I have recently acquired a German Amiga 2000 Model A rev.4 with a black cherry keyboard. One thing that I have instantly realized is that the function keys are smaller than the other variants. Great video. Thank you.
What an awesome channel! Thank you :) I'm just getting back into the Amiga scene after digging my A500 out of the garage. Haven't actually switched it on yet - I'm giving it bit of restoration first, while I decide what to do about a monitor. (No retro-brighting for this one though - I'd rather have healthy plastic than perfect looks.) Anyway, I was happy to discover that my A500 has the "space invader" keyboard mentioned (06:46) in this video. And it has a Commodore key in place of a left-hand Amiga key! Yay. The key-caps were actually really easy to remove and clean without having to worry about the springs - the caps just unclip if you use a finger to gently lift / lever them from the left or right side (after removing the keyboard from the case, to get decent access to it). This leaves the springs safely enclosed, as it's only the _caps_ that're coming off, not the white cap-holders. I don't see why that'd be different on an A2000 keyboard of this type, unless the caps are actually glued or fused to the white mounts on those keyboards. (They might be, so do be careful :)
Welcome back to the scene, Timothy! Sounds like what you have is an A500 "chickenlips" model - a highly coveted A500 indeed. I made a video about those as well. Thanks for watching, and have fun! ua-cam.com/video/B9HZb6A7E0w/v-deo.html
Finally someone who thinks and notices the same little details that most people never observe. One thing though; why is no one ever kommenting on the differences of the enter keys. Most amiga 500s have the 'small, reversed f' shape (at least in europe) but others have the big one like yours in the video. Why this difference and does it effeck anything (the big enter key takes up the space for one regular key, isnt that key missing?)
I think the difference in the Enter/Return key sometimes depends on the countries in question. In other words, I think some European countries have a very different character keyset, which can impact the actual number of keys used, which then impacts the overall design/geometry of the caps. "On [the] A500, US keyboards have two fewer keys than their international counterparts...The enter key is shaped differently on US keyboards and occupies the space for a key on its left, and similarly the left shift key is wider and covers a key that would be on the right side in the international layout. Even the A1000 keyboards have this difference. "
Great video! I think I have a Hi-Tek and a Mitsumi variety. I will check later today. Back in the nineties the computer company I worked for would often sell gorgeous keyboards that cost us about $100 on new computers just because they were so much better than the $30 junk most were bundling.
Thanks, Doug. And I'll be very curious which ones you discover you've got. If you've got a Hi-Tek, it'll be pretty noticeable. I just love they way the sound and feel.
I checked my lot, A2500 A3000 and one of my A4000's = Mitsumi Rubber dome, Other A4000 late KB only says Amiga on the top Mitsumi with springs and of course my A1000 kb has the nicest feel to it.
My Amiga 2000 came with the first keyboard. It also has a revision 4.1 mb that has a revision 4.2 sticker on it. So Commodore was using what they had again. I am the second owner of this machine and it is currently in the restoration stage.
Love it! Finally somebody else with the same keyboard fetish as me :-) I still can remember the first time I typed on a Hi-Tek Amiga keyboard, without even knowing it was different. My jaw literally fell open. What ... the .. F*ck ... is ... this ... ? ... Such a difference! Gorgeous to type on. Later I found a cherry one too, but still the Hi-Tek is my favourite.
Fun fact the Space Invaders models use PBT plastic key caps instead of ABS and so never yellow. I also like the rubber cups (they are more commonly called buckling sleeves). The Mitsumi keyboards with the springs are the worst, but the good news is you can buy a $20 mitsumi keyboard with buckling sleeves off eBay and swap the springs out on the Amiga for the sleeves and improve the feel considerably. Also great video!
@@FindecanorNotGmail That is absolutely correct, however my understanding is 1) that was on a select few Amiga 500's only and 2) I believe (but can't prove) that those 500's were made in Germany. The early chickenlips USA versions didn't get the same treatment from what I can tell (at least mine didn't).
I have seen at least two Amiga 2000 keyboards with C= key. One English (Canada) and one Swedish. Both with the old "Amiga 2000" label. They can't both be mods? I could enquire.
