Keyboards in movies/TV series!

Daniel Beardsmore · 06 Oct 2014, 00:24

Doesn't quite count, but the Docklands Light Railway had some nice terminal keyboards:

(Jump to around one minute in for a close-up.)

mr_a500 · 06 Oct 2014, 09:26

Grond wrote: "Three Days of the Condor" (1975)

That's a DECwriter and Hazeltine 1000.

I've got to get one of these phones:

I can see I've been doing it wrong with all my rotary phones. Panels of blinky lights are the way to go.

mr_a500 · 06 Oct 2014, 09:30

Daniel Beardsmore wrote: Doesn't quite count, but the Docklands Light Railway had some nice terminal keyboards

That keyboard at 1:00 sure has a lot of keys.

Compgeke · 07 Oct 2014, 18:55

Documentary on Lilly Ledbetter looks to have a Model M.

Julle · 12 Oct 2014, 12:26

I saw this thing on How it's made (at around the 2 min 14 s mark). http://youtu.be/W57NvkEDPZE?t=2m14s
What is this? Something tells me Marquardt but the keycaps do not.

: screenshot.20.jpg (171.11 KiB) Viewed 19551 times

Findecanor · 12 Oct 2014, 14:53

That's looks like the STR keyboard (STR = Standard Telephon and Radio AG). I've only seen a grainy picture of it in a research paper before.

mr_a500 · 25 Oct 2014, 18:16

Somebody finally uploaded the Hawaii Five O (1974-75) episode, Computer Killer. It's one of the earliest TV examples of computer hacking - and it's pretty realistic too.

There's the ADDS Envoy

ADDS Envoy.png

a Lockheed System III

Lockheed 3.png

an IBM 1052 console for System/360

IBM teletype.png

and whatever the hell this is

Unknown terminal.png

There are also a couple Model 33 Teletypes and various big computer tape drives.

Madhias · 31 Oct 2014, 20:16

OK, i've not seen it on TV nor in a movie, but in a news article over heise.de with a linked image from Wikipedia of the Schriever Air Force Base. I don't think there's a thread like 'Keyboards in articles'?

Senior Airman Nayibe Ramos runs through a checklist during Global Positioning System satellite operations in 2004.

Grond · 31 Oct 2014, 21:07

From "Nirvana" (1994), a rare example of cyberpunk in italian film. There's probably more in the movie, I should watch it again, possibly in HD.

webwit · 31 Oct 2014, 21:40

Madhias · 31 Oct 2014, 22:18

At 0:19 a keyboard is thrown into a window - would be more effective with a Beam Spring or some Model F metal keyboard!

webwit · 31 Oct 2014, 22:41

There are other videos of this as well, lots of keyboard throwing. All weak thin rubber dome or scissor switch keyboards. With a beam spring you can start a violent revolution!

Muirium · 31 Oct 2014, 22:47

Or a hernia!

I can lift my beamspring easily enough, but hurling it would be a challenge even if I wanted to.

Muirium · 08 Nov 2014, 14:47

Okay, not the ideal place to post this. But a friend's working on a game, and asked me what keyboard to put inside it. Early progress yet, but here's his latest screenshot:

: Screenshot 2014-11-08 13.24.50.png (937.45 KiB) Viewed 19378 times

"Debug fingers, debug hand mechanics, debug keyboard." I'll correct him about the colouring…

Hypersphere · 08 Nov 2014, 15:34

He should depict a white HHKB Pro 2, of course.

Muirium · 08 Nov 2014, 15:43

He's going for retro. In fact, if I knew how far back beforehand, I would have suggested a beamspring. The 1979 date in that system's software might not be the game year, though.

Muirium · 13 Nov 2014, 13:44

With a few authentic SSK sounds now…

I believe he may be up to more than simply a classic text based adventure game running inside a 3D world, but it's always good to know they're there!

mr_a500 · 21 Nov 2014, 21:10

mr_a500 wrote: Damn it. I successfully identified the main keyboard in Brainstorm (1983), but I posted it on geekhack a few years ago and it seems to have been lost in the rootworm hacking. I've totally forgotten which terminal it was now (and didn't expect to lose it), so now I want to identify it again. Anybody have ideas?

