The Amiga tank mouse refers to the original Amiga mouse design that shipped with the Amiga 1000 computer in 1985, and survived with a different connector into the Amiga 500 and 2000 generations. The tank nickname refers to its bigger, blockier design compared to modern, sleeker devices.
Contemporaries of the Amiga tank mouse
The Amiga tank mouse bears some resemblance to the original Macintosh mouse and the gray-eyed Microsoft mouse. The size is similar, but it is a bit more angular. I also found the buttons to be a bit more responsive than either the early Mac or Microsoft mice.
Although it used a DE9 connector, it is not compatible with either RS232 serial or the early Microsoft Inport connector that used DE9. The Amiga mouse port was instead an adaptation of the 9 pin Atari controller connector. The Amiga tank mouse is also incompatible with the Atari ST mouse, but the two worked similarly enough that many aftermarket mice were compatible with both, and just had a switch to change the signals to make them compatible with either the Amiga or ST.
Similar mice to the Amiga tank mouse
The Amiga tank mouse was also sold as the Commodore 1352 mouse, intended for sale to use with its PC compatible line, which included an Amiga compatible mouse port.
Both mice look just like the Commodore 1350 and 1351 mice sold for the Commodore 64 and 128, but it is not compatible with either of them. The 1350 was just a rolling digital joystick, reporting what direction it was rolling in. This allowed it to work with any software that supported a joystick, but the user experience was suboptimal. The 1352 worked more like the Amiga mouse, reporting the distance it traveled and the speed it traveled.
Modernization efforts
Conversion kits exist to replace the roller and ball with optics to turn the Amiga tank mouse into an optical mouse for greater reliability. This improves the user experience while retaining the iconic look of the original.
In recent years, imitation mice built to look just like the Amiga tank mouse but work with USB have come on to the market, sometimes using the original color scheme, and sometimes in black.
The original had a lower resolution than modern mice. But it was designed for a computer with much lower resolutions than modern computers use. The original Amiga ran at resolutions of 320 by 200, 640 by 200, and 640 by 400.
And let’s face it, it was an inexpensive device designed to a price point. Commodore couldn’t get Apple or Microsoft prices. So the Amiga tank mouse was really designed to be half as expensive and hopefully more than half as good. And I really think it succeeded. The Microsoft Dove bar mouse was better than the Amiga tank mouse. So was the wedge shaped Apple ADB mouse. But the Amiga tank mouse, in spite of the price considerations Commodore had to make, was better than the first generation Apple and first and second generation Microsoft mice.
And for about 3 million Gen Xers, an Amiga mouse may have been their first experience with a mouse and graphical user interface. So we’re somewhat nostalgic for it.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.
Heh yup, Amiga 500 mouse was my first mouse! I dearly miss Amiga.
The Amiga checkmark was my Slack avatar at work for a good year. Only one person ever asked me about it though. He said, “What’s that checkmark?” And I said, “Amiga! The greatest computer of all time.” And he said, “I had an Atari ST.” We went on to have a more civil conversation than we would have had in 1987.
Typo alert! Amiga 1000 actually shipped in 1985.
Oh yikes, what a typo! I’ve gotta get new keycaps for this keyboard. I fixed it.