Home Artists Posts Import Register
Patreon importer is back online! Tell your friends ✅

Content

https://youtu.be/JrWb9jj3IsU

Fresh LGR Oddware! This is one of those things that I've had for I don't even know how many years and always intended to cover, yet I always forget exists. Then every so often someone will email me offering one or poke me on social media asking me if I knew it existed, and well, that happened yet again recently and finally pushed me over the edge.

As for the Mouse Yoke itself, I mean... it does what it says on the tin, ha. This is a strap-on flight yoke for your ball mouse of choice. And that's about it! The thing works about as well as you'd expect for a piece of plastic sliding up against a rubber mouse ball. Silly, fun, almost practical, probably a bad idea – and pure Oddware.

No new video next week, as I'll be working on a video about a "classic" game that I reviewed long ago but really didn't do justice back then. And it needs a bit of extra time, so if all goes well that'll be the next video in May. (Oh and the LGR Birds livestream is still happening daily, now featuring four baby robins!) Finally, patrons on the $5+ tier can expect the next LGR Wrap Up episode pretty soon, too. Until then, have a good one and thank you very much for your support!

Files

The Mouse Yoke from 1992! Turn a mouse into a flight yoke, oddly

Checking out the odd Mouse Yoke from 1992! Colorado Spectrum sold several flight simulator adjacent devices in the 90s but this is the weird one of the bunch. Clamp the base to a desk, strap in a computer mouse, slide in the shaft, and enjoy a realistic aircraft yoke! Possibly, in theory, sort of! This bizarre thing is prime LGR Oddware for sure. ● LGR links: https://www.patreon.com/LazyGameReviews https://www.twitter.com/LazyGameReviews https://www.facebook.com/LazyGameReviews ● All background music licensed from: https://www.epidemicsound.com 00:00 An Oddware Introduction 00:32 The Mouse Yoke 02:41 Colorado Spectrum 04:02 Critical response 05:20 Unboxing the weirdness 09:19 Setup and testing 11:16 LHX Attack Chopper 14:54 Flight Simulator 98 16:55 Doom II 17:58 Unreal Tournament 18:59 Stunts 20:43 Optical Descent test 21:25 What it says on the tin! #LGR #retro #gaming #controller #oddware

Comments

Jacob Owen Lütje

Perfect video for my 2pm breakfast and coffee

The Enforcer

I mean... it works? But then again, this feel like the same energy as those million plastic "peripherals" for the Wii. And the fact it lacks trigger buttons doesn't seem to make it ideal for your flight shoot em ups. If I want to use a flight/yoke stick, I'll invest in a decent flight/yoke stick. Not buy some strap on device that makes the mouse feel violated. Also, how many Duke Nukem busts do you have? Do we need to set up an intervention? :P

Laura H

LGR sir. Sorry for unrelated but will you ever finish your Sims 2 LPs? I’ve seen them about 50 times and really want Free Time & AL!

Adam S

I wonder if an O-ring would space the yoke itself out to give more room for maneuvering, unfortunate though you would need to be making modifications for usability right out of the box though.

Laura H

I see! It was good while it lasted, thanks for replying.

LazyGameReviews

Very much in the same vein as plastic Wii nonsense! And yet even worse due to the the lack of any buttons. The 3D printed Duke busts got out of hand weeks ago over on the LGR Birds channel, it was only a matter of time till they leaked over here :P

LazyGameReviews

Indeed, plus modifying and adding onto these things to fix the problems would surpass the goal of Oddware episodes. I'm all about showing things as they were, warts and all :)

Michael A Berry

Geniune spittake at the shaft section of the video. 🤣 I don't rmember the sticker on mine but I had that "Marvel Yokes" device you pictured and a set of pedals too. As a yoke, it was wonderful for Flight Unlimited. There was a Pitch Lock pin you could insert to turn it into a steering wheel, but that was a total gimmick, as was the throttle.

Pietro Gagliardi

The only thing I can think of now is Cameltry for the X68000, which came with this absurd sheet metal contraption that you stuck the typically-puck-shaped X68000 mouse into to get the rotary control of the arcade game it's a port of... (Think Sonic 1's Special Stages and you're halfway there.) I wonder if the Mouse Wheel has all the same parts; just a different handle.

Jurassic_Jacob

I would think a 1 or 2 inch piece of pvc pipe would be an ideal way to increase the gap.

Jurassic_Jacob

This product seems pretty indicative of many cheap products where I'd end up hating it and upgrading to a more expensive product anyway and spending 1 and a half times as much because I already bought the cheap one. I've come to learn that I actually save money by buying the more expensive thing in the first place lol. Anyway, nice to see you wearing the vegas goodwill hat I sent you. 😊

Valora Inverse

Now that's some quality shaft jokes, and a surprisingly functional piece of oddware. Good times all around!

Udo Krawallo

So much sexual innuendo in the morning...hehehe. Would be interesting to know if this thing also works with optical mice. And a bit OT, but yes, I really love the bird streams! Keep them coming. Hope the hatchlings all make it.

Hernando Heilbron

I think it's a neat idea, but clearly ANY actual joystick would work way better.

Vladimir Vyun

A very cool idea on the paper and a very questionable product in practice. Typical oddware! Though, the yoke seems to be somewhat more useful than many, if not most, oddware doohickies we've seen over the years.

Alex Weiss

Taking another stab at Depth Dwellers?

LazyGameReviews

I'll put an optical mouse section in the final video :) And thanks, I'm glad you're diggin' the birds!

LazyGameReviews

Ha! Been tempted to... Not this time, but it's another one that I reviewed in the first year or so of LGR.

Erik Granlund

Amusingly useless, perfect oddware fare haha

Vaggumon

The Uterus Controller.

Alyxx the Rat

I mean, it ALMOST works.

Udo Krawallo

I see, the good old MX518 doesn´t like it too rough, rather gentle and slow...hehe

Mac84

Haha, yessssss! I've been meaning to cover one of these for a while. I seriously enjoyed your well researched video and product tour. Now I have no regrets being lazy and looking at my Mouse Yoke box on the shelf. Shaft giggles? Check. Unreal Tournament demo? Check. Yep - that covers all the important bases! I love how wacky these accessories were, and how they were built! If you weren't careful you'd squish your thumb off!

LazyGameReviews

Glad you enjoyed, Steve! Although you should definitely still give that one on the shelf some attention, too. You know you wanna feel that shaft action for yourself.

Chad Armstrong

Thanks for mentioning that Colorado Spectrum was based out of Fort Collins, Colorado. As I expected you encountered when trying to research that company, search results were more about Spectrum (aka Charter Communications) in Colorado.