Knockoff Nunchuck

October 21, 2010 3:10 PM

Is there a mouse that works like a Wii nunchuck?

For years as a child I dreamed of having a mouse that I could use to play emulators or control sequencers while leaning back in the chair.

I forgot about this dream until the Wii came out, and the nunchuck functions almost exactly as my dream mouse. Is there a usb mouse that functions similarly?

I guess in my imagination you could map the buttons on the mouse to any keyboard controls, like z and x...

posted by kittensofthenight to computers & internet (10 answers total)

or with a track ball, instead of a tiny joystick. That was what I imagined at 14.
posted by kittensofthenight at 3:14 PM on October 21, 2010

using a WIRED 360 controller with Pinnacle could meet all of your needs.
posted by radiosilents at 3:16 PM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

My dad's had a Gyration Air Mouse for years and loves it.
posted by halogen at 3:21 PM on October 21, 2010

Some time back I worked on a product like you are describing; which, unfortunately, never made it to market. Maybe I should have gotten a job at Nintendo. :-)
posted by doctord at 3:22 PM on October 21, 2010

If you're on a mac, I think you can do this with a real nunchuk and Darwiin, but you have to have the nunchuk plugged into the remote.
posted by wayland at 3:33 PM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

There are presentation remotes like this one, which have a similar form factor to the Wii nunchuck. This one includes cursor control, mouse buttons, and even a useless-for-your-needs but still really fun laser pointer.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 3:57 PM on October 21, 2010

OSCulator has a "mouse mode" setting; the program is Mac OSX only, though.
posted by shino-boy at 4:18 PM on October 21, 2010

I've never used a Wii, but I have a Logitech MX Air for my home theater PC and everyone who sees it thinks it's similar. It takes some time to get used to using it.
posted by bzn at 4:32 PM on October 21, 2010

Wii remotes connect with the Wii via bluetooth. Just get a bluetooth adapter for your computer, if it doesn't already have one. There's tons of free software available for PC, Mac, and LInux platforms. Honestly, just Google it.
posted by K5 at 11:52 PM on October 21, 2010

Thanks!
I'll try connecting the wiimote via bluetooth, although that airmouse looks pretty cool.
posted by kittensofthenight at 3:16 PM on October 23, 2010