Finally cleaned the corner of my desk, which has the vintage computer corner of the desk, which consists of a Power Mac G4 Mirror Drive Door from 2022, a Macintosh 8100/100AV, to run older Mac OS games that won't run on Mac OS 9 or run too fast, and a custom Wintel (eww) Pentium III games to run older PC games.
The 8100 restoration is in it's early stages. I have a Wombat ADB to USB adapter to allow the use of a USB KVM switch, which allow me to switch between these three vintage computers seamlessly and switch the source on the monitor. The 8100 now sports an external BlueSCSI to boot from flash media with an AAUI Ethernet adapter to get new software over the network. There is no need to burn discs or use floppy disks to get software on there.
I'm not complete with the 8100 yet, Need to repair some stuff, upgrade it to a Newer Tech G3 Accelerator, and probably max out the RAM.
The custom Pentium III machine is not plugged in yet, need a DVI to HDMI adapter or DVI to Displayport adapter, but it will happen in the future.
I'm using a Sabrent USB peripheral sharing switch to share the keyboard and mouse between all three computers.
@chikorita157 That’s the keyboard I want converted to mechanical. That exactly layout, those keys, that thing.
Because I don’t like the swampy feeling of that keyboard:( But I love the rest.
If someone made replacement keys I’d love to have it as RGB as well:) But I like the design, how it’s not flat, and that whole thing. USB-C instead would be a boost as well.
@yon@chikorita157 The closest that you can do with a similar layout, especially if you're comfortable with opening up and tinkering with keyboards; you can get the Apple Extended Keyboard II (M3501); they clean up and can be restored rather nicely, and are nice boards to use 👀
@yon@tobleh Older Apple keyboards have mechanical switches, until the 1990s, starting with the entry level Apple Keyboard II, which uses rubber dome, until everything went to rubber dome.
@chikorita157@tobleh I’m too lazy to go downstairs, but my Apple IIgs ADB keyboards I’m fairly sure doesn’t have mechanical keys. I’ll look at them tomorrow.
Only one I ever had until recently was an old IBM one which sadly I don’t have anymore. What a tank of a keyboard :)
@yon@chikorita157 If you mean https://www.flickr.com/photos/number5/6688287471/ keyboard with the really slim bezels often referred to as the "Apple IIgs keyboard", they are "mechanical" keyboards - either using SMK or Alps switches (which one depends on if the keyboard was made in Taiwan for SMK, or Japan for Alps). Both can be great from what I've heard, especially if they're taken care of or if you clean them up and restore them.
The Apple Keyboard II looks somewhat similar, but with slightly thicker bezels.
If your ADB keyboards are full size - Apple Extended Keyboards 1 and 2 are mechanical, Apple Design Keyboards are rubber dome.
@yon@tobleh No problem. I have the same exact keyboard (the top one). It’s nothing special, but I bought it in 2016 since the keyboards that came with the Performa was long gone.
The ADB Wombat didn’t came until a few years later, which is what I decided to go with, so I can switch between computers using the same keyboard and mouse.
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