The rubber cups on my A4000 keyboards collapsed on about 5 keys like the open and close Amiga keys and alt etc...I just replaced them all with springs from the guy who sells them Poland...I have the Cherry MX and the Mitsumi for the 2000...I like them both...I think that I like the badge on the Invaders keyboard the best though...the badge on the Cherry MX is kind of dull...but nice idea to change the badge to just AMIGA on the Mitsumi ones...
I found one about two months ago, boxed and virtually never used. Minty fresh (for only $250). It can be done, but it does take a virtual (or literal) obsession. Hah! instagram.com/p/B2NnQdtnlpm/
I have the Hi-Tek on my 2000 - It really is superb (that space bar sound!) - I have quite an expensive PC keyboard and it feels rubbish in comparison! - good vid cheers.
Great Video, i just recently bought an A2000 keyboard on Ebay was a Mitsumi type, but the shipper packed it in 1 layer of bubble rap and no box and of course when i opened it it was in pieces, keys broken as well as the case, i glued the case back together but the broken keys, i tried gluing the plastic stems back and have yet to try to put them back, but i'm sure they won't hold. So i a friend told me he saw a keyboard for sale on a site i sent him to and i was like na he sold those already, had a few drinks and later went back to check the site and sure enough he had more keyboards for sale and this one was a mechanical one. so i bought i, i just got it last sat. and its a space invader style but it has the Commodore logo or chicken lips logo on the left Amiga key location. And also the sticker says Amiga 2000 in a smaller print, can you tell me anymore about this one?
Ugh. I can't stand people on Ebay who ship things like it isn't their responsibility to package it properly. I hope you 1-bombed the guy. Are you saying you have a space invaders Hi-Tek A2000 keyboard, but the C= logo more often seen with the primo A500 chickenlips keyboard? Do you have any photos? And, where was it manufactured?
@@AmigaLove Yes, I think it is that's what i was told from the guy i bought it from ,here are some links to the pics i have, the bottom has the Circle from the mold and those 2 labels like a green and red color and no serial number. Front Keyboard www.dropbox.com/s/f0lmlqf8uh9s7uo/Front%20Keyboard.jpg?dl=0 , Front A www.dropbox.com/s/0btmc7d549j9iqq/FrontK%20A.jpg?dl=0 , Frnt A logo www.dropbox.com/s/0nz3eee2jseh13v/FrontK%20Amiga%20logo.jpg?dl=0 , Front C= www.dropbox.com/s/v3whb3msinnmr8w/FrontK%20C%3D.jpg?dl=0 , Bottom www.dropbox.com/s/gtgshrpbahbo386/Keyboard%20bottom.jpg?dl=0
I think keyboards are far more interesting than people give them credit for. I was surprised the A2000 mitsumi had rubber cups as, afaik, the A500 mitsumi (and Samsung) keyboards only ever shipped with springs. 🤔
WTT for a working or non working a4000 keyboard in exchange for one mother. She gave me life, raised me loved me and was instrumental for setting me up on a successful path as an adult. Or best offer.
My Cherry has a straight non-curved connector. Came with my B2000 rev4.1(or was it 4.2?). I still prefer my 4000 keyboard slightly ahead of the Cherry.
Need to go through my collection of these keyboards! I have a bunch of A3000/A4000 keyboards, every single one is a mitsumi. I gather they were never anything but mitsumi?
I think you are taking those Hi-Tek keycaps off incorrectly. As in you are taking the stem off the switch instead of the keycap off the stem. Doing that is most definitely dangerous to the health of your switches. I recently picked up a couple of Hi-Tek keyboards (both black/clicky) and used my normal wire keycap puller at first. But the way the keycaps hook on the wire can catch the stem and pull the whole thing. After doing that a couple of times and likely breaking at least one switch, I switched to the using plastic type keycap puller that is normally considered worse. But these just grab the side of the keycap instead of going all the way underneath. Then I rocked to one side to unhook one side of the keycap and back the other way to get it off. This did a much better job of not pulling stems off. They are great switches but you are right, very fragile.
I re-read your comment carefully a second time. I'm not entirely sure how you managed to pull those keycaps off with the rocking motion. That's something I'd love to see. But I do know I'm too afraid to do it myself any time soon. I took two caps off previously for this video, and I nearly lost one of the springs (because, as you say, I did it wrong). I was a nervous wreck for about 30 minutes until I luckily found it!
