them in their mousepads too- makes sense since it'd keep things from sticking to them (dirt, hand sweat/grime? IDK) They put it in everything- and now it's a widely known toxin that is related to birth defects and many other serious illnesses. But yes, use a mouse pad people. Seriously 👍 (but maybe research the product's materials first, probably a good idea)
@@saturnity6 Try a piece of plain white paper. It works better than my desk, but nowhere as good as my 3M self-adhesive mouse pad. (My desk surface has a slight texture which makes the Logitech mouse slightly glitchy, but completely destroys a lesser mouse.)
@@austin3171 No. They put their names on them. They dont "make them" or do any research. 3m specialize in adhesives like tape and the stuff of sticky thermal pads.
I bought an $0.89 Onn one from Walmart it’s just plain black but it works
I almost expected Linus to open the tin just to find it filled with sewing stuff and buttons.
EXACTLY I still don't trust any round tin
I really like the LTT version of the retro tech review. This felt different than your usual videos and refreshing in a way. Nice work.
I had one of these, back when it was the BFG razor boomslang! I loved that thing, once I got used to it, it became the most comfortable mouse I've ever used. You have to lay your fingers out on the buttons, not try to claw them, takes awhile to get used to, but when you do, it's extremely comfortable and reactive. You also had the mouse held wrong altogether, the back of the mouse should be against the heel of you hand, not under your palm like a modern mouse.. It takes absolute minimal effort to move.
So it is a mouse for small hands. Guess I know why I could never get used to razer mice. Currently running a G502 with a mix somewhere between fingertip and claw and 1-3-1 finger position. There is no way I could get the end of the Boomslang into the heel withount overhanging the front by a full inch
@@HappyBeezerStudios actually I have big hands and the original boomslang was a perfect fit, newer models look similar but are not as long. I have to claw them.
4:27 brilliant writing :D
Ah nostalgia! As soon as Linus mentioned cleaning the ball, I was already thinking "don't forget the rollers too!".... takes me back, even having similar icky experiences with what was caked on the rollers :)
When I was growing up, I was taught to take the ball out and clean the rollers regularly. I never thought of cleaning the ball too. I guess I was the opposite of everyone else.
Had quite a few Boomslangs in the day. Absolutely loved and I've been a Razer fan ever since
I remember seeing this model at LAN parties back in the day. I myself bought the original Razer Viper back in 04/05. I passed it down to my mother when it had trouble holding the left click permanently, but other than that it still works like a charm on her office PC today
Those 3M mouse pads were 90's office lore, saw them in large orgs a lot when I was a coop student. Viewers half my age probably found this video weird, but I'm a few years older than Linus (so old) - and this is ringing a lot of memory bells for me :)
Totally. I had the 3M "Precise Mousing Surface" and a Boomslang.
Spray it with a little Pledge or silicone based tire shine *chef's kiss*
In the UK it must have been different... Trust for the cheapos and Microsoft for the big boys or logitech...
4:39 Linus' Ball Hairs
3:39 FUN FACT: "Kärna" is actually pronounced close to "share-nah" and is a Swedish word meaning "core" or "kernel". It is also the name of a tiny obscure town in on the west coast of Sweden with only about 500 inhabitants.
Seeing the Killer NIC bling, and the Boomslang took me back to some really good memories, thanks LTT :) I'm gonna go pick up a 6 pack of Bawls now.
As someone who played competive Counter-Strike with a Boomslang it was amazing, and wasn't surpassed before the MX510 or the Intellimouse 3.0/1.1. If I could get a boomslang with a modern sensor, at a reasonable price, I'd buy one in an instant.
*MX300/MX500, MX510 came later (and is inferior to the MX300/MX500 due to not having stable 500/1000 Hz polling rate), but I would say the Logitech Wingman Gaming Mouse was its main competetitor before the optical era, and it was better despite having no scroll wheel and less buttons. One thing is certain though; the Boomslang would look nice in my little collection. : >
I was a fan of the Microsoft optical tbh. I played competitive cs too from 1998-2004. But continued to use the mouse until 2008.
I played somewhat competitively and I was on the Boomslang day 1. I loved it at first, but after a while I just couldn't deal with the dust and whatnot being built up compared to my intellimouse and others. Could be fine 90% of the time until right when i needed it and then the ball dragged a bit :(
@@Skirk84 You played competitive CS before it even went into beta?
@@Fertho That's kinda impressive.
watching Linus impersonate macho Man Randy Savage had to be the best part of my day.
