IIgs Keyboard

[bunnspecial]

For a while, I've wondered if there's anything specific that differentiates an early ADB KB as a IIgs keyboard.

My IIgs came to me without a board at all, but several months later bought a bunch of ADB peripherals. Included in the bunch were a couple of keyboards with "concave" key caps. They look and feel a lot like the keys on a IIc.

I have one of these boards on my IIgs now. On the bottom, it's marked only "Apple Computer Inc" without giving a model name. The one thing which DOES throw me off on it is that it has a power button(in a similar style to the Apple Keyboard II). Even so, all of the IIgs I can find pictured online seem to have the same keyboard.

Does this sound like a IIgs keyboard? I can provide photos if it would help explain what I'm describing.

 

[Johnnya101]

Sounds like one to me. The power button is actually used to reset the IIGS. With the right combination of keys of course.

 

[Carboy7]

Flat IIc-like keys? You talking about this keyboard?

It came stock with the IIgs, and was model A9M0330.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Yep, that's the one and it's my very favorite compact format ADB KBD. Using it the other day in the 1400 stack reduction project and the left shift key started sticking in Universal Caps Lock mode. I hate Caps Lock enough as is, but a sticking shift key is REALLY annoying. Switched over to an AppleDesign for the time being. Service time coming up.

 

[NJRoadfan]

The IIgs keyboard also doesn't support turning on machines using the reset key (what the "power" button was labelled on earlier Apple IIs). That came with the later keyboards. Also, the top of the keyboard is the same width as the Apple IIgs, a nice touch that makes them a matched set.

 

[bunnspecial]

Thanks guys. The one pictured is indeed the one I have.

 

[bibilit]

Yes Apple IIgs keyboard for sure, those are smaller in size compared with the Macintosh ones.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

That was the best part of the IIgs I liberated from the trash heap of the apartment building next door to the shop about 15 years ago. Lost the rest down the storage room whirlpool 12 years ago along with the Laser 128 and too many Macs to think about. Never did get into the Apple II scene other than to hook the Laser up to the 6360's inputs to play a couple of games using the TV window on the 21" monitor as its display.

Probably a good thing that awesome KBD is all that remains, Apple II would be just another of my $$$/time sink addictions. :-/

 

[Elfen]

Some later versions of the LC and LC II came with that keyboard. Oddly, the students in school would swap keyboards because to them it felt better than the other LC keyboard that was out.

 

[Bunsen]

Not the ones with the scalloped keycaps they didn't.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

My shift key seems to be working again! [] ]'> Other than the DATADESK MAC-101, I think this little IIgs beauty might be my fave.

 

[Carboy7]

Yay!

Some later versions of the LC and LC II came with that keyboard.

Wait a second... Are you sure that it wasn't the M0487 model? They look similar to an extent.

 

[Gorgonops]

They almost certainly must have been M0487s; all documentation says the one with the "IIc-style" keys was sold *only* with the IIgs. The major difference other than key styling is the later keyboard uses rubber-dome+membrane key mechanisms vs. discrete switches on the IIgs keyboard.

It's certainly not impossible in a school environment that keyboards might have been traded between IIgs and cheap Macs, but the Macs wouldn't have come with them.

 

[Elfen]

Gorgonops is correct. A lot of times to make a shipment, for schools systems are slapped to make a complete machine set up, and keyboards and mice did not matter as long as they worked. A school ordering 500 machines will have a few odd ball systems. Some of the stranger ones I seen are the wrong machines inside the box - like an LC II inside an LC box. All the serial numbers stickers and labels match and and even say it is an LC II on them but the box would say LC.

 

[joethezombie]

But the real question is why is that keyboard firmly planted in the grass?

 

[EagleTG]

The picture is from Herb's RetroTechnology.com site.  He seems to take pictures of most of the stuff on his site with it sitting in the grass.  

 

[Scott Baret]

Gorgonops is correct. A lot of times to make a shipment, for schools systems are slapped to make a complete machine set up, and keyboards and mice did not matter as long as they worked. A school ordering 500 machines will have a few odd ball systems. Some of the stranger ones I seen are the wrong machines inside the box - like an LC II inside an LC box. All the serial numbers stickers and labels match and and even say it is an LC II on them but the box would say LC.

This likely explains why I have a Classic from a school that came with a IIGS keyboard. (Of course, it could be someone just swapped the keyboards of the Classic and a IIGS since this school had a bunch of IIGSs and only one Classic, which was from a grant program).

Anyhow, I'm bumping this thread to ask if anyone knows the material the keys are made of on these keyboards and why the spacebars are the only keys that yellow. I'm cleaning one of these as I type this and am curious.