[IC] GREEN SCREEN SA Keycaps == Your Computer in the 1980s

[Oobly]

For the command prompt, I think a generic >_ would be good enough.

>_ would be an odd prompt.

For most UNIX, root's shell prompt is simply #.  Users typically got $.  At least in UNIX, > usually was an indicator that you missed a quote or such in your command string and the OS is assuming you're going to complete it on another line.

For DOS, most typically set it up as C:\

It actually looks like C:\>_ in Windows/DOS.  So >_ does sort of make sense in that regard.  We've been over this once before, actually...

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=67638.0

And this was the result: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=67638.msg1594195#msg1594195

Here's an idea for a 1.25x novelty. Beige base, dark grey screen area with curved corners covering about the max area you can on the cap (leaving 0.06" border as the screen surround) with a pad printed green cursor. Something like this:



Bah, humbug! I suck working in 2D, 3D is my thing:

[harlw]

For the command prompt, I think a generic >_ would be good enough.

>_ would be an odd prompt.

For most UNIX, root's shell prompt is simply #.  Users typically got $.  At least in UNIX, > usually was an indicator that you missed a quote or such in your command string and the OS is assuming you're going to complete it on another line.

For DOS, most typically set it up as C:\

It actually looks like C:\>_ in Windows/DOS.  So >_ does sort of make sense in that regard.  We've been over this once before, actually...

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=67638.0

And this was the result: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=67638.msg1594195#msg1594195

Here's an idea for a 1.25x novelty. Beige base, dark grey screen area with curved corners covering about the max area you can on the cap (leaving 0.06" border as the screen surround) with a pad printed green cursor. Something like this:

(Attachment Link)

Bah, humbug! I suck working in 2D, 3D is my thing:

(Attachment Link)

That's hawt if it's possible.

[njbair]

You could pad print that but you can't doubleshot three colors.

[Elrick]

You could pad print that but you can't doubleshot three colors.

This is Geekhack central WE only accept in putting down money, for Double-shot and Dye Sublimation  .

[MikeTheTiger]

For the command prompt, I think a generic >_ would be good enough.

>_ would be an odd prompt.

For most UNIX, root's shell prompt is simply #.  Users typically got $.  At least in UNIX, > usually was an indicator that you missed a quote or such in your command string and the OS is assuming you're going to complete it on another line.

For DOS, most typically set it up as C:\

It actually looks like C:\>_ in Windows/DOS.  So >_ does sort of make sense in that regard.  We've been over this once before, actually...

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=67638.0

And this was the result: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=67638.msg1594195#msg1594195

Here's an idea for a 1.25x novelty. Beige base, dark grey screen area with curved corners covering about the max area you can on the cap (leaving 0.06" border as the screen surround) with a pad printed green cursor. Something like this:

(Attachment Link)

Bah, humbug! I suck working in 2D, 3D is my thing:

(Attachment Link)

Nice!

[njbair]

For the command prompt, I think a generic >_ would be good enough.

>_ would be an odd prompt.

For most UNIX, root's shell prompt is simply #.  Users typically got $.  At least in UNIX, > usually was an indicator that you missed a quote or such in your command string and the OS is assuming you're going to complete it on another line.

For DOS, most typically set it up as C:\

It's not that odd.

[neverused]

Combining Data and I's suggestions, there some good ABS grays and beige colors that could pull off the look quite well I think.

Show Image

This. The OP looks nothing like the green on black/dark green phosphorescent screens that inspired it.

[Niomosy]

For the command prompt, I think a generic >_ would be good enough.

>_ would be an odd prompt.

For most UNIX, root's shell prompt is simply #.  Users typically got $.  At least in UNIX, > usually was an indicator that you missed a quote or such in your command string and the OS is assuming you're going to complete it on another line.

For DOS, most typically set it up as C:\

It's not that odd.

