Keyboards in movies/TV series!

[Muirium]

(I sent some Amiga sightings to that site years ago, emailed from my Amiga 500, with attached screenshots directly scanned from DVD using my Amiga 500.)

That setup better still be alive and well or we're revoking your username.

[mr_a500]

Of course. This is it here:


I used it to post here a few times. It was actually easier than posting with this damn iPad I just got. Touchscreen keyboards SUCK.

[Hypersphere]

Couldn't agree more about trying to type on an iPad. I bought one some time ago with high hopes of using it for all sorts of computing, but I soon gave it away. I am very much a desk-oriented computer user, and I need a real mechanical keyboard.

[Muirium]

The irony being that (even as DT's #1 poster… to my surprise more than delight) I post about a third of mine from my iPad. Software keyboards aren't great, but cellular access and convenience balance that out quite nicely for me. Pulling out a laptop takes more space and intent, and all too often my brief checks of the forum spy turn into a string of longish posts anyway!

I'd always rather type at a real keyboard. But touchscreens are fast enough to keep up with my thoughts, often enough. It's a bit like driving at night, where you can only see what your lights can reach in the immediate distance. So long as you're concentrating on what's right ahead, the dark isn't so great a hassle. Yet it might put you off starting on a long haul, when you consider it, looking at the sunset!

[Hypersphere]

The irony being that (even as DT's #1 poster… to my surprise more than delight) I post about a third of mine from my iPad. Software keyboards aren't great, but cellular access and convenience balance that out quite nicely for me. Pulling out a laptop takes more space and intent, and all too often my brief checks of the forum spy turn into a string of longish posts anyway!

I'd always rather type at a real keyboard. But touchscreens are fast enough to keep up with my thoughts, often enough. It's a bit like driving at night, where you can only see what your lights can reach in the immediate distance. So long as you're concentrating on what's right ahead, the dark isn't so great a hassle. Yet it might put you off starting on a long haul, when you consider it, looking at the sunset!

I am totally disillusioned. It is like finding out there is no Santa Claus, or being told that Superman is not real. The number one poster on what is arguably the leading international mechanical keyboard forum must surely use a real mechanical keyboard for all his posts! Posting on an iPad! Shame on you! Perhaps we should deduct that one-third of your posts from your total!

[seebart]

Shame on you! Perhaps we should deduct that one-third of your posts from your total!

YES that´s it, only really TYPED posts (and ONLY on an mechanical keyboard) count.

(even as DT's #1 poster… to my surprise more than delight)

forget that title MU, you ruined it yourself! Hypersphere is right. Touch screens can only be a auxiliary measure at best.

And I do use swype on android and hate it while dreaming of my XT when swyping away.

[Kurk]

The lack of a system-wide software keyboard in Dvorak layout prevents me from posting more from my iPad. Hoping for iOS8 to change that. Anyway, Dvorak or not, touch keyboards and mech keyboards are of course totally different things.

[mr_a500]

Unknown, looks like it has beam springs, in Blade Runner (thread).

I think I found the Blade Runner keyboard! I've only found one small picture, so I'm not 100% sure, but look at this 1974 ad:

GTE-IS.jpg

Notice the two-tone case, layout and label on the front.
(there's an IBM beam spring behind it for some reason)

[mr_a500]

Here's an earlier 1973 ad:
(this one has some different coloured keycaps, but layout is the same)

GTE IS 7800.jpg

Comparison:

[Madhias]

Seen right now, the terminal keyboard of a supercomputer in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier". Which model acted here?

[mr_a500]

That "Captain America" keyboard looks like it's DEC VT100 layout - including LEDs - but the LEDs are green and raised, which indicates post-1984 (LED indicators were mostly red before that time, green after). Other companies besides DEC also used that VT100 layout for a while, including SUN and SGI. (but obviously it's not a DEC, SUN or SGI)

If it is a real keyboard, I'd check companies making industrial keyboards in the mid-late 80's for DEC compatible applications.

[mr_a500]

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?




There's also an ADM-42, DEC VT100 and mockup portable in the movie. This is the only other keyboard I can't figure out:

Brainstorm keyboard 3.jpg

[nourathar]

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?

I think that is one of the earlier Burroughs terminals. There's plenty of Burroughs terminals in that film; the seventies building in which a lot of the action takes place was actually the main Burroughs building at the time...

And isn't the mockup portable in the movie an Osborne ?

[mr_a500]

No, the terminal is not Burroughs. I remember checking those out. As I recall, I found a similar Perkin Elmer terminal, but then found the actual terminal and it wasn't either of those. The one I found had the exact case and keyboard layout, but in beige instead of black. I think it was in an early BYTE Magazine. (great... now I won't be able to rest until I go through all the BYTEs again..)

The mockup portable is definitely not an Osbourne. It has a colour screen (widescreen!) and a black keyboard.

[mr_a500]

I think that is one of the earlier Burroughs terminals. There's plenty of Burroughs terminals in that film; the seventies building in which a lot of the action takes place was actually the main Burroughs building at the time...

Yes, that was the Burroughs Wellcome building at the time, but that was a pharmaceutical company (which later became GlaxoSmithKline), not related to the Burroughs Corporation computer company.

I don't remember seeing any Burroughs terminals in Brainstorm. Can you find a screenshot of them? All I remember is the ADM-42, DEC VT100 and those other two I can't identify.

[Grond]

Red typewriters in "A Clockwork Orange" (1971).

[acolombo]

Red typewriters in "A Clockwork Orange" (1971).

Damn, I love the Olivetti Valentine and I really have to get one soon before the prices get higher!

[Grond]

In Italy it's easy to find one, but not for cheap!

[Muirium]

Don't let him in!

I did find an Olivetti Valentina in a museum and tried (probably a crappy job of) matching it to the SP ABS colour ring I had at the time. Better dig out the pictures.

[Grond]

I wish there was a keyboard that stylysh, these days. I don't believe there is.

[ray4jc]

Saw a model F xt on Sabrina the teenage witch.

[scottc]

Saw a model F xt on Sabrina the teenage witch.

I'm going to have to go ahead and demand PICS!

[mr_a500]

Model F keyboards are everywhere in 80's movies and TV. I could post hundreds of screenshots.

Here are some scenes from "Sledge Hammer!" with a Model F in the foreground:

(That show also has Amiga 1000, Hazeltine 1500, EPSON, and various other keyboards.)

[ماء]

Jonathan Blow in indie game

[ماء]

not movie/tv series but really nice video
http://homeposition.net/~m%28as%29m/blo ... oku-6.html

[Grond]

Loads of Macs in David Fincher's "The Game" (1997). Sadly, no keyboard closeups.

[Grond]

"Alien 3" (1992).

[mr_a500]

That Alien 3 keyboard looks like crap compared to the one in the original Alien.




This is how I like to type on my keyboard, hanging from the ceiling:

Mission Impossible.jpg

It's a little hard on the neck though.

Since Mission Impossible is 1996, I assume that's a rubber dome. At least they had the sense to use a trackball.

[Grond]

More from "Alien 3":

[Grond]

"Three Days of the Condor" (1975)