Which Apple Keyboard Is This?

[Mac128]

Wiki shows this as an Apple IIGS Keyboard.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Apple_IIgs_Keyboard_A.jpg

Well, the bottom one certainly is, but not the top. However, it looks kinda like the IIGS frame, but it has the old style Mac Plus/IIe keys and the IIe/III+ & Lisa solid black open-Apple key. Otherwise I would have said it was a third party make. Since all of the rest of the Apple series had built-in keyboards, except for the IIGS, what the hell is it? Is it a prototype? The sort of creamy off-white colour makes it appear like an extended keyboard for a IIc?

 

[QuadSix50]

Seems like it might be a third-party keyboard to me, not unlike what we've seen for Macs for many years now.

 

[macdownunder]

Interesting. I think I recall seeing an article about the prototype IIgs keyboards somewhere - this may well be one of them.

The test and closed apple keys are reminiscent of the Apple //e and //c models and the white-ish case would seem consistent with the development of the //gs during the white //c days. The series of lines between the kayboard and number pad is obviously very similar to the production //gs keyboard.

Having key labelled 'reset' on the top of the keyboard certainly makes it an Apple // keyboard (Mac's used the newer triangle symbol as a power key on the Mac series as most will know).

It would be interesting to know if this unit had ADB ports on it.

Regards,

Macdownunder

 

[Quadraman]

The one in the foreground is a IIGS keyboard. Don't know what the one in back is. Probably an aftermarket keyboard like a MacAlly or something.

 

[Mac128]

I wasn't aware that Apple licensed its TM Apple logo to third parties. None of my MacAlly keyboards ever had an Apple. If it is an after-market keyboard they copied the IIGS design almost exactly, which I doubt Apple would have licensed.

 

[luddite]

The test and closed apple keys are reminiscent of the Apple //e and //c models and the white-ish case would seem consistent with the development of the //gs during the white //c days.

A couple of oddities: The closed apple key on the *left* of the spacebar is a bit strange... it should be an open apple if it were to match the IIgs keyboard. I can't imagine Apple getting that wrong. Also, I think the "Backspace" is inconsistent with Apple II keyboards... I'm pretty sure all the post-II+ keyboards have a "delete" key.

 

[Mac128]

A couple of oddities: The closed apple key on the *left* of the spacebar is a bit strange... it should be an open apple if it were to match the IIgs keyboard. I can't imagine Apple getting that wrong. Also, I think the "Backspace" is inconsistent with Apple II keyboards... I'm pretty sure all the post-II+ keyboards have a "delete" key.

Actually it's Apple's own inconstancies. Apple used a closed-Apple only on the Lisa keyboards (which I attribute to the evolution to a single Apple key leading to the final ADB inclusion). But you are correct that none of the Apple series computers have a "backspace" key. However, the Lisa had the backspace "arrow" only and the Lisa 2 keyboard had just the word Backspace. Not sure if there were differences with the XL as it is difficult to know which is which. http://www.kbdbabel.org/lisa/index.html

http://pix.blakespot.com/view/computers/misc/apple_keyboard/IMG_2524.JPG.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

My thought here is that the keyboard was designed following the introduction of the IIc in late 84 as that design has been around since before then. The designer wanted a keyboard like this:

http://www.applefritter.com/node/294 but Apple nixed the idea as consumers would reject it as looking too fragile. In the case of the IIGS keyboard they compromised on the thin boarder around it, then fattened it up even more for the SE/II. Many people argued for years that the Mac Plus keyboard was the best Apple ever made for typing. This then is a perfect hybrid of a full-sized "business" keyboard integrating the more substantial Lisa 2 keycaps and Snow-White styling to offer a more "substantial" extended external keyboard for the IIc. In which case it would not have an ADB port, but rather a IIc connector and would have had to go in through the mouse/game input port. That seems like a stretch, so I opt for the "more substantial" optional ADB IIGS keyboard or prototype. Only a product brochure would determine for sure if it was ever in production. If it was a third party offering it was definitely unauthorized given its similarities to Apple's own product, certainly not an unlikely possibility.

 

[Scott Baret]

This looks like a prototype to me, probably from 1983-1984. If you have AppleDesign, look at the frames from right before the IIc, it looks like something that could have fit in there.

It appears to have been made for the IIGS, but could it have actually been for the Apple IIx (not Mac IIx), which was supposed to be a missing link between Apple II and Mac? Perhaps it was an odd combo of the IIe and Plus keyboards?

 

[kozlowc]

What 'Test' key are you talking about? The key at the top reads 'RESET'.

This looks like a (rather shoddy) aftermarket ADB keyboard to me. The 'Closed Apple' logo is curious, but the key layout is far from anything Apple has produced. The 'ribbed' area separating the keyboard and keypad is the only nod to the actual GS keyboard. Hardly lawsuit material, particularly in Italy, where the IIgs keyboard shown below it was sold (note the QZERTY layout).

 

[Mike Richardson]

What 'Test' key are you talking about? The key at the top reads 'RESET'.
This looks like a (rather shoddy) aftermarket ADB keyboard to me. The 'Closed Apple' logo is curious, but the key layout is far from anything Apple has produced. The 'ribbed' area separating the keyboard and keypad is the only nod to the actual GS keyboard. Hardly lawsuit material, particularly in Italy, where the IIgs keyboard shown below it was sold (note the QZERTY layout).

The small Apple emblem could be grounds for a suit. No third party Apple compatible or Apple targeted keyboards that I've seem use the Apple logo anywhere. The command key is designated only by the flower-type character, or sometimes it says "Command", but never an Apple.

 

[kozlowc]

You're used to the US way of doing things, which indeed in today's global economy is becoming the way of the world, but in 1985 in Italy, I doubt you'd get very far suing some Taiwanese keyboard manufacturer who happened to distribute that keyboard. Apple wasn't the same litigious entity back then, either.

And who knows, maybe they did get sued. My point is, that's not an Apple OEM keyboard, prototype or otherwise.

 

[kozlowc]

P.S. The IIgs is not a 6502 )