8BitDo Mechanical Keyboard and Mouse Review
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- Опубликовано: 29 июн 2024
- Today join me as I do a highly requested review of the 8BitDo Retro N edition Keyboard, the super button accessory and optional N30 mouse, with all being inspired by the look of the classic Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
🟣 In this video, I talk about the specifications of the Keyboard, including the type of switches it uses (Kailh white) and then test it out with two classic video games; "Typing of the Dead" on Windows and "Track and Field" on a NES Emulator.
🔵 Don't forget to let me know in the comments, you're favorite keyboards and switches, and also any other equipment from my workshop you would like me to review.
DISCLAIMER
🟢 Please know that I am not an expert in keyboards. This video is purely my opinion based off of my own experiences using this keyboard. This video is not sponsored, the keyboard and mouse was purchased by me and this video is an honest opinion.
GEAR I USE IN/OR TO MAKE THE VIDEO
🟡 Links below ⬇️ to the 8BitDo retro style keyboard ⌨️ I use in this video (Amazon Affiliate Links)
Amazon US (United States of America) 🇺🇸 links below ⬇️
🟡 N Edition ..... amzn.to/4bwkMzH (US link)
🟡 Fami Edition ..... amzn.to/3WVXvTl (US link)
🟡 C64 Edition ..... amzn.to/3UZ9VqX (US link)
Amazon UK (United Kingdom) 🇬🇧 links below ⬇️
🟡 N Edition ..... amzn.to/4aIWzoY (UK link)
🟡 Fami Edition ..... amzn.to/3yA5fjV (UK link)
🟡 C64 Edition ..... amzn.to/3UQNqEK (UK link)
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CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
00:48 What's in the keyboard box
01:41 How it got it's retro look
02:11 Keyboard specifications
04:58 Testing keyboard, by playing "Typing of the Dead"
07:28 Summary of keyboard
07:40 Checking out the giant 2-button accessory
08:09 Where to find the keyboard software
08:35 Programming the 2-button accessory
09:33 Putting the big buttons to test, by playing NES "Track & Field"
10:26 Button accessory summary
10:58 Let's check out the matching wireless mouse
11:46 Summary of the mouse
12:11 Outro 
Развлечения
Hi Kari! Nice to see you review these! As the actual designer of the mouse you are 100% correct in all your points. It's definitely a bit of an ergonomic, ahem, nightmare? That's definitely a word I'd use! I would sincerely hope no one uses this for their daily runner, unless they have already deep callouses in their hands. The story behind the origin of the mouse is back when I was studying industrial design, and making a computer mouse was the first course in being allowed to use the workshop tools (milling machines, lathes, saws, etc), way before we did any ergonomics course. Would I design it the same way again today, almost 16 years later? Probably! Because making an ultra sleek ergonomic NES-inspired mouse would probably destroy the whole point of eliciting nostalgia, and hours spent with the little hard soap brick of the NES-gamepad digging into your hands as you were griding Excite Bike. Kudos to 8bitdo though, they held very true to my original design.
You invented the mouse?! OMG. Thank you! You are a genius!
@paper_gem the mouse was invented by Douglas Englebart (1925-2013) in the early 1960s, and patented in 1970.
@@paper_gem designed, definitely not invented. Talented engineers at 8bitdo made sure it was producible, made the circuit board, chose components, and took care of everything beyond deciding upon the design, which included beyond the shape things like fit and feel, materials, button placements, etc.
This is so cool. Thanks for sharing! I think the design is perfect.
Honestly this mouse is not as unergonomic as you would think. I have large hands and this mouse fits perfectly. At least you didn’t use a track ball. That would have been a nightmare.
"We came second, out of two, technically last".... Classic statement, love it!! You're so good at explaining things Kari. Another amazing video, well done .....🤩😁
Great review! Enjoying your channel so much. I watch with my 9 year old so he can see what I grew up with. Thanks for keeping older tech alive and giving some of us a good dose of nostalgia.
I was just thinking about “Typing of the Dead” (for Dreamcast) the other day….and now your video pops up! 🤯😁
Thank you Ms. Kari I found your videos about a month ago and subscribed right away, thanks for the throwback it brings me back to the school library in the late 70's and using a phone to hook into the modulator? I forgot what they called it 🙂. I have all of the original keyboards IBM C64 etc. those clicks all ❤ to my heart.
Hey Kari, your shirt is most excellent and as a kid from the 80's, your videos are always most outstanding, so Party On!
Very nice video and awesome explaining the details about this keyboard and the download software. I heard of some keyboards such as this but never really got in to them. I enjoy watching your videos keep them coming.
Great and very fun video, Kari! That typing game was really funny :) Really love the keyboard and the games you have chose. My go to keyboard is a modern Cherry Stream. Nice, sleak and quiet!