The memories! I still have my collectors edition Boomslang somewhere in it's original tin. I have really long fingers, so I could palm it and still grip in front of the side buttons with the thumb and ring finger. No one else among my friends and family could use it tho, they were constantly clicking the side buttons trying to move it around, lol. But being so used to it made it hard to find a model I liked when it became time to switch it out, since there's nothing else really like it.
I guess you lifted your pinky up?
I remember my friend back in the early 2000's had this mouse and I loved the shape and feel of holding it.
I had one of these back in the day. Absolutely loved playing Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 with it. A common 'mod' was to integrate an LED into the housing so it would light up. Super cool mouse for its time. This brought back memories to a 36yr old kid who still loves gaming. Great video!
I remember seeing people use these in lan centers back in the OG counterstrike days. Always wanted one because it looked so god damn unique in a sea of beige shitmice.
I Play UT99 at the Same time with my boomslang and Q3 to
I felt so old when Linus explained the ball mechanism, and I already knew how it worked.
And how messy it could get in there... 😅
Im 13 and I already knew how it worked
@@rixey 16 here
@@michaeljones5681 woah my name's Michael to
@@rixey no you're rixey
I certainly do remember the Mouse with a Ball, spent so much time unclogging the things, we've certainly come a long way on Mice.
This came out right around the time when the Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer was probably the best mouse you could by at the time as it had an optical sensor and the two side mouse 4 and 5 buttons that have become fairly common today. You'd also likely be using this on Windows XP which was in many ways a big step up before as the NT line of OSes had been polished for general release and a lot of features from that line really enhanced the operating system compared to the Windows 98SE and Windows 95 most home users were used to using.
"For those of you who don't know" Oh dear God, it's quite possible there's adults in their 20's walking around who've never used a ball mouse. I feel old.
I'm 26 and I've never used ball mouse like more than a couple of minutes. My first PC already had a laser mouse. Moreover my sister is 28 and she never used ball mouse either.
@@WESKERsgm opposite side, I’m 18 and have used many growing up
@@totallynotaliar9912 You grew up poor?
@@SouthBayLA1310 Personally not bad, but my school was very poor haha
I'm 24 I had a ball mouse, N64, windows 95 and XP with a CRT and played all games in 800x600 for many years, got to use PS1 and a PS2 well into my mid teens, a mix of having an older brother and technologically illiterate parents, so not all of us zoomers are smartphone addicts :)
Linus advancing the teleprompter was exceptionally obvious in this video lol (3:21)
@Nine9 no
ooooh so that's what he's doing when pressing the button on the tiny joystick? xd
@@lucas2587ish haha yeah, there's one shot where it's more obvious
XD
They should use a foot pedal
Still have mine. Including tin, booklets and everything (i never throw that stuff away) 😊 The presentation still really is nice.
I use an old Speedlink Kudos SL-6398-SBK from 2010, it, to me, is absolute perfection and I swear by it. 8ish hours a day for 12 years and I still love it
Wow, mice like this make me realize how much computer mice have advanced (especially with regards to polling rate).
wth is Linus doing with this tiny remote all the time?
I can remember when scroll wheels WEREN'T a thing.
@@zenstrata I use my Logitech Click! mouse that's approaching 20 years old now and it's sensor remains as good as it was the day I got it.
@@zenstrata optical mice were considered a novelty then and somewhat of an unprofessional, unproven technology especially in the eyes of a pro quake 3 gamer.
@@zenstrata oh yes, I love their wireless as well :) I have the exact same model as you, I was just mentioning my older one since we were all talking about older mice :P I even have a little mini Keychain Bluetooth called a Logi Mouse from Logitech that's about the size of your thumb haha. I use it for my raspberry pi. :)
I tried the Boomslang when it came out, I was interning at a computer store and the owner was a gamer as well so we ordered one to test. However it was a very acquired taste and not too long after Microsoft of all companies released their Explorer 3.0 that had an optic sensor quick enough for gaming. You can look at it both ways, Razer was first - at least the first that mattered, gaming mouse manufacturer. While Microsoft seemed to sort of accidentally make the first wide spread mouse actually extremely popular with gamers. In my opinion all current gaming mice come from the lineage Microsoft started.
The 3M mousing surface deserves it's own video. Those were highly sought after wafer thin sheets of microtextured plastic with lots of little triangles on the surface that actually worked really well for gripping mouse balls AND providing a reliably rough surface for laser mice.
