At this point, making a decent keyboard for a computer should be more or less controlled, but manufacturers continue to make huge mistakes – ahem, Apple, ahem. In that first approach to computing, many manufacturers certainly wanted to propose keyboards that were too original. These peripherals, integral parts of our experience with PCs and laptops, gave the creators the chance to make these machines outrageous. Here are a few of the bad examples of how a keyboard could become your worst enemy in the 1980s. Or almost. Do you have a interest about wonderfully infamous keyboards then you are in right place.
Getting know : Wonderfully infamous keyboards
As horrifying as they are wonderful
We give little importance to the keyboard, but the truth is that feeling comfortable with a component that we use so many hours a day should make us pay more attention to them.
There indeed a whole underworld dedicated to keyboard lovers, especially when it comes to talking about mechanical keyboards. There are true wonders in this area that contrast with the terrible keyboards that decades ago accompanied our computers .
Here are some of the most infamous, which incidentally seen from a distance. They are part of those mythical machines, and as such, they also have their particular charm. It does not mean that we recommend anyone to use them for a long time, of course.
Sinclair ZX80 / ZX81 (1980)
At Sinclair, they revolutionized many things with their microcomputers, but they certainly did not provide one with the keyboards. Their original ZX80 / ZX81 already got off to a bad start with a keyboard that was directly integrated with the lower membrane and looked menacing with plenty of symbols on each key that did little to most mortals.
The tactile response was virtually nonexistent, and it was like pressing keys on a table. The only direction to realize if we clasping a key to see that something appeared on the screen.
Wonderfully infamous keyboards: Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1982)
That wonderful ZX Spectrum allowed millions of young users to enjoy a computer and all its possibilities and games for the first time. While this machine is legendary in its own right, its keyboard was undoubtedly a small nightmare.
Those little rubber keys made it almost impossible to keep long typing sessions on that keyboard. Keyboard accessibility also debatable: the cursors and many other classic keys on a conventional keyboard hidden in keyboard shortcuts hard to find and use quickly.
The space bar – which was not a bar. It was a somewhat larger key that was in the lower right corner . It was also from here, I’ll wait for you.
Wonderfully infamous keyboards: Sinclair ZX Spectrum + (1984)
In the mid-1980s, microcomputing was taking off. Amstrad launched its CPCs. The Commodore 64 became a huge success. It Sinclair tried to undo past mistakes with its previous computer, the Spectrum 48K.
Among them, that of its keyboard, which they revolutionized with a component that certainly looked promising. With the Sinclair ZX Spectrum +, they made an acceptable effort that not enough, however.
The keys were too close together, and it was difficult not to press more than one key at the same time, but also the thickness of that computer made them too high even using the small rear legs that allowed tilting: the ergonomics was conspicuous by its absence. For some reason, they kept showing shortcuts to programming functions in BASIC on those keyboards where programming was undoubtedly cumbersome. Finally you got to know about wonderfully infamous keyboards.