Its funny, because all of the early A2000 keyboards with cherry switches I have seen in Europe all have a grey, straight cable with hand soldered metal din plug. Not the matching color, spiral cable and molded plug you show.
There are going to be differences within each class of keyboard. And it's very much true that Germany manufactured hardware had subtle differences compared to hardware made in the USA, Phippenes, Malaysia, etc.
I have one i could use some help identifying.. it has the "simple badge" like the cherry, but it has the dot for caps lock.. it has a commodore logo on the left "amiga" key.. but not a red letter.. its a black amiga key.. is this mechanical or rubber.. with it having the old badge but the newer caps lock button, would this end up being a hi-tek?
@@8bitwidgets If you have a mechanical keyboard, yes. I show how to carefully remove a keycap in such a way that keeps the "Space Invader" mechanism intact. If you have a "normal" keyboard, you can even just use your fingers (like on a cursor key). Since you don't know what you have, caution isn't a bad thing. The little plastic puller I use was very inexpensive. ua-cam.com/video/ntkzAlsKEWA/v-deo.html
The Mitsumi keyboards used across the entire line (A2000, A3000, A500 and A1200 were all physically identical with the exception that the A500 had springs instead of cups (A1200 too?). The springs are mushy and spongey, but if you can find another Mitsumi keyboard (some Apple keyboards from that same era used the same mitsumi mechanisms with the cups), then you can upgrade your A500 to feel as nice as the A2000/A3000 keyboards. I did this with one of my A500 keyboards and it went from my least favorite to my most favorite... slightly edging out my A1000 keyboard... i'm really surprised that no one back in the day sourced those cups and sold them in packs of 100+ for a keyboard upgrade kit. Does anyone know of a modern source for the mitsumi rubber cups? I'd love to upgrade my other A500 keyboard... and put the spare Mac keyboard back together... :D
rpiguy9907 on AmigaLove.com says that you can find "tons of mitsumi keyboards for less than $20 on eBay" to steal their cups. Here is an example: www.ebay.com/itm/223658153736
I have recently acquired a German Amiga 2000 Model A rev.4 with a black cherry keyboard. One thing that I have instantly realized is that the function keys are smaller than the other variants. Great video. Thank you.
Thanks for the kind words. And very interesting about the function keys!
What an awesome channel! Thank you :) I'm just getting back into the Amiga scene after digging my A500 out of the garage. Haven't actually switched it on yet - I'm giving it bit of restoration first, while I decide what to do about a monitor. (No retro-brighting for this one though - I'd rather have healthy plastic than perfect looks.)
Anyway, I was happy to discover that my A500 has the "space invader" keyboard mentioned (06:46) in this video. And it has a Commodore key in place of a left-hand Amiga key! Yay.
The key-caps were actually really easy to remove and clean without having to worry about the springs - the caps just unclip if you use a finger to gently lift / lever them from the left or right side (after removing the keyboard from the case, to get decent access to it). This leaves the springs safely enclosed, as it's only the _caps_ that're coming off, not the white cap-holders. I don't see why that'd be different on an A2000 keyboard of this type, unless the caps are actually glued or fused to the white mounts on those keyboards. (They might be, so do be careful :)
Welcome back to the scene, Timothy! Sounds like what you have is an A500 "chickenlips" model - a highly coveted A500 indeed. I made a video about those as well. Thanks for watching, and have fun! ua-cam.com/video/B9HZb6A7E0w/v-deo.html
Thank you for making this video. It is just the right ammount of nerdiness for me - really enjoyed! :D
Thanks, man! Thanks for watching and the kind words.
Finally someone who thinks and notices the same little details that most people never observe. One thing though; why is no one ever kommenting on the differences of the enter keys. Most amiga 500s have the 'small, reversed f' shape (at least in europe) but others have the big one like yours in the video. Why this difference and does it effeck anything (the big enter key takes up the space for one regular key, isnt that key missing?)