It's kind of funny that it's more the icon of the prompt than anything.  DOS would typically have more to it and UNIX would typically have # or $ but, hey, if it's the go-to for prompts, who am I to argue?

[crovax3000]

Holy hell, I really like version 1.2.

[Oobly]

You could pad print that but you can't doubleshot three colors.

Yup, that's why I said you doubleshot the GQM area and pad print the green on top of it. That way you don't have pad print covering the whole top and it's probably going to be a mod key, so it won't see as much wear as an alpha key, so pad print of just the green should allow it to last a long time and it shouldn't affect the feel much when typing.

I don't have my row 4 models ready yet, so it's a Row 3 1.25x.

The PETSCII set in Retro SA has doubleshot legends and front pad print, so the precedent is there that it can be done.

Perhaps the edges of the "screen" could be a bit more rounded. I'll maybe do another mockup when I get home today.

[Oobly]

For the command prompt, I think a generic >_ would be good enough.

>_ would be an odd prompt.

For most UNIX, root's shell prompt is simply #.  Users typically got $.  At least in UNIX, > usually was an indicator that you missed a quote or such in your command string and the OS is assuming you're going to complete it on another line.

For DOS, most typically set it up as C:\

It's not that odd.

It's kind of funny that it's more the icon of the prompt than anything.  DOS would typically have more to it and UNIX would typically have # or $ but, hey, if it's the go-to for prompts, who am I to argue?

If you want to keep it true to the inspiration machine, then it should actually be a square bracket with flashing block cursor like the picture in the OP:



But the ">_" prompt is quite universally recognised as a generic terminal prompt.

[admgc]

It costs $50 per design to cut the legend, so as long as you get enough orders it won't affect the price too much.

Cool, good to know. For those who have designed a custom legend: do you provide SP with a SVG file, or do you need to give them something better suited for a CNC machine?

[njbair]

It costs $50 per design to cut the legend, so as long as you get enough orders it won't affect the price too much.

Cool, good to know. For those who have designed a custom legend: do you provide SP with a SVG file, or do you need to give them something better suited for a CNC machine?

SVG is fine.

There is a cut size limit of 0.02" though, so any fine detail smaller than that won't work.

[Oobly]

It costs $50 per design to cut the legend, so as long as you get enough orders it won't affect the price too much.

Cool, good to know. For those who have designed a custom legend: do you provide SP with a SVG file, or do you need to give them something better suited for a CNC machine?

SVG is fine.

There is a cut size limit of 0.02" though, so any fine detail smaller than that won't work.

It's 0.012". Outer edges must be rounded to a minimum 0.006" radius (0.012" diameter) because the smallest cutter they use is 0.012" diameter. Inner corners can be "sharp". Look at the letter "A" on an SA set for an example of this (it was done with a larger cutter so it's easy to see the rounded outer vs sharp inner corners). Sending SVG files is fine, but you need to specify the actual dimensions of the drawing / design and positioning relative to the centre of the cap legend area. They use Illustrator CS4 to prepare the designs (before generating the toolpath) and if you work in Inkscape there will probably be some scaling issues. I am busy writing a specifications document for this (which I hope will end up on the Deskthority Wiki once approved by SP) which clarifies all the requirements and specifications for legends, but it's still going to take some processing.

They quote a minimum 0.020" distance between parts of a design (and for "islands"), but that's largely to do with plastic flow, not tool limitations.

[Data]

For the command prompt, I think a generic >_ would be good enough.

>_ would be an odd prompt.

For most UNIX, root's shell prompt is simply #.  Users typically got $.  At least in UNIX, > usually was an indicator that you missed a quote or such in your command string and the OS is assuming you're going to complete it on another line.

For DOS, most typically set it up as C:\

It actually looks like C:\>_ in Windows/DOS.  So >_ does sort of make sense in that regard.  We've been over this once before, actually...

