Keyboards in movies/TV series!

User avatar
Muirium
µ

30 Aug 2014, 16:19

mr_a500 wrote: (I sent some Amiga sightings to that site years ago, emailed from my Amiga 500, with attached screenshots directly scanned from DVD using my Amiga 500.)
That setup better still be alive and well or we're revoking your username.

mr_a500

30 Aug 2014, 17:01

Of course. This is it here:
Image

I used it to post here a few times. It was actually easier than posting with this damn iPad I just got. Touchscreen keyboards SUCK.

User avatar
Hypersphere

30 Aug 2014, 17:14

Couldn't agree more about trying to type on an iPad. I bought one some time ago with high hopes of using it for all sorts of computing, but I soon gave it away. I am very much a desk-oriented computer user, and I need a real mechanical keyboard.

User avatar
Muirium
µ

30 Aug 2014, 17:24

The irony being that (even as DT's #1 poster… to my surprise more than delight) I post about a third of mine from my iPad. Software keyboards aren't great, but cellular access and convenience balance that out quite nicely for me. Pulling out a laptop takes more space and intent, and all too often my brief checks of the forum spy turn into a string of longish posts anyway!

I'd always rather type at a real keyboard. But touchscreens are fast enough to keep up with my thoughts, often enough. It's a bit like driving at night, where you can only see what your lights can reach in the immediate distance. So long as you're concentrating on what's right ahead, the dark isn't so great a hassle. Yet it might put you off starting on a long haul, when you consider it, looking at the sunset!

User avatar
Hypersphere

30 Aug 2014, 18:59

Muirium wrote: The irony being that (even as DT's #1 poster… to my surprise more than delight) I post about a third of mine from my iPad. Software keyboards aren't great, but cellular access and convenience balance that out quite nicely for me. Pulling out a laptop takes more space and intent, and all too often my brief checks of the forum spy turn into a string of longish posts anyway!

I'd always rather type at a real keyboard. But touchscreens are fast enough to keep up with my thoughts, often enough. It's a bit like driving at night, where you can only see what your lights can reach in the immediate distance. So long as you're concentrating on what's right ahead, the dark isn't so great a hassle. Yet it might put you off starting on a long haul, when you consider it, looking at the sunset!
I am totally disillusioned. It is like finding out there is no Santa Claus, or being told that Superman is not real. The number one poster on what is arguably the leading international mechanical keyboard forum must surely use a real mechanical keyboard for all his posts! Posting on an iPad! Shame on you! Perhaps we should deduct that one-third of your posts from your total!

User avatar
seebart
Offtopicthority Instigator

30 Aug 2014, 20:00

Shame on you! Perhaps we should deduct that one-third of your posts from your total!
:lol: YES that´s it, only really TYPED posts (and ONLY on an mechanical keyboard) count.
(even as DT's #1 poster… to my surprise more than delight)
forget that title MU, you ruined it yourself! :lol: Hypersphere is right. Touch screens can only be a auxiliary measure at best.

And I do use swype on android and hate it while dreaming of my XT when swyping away.

User avatar
Kurk

30 Aug 2014, 21:39

The lack of a system-wide software keyboard in Dvorak layout prevents me from posting more from my iPad. Hoping for iOS8 to change that. Anyway, Dvorak or not, touch keyboards and mech keyboards are of course totally different things.

mr_a500

06 Sep 2014, 15:07

Soarer wrote: Unknown, looks like it has beam springs, in Blade Runner (thread).

Image
I think I found the Blade Runner keyboard! I've only found one small picture, so I'm not 100% sure, but look at this 1974 ad:
GTE-IS.jpg
Notice the two-tone case, layout and label on the front.
(there's an IBM beam spring behind it for some reason)

mr_a500

06 Sep 2014, 15:21

Here's an earlier 1973 ad:
(this one has some different coloured keycaps, but layout is the same)
GTE IS 7800.jpg
Comparison:
Image

User avatar
Madhias
BS TORPE

08 Sep 2014, 21:52

Image

Seen right now, the terminal keyboard of a supercomputer in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier". Which model acted here?

mr_a500

10 Sep 2014, 19:11

That "Captain America" keyboard looks like it's DEC VT100 layout - including LEDs - but the LEDs are green and raised, which indicates post-1984 (LED indicators were mostly red before that time, green after). Other companies besides DEC also used that VT100 layout for a while, including SUN and SGI. (but obviously it's not a DEC, SUN or SGI)

If it is a real keyboard, I'd check companies making industrial keyboards in the mid-late 80's for DEC compatible applications.

mr_a500

10 Sep 2014, 19:23

Damn it. I successfully identified the main keyboard in Brainstorm (1983), but I posted it on geekhack a few years ago and it seems to have been lost in the rootworm hacking. I've totally forgotten which terminal it was now (and didn't expect to lose it), so now I want to identify it again. Anybody have ideas?

