Great video. There's a history here that I wish would be preserved regarding the genesis of their last keyboard models. When the Omikey Plus came out two columnists in the industry at the time (myself and Jerry Pournelle of Byte) couldn't understand why Northgate would tease people with function keys across both the top and the side. They had these ads all over about how they put the function keys "back where they belong" (on the left) and the Plus took the time, oddly, to put a panel across the top showing where the keys would have been had they put them across the top. That made NO sense to us. So we called up Northgate and talked to their owner, a great guy named Art Lazere. Art put us in touch with another wonderful guy, his lead engineer, Brad Knilans. Brad listened to our pitch and they came back with a keyboard that had the keys both across the top and the side, but they goofed. They forced you to neuter one of those sets of keys. So when we complained Brad got really into perfecting this for the gamers out there at the time and Jerry and I both asked for specific designs which became the Ultra and Ultra-T series. There's also an EXTREMELY rare number of Ultra-T's out there with the 101 enter key design. I know because that's the design I used for well over a decade on my T. Jerry and I were both heartbroken when our last Omikeys gave out and it was a good 5 years before we found anything even close to those once Logitech and Corsair started realizing the benefits of real key feedback.
I got a Northgate Omnikey 101 just a few weeks ago, and it has replaced the IBM Model M that I usually use for now. Such a fun keyboard to use - both of them.
Great to see you Tom! Ah, Northgate, decades ago before I knew keyboard collecting was a think, someone pointed me to some Northgates on ebay, saying I'd probably like them. They were right. On day I came home and my crazy (ex) girlfriend told me she'd done me a favor by 'throwing some of that crap you keep away'. No violence ensued but the relationship was doomed. Over the last few years I've obtained a number of Northgate boards of various types. They are just terrific.
@@Chyrosran22 I clearly recall that one of them had the blue and white badge. I think I have repressed the memory of the other. I choose to believe that ..... it. wasn't. gold. No, definitely .not. gold. I've gotten two gold badge boards with blue alps in the last few years. So good, so very good. :-) Even the white alps ones are yummy.
I got an Avant Stellar Keyboard which was a reproduction in dedication to the Omnikeys NIB with white alps. That loud clickiness is just great for essay typing
but..but...but...You missed the most important and most civilized feature of the keyboard. There's a pen tray. Built right in. On the keyboard. Look! It's right there on top! A place to put your pens. There's no fumbling about while looking for a pen to make some notes or flesh out an idea or jot something down on a completely unrelated subject. A pen tray on a keyboard is like a breast pocket on a shirt. The pocket on a shirt doesn't make the shirt a shirt, it makes a shirt more useful, which makes going through one's day easier.
Chyrosran22 posting a new video Pros: getting to know vintage boards Cons: getting to know vintage boards often get more expensive after a favorable review Misc.: I grew up with metric unit
What interesting timing, I just finished cleaning the keycaps and chassis of my OmniKey Ultra yesterday and I'm headed to a keyboard meetup with it today!
One strong measure of a good keyboard is how the space-bar sounds-a lot of vintage keyboards have terrible, rattly space-bars that don’t sound anything like the rest of the keys. The space on this sounds *delectable* and right in line with the other keys (just a little deeper thanks to the additional resonating space). Lovely!
9 times out of 10 rattly spacebars on old boards are just cause lubricant that was on the stabilizers originally has gone bad with use. Unless it's Cherry stabs, those just rattle like hell
Long time watcher, first time responder. I’ve been using a Model M for many years, and decided to take the plunge and buy one from Northgate Bob a few days ago. I wasn’t sure how to best get started, as I typically don’t trust Ebay. I can’t wait to get the board and replace my everyday board. Much as I like the M, I’m ready to switch. Again, thanks for the great video, keep up the good work.
Buying Alps has been a shot in the dark for me a lot of the time. Sometimes I'm amazed with how smooth and well kept the switches are, even in boards that look fairly dirty from the photo. Then I'll get one and it feels rough but looks fine. I think a lot of times, the seller cleans it really well (and you never know what condition the board was in before being cleaned, where it's been, how it's been stored etc.)
