8BitDo's $100 wireless mechanical keyboard is a tribute to Commodore 64 | Hacker News Reader

8BitDo's $100 wireless mechanical keyboard is a tribute to Commodore 64

arstechnica.com

63 pointsrbanffy13 comments

We need more keyboards like these. I keep saying Raspberry Pi should honor the BBC Micro and make a keyboard with a beige bottom, black top and red function keys, with "" instead of "F".

I'd love one of these with a VIC-20 theme, with Microgramma font instead of the C64 one.

Can't speak for this keyboard, but the build quality for 8BitDo's controllers are excellent. Better than the office XBox controllers imo, and a bit cheaper too.

They really are great. I have one snes-themed and one GameCube-themed modern dual stick controller from them. I think they got hit by Nintendo lawyers because they don’t sell them anymore and these became pricy on the second hand market.

Their arcade/fighting game stick has a similar retro style to the nes keyboard, and like the keyboard supports usb, wireless using a usb dongle that stows in the bottom, and Bluetooth. You can get it to work with anything. It even has Xbox and Nintendo modes that physically show the correct button names using backlit leds.

This hits all the right notes for me. I recently bought a full set of SA Retro keycaps for my WASD CODE v2 (in blues), on my Mac. While pricey, I love them. I get warm fuzzies every time I sit down at it. I use this board on my Mac, and out of a dozen mech's I've tried, I just don't think it gets any better than a WASD.

The article also mentions new buckling spring boards. I have a Mini M from Unicomp on my work computer. The action doesn't seem as crisp as I remember on actual Model M's from back in the 80's, but given that it's supposed to be the same internals, made on literally the same dies, I have to chalk it up to memory. I like it too.

For "just" $110, I will probably buy one of these. I don't have a Kailh-based board, though I've like the feel of that brand of switches in various testers I have.

I've got this keyboard but the Fami Edition (tribute to the Famicom), and am pleasantly surprised at the quality and general feel of the keyboard for a "gimmick" keyboard. I bought it mostly to use on Raspberry Pi projects etc, but have ended up using it as my main daily keyboard on my desktop.

I have the fami one too and was also surprised that it’s become my favorite. I like that it has usb support and comes with a usb wireless adapter in addition to Bluetooth, so it’s easy to use with something like a raspberry pi with no setup.

It has a nice macro system too. I was able to swap alt and win key positions to match the Mac layout. It’s done in the firmware so the layout is persistent between machines.

I'd buy one if they had a 104 key version.

Windows and Android only? Does this imply I can’t keymap this to use on a Mac, and does Android =? Linux?

It's my belief this applies only to the custom software. I saw reviews online of people using the Famicon version on OSX, using OSX's native keymapping to switch cmd&option around.

I pre-ordered a C64 version, hopefully my suspicion is correct because I plan on taking this to work for use on a Mac.

Works great on Mac and it has firmware-based key mapping/macros which worked great for me to physically swap some keys and remap them to get the correct Mac key placement. This is persistent across machines. The software to do this is windows only, so you’ll need access to a windows pc or virtual machine once. There are physical buttons for remapping but I think they only work for remapping the 2 big external buttons.

Love it. Looked them up, Hong Kong got it going on. They "Get it".

Just one layout? Lame.

Agreed. How hard can it be to offer a handful of additional layouts? 8BitDo could surely afford it.

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