Image
Image

There's also an ADM-42, DEC VT100 and mockup portable in the movie. This is the only other keyboard I can't figure out:
Brainstorm keyboard 3.jpg

nourathar

11 Sep 2014, 23:03

mr_a500 wrote: Damn it. I successfully identified the main keyboard in Brainstorm (1983), but I posted it on geekhack a few years ago and it seems to have been lost in the rootworm hacking. I've totally forgotten which terminal it was now (and didn't expect to lose it), so now I want to identify it again. Anybody have ideas?
I think that is one of the earlier Burroughs terminals. There's plenty of Burroughs terminals in that film; the seventies building in which a lot of the action takes place was actually the main Burroughs building at the time...

And isn't the mockup portable in the movie an Osborne ?

mr_a500

12 Sep 2014, 03:12

No, the terminal is not Burroughs. I remember checking those out. As I recall, I found a similar Perkin Elmer terminal, but then found the actual terminal and it wasn't either of those. The one I found had the exact case and keyboard layout, but in beige instead of black. I think it was in an early BYTE Magazine. (great... now I won't be able to rest until I go through all the BYTEs again..)

The mockup portable is definitely not an Osbourne. It has a colour screen (widescreen!) and a black keyboard.

Image
Image
Image

mr_a500

12 Sep 2014, 14:20

nourathar wrote: I think that is one of the earlier Burroughs terminals. There's plenty of Burroughs terminals in that film; the seventies building in which a lot of the action takes place was actually the main Burroughs building at the time...
Yes, that was the Burroughs Wellcome building at the time, but that was a pharmaceutical company (which later became GlaxoSmithKline), not related to the Burroughs Corporation computer company.

I don't remember seeing any Burroughs terminals in Brainstorm. Can you find a screenshot of them? All I remember is the ADM-42, DEC VT100 and those other two I can't identify.

User avatar
Grond

17 Sep 2014, 18:51

Red typewriters in "A Clockwork Orange" (1971).

Image
Image

User avatar
acolombo

18 Sep 2014, 10:53

Grond wrote: Red typewriters in "A Clockwork Orange" (1971).

Image
Image
Damn, I love the Olivetti Valentine and I really have to get one soon before the prices get higher!

User avatar
Grond

18 Sep 2014, 12:48

In Italy it's easy to find one, but not for cheap!

User avatar
Muirium
µ

18 Sep 2014, 13:12

Don't let him in!

I did find an Olivetti Valentina in a museum and tried (probably a crappy job of) matching it to the SP ABS colour ring I had at the time. Better dig out the pictures.

User avatar
Grond

18 Sep 2014, 13:32

I wish there was a keyboard that stylysh, these days. I don't believe there is.

ray4jc

21 Sep 2014, 02:52

Saw a model F xt on Sabrina the teenage witch.

User avatar
scottc

21 Sep 2014, 03:21

ray4jc wrote: Saw a model F xt on Sabrina the teenage witch.
I'm going to have to go ahead and demand PICS!

mr_a500

24 Sep 2014, 15:29

Model F keyboards are everywhere in 80's movies and TV. I could post hundreds of screenshots.

Here are some scenes from "Sledge Hammer!" with a Model F in the foreground:
(That show also has Amiga 1000, Hazeltine 1500, EPSON, and various other keyboards.)

User avatar
ماء

24 Sep 2014, 15:37

Image
Image
Jonathan Blow in indie game

User avatar
ماء

25 Sep 2014, 06:31

not movie/tv series but really nice video :P
http://homeposition.net/~m%28as%29m/blo ... oku-6.html

User avatar
Grond

03 Oct 2014, 12:48

Loads of Macs in David Fincher's "The Game" (1997). Sadly, no keyboard closeups.

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

User avatar
Grond

04 Oct 2014, 23:44

"Alien 3" (1992).

Image

mr_a500

05 Oct 2014, 00:22

That Alien 3 keyboard looks like crap compared to the one in the original Alien.

Image


This is how I like to type on my keyboard, hanging from the ceiling:
Mission Impossible.jpg
It's a little hard on the neck though.

Since Mission Impossible is 1996, I assume that's a rubber dome. At least they had the sense to use a trackball.

User avatar
Grond

05 Oct 2014, 18:19

More from "Alien 3":

Image
Image

User avatar
Grond

05 Oct 2014, 22:15

"Three Days of the Condor" (1975)

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

Post Reply

Return to “Gallery”