Just got my Northgate OmniKey Model 102 out of storage. I have the original box, the extra keycaps, keycap puller, all the documentation, a PS/2 to AT cable, the styrofoam, everything! It's very dirty, though. So I completely stripped it down and cleaned the key caps and, the top plate, bottom plate, and soon the steel plate. The keys look nearly brand new--just a few show jus the tiniest bit of yellowing--but the rest are fine. The top plate is fine. I can't believe it. I don't think I'm going to go crazy with the switches, as they still seem to function just as I remember. The stabs could probably use a little lube, though. The white ALPS switches feel to be about 55g - 65g of force. It'll be great to have this cleaned up, put back together, and typing once again.
I have a version of this keyboard that was rebranded for a company called Majiq Software or something like that and it has skbm white alps and one single skcl green in the up arrow. I believe the story was the person I got them from used them in a papermill and so they're dirt and switches feel bad. I've also tried looking the keyboard up but haven't seen any of them documented before so I could have a unicorn in my possession.
Very nice, I love seeing Alps on this channel- it's been quite a while! White's have always been great, shame they have to follow up from blue's though. The keyboard itself seems very cool too.
Came across one of these the other day in a surplus used elctronics shop, would have grabbed it if 8 of the keycaps weren't missing with broken switch sliders, White Alps are easy enough to come by but there were asking like $50 for it. There was also a Black Space Invader board that was in complete disrepair that I was sad to pass on. What I did get though, is a FLS3 equipped "Logitec" branded board fairly similar to your Sanyo(that video was a good watch as I disassembled it when I got home), a Unitek K-155 with Marquardt Series 6180(disappointed as I was expecting MX Blacks) and an NTC KB-5260 with the linear "Monogram" SMK derived switches but fully with white sliders(non-alternate action) that I haven't seen before. I wasn't able to find if you had gone over any Marquardt switches before, any info on them
I got one of these for free from one of my friends who worked at a law office. The lawyer had used it for decades, and it was nasty. I cleaned it up and got it looking alright. If it wasn't so heavily used I probably would have kept it.
I dont know what does the least damage to the marketplace, when thomas says a keyboard is common and cheap or when thomas says a keyboard is expensive and rare
Those do sound great, and those OmniKeys with F-keys on both the left and the top (for a total of 24 on the Ultra-T, or in Imperial units, 1/3 pound Angus beef) look like a macro lover's dream. I generally get by with the regular 12 F-keys modified using PowerToys, there's a sense in which you can never have too many macro keys. Oh and it's red, white and blue. Blue, red and white is some other, inferior country. Maybe Belgium?
What keyboard is it? There are some that are knockoff Alps, and there's this pretty rare variant that's a spring over membrane deal. Those are very easy to identify though, because the switches are moulded into the chassis. Apparently they're horrible too lol
@@Chyrosran22 Oh no, I worked for a little PC building shop that sold clones (standard keyboard was like a $10 cost Chicony) but we had the Omni in stock because people who needed adjustability for key layouts they came for it. The shop when I started were selling 286/20's and Cyrix, Intel or AMD 386's depending on cost of the CPU. Local Bus video was brand new, IBM 486SLC/2-66 was speed champ until the Pentium Pro 200 showed up. The glory days! :-)
Alps are a very special breed of clickies. I swear if Alps had weathered the storm and stayed in the keyswitch game the way Cherry did, even with new simplified switches they'd have single-handedly made clickies way more popular than they are. But Cherry Blacks really owned the industrial control and point-of-sale space that kept mechanicals alive in the dark times.
On that note, has anyone ever tried to put blue Alps into a ZKB-2? How is it sound and feelwise? It's hard for me to decide which one of those I like more...
I have a white Alps keyboard, and it's awful. Didn't realize they had problems with being dirty, I got it a rummage sale for a dollar. I tried cleaning it, I don't know how it's supposed to feel, but it feels weird now instead of grindy.
That's what I was worried about. Back then you could've gotten this for $1 if you knew the right people. Now they're starting to find out old keyboards have a demand, and are charging what they see on eBay.
@@vine00 yep. I payed 100 for an aek with orange alps and they're great but not worth the money. Won't be spending that much on a keyboard ever again. No keyboard should ever cost that much. I don't care how pretty the keycaps are, or how good the switches are, it's all still plastic.
