Most of us gamers would have considered a wireless mouse at some point. While some of us did manage to jump ship, the others are either just discouraged making that purchase due to the higher cost or weight of the wireless mouse or even cats that sweep down your peripherals from atop of the desk. So to grant that same feeling of wireless freedom, you might wanna check out a mouse bungee.
Armaggeddon stepped up into the fray with the Tarasque, a mouse bungee with built in USB hub. The idea is to hold the mouse wire in place that it would not be snagged in any way while in use, creating that "wirelessness" of using a wired mouse while still being secured to the PC. The Tarasque is retailing at RM99 (SRP) but at the time of reviewing this unit, you can get one for RM1 when you purchase the Armaggeddon AlienIV G9X gaming mouse in the local stores.
Specs
Packaging
The Armaggeddon Tarasque comes in an overall black box with yellow accented details, Armaggeddon's colours if you will. At the front is a nice large window for users to see the actual product.
Coming to the back, you'll find a thorough description of the Tarasque with some illustration of the actual product.
At the right side shows the seven colours that the Tarasque would show and cycle when plugged in.
And the opposite side are where you will find the specs of the Tarasque.
Not much in terms of extras, you get the USB to mini-USB connector, a replacement sticky-pad and a users manual that comes in a small black envelope. Glad to see that the cord is braided, the tag attached to the cord is where you will find the product's serial number with the corresponding QR code to register your product
The Product
The Tarasque stays true to Armaggeddon's design principle of futuristic components. Sure enough, this looks like one of the tanks that is featured in Command & Conquer or Supreme Commander.
The main arm is rubber while the upper part of the base is rubber coated while the bottom part are matte plastic. A mini-USB port is found at the back that powers the Tarasque's USB hub and LED.
The main fascia featured Armaggedon's logo and the product name which will glows with the colours of the rainbow (pun intended).
At the sides are the USB ports, four of them, two on each side. No USB3.0 here which is disappointing and although there is an option for a 5V DC-in, Armaggeddon decided to let the users know that you'd need to purchase that separately instead of supplying it.
The base is a single piece of sticky-foam material protected by a plastic film. Not the best of solutions in my opinion as some of us may like to move it from time to time but on the other hand, this will make sure that the Tarasque stays put.
And here is how it should look like with a mouse attached to it.
Testing
As I have said earlier, the purpose of a mouse bungee is to keep the mouse cord in place so that it would not be caught on anything while in use, emulating the feel of a wireless mouse. This is particularly useful if your mouse cable is rubberised. The Tarasque does just that and a little more. Fixing the cable of my Ikari Optical onto the rubber arm took a while as the clamp is very tight, but once you get it on, it's never gonna come off without equal force. You might have more trouble with cables of a larger diameter though.
So long as the Tarasque is plugged in, the LED illumination will be on and will cycle between the seven colours as indicated on the specs. However, there isn't any way to get it to stay a single colour or turn it off and I find it distracting to some degree. The USB hub works well but I'd like to see USB3.0 available and I do wish that they'd included the 5V DC-in cable so that users can use this with high powered devices. Having USB ports here also means that you will be able to plug your mouse here and use the bungee as well which would be useful if your mouse cable is short.
Pros
- Integrated USB hub
- Braided connector cable
- Stays in place very well
Cons
- 5V DC-in need to be purchased separately
- LED illumination is not customisable
- Adhesive base instead of rubber feet
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