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=67638.0

And this was the result: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=67638.msg1594195#msg1594195

Here's an idea for a 1.25x novelty. Beige base, dark grey screen area with curved corners covering about the max area you can on the cap (leaving 0.06" border as the screen surround) with a pad printed green cursor. Something like this:

(Attachment Link)

Bah, humbug! I suck working in 2D, 3D is my thing:

(Attachment Link)

Could this be done as an "inverted" doubleshot?

I'm not sure if I can explain it in text.  The entire "dark" area is the "legend" for that key (one big fat legend!) and the "prompt" shapes are just the same part as the outside base color of the cap -- just like in-fill for any typical text legend.  I'm almost certain that SP molds the legend part first (1st shot) then injects the cap base around it in the 2nd shot.  So doing it as one big 2-color process should still be possible.  You won't get a nice, bright green "prompt" that way, but you'll still get a very unique key cap out of it.

I don't know if any of that made sense.   


OR!!!

What if you did these as a double-shot dye-sub?

Base color: beige
Double-shot legend: green (prompt shapes)
Dye-sub: dark grey (screen shape) (final step)

 

[njbair]

For the command prompt, I think a generic >_ would be good enough.

>_ would be an odd prompt.

For most UNIX, root's shell prompt is simply #.  Users typically got $.  At least in UNIX, > usually was an indicator that you missed a quote or such in your command string and the OS is assuming you're going to complete it on another line.

For DOS, most typically set it up as C:\

It actually looks like C:\>_ in Windows/DOS.  So >_ does sort of make sense in that regard.  We've been over this once before, actually...

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=67638.0

And this was the result: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=67638.msg1594195#msg1594195

Here's an idea for a 1.25x novelty. Beige base, dark grey screen area with curved corners covering about the max area you can on the cap (leaving 0.06" border as the screen surround) with a pad printed green cursor. Something like this:

(Attachment Link)

Bah, humbug! I suck working in 2D, 3D is my thing:

(Attachment Link)

Could this be done as an "inverted" doubleshot?

I'm not sure if I can explain it in text.  The entire "dark" area is the "legend" for that key (one big fat legend!) and the "prompt" shapes are just the same part as the outside base color of the cap -- just like in-fill for any typical text legend.  I'm almost certain that SP molds the legend part first (1st shot) then injects the cap base around it in the 2nd shot.  So doing it as one big 2-color process should still be possible.  You won't get a nice, bright green "prompt" that way, but you'll still get a very unique key cap out of it.

I don't know if any of that made sense.   


OR!!!

What if you did these as a double-shot dye-sub?

Base color: beige
Double-shot legend: green (prompt shapes)
Dye-sub: dark grey (screen shape) (final step)

 

Interesting idea, but AFAIK you can't get SA dye subbed.

[spectre]

I'm not a fan of the DSA profile but I think this would look awesome on either SA or DSA.
I made a mock-up of version 1.2 with amber alphas to see how the set would look with another classic monochrome color, but I prefer the green.  It might cost too much to make a double shot mold for it but I thought the command prompt would make a good novelty key, so I made a mock-up of a 1.25u key to replace the OS key.  That power button would be a nice novelty too.

(Attachment Link)

I'm sold on this abmer option

[Oobly]

The doubleshot with cursor in base colour will work, but njbair is right about the other one: You can't dyesub ABS, SA doesn't doubleshot PBT and they won't make PBT SA profile caps for GBs...

I still prefer doubleshot with just the cursor pad printed on in green.

[chilldude_22]

This looks awesome. Very unique concept.

The option for Amber Screen would be really cool, too. I also think this set lends itself to some very creative novelty options.

IMO, it would work better as an SA set since those really give the 60s/70s vibe.

[Data]

The green screen was still a thing even into the 90s, especially if you ever had to use a terminal to look at inventory and corporate sales numbers.   

[Data]

The doubleshot with cursor in base colour will work, but njbair is right about the other one: You can't dyesub ABS, SA doesn't doubleshot PBT and they won't make PBT SA profile caps for GBs...