I have a dell clone of that exact mousepad. They were pretty cool but mine cracked after years of it becoming brittle. I actually don't even know if it's a clone. It just looks similar to what you are describing.
@@imacg5658 It's funny. I bought some 3d filament form Overture a couple of years ago and they came with these printing bed stickers that really come close to mimicking the low friction and trackability of that surface, albeit without the little triangle pattern. I love it as a mousepad and it's the closest thing I've found since those days. Not sure if they still include that with their filament, but it was almost worth the price of the filament at this point. It hasn't really began to wear down after a lot of daily use.
I loved my Boomslang. Got mine back in 1999, and used it to the point where the buttons no longer worked several years later. I still miss it.
Thanks for the nostalgia. I had the first edition boomslang 2000 as well. Played competitive Unreal Tournament with it until the CPL lan competition when Alien vs Predator was the main game. Came in 5th place I think when fatal1ty won the tricked out ford focus. My boomslang was dying during the competition.
I had the 2007 CE Boomslang, and it was amazing, albeit not as amazing as my friend's lazer mouse that came out at the same time. Side note, Boomslang is a native snake to South Africa, which directly translates to "Tree Snake"...
Pretty cool!
And it pronounced kinda like "boo"-"um" not like "boom" as you would say in English. Same with slang. Not like "slang" in English, more like "slung". So you would say "boomslang" like "boo"-"um"-"slung".
And this South African's ears are offended by the mispronounciation in this video
@@riotza7597 is the oo pronounced as English boo or Dutch bow? Pronounced like a Dutchman it would come out something like boehmslung. Always funny o hear non Dutch speakers try to pronounce stuff like Oranjeboom (Orange Tree, has to be one of the worst beers in the world lol)
@@mycosys not the guy you replied too, but its english boo - um slung
This really brings back memories of setting up quake 2 servers on my highschool's network.
I remember that mouse all too well. Those were the days, thank you for reminding me :)
I think you might have had a different result had you used a different mousepad. Precision mouse pads back in the day had some texture to the surface to keep the ball from skidding as opposed to rolling. I wonder if the LTT pad is too smooth to give the ball traction.
I remember that switching to optical, cost me some time. As an daily SOFii player, I pretty much get used to the flicking and other characteristics of ball mouse gaming.
@@brietman_ Same! Except substitute SOFii for TF Classic and you'd have my young boy's life. Due to having a disabled brother we had one of those mice with a big red ball, ya know the type. He's still using a MS Trackball Explorer. They're hella expensive now. Anywho, flinging that ball to get sniper shots was a damn joy and I lost that ability once I went optical.
i was a pretty high level quake player back in the day; always one of the top players at local LANs. i never had trouble with skidding mouse balls, but i used textured gaming surfaces. my preferred was the Glide pad (damn can't even find references to it on google) but the 3M pad was also very nice. i like the weight of the mouse ball cuz it helps cancel out unintended micro movements from your hand. my preferred now is a G502 which is pretty hefty and comes with weights if you need more.
@@oldfrend The back of notebooks was my pad back then. Nice and rough to grip the ball. Also weightmod that G502, I've seen people getting it under 90g without removing any of the buttons.
Wonder if windows acceleration was affecting this mouse overall in the settings of it.
After years of using Windows acceleration, I found out about it last year and tried turning it off. After a month, I could not get used to it and it felt extremely choppy. I guess the smoothing effect added from Windows has ruined my muscle memory over time as I won't play without it turned on anymore.
Good thinking. I think it would be affecting it. Ball mice had a bit of inertia to it, the "Enhance pointer precision" setting would be exaggerating that inertia.
I thought it might be the mouse mat, can't say I remember having any issues with ball inertia on my fellowes daffy duck mouse mat
The ball is also much further to the rear of the mouse than the G Pro's sensor, so your wrist rotation movements will feel a lot different.
Windows mouse acceleration has a horrible (and downright arbitrary) acceleration curve that will gladly f you over when it feels like it. If you can't live without acceleration I'd suggest you install some software to implement it properly.
