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Razer Co-founder and Gaming Mouse Pioneer Robert Krakoff Has Died (theverge.com) 44

Posted by msmash from the RIP dept.
Robert "Razerguy" Krakoff, the co-founder and former president of gaming hardware company Razer, died last week at the age of 81. Maybe you've never heard Krakoff's name, but it's possible you've been impacted by his far-reaching legacy. From a report: In 1999, Krakoff was behind the first-ever gaming mouse: the Razer Boomslang. Not only was it the foundation of Razer's now-massive lineup of gaming mice, it arguably jumpstarted the entire gaming peripheral industry. Below, you can see Krakoff himself in an ad promoting the Razer Boomslang mouse in 2002 -- alongside professional gamer Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, who signed a historic sponsorship deal with Razer long before the word "esports" entered the lexicon.
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Razer Co-founder and Gaming Mouse Pioneer Robert Krakoff Has Died More

Razer Co-founder and Gaming Mouse Pioneer Robert Krakoff Has Died

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    • They reach all the way across the room.

    • Far reaching legacy of gaming mice ?

      I hate to ask; but WTF is a "Gaming Mouse"?

      If the Mouse spends all its time Gaming; how am I going to get a chance to use the computer???

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Megane ( 129182 )

        I hate to ask; but WTF is a "Gaming Mouse"?

        At first it was just a ball mouse with a very high DPI, like 2000 DPI. (I think I even ended up with one from a thrift store, but I don't know where it is now.) Beyond that and keyboards with mechanical keys, everything else after that was just bling. And now there are "fake" gaming keyboards that have the stupid bling and EXTREME! styling, but crappy rubber dome keys. If you get it new for 40 bucks or less, it's not going to be a good keyboard.

        • I hate to ask; but WTF is a "Gaming Mouse"?

          At first it was just a ball mouse with a very high DPI, like 2000 DPI. (I think I even ended up with one from a thrift store, but I don't know where it is now.) Beyond that and keyboards with mechanical keys, everything else after that was just bling. And now there are "fake" gaming keyboards that have the stupid bling and EXTREME! styling, but crappy rubber dome keys. If you get it new for 40 bucks or less, it's not going to be a good keyboard.

          Considering the average video display in 1999 was either 800 x 600, or maybe 1024 x 768, why torture the software with such an unnecessarily fast interrupt rate? No extra control would likely be achieved.

  • This actually is an inspiring profile. He did not invent anything and was primarily a salesman - which is really what is needed to build a business.

  • May he rest in peace ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @11:23AM (#62496756)

    in a rainbow coloured RGB coffin.

    Honestly Razer isn't known for gaming mice, or gaming anything. That industry existed before they did. Razer is largely known for gluing LEDs on products other people came up with and doubling the price.

    • The RGB fad is hardly Razer's doing. They certainly jumped on the bandwagon though.

    • I think you're mostly looking at current day Razer. The original stuff really didn't go overboard with LED's (aside from what was necessary). In modern times though, from a stylistic standpoint a lot of people want them so they cater to the market.

      Trust me - I don't get it either - I have a purpose built gaming computer that is in a drab black box of an ATX case and it suits me just fine, but when I recently built a gaming system for my 13 year old niece she INSISTED on being able to "change the colors on

      • In modern times though, from a stylistic standpoint a lot of people want them so they cater to the market.

        You're blaming a consumer for falling for marketing. Razer is one of the big pushers of this marketing saying that absolutely everything needs to have RGB bling, and they were one of (if not *the*) first to push these products. Your 13 year old niece insists she wants RGB because companies like Razer are saying that you need RGB to be a cool gamer.

  • May he RIP, but this bio is simply not true. Logitech had been doing gaming mice and peripherals for a decade before this false claim âoe In 1999, Krakoff was behind the first-ever gaming mouseâ. We donâ(TM)t need to misrepresent someoneâ(TM)s accomplishments for their legacy.
    • I'm going to have to disagree with you. Logitech's first gaming mouse came out in 1999. Yes they had mice before that, obviously. But not gaming mice. So, both companies put out a "gaming" mouse in the same year. So, likely they were being developed during the same period. Not sure which one "won the race" to market, but it was very close. Nothing close to a decade.

  • 1999 was the same year Microsoft released the Intellimouse Explorer which had an optical sensor, scroll wheel and 2 side buttons. I used one for gaming quite well when it was released, interesting these dates coincide so closely .

    Crazy to think how fast things were progressing in that era, just having a mouse where you didn't have to clean anything to keep it working well was amazing, and it had this newfangled USB thingy.

    • 1999 was the same year Microsoft released the Intellimouse Explorer which had an optical sensor, scroll wheel and 2 side buttons. I used one for gaming quite well when it was released, interesting these dates coincide so closely .

      Crazy to think how fast things were progressing in that era, just having a mouse where you didn't have to clean anything to keep it working well was amazing, and it had this newfangled USB thingy.

      Oh yes, the wonder of USB. We were told, at the time, that USB would be wonderful and would replace all of your other cables! So, the PC hardware dropped DIN connectors for the keyboard and mouse, replacing them with... two USB ports. Ta da! You've now used up all of your USB connections for the keyboard and mouse.

