C64 – The Mind of David Krider

Well, Crap; There Goes another $110

Meet the new C64 Edition from the 8BitDo Keyboard line. Packed with programmable keys and an intuitive control panel.. Compatible with Windows and Android.

This hits all the right notes for me. I recently bought a full set of SA Retro keycaps for my WASD CODE v2 (in blues), on my Mac. While pricey, I love them. I get warm fuzzies every time I sit down at it. I use this board on my Mac, and out of a dozen mech’s I’ve tried, I just don’t think it gets any better than a WASD.

The article also mentions new buckling spring boards. I have a Mini M from Unicomp on my work computer. The action doesn’t seem as crisp as I remember on actual Model M’s from back in the 80’s, but given that it’s supposed to be the same internals, made on the original tool dies, I have to chalk it up to memory. I like it too.

For “just” $110, I will probably buy one of these. I don’t have a Kailh-based board, though I’ve liked the feel of that brand of switches in various testers I have.

Sigh.

44 Years Later

The nostalgia is strong with this. I loved being able to make forms with the glyphs on the Vic-20 and Commodore 64. These keycaps have been “out of print” for a long time, but Signature Plastics is now making them to order. I thought the grey colored accessory keys were going to be more of a lime green color, but that was too bold anyway, and I like this color better anyway. It’s much more similar to the color of the function keys on the original keyboards.

SA Retro Keycaps, Ordered

After literally about 10 years of lusting after these, I finally pulled the trigger. I don’t know when they’ll get made and arrive, but I feel that they will have been worth the wait. But… ouch.

My Pre-Ruined Programming Typing

I use a “grip” on the keyboard that’s off-by-one. My right index finger hovers over the K key instead of the J. I can touch type if I concentrate, but this is just how I learned on the Vic-20, when I was 10. I convinced myself a long time ago that this was fine, as it gets me closer to all of the special keys for programming. However, several of the special keys (notably the *, @, and &) were in different places on the Vic-20 and the C64 than on a standard, modern keyboard, and it still occasionally throws me, 40 years later.

I think I lost a programming job because, in the interview, they put me in front of a computer, and I didn’t fly through the editor with nothing but keyboard shortcuts, but it’s my weird typing method that pushes me to just use a mouse for a lot of it.