I haven’t decided if this SAM Coupé (ca1990) is a Gorgeous Old Board, or a Gratuitously Odd Board. Maybe it’s both.
Bet that palmrest gets hot
Bonus hand warmer ![]()
Going vertical was an interesting choice in the waning days of the integrated keyboard, but it really does look like what it is, a keyboard tossed on top of a computer. Looks like it was a membrane using Alps sliders (or at least Alps stabs, based on the space in the video I saw). Being an 8-bit British machine, of course there’s a niche enthusiast scene, and they’ve done mechanical replacements.
That is so awesome and funny to see someone had already done so.
I would wager that most of the more popular retro machines whose architecture supports it have at least one mechanical conversion project hiding on Github or (more likely) buried in their dedicated forums. The keycap customization options these days could really be a godsend for their aesthetics if they know about them.
I don’t have the patience to really continue hunting right now, but the SAM may have Cherry sliders, based on the seller noting they could reuse their keycaps. I definitely saw the tongue of an Alps spacebar slider insert peeking out on a repair video I fast forwarded through.
Here are a couple of 4K wallpapers I created by using an image upscaling tool on screenshots of chyrosran22’s videos.
EDIT: ah, I see posts limit image resolution. Here is a link.
^ Mycro-Tek MC-12000-5
^ Chyron 4044
If we’re talking purely looks, I think Key Tronic made some of the most beautiful keyboards ever in the late 70s and early-to-mid-80s. These three always put a starry look in my eye (unfortunately I have no closeups of the Sycor, it’s from an eBay listing):
Chyron 4044 (top-left)
Mycro-Tek MC-12000-5 (bottom-left)
Sycor 351 (right)
For me, the magic has something to do with the combination of those glossy, rounded deep-dish keycaps with the enormous bezels.
Honorable mention for the Dasher D1, which also came with glossy (well, semi-glossy) deep dish keycaps with very rounded corners.
The upscaling didn’t work quite as well here as with the other two, it created some thin black contours around the legends.
Interesting edu market 80s machine from New Zealand. The fiberglass shell looks a bit like a kayak or the cowl of a jetski. I like the keyboard colorway, and I see a hint of MSX foreshadowing in the nav cluster.
OOOH! It even came in Yellow!
Serious Sun Type 3 vibes there with the symmetry and 1.5u fn keys. Almost a contender for Bringing balance to the board.
I was looking for a electronics store in my area (Southern California) and almost accidentally came across this place that has a ton of old equipment (including a lot of keyboards and consoles). Unfortunately everything listed is just for rent (looks like they probably rent them as props for movies and TV) but it’s dang cool to look at:
Here’s a couple on there:
I love the little keycap privacy walls on this.
Oh gosh, don’t show the Micon one to the 40s Discord. Somebody will break in at midnight to steal it! ![]()
I was scrolling back through the old thread, when I noticed something. What’s up with the alps switches that seem to be embedded in the monitor stand?
One more that is SO close to being symmetrical. Then some artsy person decided to unbalance the right side ![]()
looks like an acrylic switch tester to me, standing up between the keyboard and the monitor stand
best arrow keys ive seen in a while
And it has a LAE ! Always fun seeing those.