Pure stroke of inspiration using Typing of the Dead for a keyboard test 🤩
Hi Kari, I love your videos, they are so professional and your knowledge is inspiring. I think the big buttons would lend themselves to a quiz style game. Keep up the great work! I look forward to seeing what comes next!
love that you busted out Typing of the Dead with this thing! I have this keyboard as well, it's actually pretty nice! the macro mapping function for the big buttons is a lot of fun. for fun I wired it up to a powershell script that loaded an audio file so my pc had an "alarm button"
You are awesome and smart. Bring me back to the old days probably before you where born...lol... I absolutely love the fact that you love all this retro stuff.
I like seeing young people into retro tech. It’s a total Ready Player One moment. Best of luck on your channel.
Excellent review!
the most impressive device on this channel is the pink television in the background ;)
you keep knocking these out of the park.
NES Keyboard and Mouse extremely cute♪
Thank you so much for introducing me to this.
Great video, loved typing of the dead was a tad difficult for me and my handicap of dyslexia though I was a little freaked out of your hands not moving in the reflection of the Disney tv screen in the outro lol.
omg ... I see what you mean. 10 mins of footage, in 30 secs has this time stopping effect, very strange.
Satisfyingly clicky :) The Super Buttons are cool
Great review !!!🤩
Man I've been meaning to play it for typing practice but watching youtube is too addicting so I'll watch you play it.
Perfect timing! I am currently debating getting a mechanical keyboard and was wondering what the 8BitDo was like since I very much enjoy their controllers.
So thanks for the video and... be excellent to each other!
No problem ... and party on dudes!!! lol
Best t-shirt so far! "Excellent!"
you are the best love all your vids please keep on keeping on. .luv ya
I've been using this keyboard here in Brazil for some time and I really like it!
Very impressed to see typing of the dead show up! Keep up the fantastic work! 😄 edit: my go to keyboard... I fell down the rabbit hole and ended up getting a zoom65 v2.5 and tried hundreds of single switches, and I ended up using the husky linears. Can't recommend them enough, they are honestly underrated switches imo. Mainly for gaming, for typing on they take abit of getting used to since they are so light
Thank you for this video!
I like using old fashioned keyboards. Brings me back some memories as a kid using the Mac computers at school.
Never heard of Typing of the Dead. What a great way to learn how to type.
Cool vid, I would love to find out about your 3D printers/maker stuff and any examples of makes, especially if it's retro related!
Great review, and I love the typing game! For me those big buttons woulld likely be linked to the build and unit test shortcuts in Visual Studio - do I need them? No. Do I still want them: absolutely!
That's so retro pretty gadgets 💛. Thanks you so much for showing us. Greetings. :8)
I am 100% getting the C-64 version.
Those big buttons can be good as foot switches I think, if you need to mute your mic or whatever when you're playing games online.
Speaking as a musician who uses various footswitches, these have not been manufactured with foot use in mind.
These will break, immediately.
Yeaaaa DAW controls!😊
Nice showcase! I bought one of these along with a trackpad, then i modeled and 3d printed a tray for them. Now i have my own (much heavier.. but much cooler) Logitech k400 alternative :) . Plus, the software lets you set a profile to use mouse clicks. So i can hold it naturally and use the trackpad with my right thumb and use keys on the left side for clicking. I use ~ and 1 for left and right click. Also configured the B and A for "next" and "previous", which works in many audio and video programs. I don't use the big buttons but had thought of using one as a foot switch maybe..
Love the 8BitDo controllers (especially the Pro 2 and M30) and have been looking at their keyboards for a while but haven't bought one yet. If they do an Amiga themed one after the C64 style, I am quite likely to buy one. Great review Kari!
Thank you
I can think of one use for the large buttons: Put them on the floor so that you can tap them with your foot to activate various actions in games. People used to do that with a second joystick on the C64, where the spacebar was used in some games, and a joystick in port one would register as the spacebar when you pressed the fire button.
Favorite switches TTC Silent Frozen v2. Linear and dead silent. So satisfying. Mouse I go with huano brown with yellow dot for silent mouse clicks and a kailh red dust proof encoder for smooth and close to silent scrolling.
I was thinking about getting one of these, so thanks for the review. Save me searching for one! :)
FYI, 8Bitdo is meant to be pronounced like Nintendo. The company got their start making Nintendo clone controllers and modkits for NES and SNES controllers. Even today the majority of their controllers are Nintendo style ones for Switch / PC.
Thanks! I still LOVE my G19 that's about 14 years old..... The screen with cpu and gpu stats is still perfect and I haven't found an equivalent as yet,
love mine, its my first tripped down keyboard, and I ended up loving it, mouse, not so much, but they both go with my Pi5 NES cased PC so its real nice to have
Great video! And keyboard! I wish it was VIA compatible. The new "M" version looks amazing, I already preordered it hahah
Also: Having BT + Wired + 2.4GHz is awesome, specially if you have 2 PCs, a tablet or something like that :)
I've just come home from buying a computer keyboard and then I discovered your video, Kari! Cue the intro music to The Twilight Zone.