These are the ones, the Vectrix VX series of graphics terminals:

vectrix.jpg

Vextrix VC384.jpg

They look similar, but beige. Keyboard layout is slightly different. The problem is that they were released in 1983 and Brainstorm was filmed in 1981 (released 1983). The Vectrix company didn't even exist in 1981 - incorporated 1982. Maybe some company made the terminal for them and they just made the graphics box. I'll probably never find out.

mr_a500 · 21 Nov 2014, 21:16

Here's a preview of TRON (1982) with extreme closeups of a keyboard with weird symbols on it:

(strangely lame music, not on other previews)

Photo of the TRON keyboard, blue keys:

Weird TRON symbols.JPG

mr_a500 · 24 Nov 2014, 02:59

mr_a500 wrote: There are some interesting keyboards in The Cassandra Crossing (1976).

And 4 of these unknown things:

(I'm positive I've seen this exact keyboard recently, but don't know where.)]

Ah ha! I think I found this terminal. It looks like a Sycor 250.

Sycor 250.jpg

(Computerworld, Aug. 1974)

webwit · 18 Dec 2014, 21:16

Murder Is Easy, 1982.

elecplus · 18 Dec 2014, 21:32

webwit wrote: Murder Is Easy, 1982.

I have these upstairs!

Nuum · 18 Dec 2014, 21:34

Really, wow! I would be interested in a keyboard from these.

Muirium · 18 Dec 2014, 21:35

The Round 5 mother keyboard?

http://deskthority.net/photos-f62/a-hon ... t6296.html

Hall effect, smooth linears. *NOT clicky* and we like them anyway!

I just watched the video. She totally did it! Nice to see this guy's a pro: he has a macro for her name. One single key entered BRIDGET. And good to see the computer get as much screen time.

But what ever is up with the sound? It looks like a terrible dub. But the original was in English! I could tell that the moment I saw Jonathan Pryce.

webwit · 18 Dec 2014, 21:45

This is where I found it. Double cross-reference!
https://plus.google.com/communities/109 ... 2088b50560

mr_a500 · 18 Dec 2014, 22:00

Ha! I watched that movie a few months ago - specifically to see old computers. Actually, the movie is so bad I didn't really watch the whole thing, but I skimmed through it.

Bill Bixby types on quite a few interesting old 70's keyboards (ADDS, UNIVAC, etc.) in The Incredible Hulk series - and Lou Ferrigno smashes a few. (At least he didn't cause as much damage as that damn bank manager, shredding the Kishsavers.)

mr_a500 · 22 Dec 2014, 22:56

Somehow I ended up watching this pile of crap:

...but in the first 15 minutes (about all I watched) you can see a room full of Honeywell terminals. The main blonde girl is "Dori Doreau" from Sledge Hammer.

HG1.jpg

Unfortunately, they don't show keyboard closeups - besides this keypad panel that isn't part of the terminal:

HG2.jpg

This movie is so bad, they should have had one of these signs flashing in the background (from Airplane II)

bullshit.jpg

Ozric · 30 Jan 2015, 20:30

Red Dwarf S05E01 - Holoship

This supposedly hypermodern 25th century holographic ship features some really nice Amiga keyboards and CRT monitors.

Muirium · 31 Jan 2015, 00:38

To be fair, Amigas and green text on black screens is pretty hypermodern as far as the Red Dwarf universe goes. They often used to punch commands into vertical keyboards attached the walls, as I remember. Which was all odd, given Holly the AI and all that. Seemed a comic cross of 2001 and Alien as far as the tech aesthetic went, only more screwed up than either!

mr_a500 · 12 Feb 2015, 23:21

I found the 1979 episode where the Incredible Hulk smashes a keyboard - with keycaps flying off! - but my damn Macbook Pro has no optical drive to get screenshots (!). Even though I have something like 10 DVD drives, my "universal drive adapter" is so stupidly designed that the rounded corner blocks the power outlet preventing you from plugging it in!

I took a few photos, but there's too much contrast to get a stable shot from my CRT.