@@cortinoias I would only pay 100 if it was NIB. Orange Alps are great, but not worth 100. I got an M0116 with Orange Alps in decent shape for $25 and an AEK II with Salmons in amazing shape for $50. Granted, this was 3 years ago, but it shows that keyboard prices are a ripoff now. Most I paid was $90 for a Zenith with Green Alps in good shape, and that was almost pushing it in terms of how much I'm willing to spend on a keyboard.
@@vine00 Funniest thing is, right now I'm using a packard bell 5131c with btc dome with slider that I got new old stock for 10 dollars. I'm enjoying this board a lot more than that AEK I have to fix twice a day.
HELP PLEASE ! I am looking for a keyboard I used to have which had a solid "clickey" touch to the keys. ? My NMB from 20 years ago worked like this: In slow motion, when you press a key, it would go about half way down easily... then you felt fairly strong resistance, THEN.... with a little more finger pressure, the key would break through that resistance, and make a loud CLICK as it finished the stroke. This IS... the kind of clickey keyboard I am looking for. Can you help me find one? Thank You ! ! !
Man I wish the focus keyboard I have weren't some weird late-model all-in-one 386. Full plastic plate and SKBM whites. I put a raspberry pi in it thinking it might be kinda nice and... nah. The steel case for the actual computer bit faked me out. Can't win 'em all.
This is a relatively random question, but what laptop do you think has the best keyboard? To be honest, I'm not so sure if my ThinkPad should be a candidate for that. New ThinkPad keyboards are kinda sucky compared to older laptops and ThinkPads.
I had to pause this video to see if I could find an Omnikey 101 on Ebay and I did find one and only one. The catch is it's in a bundle lot with other desirable keyboards with a starting bid of $1000 USD... yikes!
Fu.ck looking for this exact keyboard from years and there is non localy, even in my country it seems sadly... Want to add it to the small collection of quality stuff like IBM Model M Gen 2 - perfect condition (did have before like 4 more Model Ms sold them all) Cherry G80-1000 (MX Black) - perfect condition Chicony KB-5191 (Cherry MX Blue) - perfect condition Epson Q203A (Fujitsu Peerles) - perfect condition Compaq KPQ-E99AC (Mitsumi) - perfect condition Some NOname XT KB-5150 with Cherry MX White - only leds light not working, good condition x2 Tai-Hao TH-5539 keyboard one with blue fake ALPS and one with white fake ALPS, the white one does not work, most of the time, the blue works.. will prob sell them both.. Did have before also Fujitsu ICL foam and foil solded it Some ALPS chinese fakes
if only there were more attempts at a modern alps like switch design. It wouldn't be all that difficult to make it in a similar shape to that of cherry switches for more compatibility seeing that its all in the leaf design. Just goes to show how lazy modern manufacturers are.
You can, literally, buy modern Alps and Alps keyboards. Matias is one of a bunch. They are simplified Alps, but still miles ahead of cherry. You can get brand new buckling spring keyboards including capacitive, new beam springs are produced next year, we have new optical and magnetic switches for the last few years, Topre is still a thing. We have the greatest variety and types of caps produced and the widest variety of form factors EVER. What on earth are you complaining about!?
@@lucidnonsense942 Matias tends to have leaf chattering problems. Not only that but they keep the original alps stem and housing design which is terrible for compatibility. Other than Matias there is no attempt at better switch design.
"You dont get this build quality nowadays" you don't but it's not needed. it's a keyboard. Why 1kg plate to press a button on top ? It lays flat on a desk
This keyboard was made in 1992 and it still works. You buy a Corsair or something and you'll be lucky if it lasts a year :p . My first Omnikey was treated very badly by its original owner, so bad that it actually warped the steel in all corners. Another keyboard would've been dashed to pieces, but the plate saved the Omnikey.