Oh, and I'd probably assign a keyboard shortcut to one of the buttons.
Alt+F4 😊
One as play/stop and one as record for DAW use?
"Alt+F4" is the only way I've found to exit out of "Typing of the Dead" lol ... so that would be useful
@@karilawler It does look like a panic button, Kari 🤭
You're a breakout star in my books
I've been thinking about getting that set myself for a while now just because of the NES.
I've bound the super buttons to be used as the paddles in pinball games for my son. He absolutely loves it!
That sounds like an awesome use of the buttons, thanks for sharing.
Oh That C64 KB looks good too and comes with a control stick
The 2.4 dongle works like a dream! Bios boot menus will pick it up
Great! Modern Pc to CRT monitor would be really interesting.
These keyboards were amazing! 🤩 highly ergonomic 😅 the original ones I mean!
Need a giant spoon for the Track & Field buttons🥄 😁
The Commodore looking one...those deep dish SA keys...I lurve it berry berry much
Hey Kari - as a reformed nail biter myself (mine were even shorter than yours), I now have perfect nails by using a method that I should really patent! The trick is to first pick the nail you bite the least, and absolutely leave that one alone 100%. Within a few weeks it will start to go back to normal (keep biting the other ones all you like). Then once that first nail has regrown, go onto the next 'least favourite', and leave that one alone 100% (while still biting the rest). Within about 4 months you will have broken the habit, and it's surprising how well they all come back to the right shape. Also, keep up the great videos - they remind me a bit of that 90's show 'Bad Influence'!
With all the comments about my nails, I'm thinking of putting up a "Days without biting 0" sign in my makerspace lol
@@karilawler We understand. I swear I quit for several months a couple years ago, then fell right back on to it. The trick I used was to always keep nail clippers on me, and allow myself to use them whenever, but no biting. I should get back on the wagon.
Looks like a really solid keyboard! If my 15 quid mechanical ever breaks I might go for an upgrade..
Thank you, Kari. I can finally purchase this keyboard for myself. 🙏😊❤️
I'm a spiritual person, & her soul is older than her body!
Her education exceeds her years.
I watch & listen & I'm bowled over by her wisdom at such a young age.
How about building a giant NES joypad at the right scaling for the big red action buttons?
I love the commodore version. Hope someday can afford it. I just wish that they can have better support for linux
I'm using a GMMK v2 96%. It's only slightly larger than a TKL.
You can't really go wrong with keychron boards. Great variety and quality.
I love tactile switches. (I want to feel it in my face while I type.)
Switches I'm using Boba U4 Silent Tactile switches. Very nice haptic feel, and quiet.
I have both. the NES one that you reviewed and the Famicom one 🤗
Kari Your Definitely A Star 🌟 ⌨️🖥️📺🎮👍®️
I'm hitting CTRL-C / CTRL-V all day long at work. It would be kind of cool to have that giant 2-button pad just for that function.
Then you only need printer and you are good to go. 😅
Mix it up with Shift-Insert and Shift-Del
At one point doing that, I really enjoyed using a two button foot pedal...
I have to admit, I still prefer to call them 8-bit-dough to rhyme with Ninten-dough as originally intended. But I understand why the company no longer acknowledges that to avoid potential liability. Either way, it is a great keyboard and an even better video about the keyboard! Typing Of The Dead really takes me back! I recently picked up a Sinden light gun in hopes of playing some of the original House Of The Dead games I loved as a kid!
"Also coming soon in the C64 Edition..." pauses video and orders the C64 one! :)
I jad a friend that could blast through typing of the dead. I just used it as a fun way to learn to type.
I have one and pre ordered the number pad to match :)
I have an 8BitDo arcade stick. I like it a lot. It works with my Switch, Xbox, and PC. It's wireless or wired via USB, and it comes in at a very modest price for an arcade stick. I'd recommend mmend it.
As a guitarist, the giant buttons are godsends I will use them as pedals to control my music softwares while playing. The stick in the C64 version looks interesting too.
It would be nice to see old joysticks and gamepads too!
Workshop tour 🎉
typing of the dead , nice nostalgia there
Love the keyboard! The mouse, not so much. Can only think of a quiz game for the big ol' buttons.
What attracted me to that keyboard was the colour scheme. However not used a proper keyboard in years. I always use my laptop keyboard.
Dutty boi
Nice keyboard 👍
I have no idea how someone your age seems to have the knowledge and interests of a 50 year-old computer nerd, but I'm here for it. You already know how to put together a professional-quality video too (which is more than can be said of most of those old nerds hehe). And the Bill & Ted shirt... where did you come from?! Or should I say "when?"
