I Bought a Soviet Era Gaming Mouse - MARS UKV-01

Win a Hennessey Ford Bronco or $75K cash with no purchase necessary with the Ridge Wallet sweepstake! Check out the link below:

Can we make an antique mouse from the Soviet Union work with a modern computer? Can we make it work well enough to play games?

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

FOLLOW US
---------------------------------------------------  

MUSIC CREDIT
---------------------------------------------------
Intro: Laszlo - Supernova

Outro: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High

CHAPTERS
---------------------------------------------------
0:00 Intro
1:28 They see me rollin'
4:04 Surely this will work
6:12 Pushing my buttons
7:20 That was fast
9:07 Right Turn Only
10:53 What are we doing wrong?
12:50 From downtown!
15:07 Outro

[whalen]

“We bought a Soviet era gaming mouse” should have been the title

[fricki]

I love how they're using a Pi Pico, a VASTLY more powerful system than the whole original computer this mouse was designed for, just to translate the serial signal :D

[VinnyRN]

While this mouse may have been slow, remember that it was designed for systems with a far lower resolution, notably:
High-resolution mode: 512x256 pixels, monochrome.
Low-resolution mode: 256x256 pixels, 4 colors.
So this would have been more than sufficient for something effectively 4 to 8 times lower in resolution.
The fact they not only reverse engineered something almost 40 years old but also in an entirely different language, a testament to the LTT Labs Team and I really enjoyed this video.

[ZarviroffSerge]

In Soviet Union including full schematics in the manual was the thing. They always did that and even for very complex stuff, like TVs or vinyl/cassette/radio sets (those were huge, and their schematics too).

[onabikewithadrone]

WRT schematics. It was actually common in USSR to get very extensive manual with any piece of tech. Including full schematics for TVs, sound amplifiers, vinyl players, etc. You could use it to repair device yourself or at the very least help a repair shop if you had an uncommon device

[quantuminfinity]

This was actually much cooler than just an "Oh look old tech" piece. Those are cool too, but the labs integration and making it work with modern equipment was super interesting, though it would have been nice to maybe get even more of an explanation of some more of their approach to getting it working.

[LazorzPewPew]

I was a kid in the USSR in the 80s and my family was one of the few lucky enough to have a home PCs. Seeing this mouse again brought back so many memories. Thanks Linus.

[markrhainer]

"KH1" and "КН2" are actually "KN1" and "KN2", cause "KN" is just a short for "knopka" (button in russian).

It is also not just a "Martian" (that means "female martian" or "male martian" depending on a context), but clearly a "female martian" ("marsianka" as it sounds in russian).

[Mr.Morden]

Now let's make Linus get a Soviet PC and use it as his main for a week.

[vyrgozunqk]

Keep in mind that back when this mouse was created, the most common resolution was 320 or 640, the speed of the mouse relative to the resolution back then is very good.
Try using 600 or 800 dpi mouse on 1440/4K screens. It feels insanely slow. I have 4K screen and my mouse is set to 6000DPI.

[rub]

I don't know if this video was recorded before the hiatus, but honestly it felt much more satisfying to watch because of one thing: it is a very comprehensive, detailed investigation about how this mouse works and how to adapt the signals to modern USB. Most other videos were you find hard problems to solve such as this one usually felt unfinished because they gave up. And I felt that on a couple of videos. I am glad that you guys took the time to make the mouse actually working, I watched the video with my fingers crossed so that you would keep investigating and not gave up when a problem arose regarding, in this case, translating the signals that this mouse outputs to USB.

Summing up, good work!

[Tranzisto]

150 rubles???? This is an absolutely insane price by the standards of the time! I don't know which conversion method did the seller use to arrive at 350 usd, but 150 rubles was an average monthly salary in the late 80s USSR, so it would probably be closer to a couple thousand dollars than just $350.

[NIMKAOriginal]

5:13 The electronics circuit was in almost every instruction for any Soviet technology
So that Soviet children from childhood begin to become interested in electronics and help the Soviet Union with new technologies, or so that there are always workers

[Mark-vrpt]

It could be interesting to know that while technically it could be translated as "the Martian", the "marsianka" in Russian actually means "the martian woman"

[tylerdean]

Are you kidding me? A PDP-11 compatible home computer? Can it run BSD or UNIX? That's badass. Can't believe I never heard of it.

[WhatAboutRC]

That mouse, the box... everything about it is just freggin awesome. Hope you guys preserve it.

[memberofsociety]

I remember looking through my grandfathers box filled with old tech, and I saw this mouse, I asked him what it was and he explained everything to me, he even showed me how it worked after setting up his old machine! Great memories.

[notawesomebread]

As someone going to school for ECE, the process of figuring out the pinouts, and then deciphering the signals in order to use the mouse on a modern machine was definitely one of the most interesting things I've seen from this channel. It'd be cool if there were Labs specific videos where we get to see them work these types of problems out, and we could see the process in greater detail.

[FireSwordl]

The Soviet encouraged the "right to repair" so many years ago..

[SpeedFireARL]

молодцы ребята. не просто обзор, а целое воскрешение из небытия