I think the difference in the Enter/Return key sometimes depends on the countries in question. In other words, I think some European countries have a very different character keyset, which can impact the actual number of keys used, which then impacts the overall design/geometry of the caps. "On [the] A500, US keyboards have two fewer keys than their international counterparts...The enter key is shaped differently on US keyboards and occupies the space for a key on its left, and similarly the left shift key is wider and covers a key that would be on the right side in the international layout. Even the A1000 keyboards have this difference. "
Great video! I think I have a Hi-Tek and a Mitsumi variety. I will check later today.
Back in the nineties the computer company I worked for would often sell gorgeous keyboards that cost us about $100 on new computers just because they were so much better than the $30 junk most were bundling.
Thanks, Doug. And I'll be very curious which ones you discover you've got. If you've got a Hi-Tek, it'll be pretty noticeable. I just love they way the sound and feel.
I checked my lot, A2500 A3000 and one of my A4000's = Mitsumi Rubber dome, Other A4000 late KB only says Amiga on the top Mitsumi with springs and of course my A1000 kb has the nicest feel to it.
My Amiga 2000 came with the first keyboard. It also has a revision 4.1 mb that has a revision 4.2 sticker on it. So Commodore was using what they had again. I am the second owner of this machine and it is currently in the restoration stage.
Love it!
Finally somebody else with the same keyboard fetish as me :-)
I still can remember the first time I typed on a Hi-Tek Amiga keyboard, without even knowing it was different.
My jaw literally fell open. What ... the .. F*ck ... is ... this ... ? ...
Such a difference! Gorgeous to type on.
Later I found a cherry one too, but still the Hi-Tek is my favourite.
Keep it clean man ... no jizzing all over the keyboard. ;D
I might be strange but I like the Mitsumi keyboards, especially the C128D variety.
Not strange at all. My C128DCR's external keyboard is glorious, no doubt. Thanks for watching!
@nine Haha! Hilarious. Honestly my C128DCR's Mistumi keyboard is the lowest KB I've got if you don't extend the legs. It's *really* low.
Just a side note:
That first revision of the A2000 was German made, hence the Cherry switches :)
Fun fact the Space Invaders models use PBT plastic key caps instead of ABS and so never yellow. I also like the rubber cups (they are more commonly called buckling sleeves). The Mitsumi keyboards with the springs are the worst, but the good news is you can buy a $20 mitsumi keyboard with buckling sleeves off eBay and swap the springs out on the Amiga for the sleeves and improve the feel considerably.
Also great video!
That's super interesting about the plastic type. Thanks for that info! And thanks for watching.
Also, some Space Invader keyboards had the C= logo on the left Amiga key instead of *_A_* .
@@FindecanorNotGmail That is absolutely correct, however my understanding is 1) that was on a select few Amiga 500's only and 2) I believe (but can't prove) that those 500's were made in Germany. The early chickenlips USA versions didn't get the same treatment from what I can tell (at least mine didn't).
I have seen at least two Amiga 2000 keyboards with C= key. One English (Canada) and one Swedish. Both with the old "Amiga 2000" label.
They can't both be mods? I could enquire.
@@FindecanorNotGmail That would be super cool to see!
The rubber cups on my A4000 keyboards collapsed on about 5 keys like the open and close Amiga keys and alt etc...I just replaced them all with springs from the guy who sells them Poland...I have the Cherry MX and the Mitsumi for the 2000...I like them both...I think that I like the badge on the Invaders keyboard the best though...the badge on the Cherry MX is kind of dull...but nice idea to change the badge to just AMIGA on the Mitsumi ones...
Very informative video! I would love to own an A500, but living in the USA (Colorado), they are really hard to find-and expensive.
I found one about two months ago, boxed and virtually never used. Minty fresh (for only $250). It can be done, but it does take a virtual (or literal) obsession. Hah! instagram.com/p/B2NnQdtnlpm/
I have the Hi-Tek on my 2000 - It really is superb (that space bar sound!) - I have quite an expensive PC keyboard and it feels rubbish in comparison! - good vid cheers.
Yeah, I love that keyboard. It's simply great. And thanks for the kind words - glad you liked it!
