Keyboards in movies/TV series!

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Muirium
µ

17 Nov 2015, 20:53

An XT with homing bumps?

And a dodgy Scroll Lock?

Someone's been fiddling with that!

Which I suppose may be the point, what with the supernatural title. Is there an invisible character typing on the keyboard?

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Grond

17 Nov 2015, 20:56

It's supposed to be the same keyboard in the two shots but it's obviously not :D

JBert

18 Nov 2015, 12:09

Well, the left Alt key is certainly different. Got any YouTube video of that scene?

andrewjoy

18 Nov 2015, 13:34

Look at how the keys are places a well , there is no way they are sitting inside an XT they are all lob sided and bent out of shape

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Grond

22 Nov 2015, 22:54

Trading Places (1983)

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As for the "Ghost" scene, I can't find it on youtube. I can tell you that the close-up keyboard is shown when the ghost types on it, so it's most probably a prop built to make it look like a self-typing keyboard.
On the other hand, the keyboard on the larger shot is never shown while self-typing, so it should be genuite. Here's another screenshot from the same scene:

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Also, another keyboard from "Ghost":

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Muirium
µ

22 Nov 2015, 23:16

The Trading Places beamspring! Going to have to watch that one again this Christmas. It's a very festive film…

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Halvar

23 Nov 2015, 08:41

The "Trading Places" one could be Micro Switch Hall effect keyboard.

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Grond

23 Nov 2015, 12:37

When you put a keyboard in your vintage Rolls Royce, you might as well put a good one! :D

andrewjoy

23 Nov 2015, 12:44

Ha, comparing car brands to keyboards. This is fun, Vauxhall/Opel =

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Grond

23 Nov 2015, 23:07

It wasn't meant as a comparison, the keyboard is actually mounted in a Rolls Royce in the film. :D

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andrewjoy

23 Nov 2015, 23:41

Ohhh, still a fun game !

Ozric

29 Nov 2015, 01:15

Mystery Science Theater 3000
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maxmalkav
dye hard

09 Dec 2015, 21:49

Th Smashing Pumpkins "Rocket" video has a nice collection of vintage boards (100% winkeyless regarding the video is from 1993 ;-)
some highlights:
00:04 some very old stuff on the wall, another that I cannot distinguish very well
00:06 some querty action :-)
00:08 someone, the top row of the left keyboard? A nice old one to the right side
01:25 good opportunity to determine the switch type of the right keyboard above
02:23 some nice spheric keys on that board carried by bike
02:54 well, some kind of calculator
03:32 that command keys at the left side ..

Not too bad for a 4 minutes video :-) (and I love the song)

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Muirium
µ

09 Dec 2015, 22:36

Edit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th-AqMvvBzE

Bad. Do it like this.

[youtube]Th-AqMvvBzE[/youtube]

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maxmalkav
dye hard

09 Dec 2015, 23:08

Thanks Muirium, I had no clue how to embedded it and I was too lazy to do further research on the topic :-S

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chzel

09 Dec 2015, 23:14

Pro tip: if you hover the mouse over the button in the full editor a tooltip with the usage appears.

mr_a500

30 Dec 2015, 21:53

RCA Video Data Terminal in Andromeda Strain.jpg
RCA Video Data Terminal (usually linked to RCA Spectra 70 mainframes) in The Andromeda Strain (1971). HaaTa has one of these keyboards. The terminal on the right has a light pen and the switches on that are clicky, but they seem painfully tedious to use. (watch the movie)

I really must make some pole stands like that for my terminals.

mr_a500

30 Dec 2015, 21:59

Yes, I was right. The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) terminal is a Burroughs. It's bloody obvious when you see it in high resolution. Look at all the Burroughs logos. Why the hell did I bother trying to decipher low-res blurry small images when I could just get it in 1080p??
Crown Burroughs sharp.jpg
At least I have the satisfaction of knowing I was right all along. (...except not having the resolution to know that some keys are blue, green & red)

mr_a500

31 Dec 2015, 14:42

Image

The Demon Seed terminal is obviously a mock-up, but this thing is about as close to it you'll ever get:
Strange UNIVAC terminals.jpg

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vivalarevolución
formerly prdlm2009

14 Jan 2016, 02:47

Not a movie or TV show, but anybody know what keyboard Jesus is using here?
1426533_10153899017958566_3434802167878334418_n.jpg
1426533_10153899017958566_3434802167878334418_n.jpg (25.12 KiB) Viewed 17212 times

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Muirium
µ

14 Jan 2016, 03:05

Something mocked up less than life size, if his plasticky hands are anything to go by.

