F&*#ing chicklet keyboards (was Re: Retro Atari 400 looking Keyboard)

On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 3:11 PM, Eric Smith <eric at brouhaha.com> wrote: Some folks didn't even wait. Some paid over $100 for an external "full-sized" keyboard. I bought a blue-bezel chiclet PET with the internal cable from Skyles Electric Works for the external keyboard (probably long since separated). In 1978, I liked the PET chiclet keyboard because the keys were on a square grid and it made 2-player action games easy to implement (using the keys around the 'S' and the keys around the '5' as an "8 way pad"). This was when Atari joysticks were still somewhat expensive and before the diode trick for hanging two joysticks off the User Port emerged. Even after the "PET Paper" published joystick interface schematics and instructions, very little commercial game software supported joysticks on the PET. I didn't type very fast when I was a kid, so I didn't mind how unsuitable the keyboard was for "real" typists. Now, I'd find it incredibly awkward. Unlike the TI-99/4 and other machines inflicted with chiclets, I find it amusing that it's become a defining feature for "collectible PETs". Back in the day, there was a rush for the exits on the old model when you could buy a machine that could easily be expanded above 8K (without adding boards) and had a full-sized keyboard. Because of firmware differences, "New" PETs very quickly pushed the older models to the side in terms of what was supported and what you could get peripherals and software for. Now (largely because issues of practicality are irrelevant), the price of a 1977/1978 chiclet-keyboard PET is several times that of a 1978 Graphic or Business-keyboard PET. -ethan