Microsoft EasyBall
Reviewed by Jason Levine
Published by Microsoft

Age Group: Beginners, Age 2 to 5, Age 4 to 8 Type: Computer Toolbox Price: $ 50

Description:

The Microsoft EasyBall is a great pointing device for kids ages 2 to 6. The large, yellow trackball is just the right size and has just the right feel to give small hands a degree of comfort that may elude them with a conventional mouse.

System Requirements -- Can I have a Serial Port, Please?

Since it works pretty much like any other mouse device, the EasyBall has very low system requirements. In fact, the included Pointerland program is what really sets most of the minimum requirements for the device. Thus, the hardware will work with CPUs as low as 8808, while Pointerland requires at least a 286. The device requires only conventional RAM (640K), but Pointerland needs 4 MB of RAM to run. The driver software requires 4 MB of hard disk space. The hardware can use virtually any video adapter (including CGA!), but Pointerland does require at least VGA to run.

The one serious hardware requirement that the EasyBall does have is an available 9-pin serial port. (If you have an older computer with only 25-pin serial ports, a 9 to 25 pin adapter is available from Microsoft for only the $5.00 shipping/handling fee, or you can probably get one just as cheaply from you local computer store). If your computer is equipped with a serial mouse and a modem (which yours probably is if you're reading this review), you probably don't have a serial port available. This means that to use the EasyBall you will either have to disconnect your conventional mouse and plug in the EasyBall before starting your computer or purchase a mouse switch, which allows two pointing devices to share a single serial port. (A mouse switch can be purchased directly from Microsoft for $9.95 plus the $5.00 shipping/handling fee. Again, you can probably get one just as cheaply from your local computer store.)

What this boils down to is that, if your computer is equipped with a serial mouse, you probably won't be able to take advantage of the EasyBall's best feature: The ability to use your conventional mouse simultaneously with your kid's use of the EasyBall. Putting it another way, the EasyBall is really designed for computers whose conventional mouse is connected via a PS/2 mouse port.

If your mouse is connected via the mouse port, you simply plug the EasyBall into the serial port that your modem isn't using and that's all there is to it. At least as far as the hardware installation goes.

Driver Installation -- Plug and Play Please Go Away!

If you're running Windows 3.1 (or if your one of those amazing stalwarts who has managed to avoid Windows altogether) installation of the EasyBall drivers is easy as explained in the manual.

If, however, you're running Windows 95, there's an added, and to my mind wholly unnecessary, complication. Windows 95 comes equipped with a default driver for the EasyBall and the EasyBall is Plug and Play enabled. Thus, the first time you connect the EasyBall and start up the computer, Windows 95 will ask you if you want it to configure the EasyBall. Nothing bad will happen if you say yes. Everything will work just fine. But Plug and Play won't install the Pointerland program, and because (egregiously) there's no mention of Plug and Play whatsoever in the EasyBall manual, it's all too easy for the unwitting user to overlook this omission.

What you should do is cancel the Plug and Play installation and then manually install the driver software according to the instructions in the EasyBall manual. This will also install the Pointerland program. The procedure is certainly easy enough, but the manual's complete silence on this point is a major gaff on Microsoft's part.

Using the EasyBall

Once installed, there's little doubt that your kids will like the EasyBall. Our four-year-old son took to it like a fish to water, and he now automatically reaches for it for use with all his programs. Precisely placing the mouse pointer, which had often been a big chore for him with the conventional mouse, suddenly became a snap. He also seems to appreciate that the EasyBall has only a single button, so there's never any confusion about which button to push. (Note: Under Windows 95, the Shift-F10 key combination emulates the right mouse click. However, I can't think of any kids' programs that use the right mouse button.) The EasyBall also has enough heft to it so that it stays pretty much in place even when he rolls the ball around vigorously.

The EasyBall is also sturdy, as can be attested to by the fact that our two-year-old daughter has managed to knock it off the computer desk a couple of times without damaging it. Of course, the floor in our computer room is carpeted and I don't attest to the EasyBall's ability to stand up to being dropped on a bare floor! (In what should be an award-winning statement of the obvious, the EasyBall manual cautions against letting your kid bang the EasyBall against the CPU, keyboard, or monitor, as this may damage either the EasyBall or that component. No kidding.)

In Pointerland you can find and use new pointers

The included Pointerland game does much to add to the kid's enjoyment of the EasyBall. In Pointerland , the kid uses the EasyBall to navigate around an environment that looks like a simple graphic adventure. The difference is that, instead of revealing adventure game type objects, clicking on the various locations in Pointerland reveals an assortment of pointer shapes, such as stars, flowers, and hummingbirds. A second click on a discovered shape changes the default EasyBall pointer to that shape. True to his gender, our four-year-old quickly settled on the jet plane as his favorite shape.

What makes the EasyBall fun from an adult point of view is the ability to use it simultaneously (if you have a mouse port mouse) with your conventional mouse. Touch the EasyBall and the pointer changes to the Pointerland shape last chosen by your kid. Touch the conventional mouse and the pointer instantly changes back to your "adult" cursor.

I have to admit that I've taken advantage of this feature when the kids were long asleep. Late at night, the dull-as-dirt legal documents that I work with in my other (non-GDR) life can be real sleep inducers. Somehow pointing to that text with a jet plane instead of the conventional arrow makes it seem a little less dull and boring.

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