Logitech MX 2S Mouse and and Tandy Color Baseball [Video] - 63K Episode 006

It is a very HID (Human Interface Device) episode where I review the Logitech MX 2S and end up playing 8-bit baseball with a Tandy joystick on the Tandy Color Computer II.

Transcript

Welcome to the HID episode of 63K.

Today I'm going to be talking about handheld user devices.

Basically I'm going to start off talking about the mouse that I purchased from Logitech and then we're going to end up playing a little game of Color Baseball with this Radio Shack joystick on the Tandy Color Computer 2.

So I recently received the MX Anywhere 2S by Logitech. And I'm pretty impressed with it. Here's why.

As a web developer I have both a PC as well as a Macintosh and one of the things was that I didn't want too many mice around my desk.

So I set out to find a Bluetooth capable mouse one of them was the Logitech MX Anywhere 2S.

What sold me on this mouse was the mere fact that not only could it work for the Mac, on Bluetooth, it could also work on the PC using the dongle.

And it also touted the ability to easily switch between both the PC and the Mac as well as copy-paste documents as well as text between the Mac and the PC.

Which is very useful considering sometimes I'll be doing development work on the PC and then testing it out on the Mac and if I need to copy-paste URLs or anything like that to get to the test server.

And that's pretty much what sold me on it. And I wasn't, I was kind of skeptical. I pretty much said, "You know, I"m going to buy this thing, it's like $79. I'm going to buy this thing but if it doesn't do exactly what it promises to do we'll just have it returned and I'll just get like a $15 mouse that works on the Mac."

Well, I have been pleasantly surprised.

First, when it came, it was very simple. We sat it down by the Mac turned on Bluetooth, paired it, within like 10 seconds, it was pretty easy.

Then with the PC we just put the dongle into the USB port on the PC, boom, it was paired again very seamlessly.

So the set up between the two computers took less than half a minute.

So I was a little worried at first about the button being on the bottom to switch between the 3 computers, not an issue.

The thing that I like about this is that it can charge.

You're not messing with batteries on this thing, you know, taking them out and stuff like that. You can just let it charge.

And it says it will charge for like 90, or, the charge will, you can use it for like 90 days.

I haven't tested that out yet but I can't imagine that you know getting this thing to charge, and I think you can use it while it is charging considering it's on the back, unlike some mouse sold by Apple that you charge it on the bottom and you can't use it.

There is a scroll wheel.

One thing that I noticed about the scroll wheel is that there are 2 functions and I did not ever know this.

You're on a browser and you're scrolling, sometimes you'll stop scrolling and then a few seconds later the page will move.

Well, this button here has two modes basically.

If you click down hard it releases it so you have kind of like a very infinite scroll. Or I forget what it is called exactly.

Um, so you can just spin it basically.

However, if you do it again, all the way down, click.

It then engages the gears.

You can probably hear that.

Which is the mode I prefer.

Copy-paste functionality between the two computers, well, I kind of knew that you had to install Flow, it's the software that they, that Logitech has that allows you to do that.

Once we got Flow installed and we got everything set up, um, it pretty much worked seamlessly.

And here's somewhat of how it works.

Basically you have Flow installed on your PC, you have Flow installed on your Mac.

I'm just going to say PC and Mac, you can have computer 1, computer 2, no big deal but I'm just going to distinguish the two by PC Mac because that's what I have.

But, again, it doesn't have to be, it could be Mac Mac, PC PC, Mac Mac Mac, whatever.

But, anyways, so if you've worked with dual screens it's just like that. You move your mouse across the screen, when it hits the edge of one screen it goes to the next one, and if that next one is your other computer it goes over there.

And it's pretty much seamless like a dual screen. You just go across and boom, you're on your other computer.

I have not found much of a lag or anything like that, but it goes between the two without you having to worry about the button. Everything is via the network.

That when you copy-paste it's not going to the mouse and then onto the other computer, it's going via the network and the software is paring the two devices together on the network so that it can flow that data back and forth.

So, if your laptop is on a wireless network and your PC is on a wired network and they are two different subnets and they can't see each other that way then you will have issues.

But if they are connected on the same network then it works pretty well and I'm pretty impressed.

So, overall, copy-paste, works great between the two, going from one screen to the other just by moving your mouse, great, not having to use the switch button.

Even when you do have to use the switch button, because they are on two separate networks or anything like that, not a big deal at all.

I really like it, I've liked the Logitech mice, that's basically what I use at home as well for all of our PCs.

They've typically had good battery life, good tracking.

This is a track anywhere, so basically anywhere you can place it it will track.

