The talk tracks the evolution of the peripheral devices that transmit their motion to a cursor - namely mice and trackballs. The analysis covers motion detection methods, the way signals are transmitted to the computer, ergonomics, and ways to test the device with a modern computer. The pre-commercial phase is covered, which includes early marine radar trackballs, Douglas Engelbart's wheel mouse, and Rollkugel ball mouse. The commercial phase is tracked through the following personally studied devices, including early Xerox mice with mechanical and optical encoders, Mouse Systems' design with a simplified optical encoder and reflective mouse pad, Depraz and Apple mice that commercialized the optomechanical encoder, the returns to Engelbart's original approaches in 1980s analog mice for home computers and wheel mice such as Torrington/Numonics Manager mouse and Hawley DEC mouse, and, finally, the ProAgio Scroll mouse that started the wheel scrolling revolution. Considered connection methods include parallel, serial, serial bus, and analog ones. Surprisingly, all mice and trackballs covered in the talk can be connected to modern computers using open-source converters, which are also examined and discussed.