This mouse is not a purely mechanical mouse, the kind of first-generation mouse is not very accurate, and the mechanical structure is easy to wear out. This is Alex's copycat optical-mechanical mouse from Logitech, referred to as "Cursor Mouse".

"The rolling ball is used to locate the coordinates of the computer's cursor, and the buttons are used to manipulate the cursor options."

Now there is no computer here, and even if there is, there is no corresponding interface, so there is no way to demonstrate it to Seymour. Alex could only talk and draw to explain the function and structure of his mouse.

Like a purely mechanical mouse, the cursor mouse also has a small gelatinous ball connected to the X and Y hinges. When the mouse moves on the desktop, the ball will drive the X and Y axis of the grating disc to rotate, and the light emitted by the X and Y light-emitting diodes will shine on the grating disc, and when there is an optical signal, it is a "1" signal, and if the optical signal is not received, it is a "0" signal.

These signals are fed into a special control chip, which calculates the corresponding coordinate offset and determines the position of the cursor on the screen. As for the left and right buttons, that's simpler, just send the pressed signal to the computer, and let the computer process the signal of the mouse button.

After hearing this, Seymour still felt that these two things were a bit frivolous, and they were not as valuable as floppy disks and floppy disk drives. He believes that only by updating technology can he make his computer better than others. In other words, faster computers are what he's looking for.

"It sounds interesting, but I don't see any big improvement on the computer. If it could be a peripheral like a floppy disk, I think it would be useful. ”

"Oh? That's what you think? Do you want to bet me that even if the floppy disk is eliminated, the mouse will not be eliminated. ”

Seymour thought for a moment, shook his head and said, "I never bet, and when the floppy disk is eliminated, it is estimated that we will no longer exist by then." I'm very confident in floppy disks. ”

Alex shrugged and said helplessly, "Okay, if you don't bet, you won't bet." However, I insisted on having both the keyboard and mouse on my computer. Your operating system has reserved the relevant modules, and I will write this part of the code to ensure that there will be no problems, just like what you wrote yourself. ”

Seymour agrees with Alex's words, and after this period of cooperation, he has recognized Alex's technical ability. What's even more amazing is that the things he thinks of, Alex can often think of, and the two cooperate very tacitly. So he also recognized these two chicken-like peripherals, in his opinion, the keyboard is still somewhat useful, and the mouse is difficult to say, so it's a big deal to install it and not use it.

"You test these peripherals first, and then assemble them on our computer. Especially that floppy drive, I suggest you get that thing right first. ”

After getting Seymour's approval, Alex was so happy that he almost jumped. These few things he engaged in were simply outside of his plan, and they were also his temporary whims. If Seymour insisted on not using it, there was nothing he could do. After all, this computer is Seymour's brainchild, and even he can't change it at will.

With the current manufacturing process, floppy drives, keyboards, and mice are all no problem, as long as someone wants to do it, just stick to it in this direction. It's a pity that there is a lack of people like Alex who can see the results directly. It did take a lot of effort on his part, but it was done.

The modules related to the operating system are also ready, which Alex asked the Seymour puppet to do. In the mental space, as long as he permits, the puppet can move freely. The Seymour puppet is constantly coding and testing inside, just like the real Seymour does outside.

"I'm afraid Tesla can't even achieve this. He was able to experiment in his own mind, but I was able to copy other people's knowledge, experience, and skills into my mind to simulate a spirit puppet. Through this puppet, you will be able to experiment in your mind. Alex was a little smug, and in his opinion, he was far beyond Tesla's capabilities.

Of course, there is a price to be paid for this method of letting spirit dolls replace their own research and development. Alex found that when he used spirit dolls, his energy drained quickly, usually for a few hours a day. If you exceed the time limit, you will feel a splitting headache and ringing in your ears the next day.

These are nothing, he is worried that in the long run, it will cause irreparable damage to the body, and the gains will outweigh the losses. Under this worry, he has been carefully using his abilities, not daring to overexert his physical energy.

