Pay tribute to IBM PCjr

JC.

11 Jan 2022, 08:25

Hi there,

Vortex here!

Do you guys love these keebs?

Features:
1. 66 or 68 Keys
2. Cherry MX 5pin switch or Gateron G Pro Yellow
3. Hot-swappable
4. PBT keycap OEM profile
5. Dye-Subbed legends
6. Wired and wireless
7. QMK / VIA support (needs to buy another PCB)
8. Gasket mount
9. Interior dampeners
10. FR-4 mount plate
Attachments
KBt RE 68 Retro.2 compression.png
KBt RE 68 Retro.2 compression.png (993.33 KiB) Viewed 5484 times
KBt RE 66 Retro.2 compression.png
KBt RE 66 Retro.2 compression.png (986.92 KiB) Viewed 5484 times

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TNT

11 Jan 2022, 11:21

Love the form factor and case design, but the upper layout looks like it takes some time getting used to.

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Muirium
µ

11 Jan 2022, 13:18

The real PC Jr was worse still:

Image

Legend has it that keyboard put customers off the PC Jr so much, it led to the dominance of clones and the ultimate failure of IBM to own personal computing, full stop. So an interesting choice for a "tribute!"

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UnattributedCC

11 Jan 2022, 15:17

Muirium wrote:
11 Jan 2022, 13:18
The real PC Jr was worse still:

Image

Legend has it that keyboard put customers off the PC Jr so much, it led to the dominance of clones and the ultimate failure of IBM to own personal computing, full stop. So an interesting choice for a "tribute!"
I had one of these abominations when I was in college... I was only happy that I didn't have to put up with the chicklet version of this keyboard. I was so relieved when I was able to get an IBM PS/2 Model 30 about a year later... Still not a great machine, but ahhh....the Model M....

Findecanor

11 Jan 2022, 15:39

Muirium wrote:
11 Jan 2022, 13:18
Legend has it that keyboard put customers off the PC Jr so much, it led to the dominance of clones and the ultimate failure of IBM to own personal computing, full stop.
From what I have heard, the damage to its reputation had already been done with the chiclet keyboard that came before it.

Also, the PC Jr had a weird position in the market. The home computer market for a 64K machine was already saturated, and it was not fully IBM PC-compatible either.

User avatar
UnattributedCC

11 Jan 2022, 18:18

Findecanor wrote:
11 Jan 2022, 15:39
Muirium wrote:
11 Jan 2022, 13:18
Legend has it that keyboard put customers off the PC Jr so much, it led to the dominance of clones and the ultimate failure of IBM to own personal computing, full stop.
From what I have heard, the damage to its reputation had already been done with the chiclet keyboard that came before it.

Also, the PC Jr had a weird position in the market. The home computer market for a 64K machine was already saturated, and it was not fully IBM PC-compatible either.
They also did this weird cartridge format that wasn't compatible with anything else on the market, and no companies were interested in. And adding peripherals was complicated (at best), leading to third parties to do things like create weird "sidecar" expansion units so you could add expansion cards, disk drives and memory (I had mine up to 256K). The whole thing was a cluster at best.

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hellothere

11 Jan 2022, 23:14

I read the title of this thread and thought, "Hahahahahahaha. No." That being said, I like the look of the case. TKL version would be nice.

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UnattributedCC

12 Jan 2022, 00:00

JC. wrote:
11 Jan 2022, 08:25
Hi there,

Vortex here!

Do you guys love these keebs?

Features:
1. 66 or 68 Keys
2. Cherry MX 5pin switch or Gateron G Pro Yellow
3. Hot-swappable
4. PBT keycap OEM profile
5. Dye-Subbed legends
6. Wired and wireless
7. QMK / VIA support (needs to buy another PCB)
8. Gasket mount
9. Interior dampeners
10. FR-4 mount plate
I should have responded to you before I went off on the side-discussion about the PCjr....

IMO - I love the styling and everything that you've proposed, except for one part:
1. 66 or 68 Keys
I've gotten very used to a 71-key layout. This is similar to the Jr, except that it restores the Ins, Del and Pause keys, while maintaining the 1.25U right hand modifiers... If I saw a PCjr styled keyboard with this layout, and the rest of the features you've listed, I'd be very interested.

Here's a photo of the layout I'm talking about for reference:
feker_Keeb_001.jpg
feker_Keeb_001.jpg (3.9 MiB) Viewed 5176 times

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Palatino

13 Jan 2022, 10:43

JC. wrote:
11 Jan 2022, 08:25
Do you guys love these keebs?
Personally, yes! I like the size and styling, and wirelessness and hotswappability are good. Are these just designs at the moment or actually for sale?

User avatar
Muirium
µ

13 Jan 2022, 11:03

Renders are shorthand for the former. When there's a product: there's a photo… and a BUY button!

mrprofessor

13 Jan 2022, 12:11

I love the design, hope you price them well.

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