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Apart from 1351 mouse what other official Commodore C64/C128 pointing devices were available, or notable 3rd party like Mouse Cheese. Joysticks and controllers are out of question. C64-wiki seems to be blank on that.

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    We don't very much like questions that ask for list-like answers. The SE format is not very suitable for such questions.
    – tofro
    Commented Oct 16, 2020 at 13:45
  • List like question, closing, but answer is still valid for me. Commented Oct 16, 2020 at 14:02
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    If you don't like list questions, then create a community wiki answer. That's what the community wiki was made for.
    – DrSheldon
    Commented Oct 16, 2020 at 15:23
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    I believe there were not so many to make this question open-ended. "Leave open".
    – peterh
    Commented Oct 17, 2020 at 13:33

3 Answers 3

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Before GEOS and the 1351 mouse became popular for the C64/C128, the most notable (non-joystick) pointing device was the famous Koala Pad.

There were a few programs for the C64 before GEOS that provided fairly complete GUI style interfaces. The Print Shop and Doodle come to mind, as well as the very early (1982) Pinball Construction Set. Because there was no mouse at the time, these programs generally relied on the joystick/keyboard to control the "pointer". It worked pretty well, but not so well for drawing programs. Therefore, it was the drawing/painting programs that tended to have support for the Koala Pad, with KoalaPainter being the best known of those.

The Commodore engineers who designed the C64 seemed to think the Light Pen would be the pointing device of choice for drawing/painting programs. So, this hardware is readily supported by the C64 (VIC-II lightpen interface) and its controller port. Many of these Light Pen devices were manufactured, but they failed to catch on with developers and users. This is most likely due to the awkward ergonomics of using a light pen on a vertical CRT display.

Note: While the 1351 and Amiga mouse look nearly identical, they work completely different and aren't compatible. However, recent efforts have been made to create an Amiga mouse driver for GEOS. This opens another very convenient pointing device up for C64/C128 use.

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    There was also 1350 mouse before 1351. It was called as "directional mouse" because internally it was working like joystick rather than mouse and compatible with software that using joystick as pointing device. Additionally the was also paddle device support to compete with pong devices . But afaik they were not so popular.
    – wizofwor
    Commented Jul 21, 2022 at 11:33
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You're looking at the wrong page. :) The C64-Wiki page on Input Devices lists mice (digital joystick-like mice, and analogue free movement mice), touchpads, graphics tablets such as the Koala Pad with Koala Painter, light pens and light guns as typical C64 pointing devices.

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The Amiga mouses also worked, but they took a lot of raster time for the mouse cursor to move fast enough.

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