Things That I Love About Retro Computers - Keyboards

For me, one of the distinctively enjoyable aspects of Retro Computing is the Keyboards.  I know I'm not the only one, with everyone from Clint from LGR to Perifractic from Retro Recipes devoting entire YouTube episodes to the topic of vintage computer keyboards.

I've become a bit of a "keyboard snob" over the last few years, ever since I found out about Unicomp keyboards.  The story of Unicomp's spinoff from Lexmark / IBM has been covered well elsewhere so I will not retell it here, but I learned how to type on an IBM Selectric keyboard so the buckling spring type keyswitch feels both familiar and nostalgic to me.  I've been using these keyboards for years and I have several of them.  The main drawback I have with these is reliability,  Of the three boards I've had over the last 10 years only the most recent purchase is still working well.  I have used these as daily drivers, but I'm sure I'm nowhere near the cycle time limit on the keyswitches, the faults tend to be with the other electronics on the boards.

I've also made another keyboard discovery that was a bit of a surprise to me.  The Apple keyboards that I remember from the last 10-15 years have been pretty unremarkable, but if you go back far enough in time their keyboards were remarkable.  My "Daily Driver" keyboard is an Apple Keyboard model M0116 made between 1987-1990.  It has Alps Salmon switches, (which you can hear here) and it's really fantastic.   This keyboard is connected from ADB to USB using the Wombat from Big Mess O' Wires.

The downside too the M0116 keyboard is the keyboard layout.  The cursor keys are not in the inverted T layout we've come to expect and the Caps Lock and Control keys are swapped.  It's difficult to remap these swapped keys because this keyboard has the two-position Caps Lock key.  Also, there are no Function keys on the keyboard.

The Apple Extended Keyboard from the time, model M0115 is a more familiar layout with the same keyswitches, but prices on these boards have become quite high, so although I'm hoping to find one at some point, I'm not holding my breathe.  In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy the M0116 as my daily driver.

Another truly great retro computer keyboard is the Northgate Key Omni Key 101.  This is a keyboard that was made for a company here in Minnesota, Northgate Computer Systems.  I believe this example dates from 1991.  I bought one because I was looking for a keyboard that was AT / XT switchable. bit ot turns out this keyboard has absolutely fabulous key feel with Alps white switches.  I've written a bLog article about restoring this keyboard, and I've since put this keyboard into service with a simple PS/2 to USB adapter as my daily driver.  I'll be keeping a lookout for these keyboards now that I know there's a resource for parts, Northgate Keyboard Repair.

What are your favorite Retro Computer Keyboards, and why?  Do you use a retro keyboard as your daily driver?  Let me know in the comments below.