Helpful Amiga Customization Screenshots

Aminet is pretty much THE repository site for all things Amiga, but it totally lacks screenshots, despite there being a placeholder for one on each page. Generally, you have no idea what you are getting until you get it and install it, which annoys me to no end.

I came across an archive of three screenshots someone uploaded (aeswb.lha) back in 1996 that shows their highly customized Workbench screen, as well as a listing of their installed mods! How useful!!

Below are the three extracted GIF files from the above linked archive found on Aminet.

Xerox/Microsoft Hybrid Mouse

This is an odd mouse I came across at a Goodwill store with a steel ball and branded Xerox. It's perhaps a Xerox / Microsoft mouse hybrid. I really don't know much about this mouse.

The website OldMouse.com used to have a page talking about it, but for some strange reason, they have removed it! Only a few days ago, Google still had cache of the page but they have since also removed it.

Thankfully, Archive.org still has it, at least as of the time of this post.

This is what the page said:

Xerox-Microsoft Hybrid Mouse

This mouse inspires speculation about the feedback Xerox gave Microsoft for the mouse it commissioned.

This Xerox mouse for sale on eBay by user vintagecomputermuseum appears at first glance as Microsoft's so-called grey eyed mouse simply rebranded for Xerox in custom coffee colors. The Microsoft grey-eyed mouse was released in 1985. Apparently Xerox commissioned this custom mouse after abandoning its own Xerox 8010 (so-called Star) optical mouse of 1981 origin. The custom connector plug that looks like an RJ45 would not work on a regular PC.

But flip the Xerox mouse over and its ball and housing retain the style of Microsoft's earlier so-called green eyed mouse (developed in 1982 and introduced in 1983). This Xerox mouse wears the 1985 Microsoft mouse's shell on the 1983 Microsoft mouse's mechanism.

The grey-eyed Microsoft Mouse 5.0 of 1985 release has a rubber coated steel ball held in place by a round plastic retainer ring that latches into a round track. The older mouse has a bare steel ball held in place by a screw tab on its retainer ring, just like the ball housing on this Xerox branded mouse.