I still prefer doubleshot with just the cursor pad printed on in green.

I didn't realize dye-sub ABS was impossible, but I see why.  Oh well.

[Niomosy]

For the command prompt, I think a generic >_ would be good enough.

>_ would be an odd prompt.

For most UNIX, root's shell prompt is simply #.  Users typically got $.  At least in UNIX, > usually was an indicator that you missed a quote or such in your command string and the OS is assuming you're going to complete it on another line.

For DOS, most typically set it up as C:\

It's not that odd.

It's kind of funny that it's more the icon of the prompt than anything.  DOS would typically have more to it and UNIX would typically have # or $ but, hey, if it's the go-to for prompts, who am I to argue?

If you want to keep it true to the inspiration machine, then it should actually be a square bracket with flashing block cursor like the picture in the OP:

Show Image

But the ">_" prompt is quite universally recognised as a generic terminal prompt.

Honestly, I think we could have fun with that a bit for novelties, doing different ones where the old amber/green text dumb terminals were around.

For UNIX, the # would probably make sense.

IBM mainframes would likely get the READY prompt from TSO.

>_ could be the generic one.

Others might be VMS (huge back in the day) or possibly something like RSX-11 since the old PDP-11 was pretty ubiquitous in schools and various businesses for a while.  Though perhaps I'm geeking out on the server side of things a bit more but, honestly, when I think of green screens, it's automatically thinking of servers rather than the old computers for some reason.  Then again, I am a server guy so there's probably some bias there.

[njbair]

Someone just needs to make a tiny, SA cap-shaped, programmable LCD screen. Then it can show whatever prompt you want.

[Data]

Someone just needs to make a tiny, SA cap-shaped, programmable LCD screen. Then it can show whatever prompt you want.

Well, there are SA relegendables, so there's your framework. LCD Pixel density is really good these days, but finding a panel small enough would be a problem, as would routing power and data cables through the switch housing in a way that doesn't interfere with switch operation. Still, I'd like to think such a thing is possible. I bet there are vendors on Alibaba who would gladly sell you 10,000 units right now. 

[admgc]

Someone just needs to make a tiny, SA cap-shaped, programmable LCD screen. Then it can show whatever prompt you want.

Yes, please.

[admgc]

Need to check my tolerances still on this, hopefully I can get it in spec.

[admgc]

Here's an idea for a 1.25x novelty. Beige base, dark grey screen area with curved corners covering about the max area you can on the cap (leaving 0.06" border as the screen surround) with a pad printed green cursor. Something like this:

Love this idea.

[njbair]

Need to check my tolerances still on this, hopefully I can get it in spec.

Show Image

Nice! This is a great idea.

[tofgerl]

"Why is the save icon on this button?"

[Elrick]

"Why is the save icon on this button?"

Because now it has regressed into a Windows installation  .

[admgc]

"Why is the save icon on this button?"

I think if you press it, it saves all the things onto your computer. Or something. Maybe it's magic...

[admgc]

Updated original post with ISO 9995 Kit and Alternate Layouts Kit images.

[admgc]

Updated original post with (2) terminal novelty cap candidate images.

[swimmingbird]

Only saw this when it was in V1.1 - its shaping up very nicely

[tofgerl]

So you're thinking dye-subbed terminal caps? Looks good. I prefer the second one, since that's the only one I've ever actually seen on a terminal. (SH standard prompt)

[Oobly]

So you're thinking dye-subbed terminal caps? Looks good. I prefer the second one, since that's the only one I've ever actually seen on a terminal. (SH standard prompt)

No dyesubbing. Pad print on doubleshot.

I like all three novelty candidates and would swap the terminal cap depending on whether I'm working on my Windows machine or Mac .... now I wonder if I can make a converter so I can use my 60% board on my Apple IIC? Hmm... new project time!

[Steezus]

This set is looking very cool, Terminal B is definitely my pick for a novelty keycap.

