THE GROUP BUY IS LIVE
(We're awaiting an updated render from GMK with the correct mod colour grey, but these are the correct keys in the pocket kit)
OLD KITS:
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INTEREST CHECKHello keyboard enthusiasts, you all like Nintendo right? Well here's a nice keyset based on the original Gameboy colours. Hopefully something fun, but fairly understated, and with a nice dose of nostalgia. Gunpei Yokoi's revolutionary little funbox was codenamed 'Dot Matrix Game' during development, which carried over to the product model number 'DMG-01'. So here we go, it's:
KITSThe base kit hopefully manages that difficult balance of compatibility and affordability, but I welcome community feedback as I'm no expert in this regard, especially when it comes to the slightly more esoteric layouts (I only really use 65% and TKL). I'd personally really like a Colevrak kit as I'm a Colemak user so speak up if you're interested in that. If enough people want something, I'm sure we can accomodate. And if people like the set, once we've hammered out the details we'll get some nice renders done to have a good stare at instead of my shonky photoshopped kle things.
COLOURSUPDATED 4th Sept '18 - I've been in contact with Uniqey/GMK and they've confirmed that I can just send them a Gameboy for them to match the colours to. This will ensure the best colour accuracy and was my biggest hope from the start so I'm really happy they're able to do it and are up for it. The representative I spoke with seemed genuinely enthusiastic about it and thinks it's gonna be a fun project.
All I have to do now is find the closest thing to a NIB Gameboy I can, (mine is good but I think probably very slightly yellowed), without spending insane amounts on ebay. Fresh lookin' Gameboy acquired!
I've mocked this up for ease of reference. The colours on the Gameboy should be taken as the goal, rather than the mock ups of the kits, which may not match exactly. We'll have nicer renders soon anyway
VENDORSNow then, I've never run a GB and have no burning desire to handle the logistics of one, so I'm very pleased to say that side of things will be left in the more than capable hands of Jason at TKC
https://thekey.company/, runner of GMK Terminal, GMK Led Zep, DSA Drifter, the TKC1800, etc. Rest assured, he knows his stuff. There'll be the usual proxies to make things better for international buyers.
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NOVELTIES
I'll be straight with you. I've never bought any novelty packs. But I have a few ideas, and I welcome the community to get involved here as well. If we can come up with something special I'm sure we can offer it up in the GB. I'd really like to include a translucent green cap, in the Gameboy screen colour, similar to how GMK Camping included the translucent fire cap. This could be blank or include a printed legend, but I don't know what of. I've also included a 'battery' windowed 1u key in the base kit. This would have to be pad printed and would be dependant on whether the word will even fit on a 1u key.
TIMEFRAME
Well, there's no shortage of GMK GBs running at any given time so there's no use waiting for a gap. The Key Company have some other things in the pipeline so this set won't run for a while, but if people are into it then hopefully the good word can spread and by the time the GB launches there'll be huge swathes of you all ready to pounce and help turn these ideas into beautiful, cold, hard, doubleshot ABS plastic.
SUPPORTIf you wanna show support for the set and spread the word then you can stick this code in your signature to get this little image in there which links to this IC:
[url=https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=97002.0][img]https://imgur.com/fQ0QDJM.jpg[/img][/url]
PS. Thanks to Plex for the original keyboard render and Xondat for use of the 280 (even though I didn't ask permission).
EDIT: Added a 40s kit and changed the spacebar kit to just include accent colour mini-spacebars.
EDIT 2: Added colour guide and sig.