British Gas special order PS2 keyboard with DEC ALL-IN-1 legends

User avatar
urbancamo

21 May 2022, 19:15

This will be only of marginal interest to most folk. This is an unremarkable Fujitsu ICL rubber dome keyboard, apart from the keycaps. I worked for British Gas Research and Development at their site in Loughborough as a contract software engineer https://lakesdev.blogspot.com/2013/04/g ... bered.html between around 1995 and 1998 and they were a big DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) user, including their office automation product ALL-IN-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALL-IN-1. ALL-IN-1 was terminal based, so after the transition from dumb terminals to PCs access was via emulation software. The problem with this is that ALL-IN-1 relied on a number of shortcuts. So it looks like British Gas placed a special order for Fujitsu ICL PCs with keyboards containing the custom key set. These keyboards are standard PC as far as I can tell, PS/2 interface.

I had a lazy eBay search on years ago for one of these, but I never expected any to turn up. After a few years pretty much out of the custom keyboard scene I had a casual search a few days ago and one was up for sale, brand new. The part number clearly contains the letters BGAS - can't be anything other than a British Gas special order!

Unfortunately whilst I was there they were transitioning to Lotus Notes (I don't recall anyone having a good word to say about it) and I believe British Gas were one of the last companies to transition away from the VAX or DEC Alpha hosted software.
IMG_20220521_175638.jpg
IMG_20220521_175638.jpg (2.7 MiB) Viewed 1253 times
IMG_20220521_175630.jpg
IMG_20220521_175630.jpg (2.65 MiB) Viewed 1253 times
IMG_20220521_175619.jpg
IMG_20220521_175619.jpg (3.62 MiB) Viewed 1253 times
IMG_20220521_175602.jpg
IMG_20220521_175602.jpg (2.73 MiB) Viewed 1253 times
IMG_20220521_175553.jpg
IMG_20220521_175553.jpg (2.61 MiB) Viewed 1253 times
IMG_20220521_175543.jpg
IMG_20220521_175543.jpg (2.61 MiB) Viewed 1253 times
IMG_20220521_175531.jpg
IMG_20220521_175531.jpg (2.9 MiB) Viewed 1253 times
IMG_20220521_175519.jpg
IMG_20220521_175519.jpg (2.83 MiB) Viewed 1253 times
IMG_20220521_175508.jpg
IMG_20220521_175508.jpg (2.8 MiB) Viewed 1253 times
IMG_20220521_175459.jpg
IMG_20220521_175459.jpg (2.75 MiB) Viewed 1253 times
Attachments
IMG_20220521_175507.jpg
IMG_20220521_175507.jpg (2.81 MiB) Viewed 1253 times

User avatar
photekq
Cherry Picker

22 May 2022, 00:45

Bloody hell. It might only be a rubber dome, but it's an awfully beautiful one! Congrats on getting one, especially with all that sentimental value :mrgreen:

Do you have a link to the eBay listing? I had a look and couldn't find it. Even if they only had the one available, I'd like to keep my eyes peeled for another one :ugeek:

User avatar
urbancamo

22 May 2022, 01:51

Glad you like it. It is genuinely brand new which made is so much more desirable in my eyes.

Of course my wife didn't see the point, but the folk at my DEC Legacy event will appreciate it from a DEC perspective.

This was the listing: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363831557051

User avatar
thefarside

22 May 2022, 05:09

Very nice! Quite a lot of functions. Is there a significance between the red and green colors?

User avatar
Dingster

22 May 2022, 18:59

Incredible legends on that bad boy, nice find for sure :)

User avatar
urbancamo

23 May 2022, 21:32

thefarside wrote:
22 May 2022, 05:09
Very nice! Quite a lot of functions. Is there a significance between the red and green colors?
The red/green legends are colour coded based on Shift/Alt modifiers.
The orange legends indicate 'Gold key' shortcuts - you press the Gold key (PF1/Num Lock), release, then press the orange legend key.

Post Reply

Return to “Keyboards”