[harlw]

Enjoying the process so far - Terminal B is my novelty vote. I like the idea of the floppy, would you mind if I mocked one up, not a fan of the one you have now personally?

[Oobly]

Enjoying the process so far - Terminal B is my novelty vote. I like the idea of the floppy, would you mind if I mocked one up, not a fan of the one you have now personally?

^^^^ Take him up on this offer. I like the original, but I'd love to see what he comes up with

[livingspeedbump]

Version 1, would not buy.

New version, would buy.

[shrubkeys]

V1.2 has a lot of potential. Novelty/mod ideas: one mainstay of Apple ][ keyboards were the "open-apple"/"closed-apple" keys (to the right and left of spacebar in this pic). Open-apple stuck around as an alternate icon on Macs' command key, but I'd definitely be down with the icons all on their own.

[Elrick]

Version 1, would not buy.

New version, would buy.

Version 1.1 - would buy lots of  .

New Version 1.2 would puke my guts out after looking at it for more than two seconds.  The darkened keys really throw off the original design into bland windows territory, and as you know I'm no fan of Redmond's Sh1te.

Either stick to the original design or don't bother even trying to release another Windows Loving piece of garbage.  Too much of that is currently available everywhere.

[shrubkeys]

Version 1, would not buy.

New version, would buy.

Version 1.1 - would buy lots of  .

New Version 1.2 would puke my guts out after looking at it for more than two seconds.  The darkened keys really throw off the original design into bland windows territory, and as you know I'm no fan of Redmond's Sh1te.

Either stick to the original design or don't bother even trying to release another Windows Loving piece of garbage.  Too much of that is currently available everywhere.

Weird diatribe aside, you realize that every reference pic so far has been of an Apple, not PC, right...?

[Sed8op8]

I freaking love the idea of this set the version1.2 is really getting my need jimmies all hot and bothered count me in x1000

[Oobly]

V1.2 has a lot of potential. Novelty/mod ideas: one mainstay of Apple ][ keyboards were the "open-apple"/"closed-apple" keys (to the right and left of spacebar in this pic). Open-apple stuck around as an alternate icon on Macs' command key, but I'd definitely be down with the icons all on their own.

ooh, ooh, ooh... this^^^^

Open and closed Apple Alt / Command keys would be awesome, but unfortunately I'm pretty sure they're covered by Apple's trademarks as they're variations of the actual logo.

Perhaps open and closed circles? Or rounded squares (squircles)?

[Elrick]

V1.2 has a lot of potential. Novelty/mod ideas: one mainstay of Apple ][ keyboards were the "open-apple"/"closed-apple" keys (to the right and left of spacebar in this pic). Open-apple stuck around as an alternate icon on Macs' command key, but I'd definitely be down with the icons all on their own.

ooh, ooh, ooh... this^^^^

Open and closed Apple Alt / Command keys would be awesome, but unfortunately I'm pretty sure they're covered by Apple's trademarks as they're variations of the actual logo.

Perhaps open and closed circles? Or rounded squares (squircles)?

How about not using any Apple Copyrighted Logos at all.......

Do not want to see another OS represented here because Apple Corp would rip you a new hole, if you decide to make SP reproduce it here and now.  Think about the poor people who would make this and what it means to their lively hood and families, when they come into focus by one of the most legally vicious corporations in the world.

[tofgerl]

That's not how copyright works. And that is a trademark.

[admgc]

Enjoying the process so far - Terminal B is my novelty vote. I like the idea of the floppy, would you mind if I mocked one up, not a fan of the one you have now personally?

Yeah, go for it. Thinking of doing something more retro/pixelated maybe?

[admgc]

How about not using any Apple Copyrighted Logos at all...

I agree that we should stay away from any potential trademark issues and should avoid using OS branding. SP would certainly refuse to produce them.

[VinnyCordeiro]

you can't doubleshot three colors.

Vintage keycaps >>> abyss >>> modern keycaps