Acorn Electron review (Futaba low-profile)

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Skip to 7:02 for a typing demonstration.

A review of my Acorn Electron keyboard. A 60% keyboard/computer from the early 80s! I experimented with "chapter" titles this time, let me know if you find them useful or distracting :) .

The practice sentence was; "Hello my name is Thomas and I'm typing on an Acorn Electron right now. This keyboard is pretty funky but it's too heavy for me and the switches don't feel all that smooth. Squeaky squeaky too!"

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At my job, when we do server upgrades we bring back all the old tech from the small businesses for recycling. One of them we brought back was a Seijin SKM-1040 with Futuba clicky switches. Never even heard of them before. When I researched it, it said it was a left handed board with the numpad on the left. But the one we had has a pretty normal generic design. I'm getting with my boss to see if I can snag it and take it home

donellismusic

5:58 "Isn't that the fuckest thing you've ever heard?" - Chyrosran22

kenclive

I've still got an Acorn Electron, complete in box, with additional Acornsoft games, which I originally got from a charity shop back in 1996 for around a tenner. It was a fun little machine to program in BBC BASIC with, especially late at night on my Dansai colour portable TV, just before watching 'The Night Stalker' on terrestrial.

outtheredude

Acorn was a prevalent brand when I was very young in NZ, my mum gave the family one away after we got our first pc compatible. I didn't know it was gone until it was too late and I'm still sore about it.

I did the coding for my Computer Science degree dissertation on an Electron (class of 88). The tokenised keys, with practice, really speeded up the code entry. While nowhere as fast as the BBC B et al, it was a competent implementation of BBC BASIC, with graphic compatibility (just missing the Teletext 'Mode 7' mode, that was no use for actual graphical work.) Mine still works, although the 7 key is probably on its way out (a squirt of WD40 contact clear resurrects it, but it's not a long term solution) FWIW, the duty cycle on those low profile switches was only around 3 million keystrokes, so, yes, they were shitty even when new.

rog

I'm so jealous of the UK, you got cool ARM systems like this. So much cooler than a raspberry pi!

fenixlolnope

This thing is the reason I am in IT. My dad had one (it is still in the cupboard as far as I know) and it was a brilliant little computer. Very good fun programming basic on it. The words on the side of the keys are basic keywords, so you could enter a keyword with a single keypress.

Yes the squeaking is as it is intended to be ;-). They did that fresh out of the box.

theo-drdz

Can someone make a compilation of Thomas' hilarious insults/descriptions?

facultyofmusic

This was the first full-travel (kind of) keyboard I used apart from manual typewriters. Its predecessors for me were the ZX81 and Jupiter Ace. I liked it, and I like the efficiency of the design. ISTR it's got the lowest number of keys - fifty-six - of any typewriter-style micro keyboard at the time, although the Dragon 32/64 might've been lower. The crucial thing to remember is its competition. IIRC this and the Dragon 32 were the cheapest computers to have "proper" keyboards out of the box, and after the price cut this became the very cheapest.

nineteenthly

Those keycaps look lovely, really like the font. Are they cherry MX compatible?
I also like how the coding shortcuts correspond to the respective initial letter, as in "goto" is in G, "For" in F, "draw" in D and so on. Something similar to this would make for a great coding board.

cidjonas

I wonder if these feel like the keyboard on the Commodore 64? I love the C64 but it has a really lousy keyboard. The switches are linear but also very stiff and somehow very, VERY mushy feeling. Honestly I VASTLY prefer any random rubber dome board to them. Still adore the machine tho and it's cheap crappy keyboard is a little bit of the charm to me.

softwave

Those keys though...

shame they sit on such lame switches.

dhoffnun

O man, DUDE, amazing!!!! So 1980's lolol!!! Its like the keyboard in Alien that the crew use's to talk to mother lolol. Great work buddy!

IIIJFRIII

I have an Acorn Electron without the "Break key Cap", Will any other serve as a replacement? Mine does not squeak.

stuartthegrant

Please do a review of the Acorn Archimedes 3000 computer/keyboard - I'm really interested in your opinion as it's one of the (i guess) very few buckling spring keyboards not made by IBM with some good/negative aspects. Sadly I don't own such a machine - if I did i'd make sure to loan it to you (alternatively give me a ring if you're ever in Berlin, Germany).

Shockwav

You have to hold Shift fot the caps lock key to work as caps lock. I wish modern keyboards worked that that then it would not always randomly trgger everytime I type.

TheEPROM