LOL I loved this. I bought a razer boomslang when it came out, and it was the single most expensive part in my PC at the time. I can remember how much it improved my accuracy at the time though, it was absolutely an amazing piece of hardware in late 99 early 2000, it took a while before anything else really felt as accurate. I can remember long LAN party weekends on Delta Force Land Warrior with my friends and I screaming obscenities across the house at each other. Man the good ol days
1999! The year I graduated high school, thanks for making me feel old! I'm still loling at the opening of the video! :D
It’s always fun to watch Linus review a mouse older then you
@Nine9 bro wtf is this bot
@Nine9 get outta here bot
@@tufab3494 Linus uses the bot detection thing that he did a vid on
@@crazyplays7900 do u know the name of that vid? haven't been watching too many of his videos like I used for 4/5 years now
@@tufab3494 kzhead.info/sun/rdOYpdN-gGONi4U/bejne.html
0:23 love how he just completely ignores it, that's when you know everything is completely fine with linus
This is so cool and reminds me of gaming in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Things have changed so much do fast.
well now mine are blue
bruh
ayo 🤨🤨
10:10 Yeah that's where flicks came from, you use the momentum to spin the character/aim, was a skill you needed to learn in quake etc, actually miss it sometimes.
Great video and props to Razer for having their driver still on the website too! Also, that spinning globe is fascinating. With some brief research it looks like a MOVA globe? I gotta pick one up sometime.
this is my favorite video ever the randy savage impression is on point
Genius DeathTaker, still works. Added some lead weight to it, it's currently heavy enough to wear though pads every 8 or so months.
The Razer Boomslang was one of the best mice I ever had. I loved the design, and wish they had a modern version of it.
They made an optical Collectors Edition in 2007.
@Khazandar I almost purchased that one, but decided on another mouse instead, and I still regret that decision. The Boomslang fit well for someone like me with bigger hands and the side buttons were in a useful position and size. Even with the current mouse that I use, the side buttons feel too small. The Boomslang was a good design.
The modern version of this is the Death Adder.
yeah, I had the first model back then and also the collectors edition... they were so good!
@@TheAliceQuo The Death Adder doesn't have the same design as the Boomslang with the larger side buttons.
Viper Elite is a worthy evolution imo. Love seeing these old tech vids :D
The mouse i used the most growing up was the logitech MX1000. I remember reading it was the first, or one of the first laser mouses. I don't use it anymore but it is still working, and even the lithium battery still holds a charge after almost 20 years. Although it is really heavy.
I used the Boomslang back in 2005.... I also used the Tarantula keyboard with the battlelight.... It was weird, but it was a fun time...! I've been using Razer for 17 years now...! So, it has been fun!!!! collecting these amazing products
I actually had one of these limited edition mice back when they first came out. I think I still have the install disk and USB to PS2 adapter around somewhere, but pretty sure the tin is gone. The limited edition mice weren't really that great. Mine lasted for a few years, and then I bought one of the newer ones probably in 2000 or 2001. Those were actually much better and more refined than the limited edition version. I used that mouse for at least another 5 years or so until I began developing shoulder problems. I switched to a Microsoft laser mouse, and never looked back to the Razor. Shoulder problems went away. I use a Logitech G502 now and have not used a better mouse since switching to it in 2015.
I've never seen Linus more excited over a mouse
4:26 the funniest thing about this isn't the line itself, it's the crack in Linus's voice and strain on his face going into it. This is probably the 15th take of this line. This is honestly the funniest example of someone putting 100% of their physical and mental effort into a straight line delivery since Tim Curry in Red Alert 3.
"I'm escaping to the one place that has been corrupted by capitalism" **Trying to hold back laughter** *"SPACE!"*
Oh wow the good old Razer Boomslang, I had one of those for Unreal Tournament gaming!
I remember all kinds of funky mice at the time. One I used to own was like a combo joystick and thumbball drive. Took getting used to being fair. Heck I was recently at Microcenter and when getting some thermal paste I saw some "Tuniq" branded paste. Saying out loud to the salesman, I wonder why tuniq stopped making air coolers. He was like, they never made air coolers only thermal paste. I told him they used to make air coolers back in the mid 2000's. He had no recollection on that. This mouse and looking up tuniq air coolers to refresh my memory is sure taking me down memory lane.
Man dude, you are old! Lol! So am I. I remember trying to set that thing up for Flight Sim '98... to no avail. Microsoft was just coming out with that huge monstrosity of a force feedback control stick. The first gen would dislocate your elbow if you weren't careful.
Its amazing just how far mice have come in the 2 decades since this came out. Although finding a good mid-range wired mouse in 2022 is a LOT harder than it should be (hopefully when my current mouse dies, I am able to replace it with another Intellimouse Classic :)
I still hold on my G502 from logitech it serves now for over 5 years of daily usage of 2-3 hours in shooters and other games and still works like on the first day.
In hindsight, we don't really appreciate how life changing was optical mouse technology. Still, I remember having my first optical mouse in 2002, which was a 15 or 20 bucks and a massive improvement over my old ball mouse, so it does show how Razer has been Razer since its begginings in hyping even the most outdated technology.
