
Mega65 Keyboard prototypes have been manufactured - erickhill
https://c65gs.blogspot.com/2018/09/keyboard-prototypes-have-been.html
======
purplezooey
A fake floppy drive. That's sort of like cars with an "air scoop" on the hood
that goes nowhere...heh

~~~
alkalanj
The official project page states that it will house an actual floppy drive,
not a fake one. [http://mega65.org/](http://mega65.org/)

------
squarefoot
They should consider a different place for the floppy drive or it would create
serious ergonomic issues when operating the arrow keys. Moving it up so that
it could interfere with less used keys (help, inst/del, restore) might be a
solution. Or just copy the Amigas and point it sideways.

~~~
TheCycoONE
For better or worse, that wouldn't be faithful to the original C65.
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/C6...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/C65alleine_%28no_bg%29_%28balance%29.jpg/1280px-C65alleine_%28no_bg%29_%28balance%29.jpg)

~~~
Ws32ok
I understand the dream of having a retro thing. And I’m hoping the goal stays
the way they like it.

The floppy drive irks me though. I’d still re-box that sucker or put sd card
slots or USB inside it. Maybe if I can just get the motherboard and keyboard
with the blinkenlights.

------
SwellJoe
MEGA65 is one of the coolest retro projects I know of right now, and it's
really exciting to see this huge leap toward becoming reality (where "reality"
means a chunk of hardware I can put my hands on...it's had seemingly
functional source code for years).

~~~
walkingolof
Agreed, the Spectrum Next is another of those really cool projects and it’s
even further ahead (entering mass production)

[https://www.specnext.com](https://www.specnext.com)

------
pinebox
Obsessive about the spacebar size, but not about the keycap profile?

~~~
rbanffy
This looks a lot like the actual C65 keys. The cylindrical tops were all the
rage in the late 80's.

------
nerdponx
So the keycaps are 3D printed too? Or are they something like dye-sublimated
PBT? Are they intending to use "mechanical" (e.g. Cherry MX compatible) key
switches, or something truly retro but unpleasant like foam-and-foil?

~~~
mewse-hn
They say the keycaps are from GMK who have cherry profile molds

~~~
nerdponx
I missed that. If this was a one-off GMK set, it was _very_ expensive. They
could run those keycaps alone as a group buy and do pretty well.

------
golem14
What about the rest of the mega65? I see that designs can be changed but is
there a board to be had that works out of the box?

Love to see this. I have a mist fpga emu for the c64 St Amiga etc, but this
looks pretty nice too!

------
fermienrico
Can you fix the kerning on the key fonts? The kerning and overall font choice
is poor mainly because of the space constraint. Try Univers Next Condensed
with 16 degree italics like the old Mac keyboard! If you want something normal
then you can try Swiss721 or DIN in their condensed formats. Geometric sans
(with Futura-like "O") such as the one chosen __does not__ work for keycaps.

Looks like the kerning is manually adjusted by someone who just wanted to cram
the letters in the keycap space. For example, "CAPS LOCK" \- P and S are
merged whereas on the "TAB" key, T, A and B are nicely spaced.

This would drive me nuts and would never able to "unsee" the kerning issues.

~~~
busterarm
The whole point is to faithfully reproduce the C65 prototype. They're
extremely unlikely to change the font.

That said, the lines all look a bit thicker/darker than the original to me.
That may be responsible for the kerning issue you see.

~~~
Tcepsa
In the article they mention that "The discerning viewer might notice that the
MEGA logo is bleeding together a bit in the little vertical gap. We will tweak
this. Also, the printing on the fronts of the keys is currently black instead
of grey, and there is a little over-bleed on the graphical symbols. We will
also get this fixed."

I'm not sure whether this will completely resolve the issue, but it seems
likely to at least help. [EDIT: Just noticed that it specifically says "on the
graphical symbols" so I'm not sure they'll be adjusting the lettering]

~~~
mega65
Yes, the text on top will also benefit from correcting the over-bleed, that
currently makes everything look a bit jammed together.

------
hguhghuff
Why don’t these retro remake computers use actual 8 bit CPUs?

8bit CPUs are still available aren’t they?

I don’t get it. If it doesn’t have an 8bit cpu then how is it anything else
but a modern machine?

~~~
rbanffy
I think it is - it's a 6502-ish CPU implemented, along with the rest of the
logic, on an FPGA. It's just that it can run 40x faster than the actual CPUs.

~~~
mega65
Confirming the MEGA65's CPU is indeed 8-bit. We have gone to considerable
effort to avoid having ANY non-8-bit CPU.

------
whydead2
I still prefer inexpensive sponge based keyboards.

Everything else just hurts my wrists. Too much tactile feedback.

~~~
metafex
I recently built a keyboard with Gateron Clear switches (they have 35cn
activation force) for someone who has problems with their wrists too. It made
all the difference in her case. There are (AFAIK) a few manufacturers that
offer full keyboards with those switches.