Good luck getting it, it's almost like trying to find the holy grail these days. Reaaaaally wish I just spurged years back and bought one that was in great shape for $100
Great video. There's a history here that I wish would be preserved regarding the genesis of their last keyboard models. When the Omikey Plus came out two columnists in the industry at the time (myself and Jerry Pournelle of Byte) couldn't understand why Northgate would tease people with function keys across both the top and the side. They had these ads all over about how they put the function keys "back where they belong" (on the left) and the Plus took the time, oddly, to put a panel across the top showing where the keys would have been had they put them across the top. That made NO sense to us. So we called up Northgate and talked to their owner, a great guy named Art Lazere. Art put us in touch with another wonderful guy, his lead engineer, Brad Knilans. Brad listened to our pitch and they came back with a keyboard that had the keys both across the top and the side, but they goofed. They forced you to neuter one of those sets of keys. So when we complained Brad got really into perfecting this for the gamers out there at the time and Jerry and I both asked for specific designs which became the Ultra and Ultra-T series. There's also an EXTREMELY rare number of Ultra-T's out there with the 101 enter key design. I know because that's the design I used for well over a decade on my T.
Jerry and I were both heartbroken when our last Omikeys gave out and it was a good 5 years before we found anything even close to those once Logitech and Corsair started realizing the benefits of real key feedback.
Can't wait for these to get more expensive.
and they arent expensive already only £275
:
They are already expensive
Doesn't mean they can't get more expensive lads, plenty of people willing to exploit the extra coverage this model has received.
@@joshbritton3268 of course, in this case because of keycaps, but at least it shouldn't be the same as gold badge ones I hope
It's been a while haha, I miss the weekly uploads. Thanks for still keeping up the channel and showing us the wonders of Western technology : )
Alps is (mainly) a Japanese corporation. But still, I partially see your point, like the chassis of that keyboard being built like a tank.
The gold badge I got has quickly become the pride and joy of my entire keyboard collection, vintage and modern boards included.
I got a Northgate Omnikey 101 just a few weeks ago, and it has replaced the IBM Model M that I usually use for now. Such a fun keyboard to use - both of them.
Wow. Who knew today was going to be good. Love to see another video!!
Great to see you Tom! Ah, Northgate, decades ago before I knew keyboard collecting was a think, someone pointed me to some Northgates on ebay, saying I'd probably like them. They were right. On day I came home and my crazy (ex) girlfriend told me she'd done me a favor by 'throwing some of that crap you keep away'. No violence ensued but the relationship was doomed.
Over the last few years I've obtained a number of Northgate boards of various types. They are just terrific.
Man, if someone started throwing out my shit I'd go ballistic xD .
@@Chyrosran22 See and that's why she has to know what's up before I let her near any of my boards, vintage or otherwise.
@@Chyrosran22 I clearly recall that one of them had the blue and white badge. I think I have repressed the memory of the other. I choose to believe that ..... it. wasn't. gold. No, definitely .not. gold.
I've gotten two gold badge boards with blue alps in the last few years.
So good, so very good. :-) Even the white alps ones are yummy.
gotta love some history before the review of the keyboard, it gives the keys and keyboards some backstory and builds expectation!
Just got this keyboard my self the other day it’s fantastic
aha, a person I know spotted in the wild
hey have you tried a speed test on them???
I got an Avant Stellar Keyboard which was a reproduction in dedication to the Omnikeys NIB with white alps. That loud clickiness is just great for essay typing
I brought some of these with me from the '90s (:
Used to see ads about this keyboard in 1990 in PC Magazine. Always wanted one.
but..but...but...You missed the most important and most civilized feature of the keyboard. There's a pen tray. Built right in. On the keyboard. Look! It's right there on top! A place to put your pens. There's no fumbling about while looking for a pen to make some notes or flesh out an idea or jot something down on a completely unrelated subject. A pen tray on a keyboard is like a breast pocket on a shirt. The pocket on a shirt doesn't make the shirt a shirt, it makes a shirt more useful, which makes going through one's day easier.
Chyrosran22 posting a new video
Pros: getting to know vintage boards
Cons: getting to know vintage boards often get more expensive after a favorable review
Misc.: I grew up with metric unit
and this is reason 1 million of why companies should revive alps and these amazing switches
Alps, the company, is still around. They make the pots for pretty much everyone's game controllers.
There's no saturday morning coffee better than the one accompanied by a proper Alps-related Thomas video.
What interesting timing, I just finished cleaning the keycaps and chassis of my OmniKey Ultra yesterday and I'm headed to a keyboard meetup with it today!
One strong measure of a good keyboard is how the space-bar sounds-a lot of vintage keyboards have terrible, rattly space-bars that don’t sound anything like the rest of the keys. The space on this sounds *delectable* and right in line with the other keys (just a little deeper thanks to the additional resonating space). Lovely!