I was working at a Staples when the Intellimouse Explorer Optical was released. And you are wrong. I STILL appreciate how much better a cheap $5 mouse is today vs a top of the line mouse from 25 years ago.
@@AustynSN what has that to do with what I said
@@fordesponja You said we don't appreciate the optical mouse. I do appreciate it. Particularly every time I have to replace one of the cheap ass mice that seem to be the only thing in my budget when I replace it. I appreciate that because of the optical tech, it will still last longer than even the best mouse from when I was a kid.
@@AustynSN He was talking about people in general, not just you.
@@zs4580 Didn't say it was about me. Just Putting forth a voice from one person of the "people in general" who does appreciate how much better optical is than rollerball.
This was an amazing video OMG
This was my favorite mouse around in 2003. Optical Mice were available around that time but not nearly had the DPI of the boomslang as i recall. I even modded it to have green LEDs. I still have fond memories of that mouse. It is still around sleeping in its original tin. *edit: spelling error
Tbh, the Logitech MX300, which came out in 2002 with the MX500, is SIXTY grams lighter and has 3,91 m/s (!) perfect control at 500/1000 Hz. It's STILL one of the rawest sensors (Avago ADNS-A2020), ball mice have absolutely nothing on it in terms of precision and responsiveness. Nevertheless, the Boomslang is a cool piece of tech, and I also really like that tin box. Too bad that this kind of presentation went out of fashion. Products with the old Razer logo have a certain charm. : (
Bro I remember begging for my mom to give me one of those, they were like the future mounted into a gaming mouse... I ended up with a Microsoft one instead tho 😂
@UCC64ni_acHU_m6y7lLcqDRg wtf is this bot, my comment has been posted exactly 15 seconds ago, and your reply was posted exactly 8 freakin seconds ago. What in the hell
IME and WMO were better than this thing anyway
@@FeintMotion that's exactly what I got instead, a Microsoft IME 3.0., boy I miss it so much... I was dumb enough to give it to a dude I tought was my friend like 6 or 5 years ago...
@@FeintMotion I still rock a WMO 1.1a but I'm sad my motherboard doesn't have a real EHCI controller (All goes through XHCI on modern boards), which stops me from overclocking it to 1khz like I'm used to, looking into getting a cheap 3360 I can mod into this thing.
@@tufab3494 If you're still interested, Microsoft did release an IME 3.0 Classic not too long ago.
someone remembered wrestlemania was on when this video was scheduled for, and planned for this weeks ahead and whoever that was deserves a shout out
Linus' version of Randy was really great! Do put that character in your repertoire!
I think that setup procedure is because at that time I remember anything you wanted to use via PS2 had to be plugged in when the system powered on or it wouldn't work. At least a lot of the systems I saw did not have hot-swappable PS2 ports.
I think it still works that way on many systems.
@@neoqueto yep, my evga dark boards are that way.
I'm pretty sure this is a limitation of the connector protocol. It isn't hot swappable like USB and other newer connectors.
so good to see that Ridge wallet finally managed to redefine the waller
Cleaning the mouse rollers was so satisfying back in the day
I can't believe you have to explain a ball mouse. I never knew a day would come. I feel old
I loved the boomslang when it came out, went though 4 of them before i got my favorite Razer Lachesis(Best shape and Feel imo) Wish they would re-release that one, don't know why they ever stopped producing mice with that shape Lachesis was Perfect *sad face*.
Interesting how different hands are. Back when my Kone was wearing out and I was looking at a replacement, it was exact that shape the razer mice had that put me off. It just didn't work with my big hands. In 1-2-2 grip the sides aren't high enough where it counts (the front) and in 1-3-1 grip the top was uncomfortable.
Man, I used to kick ass with my first edition Boomslang in Counter-Strike 1.6. I used it so much, that the rubber started to wear out on the click button... the whole point of the mouse was not to have big movements. you're supposed to be using small flicks. I love this mouse so much that I still only buy Razer mouses because of it.
Shape and ergonomics are also a big thing.
As someone who uses an ergonomic trackball mouse, I’m still quite familiar with cleaning it. Nice to see this retrospective, I never used this mouse but I miss those days.
Haha, that was fun! I actually went back from a cheapish laser mouse to a ball mouse a few years ago - an IBM Scrollpoint Pro, to be precise. It's less precise than my old mouse, but it's sturdy and I love how it looks.