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jeff

23 Jan 2016, 23:36

From Innerspace (1987)

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Keyset colors remind me something

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bhtooefr

03 Feb 2016, 15:57

Rise of the Centaur has a couple sightings that I've noticed.

Glenn Henry (one of the founders, and the president of Centaur Technology) is shown as having a beige Unicomp Customizer or Classic 101 (he is an IBM Fellow...):
Glenn Henry's Customizer/Classic 101
Glenn Henry's Customizer/Classic 101
vlcsnap-2016-02-03-21h13m12s105.jpg (746.1 KiB) Viewed 17107 times
And Suresh Hariharan's (another Centaur engineer) very aggressively tented) Model M15:
Suresh Hariharan and his Model M15
Suresh Hariharan and his Model M15
vlcsnap-2016-02-03-21h20m31s638.jpg (521.42 KiB) Viewed 17107 times
(It's a thinly veiled VIA CPU ad, but it's quite interesting to watch for many reasons.)

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elecplus

05 Feb 2016, 06:01

An entire room full of 1984-1986 computers and keyboards in the TV show Catching Killers, Computer Forensics, season 2, episode 2. Free on Amazon peime, but it gets taken down in 11 days. A lot of input from Cliff Stoll.

lunas

10 Feb 2016, 20:31

nourathar wrote: hey,

I have a son and recently we watched Tron and Terminator 2 together (I'm feeding him some of the classical science fiction films in small doses..).

he side of the keyboard looks like a Northgate, but then the keycaps look sort of funny (which is why I thought of HP).

And in Tron (1982) there are some keyboards too, I spotted two, but it is hard to find good shots of them.
I really like the top one, what a nice blocky blue box !
tron02kb.jpg
tron02kb.jpg (102.51 KiB) Viewed 17071 times
What could those be ??

ciao,

J.
Responding to an old post, but since reading it I've been on a mission to find this Tron keyboard from the laser bay. I originally though it was a DEC VT/78 (wikipedia), but I just saw a post on reddit /r/mk that looks like a match, from Gene Roddenberry no less.
IMG_2650-Computer-and-floppies-640x420.jpg
IMG_2650-Computer-and-floppies-640x420.jpg (64.19 KiB) Viewed 17071 times
Reddit post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyb ... om_pc_z80/

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Tuntematon

17 May 2016, 23:48

Mulder.png
Mulder.png (604.03 KiB) Viewed 16975 times
Mulder typing a report on his Focus. (The X-Files, S3E12)

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Muirium
µ

18 May 2016, 01:30

Case Report: X-File 7911
Secret: Need to know only

Once again Agent Sculley appears unimpressed with the EVIDENCE discovered. She claims the METICULOUS array of trash around the victim's corpse was a chance alignment and of zero interest. Unlikely. The patterns in the attached photos of the crime scene bear CLEAR SIMILARITIES with the Nazca Lines of the Mayan APOCALYPSE. Sculley insists that "straight lines are not noteworthy". Her counter argument is growing weaker by the day. I think she is almost at the point of accepting that the murder was at the point of ALIEN CONTACT, with the same craft that IMPREGNATED the pyramid builders of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.

I like it when we fight. She's kinda hot when she's angry.

…Backspace Backspace Backspace Backspace…

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Nuum

16 Feb 2017, 15:48

Wow, this thread has been left alone for too long! Not exactly a movie, but I found this short snipet of some kind of portable coumputer by British Telecom with what seem to be Cherry M8 switches.
(at 10:49)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3NVQSH ... u.be&t=649

Findecanor

16 Feb 2017, 17:53

Several people in the comments say that it is a Prestel terminal, a British counterpart to the French Minitel.
The museum has a page about this machine: http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/ ... 0Terminal/

mr_a500

10 Jun 2017, 10:09

lunas wrote:
Responding to an old post, but since reading it I've been on a mission to find this Tron keyboard from the laser bay. I originally though it was a DEC VT/78 (wikipedia), but I just saw a post on reddit /r/mk that looks like a match, from Gene Roddenberry no less.

Image

Reddit post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyb ... om_pc_z80/
Excellent. Thanks for that. That clears up all the keyboards in TRON.

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