9 times out of 10 rattly spacebars on old boards are just cause lubricant that was on the stabilizers originally has gone bad with use. Unless it's Cherry stabs, those just rattle like hell
Long time watcher, first time responder. I’ve been using a Model M for many years, and decided to take the plunge and buy one from Northgate Bob a few days ago. I wasn’t sure how to best get started, as I typically don’t trust Ebay.
I can’t wait to get the board and replace my everyday board. Much as I like the M, I’m ready to switch. Again, thanks for the great video, keep up the good work.
Buying Alps has been a shot in the dark for me a lot of the time. Sometimes I'm amazed with how smooth and well kept the switches are, even in boards that look fairly dirty from the photo. Then I'll get one and it feels rough but looks fine. I think a lot of times, the seller cleans it really well (and you never know what condition the board was in before being cleaned, where it's been, how it's been stored etc.)
This board sounds amazing! Great board!
Just got my Northgate OmniKey Model 102 out of storage. I have the original box, the extra keycaps, keycap puller, all the documentation, a PS/2 to AT cable, the styrofoam, everything! It's very dirty, though. So I completely stripped it down and cleaned the key caps and, the top plate, bottom plate, and soon the steel plate. The keys look nearly brand new--just a few show jus the tiniest bit of yellowing--but the rest are fine. The top plate is fine. I can't believe it. I don't think I'm going to go crazy with the switches, as they still seem to function just as I remember. The stabs could probably use a little lube, though. The white ALPS switches feel to be about 55g - 65g of force. It'll be great to have this cleaned up, put back together, and typing once again.
How fast is this keyboard?? If you can, can I have results of a speed test??
I have a version of this keyboard that was rebranded for a company called Majiq Software or something like that and it has skbm white alps and one single skcl green in the up arrow. I believe the story was the person I got them from used them in a papermill and so they're dirt and switches feel bad. I've also tried looking the keyboard up but haven't seen any of them documented before so I could have a unicorn in my possession.
My first computer was a 1990 Northgate Slimline sporting an 80386DX running at 20Mhz
Holy shit a review of a board I just got last month. What a coincidence!
Very nice, I love seeing Alps on this channel- it's been quite a while! White's have always been great, shame they have to follow up from blue's though. The keyboard itself seems very cool too.
Sadly, Bob Tibbetts (Northgate Keyboard Repair) passed away this February.
The title: omnikeys
My mind: omniman *start song hotmilk*
Leading Edge DC-2214 is also ANSI 101 complicated white ALPS.
4:05 had me waiting for you to drop it.... the suspense
Came across one of these the other day in a surplus used elctronics shop, would have grabbed it if 8 of the keycaps weren't missing with broken switch sliders, White Alps are easy enough to come by but there were asking like $50 for it. There was also a Black Space Invader board that was in complete disrepair that I was sad to pass on.
What I did get though, is a FLS3 equipped "Logitec" branded board fairly similar to your Sanyo(that video was a good watch as I disassembled it when I got home), a Unitek K-155 with Marquardt Series 6180(disappointed as I was expecting MX Blacks) and an NTC KB-5260 with the linear "Monogram" SMK derived switches but fully with white sliders(non-alternate action) that I haven't seen before.
I wasn't able to find if you had gone over any Marquardt switches before, any info on them
1:55 Sadly, Bob Tibbetts ("Northgate Bob") passed away in Feb 2022.
I got one of these for free from one of my friends who worked at a law office. The lawyer had used it for decades, and it was nasty. I cleaned it up and got it looking alright. If it wasn't so heavily used I probably would have kept it.
I dont know what does the least damage to the marketplace, when thomas says a keyboard is common and cheap or when thomas says a keyboard is expensive and rare
xD I think you overestimate my influence xD .
Just bid 100$ on one of these bad boys. It was clean as a whistle, still in box.
It’s untested, so fingers crossed.
And, how is the keyboard? Do you like it and was it in good condition?
FYI the “catty” is a commonly used Chinese fractional weight denomination.
I have an Ultra-T and a 101 in top nick, and they’re both delicious.
My Corsair keyboard is so soulless compared to this beauty and other vintage keyboards.
Give it 30 years ...
