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Comment by ihatepython | Hacker News Reader

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.

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