Loved watching this. I still have my original Boomslangs on the shelf, both the 1000 and the 2000 (reviewed both for the now-defunct Fragline). The sensors on the 2000 had precision issues and would occasionally skip with rapid movement, most gamers who daily drove the Boomslang used the 1000 as a result. The ergonomics were very controversial, even back then you either loved it or hated it. The other popular gaming mouse of the time was the Logitech Wingman Gaming.
@@zenstrata yup, the Intellimouse was also popular back then, with the caveat that most FPS players of the era preferred low sensitivity/no acceleration. The first gen Microsoft sensors could skip when you used that kind of config and moved the mouse too fast, so a lot of players still stuck to ball mice until optical technology improved.
the randy savage skit, that was amazing
First gaming mouse I ever owned, and I loved it, fun fact; with enough use the pads of your fingers would actually work visible grooves into the buttons. I also own the collector's edition, pure nostalgia at this point, but I do miss the gigantic buttons.
The intro was legit funny!
Did you know that number 3 out of 5000 of this exact mouse sold last year for $7500 in a auction house. Why so much? The pcb that was used in these mice was the first of its kind, it used 0.39 of 24k gold because the thought behind it was (intricate stuff I don’t understand nor can I explain). Pretty cool to see one of these in action. Also everything I just said is a lie becaise I’m sitting on the toilet waiting for Linus to play with the mouse.
And did you know that a Bot has copied your comment and Left out the part that says It's a joke ? Good job !
@@Gatorade69 that bot better hold onto it’s balls! Cause the 1999 gaming mice market is about to boom, I can feel it.
The fact that Linus had to explained how the ball works made me feel infinitely old
i didnt know about the wheels breaking a light beam. assumed they were potentiometers or something.
I remember having an assortment of those golf ball on a stick looking things used to clean the rollers that were commonly included free with a lot of PC magazines at the time.
I love the early 2000’s late 90’s design aesthetic and this one definitely fits the bill
I still remember clearly that you would flick the mouse and the ball would keep rolling ( and tracking) while away from the mousepad, and then slam it on the desk to stop it. It made sense back then and it was somehow a smoother gesture even if unprecise compared to later devices that stop tracking the instant you lift em up.
Oh man, this brought back forgotten memories. The lift and SLAM back when we used to game in those days.
I remember my first optical mouse in the 'no gaming mice' era :). And the best experience was using it without the mousepad on a non-reflective table surface. Which of course led to polishing off the poor thing's "legs". But the pointer precision with such flat tabletop grip was insanely good! I mean, it was a cheating level trick for FPS games. Now there are fancy teflon or aluminum feet and buttons and stuff on each modern mouse belly (yeah :), belly buttons) and polishing them off isn't an option anymore. Perhaps the gaming mouse evolution went the wrong way.
Teflon and PTFE are the same thing. Mouses new and old use the same material, idk why its bad to polish it.
@@NothingXemnas By "polishing off" I meant "destroying", "shaving them off", because wood acts like sandpaper (for plastic) with very very slight grit.
@@0ecka Not even wood, also skin. The points where I hold my mouse and the keys on my keyboard I use most are basically reflective at this point.
The way Linus aggressively yanks things that cost thousands of dollars apart will never not make me wince
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yeeeeahh a mouse video. sooo cool. yawn.
I used Razer for years, but I felt they were a bit too heavy over time so last year I got the Glorious Model O Wireless and it is spectacular. I'm better at first person shooters than I've ever been with it. I still love Razer stuff, but I'm really enjoying my Glorious mouse for now. I love seeing videos like this comparing the quality of older gaming tech with modern gaming tech. Very interesting comparisons overall. I definitely want to see more of this kind of stuff.
I had this one. Limited edition. 2000 DPI. Loved it.
what is the little nintendo-switch-blue-joycon looking thing that linus keeps fiddling with? I saw him playing with a pink one in his shorts version of this video as well.
Hey y'all should look into doing a whole house 1 pc. You have done one before but never actually finished it. Thanks I am trying to set up something myself and need help on the cheap.
you ain't doing that "on the cheap"
@@youraveragemetalhead226 I understand not on the cheap but I mean relatively like cheaper than building 4 or 5 entire systems
I remember that tin can it came in XD it was pretty good at the time. I had a bottle of isopropyl alcohol and a tub of Q-tips at close hand for weekly cleaning.
I had the Boomslang and Boomer Speed. I miss them so much. Haven't had a mouse that comfortable and easy to use since.