Would you believe, Bill & Ted was one of my favorite movies growing up ... little 11 year old me got hooked on finding out more about certain historical characters, and so became quite the expert on Genghis Khan, Napoleon and Joan of Arc lol
I would love to see a video on your 3D printers, I've been thinking of getting a P1S while they're on sale.
I am a professional software developer, my wife bought me this keyboard as a gift because of my love of classic video games and it has been my daily driver since. It's actually a quite good keyboard, the only issue I have with it is the missing num pad. As for the big buttons, I of course set them to crtl-c and ctrl-v
Love the idea for how you use the buttons
I don't know if you've seen, but 8bitdo just released an external numpad which looks perfectly at home next to the keyboard 🙂
@@SwitchAndLever I did not know that and now you are on my friends list!
So so cool.
Great review! I really like the look of the c64 version of the keyboard, but as a Swede, until there's a version with a Swedish layout it's not really an option for me, and if I were to really nitpick then I would prefer a keyboard with the numpad integrated instead of having it as a separately sold accessory.
My only thought when seeing the two button accessory was also Track & Field so I'm also rather curious about what others use it for.
Such a shame they don't do an ISO/UK layout, looks ace!
I love the look of that keyboard. My only apprehension is that I once had an 8bitdo Bluetooth gamepad and its battery was /always/ flat whenever I wanted to use it.
That was about a decade ago, to be fair. Hopefully they've upped their game.
Suppose it would depend on how much it's used, but in the couple of months I've had the keyboard, I've only charged it once. Hope that helps :)
@@karilawler, ah that’s not too bad. Good to know :)
I just bought the C64 edition of this keyboard.
I think the large 2-button attachment might be for video game speedruns as a foot pedal for marking when an achievement in the game is reached.
Hi. Loving the videos 😊
Could you extend the cable to the big buttons and use them with your feet?
Are there any games where that would even work? 🤔
This keyboard looks gorgeous! Had my eye on it's Nes Grey/Red/Black/Cream goodness since pre-release but for £90?😬 I just can't quite justify it...yet😮💨
I have the same keyboard it’s good matches well with 8bitdo arcade stick
I've had this one since it came out, and just got the C64 version as well. I've also got the new number pad C64 on pre-order. Great keyboards, though I expect some keyboard snobs would find some sort of fault with them somewhere 😶
Cool keyboard although I doubt I'd ever use those large buttons or mouse either.
I would use the two large buttons as foot pedal. In multiplayer game, it could be your push-to-talk button
As a software dev I'd use the huge buttons for build and run.
If only there was a UK ISO version, I'd be all over this. Sadly, the US layout messes with my muscle memory too much.
Very nice! The NES wasn’t as popular as SMS here so where is that because I want one !
Those buttons would probably be great for streaming. Nice easy target to hit for FX.
May also be great for footswitches. Speedrunners might get a kick out of them.
The big buttons might be good to map as "buzz-in" buttons in two player quiz games.
I've been tempted by these keyboards but the real turn off is the ANSI layout of the keys. I'm used to the vertical enter key of the ISO layout.
I have a few mechanical keyboards now but only the really cheap ones (30 bucks or so). Proper keyboard customizing is an expensive hobby but the market for 100$ prebuilds is getting pretty healthy for beginners to dip their toe into it.
Those two massive buttons, could perhaps be fun for use controlling the left/right flippers on pinball games.
Typing of the dead 😊 I think it's based on House of the Dead 2 which we played in the arcade around 1999 😊
Niiiiiice 🙂
lol i remember playing track and field type games on my ZX Spectrum , it was a button mashing affair , i could have done with one of those button gadgets.
those big buttons might be handy (pun) to put under the desk and use as foot-switches for those extra twitchy games where getting your finger off keys might cost you too many microseconds :p
Or for an old racing game with digital control for acceleration and brakes.. extra immersion in mariokart or wipeout :p
I think it's hilarious that 8BitDo shows the NES and Famicom versions of this keyboard with an IBM PC on their web site, not the IBM PC version... and it wouldn't even work with an IBM PC anyway! I might actually get one of these as my next keyboard; I'm currently using a Steelseries Apex with linear switches, but I've been a clicky guy all my life so this ticks a lot of boxes for me. Clicky *and* retro *and* smaller than a real vintage keyboard (of which I have several, but they're generally huge compared to modern "retro" stuff).
Hi Kari, obligatory compliments first this time. Another cool t-shirt and I tried to code your lovely hair style in COBOL, massive fail tbh.
Love the 8bit do stuff and keyboard looks lovely. I won't mention the presentation of the accessories but the mouse is cool, way better than a BBC micro one.
Also it's going to be Christmas before I get said keyboard as someone sent a link of a lovely desoldering station I've got to save for first.
Until next time ❤