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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: SamirD on Sun, 11 October 2015, 20:32:24

Title: What was the keyboard on an IBM PCjr?
Post by: SamirD on Sun, 11 October 2015, 20:32:24
http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwi/sys/5255867503.html

Ran across this just browsing around and it got me thinking--what was the Keyboard that came with the IBM PCjr?
Title: Re: What was the keyboard on an IBM PCjr?
Post by: nubbinator on Sun, 11 October 2015, 22:00:51
Ok, I'm going to be a ****, but it's only because you keep posting questions that you can easily answer yourself with a little research.  The Deskthority wiki (http://deskthority.net/wiki/Main_Page) and Google (https://www.google.com/) will answer about 95%+ of the questions you have like this.
Title: Re: What was the keyboard on an IBM PCjr?
Post by: SamirD on Mon, 12 October 2015, 08:19:46
Ok, I'm going to be a ****, but it's only because you keep posting questions that you can easily answer yourself with a little research.  The Deskthority wiki (http://deskthority.net/wiki/Main_Page) and Google (https://www.google.com/) will answer about 95%+ of the questions you have like this.
I've done the searches, and it's because of answers like this that I post here--this tells me nothing:
"The IBM 4860 PCjr was IBM's first attempt to produce a low cost personal computer aimed at the home market. It used a low cost keyboard designed to be more suitable to the home market than the Model F keyboards of their professional computers. The PCjr is widely considered to be one of the worst keyboards ever designed, and considered to be one of the main reasons why the PCjr was a commercial disaster."
Title: Re: What was the keyboard on an IBM PCjr?
Post by: Dernubenfrieken on Mon, 12 October 2015, 09:37:09
I mean, what do you actually want to know? You asked "what was the Keyboard that came with the IBM PCjr?" The answer is... the PCjr Keyboard. It wasn't used elsewhere, its was rubber dome, it was ****ty.
Title: Re: What was the keyboard on an IBM PCjr?
Post by: Snowdog993 on Mon, 12 October 2015, 10:12:48
The PC Jr. keyboard was a keyboard that had rectangular keys!  It was also a wireless keyboard.  Probably the worst keyboard ever designed by IBM for the home market.  Pressing each key was a chore on its own.
It was for the budget PC Jr. home system.  I did find a picture on here somewhere.  The legends were on the bezel rather than on the keys.  All around, to sum it up, a horrible keyboard.

Title: Re: What was the keyboard on an IBM PCjr?
Post by: SamirD on Mon, 12 October 2015, 13:05:26
The PC Jr. keyboard was a keyboard that had rectangular keys!  It was also a wireless keyboard.  Probably the worst keyboard ever designed by IBM for the home market.  Pressing each key was a chore on its own.
It was for the budget PC Jr. home system.  I did find a picture on here somewhere.  The legends were on the bezel rather than on the keys.  All around, to sum it up, a horrible keyboard.


Thank you!  This is more of what I was expecting to learn.  Interesting that it was wireless.
I mean, what do you actually want to know? You asked "what was the Keyboard that came with the IBM PCjr?" The answer is... the PCjr Keyboard. It wasn't used elsewhere, its was rubber dome, it was ****ty.
Info like it was rubber dome and it wasn't used elsewhere as well as what Snowdog posted.  Your two posts gave me 10x more info than 10 minutes of google and deskthority searches.  :thumb:

Title: Re: What was the keyboard on an IBM PCjr?
Post by: nubbinator on Mon, 12 October 2015, 13:19:33
These were some of the first results for "IBM pc Jr keyboard" and the same search with geekhack at the end:
http://m.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/22/ibm_pcjr_stripped_bare_still_mediocre_after_all_these_years/

http://www.digibarn.com/collections/devices/pcjr-chicklet-keyboard/

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=64107.0

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=11646.0

http://deskthority.net/keyboards-f2/ibm-pcjr-enhanced-keyboard-clicky-t6543.html
Title: Re: What was the keyboard on an IBM PCjr?
Post by: Dernubenfrieken on Mon, 12 October 2015, 13:29:45
Info like it was rubber dome and it wasn't used elsewhere as well as what Snowdog posted.  Your two posts gave me 10x more info than 10 minutes of google and deskthority searches.  :thumb:
[/quote]

I literally got all my info from the wikipedia and deskthority article on the PCJr
Title: Re: What was the keyboard on an IBM PCjr?
Post by: BrewCaps on Mon, 12 October 2015, 13:30:41
At Reddit too!

https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/2606tf/i_see_your_ducky_mini_and_raise_to_you_my_1983/?
Title: Re: What was the keyboard on an IBM PCjr?
Post by: SamirD on Mon, 12 October 2015, 15:45:46
These were some of the first results for "IBM pc Jr keyboard" and the same search with geekhack at the end:
http://m.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/22/ibm_pcjr_stripped_bare_still_mediocre_after_all_these_years/

http://www.digibarn.com/collections/devices/pcjr-chicklet-keyboard/

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=64107.0

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=11646.0

http://deskthority.net/keyboards-f2/ibm-pcjr-enhanced-keyboard-clicky-t6543.html
Don't know what the hell happened then.  I didn't run into anything half this interesting.  Maybe it was because of the no space between 'pc' and 'jr'.

Lots of good reading!  Thank you for the links.

Title: Re: What was the keyboard on an IBM PCjr?
Post by: tararais on Mon, 12 October 2015, 17:58:49
The PC Jr. keyboard was a keyboard that had rectangular keys!  It was also a wireless keyboard.  Probably the worst keyboard ever designed by IBM for the home market.  Pressing each key was a chore on its own.
It was for the budget PC Jr. home system.  I did find a picture on here somewhere.  The legends were on the bezel rather than on the keys.  All around, to sum it up, a horrible keyboard.
 
 
Kill it please. My fingers shudder after just looking at that abomination.
Title: Re: What was the keyboard on an IBM PCjr?
Post by: blueangel2323 on Sat, 17 October 2015, 00:22:30
Not having experienced it first-hand (and therefore not having any ill feelings against it), I think the colour scheme looks very stylish. Not sure about the rectangular keys though.
Title: Re: What was the keyboard on an IBM PCjr?
Post by: SamirD on Sat, 17 October 2015, 11:46:18
Kill it please. My fingers shudder after just looking at that abomination.
It was dead almost the day it was born a couple of decades ago.  It's already extinct.
Not having experienced it first-hand (and therefore not having any ill feelings against it), I think the colour scheme looks very stylish. Not sure about the rectangular keys though.
Those rectangular keys remind me literally of switches--and I don't think pressing a bunch of buttons would have been my idea of an ideal typing experience.

Title: Re: What was the keyboard on an IBM PCjr?
Post by: Snowdog993 on Sat, 17 October 2015, 12:09:47
The only keyboard I can think of that was worse than the PC Jr. Keyboard was the one on the Atari 400.
If you had to use and program on the Atari 400, I feel for you.
Title: Re: What was the keyboard on an IBM PCjr?
Post by: atectatifern on Sat, 17 October 2015, 12:12:10
The only keyboard I can think of that was worse than the PC Jr. Keyboard was the one on the Atari 400.
If you had to use and program on the Atari 400, I feel for you.
The aftermarket keyboards were nice, though.