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Comment by hn8305823 | Hacker News Reader

I always liked the original Atari 800 case design. I felt it was intentionally designed to not look like a boring computer, but something else.

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I think the Atari 800 looks a bit like an IBM Selectric II typewriter, made to be more sleek, like a spaceship.

https://www.vintage-calculators.nl/P1010274s.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atari-800-Computer-FL.jpg

Now that you mention it, it does look like a typewriter! Typewriters had a lid in the same spot so you could access the mechanics if something got stuck. And in the space where the type levers (or type ball) would be in a typewriter, the Atari 800 had its cartridge and expansion slots...

Then there was the Atari 400 with that awful membrane keyboard :(

I would say it was the worst membrane keyboard of all time but the Sinclair ZX was definitely worse.

It was awful, but it was still better than the 2016 Macbook keyboard.

I would disagree. With an Atari 400, you knew you could upgrade to a real keyboard by buying an 800. But with modern mac laptops, your only option for a real keyboard is an external one, but you have to also carry a usb-c to usb-a adapter around to connect it. And it's hard to use as a laptop with an external keyboard hanging off it.

I still prefer the Atari 400 membrane keyboard to the chicklet keys on modern macs.

Just for the record, I agree with you. I'm not sure if I worded my response correctly.

I also think the keyboard on the Speak & Spell is better than the 2016 Macbook keyboard.

There's a nostalgia hit!

  SNS: SPELL MRGHHSHFG.

  Me: what?

  SNS: SPELL FHJFRJEBRBDN.

  Me: what ARE you saying!?

Bit of trivia: my uncle was the executive at TI that green-lit the Speak-N-Spell. I was a tad bit older than the target market, but got invited to be in one of the early focus groups they used to gage reaction to it. I thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread and saved my pennies to buy a speech synthesizer for my 99/4 after seeing it.

But yes, it had a worse keyboard than even the original 99/4.

You could upgrade the atari 400 to a 'real' keyboard, though not a great one. It would just replace the membrane keyboard.

And as much as I'm not a fan of the chicklet keyboards, they're 100x better than the atari 400 membrane keyboard. No. Contest.

Even as a 5-year-old when they let me use it in Kindergarten, I knew that keyboard was garbage :D

I heard somewhere it was designed to look like a typewriter so it wouldn't look too unfamiliar to buyers.

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