Floppy disks, floppy drives, keyboards, and mice passed the test quickly, and even minor problems were quickly resolved by Alex. After he got these epoch-making things out, he immediately had people apply for patents. With patent protection, he is not afraid of being stolen by people from IBM. Of course, when it should be kept secret, it should be kept secret.

With these killer features, Alex felt that it was time to install them on the computer and let Seymour and these old stubborns see the effect. However, there is nothing interesting about today's computers, and even if they were to be installed, they would not do much.

"Tetris? It's a waste to play games with the fastest computer in the world. ”

In the end, Alex thought twice and made a shooting game. The app is as simple as using the mouse to control a crosshairs and shoot birds that fly up and down the screen left and right. To increase the difficulty, in addition to flying birds, there are also airplanes, hot air balloons, and so on, which cannot be shot.

This shooting game has a scoring system, the more birds you shoot, the higher your score, and you will lose a chance when you shoot an airplane or a hot air balloon. There are three chances per game, and once you run out, it's "GameOver"!

The game's graphics are all displayed in pixels, which Alex drew casually, and it looks quite presentable. The sound effects and background music were also written live by Alex.

In the beginning, he planned to use a recording soundtrack, but later found that doing so would make the whole game bulkier. Therefore, the sound can only be simulated by programming, so as to control the file size less than about 1M. The game was stored on a floppy disk, and of course there was a backup, but he only gave one to test.

From Alex's point of view, such a game is extremely rudimentary, and the gameplay is not good enough. Tetris is much more fun than this "bird game".

However, although the sparrow is small, it has all kinds of organs. There is no shortage of levels, scores, lives, leaderboards, etc.

"This is a little game I made to test floppy disks, floppy drives, keyboards and mice. You guys test it first, and if you have any questions, come to me. ”

Alex made this game, on the one hand, he wanted to reflect the value of these peripherals, and on the other hand, he also wanted to test it through this method. With this game, these energetic R&D personnel can vent in their free time. Test these peripherals by the way and see if there are any problems.

Surprisingly, the game immediately hooked the researchers, who had never played a video game before, and immediately became addicted to it. Fortunately, there is only one computer in the lab that can run this game, and there is no way to provide more people to play at the same time.

The result is a strange spectacle of many people sitting around watching the seated person play a game, while others wait for him to rotate a new person when he loses his chance. When they saw someone break the previous record, these fans of the game made a fuss, making the lab a little more noisy. This was a scene that was hard to see in the past, but I didn't expect it to be the noisiest place since Alex launched this game.

Faced with this situation, Alex was also a little worried, he was afraid that Seymour would see the employees running to play games one by one, and he wondered if it would be counterproductive.

"Just take back that game floppy disk, and say that the test data is enough, and there is no need to continue testing."

One day, when Alex passed by the computer he was testing, he found Seymour in the queue. Especially when it was Seymour's turn to fight, he changed his usual unsmiling appearance, stared at his eyes, and nervously held the mouse to shoot the birds on the screen.

"Holy! Actually shot a plane by mistake! Seymour shouted wailly, but he quickly returned to the game on the screen.

At first, Alex was optimistic about Seymour's changes, and after a while, he noticed that Seymour's dark circles were becoming more and more noticeable. This was not something that happened in the past, Seymour is a person with a very regular schedule, even if he works overtime, he will sleep more than six hours a day.

"How did you get this? Sleep deprivation? Alex was taken aback and asked.

Seymour didn't notice Alex originally, but it took a while to react: "Oh, it's Alex." You know, I broke the record yesterday with a total of 1,034 points. ”

"Record-breaking?"

Alex soon realizes that Seymour must have been playing games all night. Faced with such a result, he was a little surprised, he didn't expect this kind of bad game to be so attractive to people in this era. However, the way things turned out was definitely not what he wanted.

In order to make the development work go smoothly, he took back the game floppy disk. His excuse was that the tests were over and there was no longer a need for them. Unexpectedly, someone has already copied this game. Finally, he removed the mouse and keyboard, which suppressed the game frenzy in the laboratory.

After this game obsession, Seymour also began to change his attitude, believing that things like mice will definitely be able to become the basic configuration of computers in the future.