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Awesome vintage keyboard replica?

Xezlec

Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2009
Messages
31
Location
Austin, TX
Hello,

This is my first post here, and I don't mean to be spammy, but I thought this would be the number one place on the net to come to ask this, where people might actually be as interested as I am in this idea.

There's a really legendary old Lisp Machine keyboard with lots of buttons colloquially called the "space cadet" keyboard. Here are some pictures and info.

These things are totally impossible to find (believe me, I've tried!) and it isn't even clear if any still exist. However, I desperately want/need one of these so that I can assign all the keys and modifiers and stuff to do crazy things in emacs or whatever and therefore be awesome. So, I've decided maybe the thing to do is build a replica.

I was thinking about making my keyboard with the exact same keys as the original keyboard, plus the standard F1-F12, Print Screen, Scroll Lock, Home, Insert, Page Up, and Page Down keys we've all come to expect on PC keyboards. While I'm at it, I might move the direction keys into a more comfortable arrangement. The keyswitches would be the widely loved "clickey" type like those on the old IBM Model M, or something similar. I'd probably go with USB for the interface.

Being an engineering ninja, I can do this project easily enough, but the startup costs needed to have the plastic keycaps and housing manufactured are somewhat expensive, so I can only do it if I can find some people to go in on it with me. My goal is to get the cost per keyboard down to around $175, but that's only going to happen if I can find maybe 10 to 20 people who are interested in buying one off me at that price. Maybe I'm being hopelessly optimistic, but I've got nothing to lose by trying.

So, any takers?
 
The space cadet is absolutely awesome. The "hyper" button makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I can imagine reading a manual and learning about the keyboard combination: "Ctrl+Super+Hyper" and subsequently fly into space :)

Cool as it is, I don't think I would shell out 175$ dollars for one (or anywhere near 100$).
 
Cool as it is, I don't think I would shell out 175$ dollars for one (or anywhere near 100$).

I was afraid of that. The modern, reduced version of the keyboard is sold by Symbolics for $150. The keyswitches I want to use alone add up to more than $100. No way around it.
 
Well, I have paid $299 for a keyboard (twice! one for work and one for home), but that's for a Kinesis Advantage ergonomic keyboard that I require to keep my wrists happy. So I don't consider $175 to be "out of line" for a keyboard that you really, really want to have.

A couple of years ago I managed to find an older model Symbolics keyboard on eBay and snagged it for $40, so they do still exist, even if they're really hard to find. If you can find one, you can convert it to a USB keyboard non-destructively, and pretty easily. I did so with mine, but I find I still prefer to use my Kinesis!

Of course, if I ever managed to afford a Symbolics Lisp Machine (a dream of mine!), I'd convert it right back and happily use it as it was intended ;)
 
A couple of years ago I managed to find an older model Symbolics keyboard on eBay and snagged it for $40, so they do still exist, even if they're really hard to find.

When you say "an older model Symbolics keyboard", I think you're talking about one of the two available styles of the keyboard I meant when I said "the modern version" -- the plain, gray keyboards. One style has rounded keys. The other has squared keys. Both of these can still be purchased new from Symbolics right now.

Surely you aren't saying you found a space cadet keyboard, that is, the keyboard I posted a link to pictures of! I don't think these still exist anywhere.

Of course, if I ever managed to afford a Symbolics Lisp Machine (a dream of mine!), I'd convert it right back and happily use it as it was intended ;)

You do at least have the emulator, I hope.
 
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