      As it turned out, USB would be very handy in the long run. At the start, it was comically catastrophic unless you wanted to sell someone a new keyboard and a new mouse that didn't work quite as we

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by burni2 ( 1643061 )

        From my POV and experience USB worked actually fine in win98se1 and winme, however USB-Inputs were a huge CPU load meaning I used the PS/2 Plug to get some more FPS from my machine.

        • From my POV and experience USB worked actually fine in win98se1 and winme, however USB-Inputs were a huge CPU load meaning I used the PS/2 Plug to get some more FPS from my machine.

          Hmmm. Worked fine on the original iMac. Pretty much zero CPU load.

          Maybe MS just couldn't write software for the Protocol they helped create!

      • Ta da! You've now used up all of your USB connections for the keyboard and mouse.

        Never seem a motherboard with less than 4 USB ports (and there's USB hubs from beginning of the tech)

        the BIOS probably wasn't accessible from a USB keyboard.

        in the past it was a real issue (in the past!)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Osgeld ( 1900440 )

          the first motherboard I had that supported USB had a single 2 port header which you attached to the case via card slot bracket cause it was still AT format

          • Wow: no frontal ports? From which year was that?

          • But did it have no DIN sockets? I think the OP was saying that 100% of USB was used up because DIN disappeared. That never happened. By the time DIN disappeared USB 2.0 and 8x sockets were standard on motherboards and USB 3.0 was already out.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Kremmy ( 793693 )
              When USB was popularized by the iMac it had already been available in two-ports-on-a-PC-motherboard format for a while.
              The iMac still only had two USB ports. The keyboard had a built in hub for the mouse so you got one single free usable port on the machine.
              It was a few years yet before USB 2.0 came around and more sets of ports became common.

      • So, the PC hardware dropped DIN connectors for the keyboard and mouse, replacing them with... two USB ports.

        Not sure what PC hardware you were buying, but I've never seen any hardware other than special purpose server boards with only 2 USB ports and no DIN connectors. Quite the opposite actually.

        Motherboards came with 2x USB ports + DIN connectors + additional USB headers onboard for many years after USB's introduction. DIN connectors were still standard on late stage AMD Athlon boards (along with USB 2.0). Heck my Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L motherboard (Core 2 Quad era) had 8x USB 2.0 ports and DIN ports (long after

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Jenka ( 1295437 )
          Heck, the motherboard in my brand new gaming computer came with a combination of USB2,usb3, usb3 5gb, usb3 10gb ports AND a DIN port.Why a high end modern mother board came with one I have no idea, the comments I saw on reddit was analog keyboards useing DIN connecters were faster in some FPSs but there was no proof that I could find.

      • As it turned out, USB would be very handy in the long run. At the start, it was comically catastrophic unless you wanted to sell someone a new keyboard and a new mouse that didn't work quite as well, because the BIOS probably wasn't accessible from a USB keyboard.
        Or had an original iMac.

        You know, the computer that put USB on the map. . .

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kremmy ( 793693 )
      I found a USB ball mouse at a thrift shop the other day. I almost bought it out the sheer nostalgic novelty.

  • I bought one in ~1999/2000 and realized it was one of the biggest misstakes, that mouse is a thick brick(I must have it somewhere perhaps even with the original steel can it came in):

    - I liked to play low sense and got agitated by the skew that the hi-res-sensed ball would make when you repositioned your mouse simply by moving to the bottom of the hole

    - and especially for people with smaller hands that clunky long piece and those long B1/B2 were also not ideal, to add things up with Button4/5 being retracte

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by GBH ( 142968 )

      Funnily enough I absolutely LOVED my Boomslang and was gutted to find out that I couldn't buy another new one when it finally died. Having large hands helped a lot but I don't think I've ever felt so comfortable on a mouse before or since.

  • Old (Score:3)

    by MBGMorden ( 803437 ) on Monday May 02, 2022 @12:28PM (#62496980)

    Considering how relatively recent of a thing "gaming mice" are (I don't recall seeing them until maybe ~20 years ago) I would have thought he was younger.

  • "Maybe you've never heard Krakoff's name" -- correct, I haven't --"but it's possible you've been impacted by his far-reaching legacy." Only in that the mechanical keyboard I bought is more concerned with shining blue lights than with having the keys far enough apart to be easily typed on.

  • "A Large African Blacksnake."

    Thank you for the education, Balderdash.

  • Today I learned that the Razer name, logo, company, and product was created by a marketing firm in a campaign designed to target gamers. Krakoff didn't come up with any of it. It was literally the creation of a bunch of marketing trolls. Well played, capitalism.

  • is they're all too bulky and weighed down by excess design and features. As far as FPS games go, (IMO) the best mouse is the one that weighs the least. I use a dinky little Logitech that's about half the weight of a gaming mouse. The lack of inertia is just fantastic for precise snap aiming and I haven't had RSI problems since I switched. This used to be my HTPC mouse, then I tried it in CSGO...

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