I'm pretty sure it is even glass, so if you have a glass tabletop it should track too.

I believe that is one of the selling points if I am not mistaken. I could be wrong.

But, yeah, I've really liked it. So I would definitely go for it.

[music]

So this is Color Baseball for the Tandy Color Computer 2.

Okay, let's play ball!

[8 bit national anthem plays]

Alright, the players are taking the field.

Now, with Color Baseball you basically have 2... let me turn the volume down.

You basically have two colors. Basically blue and red.

So I figured what better way to play Color Baseball than the Cubs verses the Nationals.

Which, as of today, they are currently going into Game 4.

And they are at Wrigley Field basically tonight. So we'll see how that turns out, I'm sure you'll know the score already.

Oh, and he hits a fly ball into center field.

There we go.

I had a Tandy Color Computer when I was like 9, that's when I received it.

I programmed several things, basically you had to program everything on it.

I had a tape recorder that you would record things onto.

That's, um, I have joysticks, I have some games. Some of the games did not work right when I received them.

They are the cartridge games so I had to like work a little bit. Blowing into them did not help at all.

I haven't exactly tried cleaning the games or anything. There is a certain way you can do that.

So, I have a few games that don't seem to work too well, but I pretty much have the games that I remember playing when I first had a Color Computer.

The tape recorder is a tough one. I've purchased 3 of them so far and none of them work.

So, the joystick I'm using is one of 4 that I have.

I figure something that can have wear and tear might as well get as many as you can just in case it stops working.

With the Atari that I have, I also have several joysticks, just in case they stop working.

Okay, now that will end the inning.

Okay, so you can enter in people's names.

So you can enter in names as I mentioned earlier I entered in names to the Nationals and the Cubs line up.

I believe, that this is the starting line-up for game 2.

You cannot change the name of the teams, however, so the scoreboard does still say visitors and home.

You can enter in batting averages for the players.

But I don't know if batting averages for the players, if you enter those in actually affect play of the game.

So, fielding. So, as I mentioned, you pitch, the ball gets hit, it makes a determination as to which player, if you want to switch players you just hit the fire button and it will go to the next closest player to the ball.

You throw it back to the pitcher you just center your joystick and throw it back to the pitcher.

So, if I wanted to throw it to first, the pitcher has the ball and I want to throw it to first, I slide the joystick off to the right and I throw it over to first.

I can throw it over to third.

And I can throw it over to first.

So, basically your joystick controls where it gets thrown when you throw it.

You throw it basically by hitting the fire button and it goes where ever your joystick is telling it to.

Now, when you are fielding, as I mentioned, it goes to the next one, if you need to move.

Like, suppose the catcher was the closest but then the ball moves and it is now the pitcher that is closest.

Or one of the outfielders, you just press the button and it'll change.

The player that flashes is the one that's getting the ball.

I feel like I'm watching a little league game here.

We're going to bat left handed.

And that is a HOME RUN, bases loaded, grand slam!

I believe that was Jay.

So we have 4 more runs for this inning.

It is now 11 to 1.

Cubs lead here in the bottom of the 4th. 6 run inning.

Now, you can balk, I forget how you do that.

I think if you hit the fire button.

Oh! He got, oh! That was an overthrow. Or, maybe just a mis-throw.

Oh, another! Good thing they don't run the bases if the computer is playing.

And it's a double play!

It's not a forced run. And I don't they will run, I don't think the computer will make them run.

The computer does make them run and it's out, so it doesn't really matter, fly ball.

Of course it was 2 outs so maybe the computer just ran on anything.

Alright into the bottom of the 8th.

Don't know if we'll score any more runs but maybe we'll get a few before we wrap up this game.

Down the baseline.

He's going to go back to 1st.

We're at the top of the batting order again.

And we have a 2 run home run!

That is the fourth home run of the game.

We had two 2 run home runs, a solo home run, and a grand slam.

Two of those home runs took place in the fourth inning.

Kris Bryant is up.

Hits it to 2nd and he is out.

We've got one out here.

Anthony Rizzo is up.

And it looks like the score is 16 to 2, the Cubs just need to finish it up here.

And he throws it to first and we have our first out of the inning.

Two more outs and the Cubs will win this game.

Two outs now.

Harper's up.

And he's caught. It's out. The game is over. Cubs win 16 to 2 against the Nationals.

[outro music]

So that was this play of Tandy Color Baseball.

I hope you enjoyed it, I'll play another game later on. I have, I think, four other games, cartridge games that actually work.

So thanks for watching and until next time this is Chad signing off.