Those do sound great, and those OmniKeys with F-keys on both the left and the top (for a total of 24 on the Ultra-T, or in Imperial units, 1/3 pound Angus beef) look like a macro lover's dream. I generally get by with the regular 12 F-keys modified using PowerToys, there's a sense in which you can never have too many macro keys.
Oh and it's red, white and blue. Blue, red and white is some other, inferior country. Maybe Belgium?
5:38 holy shit.. I have some generic alps blue keyboard where every key but print screen works... I'm going to have to dig it out and test this..
What keyboard is it? There are some that are knockoff Alps, and there's this pretty rare variant that's a spring over membrane deal. Those are very easy to identify though, because the switches are moulded into the chassis. Apparently they're horrible too lol
I used to sell the 101 model in 1991, with generic clones. Swapping ctrl/caps was the big deal back then.
Interesting! Were you working for an electronics company?
@@Chyrosran22 Oh no, I worked for a little PC building shop that sold clones (standard keyboard was like a $10 cost Chicony) but we had the Omni in stock because people who needed adjustability for key layouts they came for it. The shop when I started were selling 286/20's and Cyrix, Intel or AMD 386's depending on cost of the CPU. Local Bus video was brand new, IBM 486SLC/2-66 was speed champ until the Pentium Pro 200 showed up. The glory days! :-)
Cheaper than the cost reduced Keytronc MB-101!
I so miss the proper 101 layout with actual gaps between the Ctrl and Alt keys...
You'll never take my NeXT ABD off my desk. Lubed Mitsumi Hybrids are better than getting that good top.
It sounds prettt bloody good and I’m not even into clickies
Alps are a very special breed of clickies.
I swear if Alps had weathered the storm and stayed in the keyswitch game the way Cherry did, even with new simplified switches they'd have single-handedly made clickies way more popular than they are.
But Cherry Blacks really owned the industrial control and point-of-sale space that kept mechanicals alive in the dark times.
No way! I just got one last week
On that note, has anyone ever tried to put blue Alps into a ZKB-2? How is it sound and feelwise? It's hard for me to decide which one of those I like more...
My dad had one of these! Shame it’s been binned years ago :(
I have penis envy, but for your voice. Seriously dude, you deserve more views!
Bought a very interesting keyboard today still trying to figure out what it is closest i can come to us a cherry ml.
Have you seen the beamspring reproduction project by the model f guy?
I have a white Alps keyboard, and it's awful. Didn't realize they had problems with being dirty, I got it a rummage sale for a dollar. I tried cleaning it, I don't know how it's supposed to feel, but it feels weird now instead of grindy.
I literally saw one of these at a local recycling center yesterday. Exact same model and switches. Felt amazing but they wanted 175$ for it. Yeah no.
That's what I was worried about. Back then you could've gotten this for $1 if you knew the right people. Now they're starting to find out old keyboards have a demand, and are charging what they see on eBay.
Also $175 for white alps???? Whaaaa
@@vine00 yep. I payed 100 for an aek with orange alps and they're great but not worth the money. Won't be spending that much on a keyboard ever again. No keyboard should ever cost that much. I don't care how pretty the keycaps are, or how good the switches are, it's all still plastic.
@@cortinoias I would only pay 100 if it was NIB. Orange Alps are great, but not worth 100. I got an M0116 with Orange Alps in decent shape for $25 and an AEK II with Salmons in amazing shape for $50. Granted, this was 3 years ago, but it shows that keyboard prices are a ripoff now.
Most I paid was $90 for a Zenith with Green Alps in good shape, and that was almost pushing it in terms of how much I'm willing to spend on a keyboard.
@@vine00 Funniest thing is, right now I'm using a packard bell 5131c with btc dome with slider that I got new old stock for 10 dollars. I'm enjoying this board a lot more than that AEK I have to fix twice a day.
I have one of those. No longer works though. Don't know why.
7:21, huh I always kinda wondered which one it was.
The Gordon Ramsay of keyboards
HELP PLEASE ! I am looking for a keyboard I used to have which had a solid "clickey" touch to the keys. ? My NMB from 20 years ago worked like this: In slow motion, when you press a key, it would go about half way down easily... then you felt fairly strong resistance, THEN.... with a little more finger pressure, the key would break through that resistance, and make a loud CLICK as it finished the stroke. This IS... the kind of clickey keyboard I am looking for. Can you help me find one? Thank You ! ! !
