This weekend I was going through my computer storage, box by box. I was looking for my MiniPro TL866CS EPROM Programmer, which I'd misplaced. This was the 3rd time (and 3rd day) I decided to look for it. I started to wonder if this was the beginning of what senility felt like. I'd only used it a couple of months ago - how far could it have gone? And why was I looking through boxes, which were under other boxes, when I knew full well I simply couldn't have stashed the damned thing down there.
And yet, out of ideas and utterly exasperated, I was looking. I'd even gone so far as to put another TL866CS in my Amazon shopping cart, but had yet to pull the trigger. I wasn't ready to give up but I was getting really close.
I picked up a clearly labeled box of "Amiga Mice," so naturally I looked in there, too. It was full of tank mice and even a Commodore 1351. Ah, yes, a backup A3000 "pregnant" mouse, too.
And then there was this thing in bubble-wrap:
Intrigued, I pulled it out of its little bubble-wrap baggie to take a closer look. It was absolutely 100% virgin and untouched. Well, maybe touched but never used.
I turned it around in my hands to see the maker of this rather pleasing yet generic-looking mouse.
I've only ever had one other Amiga find with a mouse in such a pristine state after so many years of sitting quietly in the dark. (In fact, the entire computer was NOS.
From a visual perspective, it reminds me quite a lot of the CDTV black mouse I have, but in white. But they wouldn't have ever made a white version for the CDTV.
Five or six years ago I'd tripped over an Ebay posting from (iirc) someone in Canada who had acquired boxes of never-used Amiga 1200s still in their original cardboard packaging. I think they were Escom Amigas, as the cases were all a bit whiter than the light beige color we're typically used to seeing. I think it's possible I might have gotten this mouse from that box before selling the thing off. It was such a strange, janky machine to me at the time. But did Escom have the rights to use the Commodore logo?
Or, it's possible this was some sort of A600 mouse that found its way into my collection. I honestly don't remember. Or maybe Escom inherited a bunch of overstock and just repackaged it with new A1200s in the late 90s?
What is also interesting about this mouse is the sides and top were never treated with any texturing from its molds at the factory. Rather unusual to see the plastic left that way. As a result the sides and bottom are glossy instead of matte.
Has anyone else seen a Commodore mouse like this before?
P.S.
I finally did locate my EPROM burner!