89 dollars in 1992? I wonder how much that costs in present-day US and UK Imperial units - ??? 1:30
Man I wish the focus keyboard I have weren't some weird late-model all-in-one 386.
Full plastic plate and SKBM whites.
I put a raspberry pi in it thinking it might be kinda nice and... nah.
The steel case for the actual computer bit faked me out. Can't win 'em all.
At least it was free, took it off my mechanic's hands 10 years after it was retired as his point-of-sale system lol
MAN where do you get all this :(
Yeah they’re like $60-80 Rn
This is a relatively random question, but what laptop do you think has the best keyboard? To be honest, I'm not so sure if my ThinkPad should be a candidate for that. New ThinkPad keyboards are kinda sucky compared to older laptops and ThinkPads.
nice
@chyrosran22 can you help us on top 20 keyboard is the best for gaming with your own suggestion?
Where can I get NOS SKCM Whites? My FK-2002 could use some.
I’m a simple man. I see a chyrosran22 video, I click.
Typed this one on me Ultra
I had to pause this video to see if I could find an Omnikey 101 on Ebay and I did find one and only one. The catch is it's in a bundle lot with other desirable keyboards with a starting bid of $1000 USD... yikes!
Keyboards have been downhill since this era. I love my unicomp
Does anyone knows how much does Bob Tibbetts charges for an OmniKey 101?
His website shows an inventory. You can contact him about pricing.
HRiHrO_San dou dou
Who was the 1 dislike?
Dang, even the Alps guys don't know how to type.
Fu.ck looking for this exact keyboard from years and there is non localy, even in my country it seems sadly...
Want to add it to the small collection of quality stuff like
IBM Model M Gen 2 - perfect condition (did have before like 4 more Model Ms sold them all)
Cherry G80-1000 (MX Black) - perfect condition
Chicony KB-5191 (Cherry MX Blue) - perfect condition
Epson Q203A (Fujitsu Peerles) - perfect condition
Compaq KPQ-E99AC (Mitsumi) - perfect condition
Some NOname XT KB-5150 with Cherry MX White - only leds light not working, good condition
x2 Tai-Hao TH-5539 keyboard one with blue fake ALPS and one with white fake ALPS, the white one does not work, most of the time, the blue works.. will prob sell them both..
Did have before also Fujitsu ICL foam and foil solded it
Some ALPS chinese fakes
if only there were more attempts at a modern alps like switch design. It wouldn't be all that difficult to make it in a similar shape to that of cherry switches for more compatibility seeing that its all in the leaf design. Just goes to show how lazy modern manufacturers are.
You can, literally, buy modern Alps and Alps keyboards. Matias is one of a bunch. They are simplified Alps, but still miles ahead of cherry. You can get brand new buckling spring keyboards including capacitive, new beam springs are produced next year, we have new optical and magnetic switches for the last few years, Topre is still a thing. We have the greatest variety and types of caps produced and the widest variety of form factors EVER.
What on earth are you complaining about!?
@@lucidnonsense942 Matias tends to have leaf chattering problems. Not only that but they keep the original alps stem and housing design which is terrible for compatibility. Other than Matias there is no attempt at better switch design.
400th like
Sounds like cherry mx plastic keyboard. not good !!!
"You dont get this build quality nowadays"
you don't but it's not needed. it's a keyboard. Why 1kg plate to press a button on top ? It lays flat on a desk
This keyboard was made in 1992 and it still works. You buy a Corsair or something and you'll be lucky if it lasts a year :p . My first Omnikey was treated very badly by its original owner, so bad that it actually warped the steel in all corners. Another keyboard would've been dashed to pieces, but the plate saved the Omnikey.
That thing sound horrrrrrrrrrrrrable.
hey chrosran, do you know what keyboard/switch makes that sound in your intro? haha, I might wanna get it
See 7:20
@@ollirkb6863 nice! Thanks!
Good luck getting it, it's almost like trying to find the holy grail these days. Reaaaaally wish I just spurged years back and bought one that was in great shape for $100
@@vine00 KB101A is so hard to find that you can even find more Lamborghini on the road
@@alpzepta Used to be somewhat easy to find back in 2015