Great Video, i just recently bought an A2000 keyboard on Ebay was a Mitsumi type, but the shipper packed it in 1 layer of bubble rap and no box and of course when i opened it it was in pieces, keys broken as well as the case, i glued the case back together but the broken keys, i tried gluing the plastic stems back and have yet to try to put them back, but i'm sure they won't hold. So i a friend told me he saw a keyboard for sale on a site i sent him to and i was like na he sold those already, had a few drinks and later went back to check the site and sure enough he had more keyboards for sale and this one was a mechanical one. so i bought i, i just got it last sat. and its a space invader style but it has the Commodore logo or chicken lips logo on the left Amiga key location. And also the sticker says Amiga 2000 in a smaller print, can you tell me anymore about this one?
Ugh. I can't stand people on Ebay who ship things like it isn't their responsibility to package it properly. I hope you 1-bombed the guy. Are you saying you have a space invaders Hi-Tek A2000 keyboard, but the C= logo more often seen with the primo A500 chickenlips keyboard? Do you have any photos? And, where was it manufactured?
@@AmigaLove Yes, I think it is that's what i was told from the guy i bought it from ,here are some links to the pics i have, the bottom has the Circle from the mold and those 2 labels like a green and red color and no serial number. Front Keyboard www.dropbox.com/s/f0lmlqf8uh9s7uo/Front%20Keyboard.jpg?dl=0 , Front A www.dropbox.com/s/0btmc7d549j9iqq/FrontK%20A.jpg?dl=0 , Frnt A logo www.dropbox.com/s/0nz3eee2jseh13v/FrontK%20Amiga%20logo.jpg?dl=0 , Front C= www.dropbox.com/s/v3whb3msinnmr8w/FrontK%20C%3D.jpg?dl=0 , Bottom www.dropbox.com/s/gtgshrpbahbo386/Keyboard%20bottom.jpg?dl=0
Honestly I have never delved this much on my keyboards. lol
The cherry mx one sounds like it could have an repro run :)
I think keyboards are far more interesting than people give them credit for. I was surprised the A2000 mitsumi had rubber cups as, afaik, the A500 mitsumi (and Samsung) keyboards only ever shipped with springs. 🤔
Yes that's right. My understanding is the metal springs are actually cheaper, hence why C= went that way over time.
WTT for a working or non working a4000 keyboard in exchange for one mother. She gave me life, raised me loved me and was instrumental for setting me up on a successful path as an adult. Or best offer.
um...
My Cherry has a straight non-curved connector. Came with my B2000 rev4.1(or was it 4.2?). I still prefer my 4000 keyboard slightly ahead of the Cherry.
Need to go through my collection of these keyboards! I have a bunch of A3000/A4000 keyboards, every single one is a mitsumi. I gather they were never anything but mitsumi?
That is my understanding, yes.
I think you are taking those Hi-Tek keycaps off incorrectly. As in you are taking the stem off the switch instead of the keycap off the stem. Doing that is most definitely dangerous to the health of your switches. I recently picked up a couple of Hi-Tek keyboards (both black/clicky) and used my normal wire keycap puller at first. But the way the keycaps hook on the wire can catch the stem and pull the whole thing. After doing that a couple of times and likely breaking at least one switch, I switched to the using plastic type keycap puller that is normally considered worse. But these just grab the side of the keycap instead of going all the way underneath. Then I rocked to one side to unhook one side of the keycap and back the other way to get it off. This did a much better job of not pulling stems off. They are great switches but you are right, very fragile.
It's the way it popped off using a normal keycap puller. If I could control that, I most definitely would.
I re-read your comment carefully a second time. I'm not entirely sure how you managed to pull those keycaps off with the rocking motion. That's something I'd love to see. But I do know I'm too afraid to do it myself any time soon. I took two caps off previously for this video, and I nearly lost one of the springs (because, as you say, I did it wrong). I was a nervous wreck for about 30 minutes until I luckily found it!
@@AmigaLove ua-cam.com/video/uSQwYkGpunA/v-deo.html
I tried to make a quick video to show what I'm talking about.
@@BillyBuerger Oh - that's awesome. I need to find one of those pullers for sure. THANKS!
Its funny, because all of the early A2000 keyboards with cherry switches I have seen in Europe all have a grey, straight cable with hand soldered metal din plug. Not the matching color, spiral cable and molded plug you show.
There are going to be differences within each class of keyboard. And it's very much true that Germany manufactured hardware had subtle differences compared to hardware made in the USA, Phippenes, Malaysia, etc.
I have the "Cherry" one.. EU one extra key and a different enterkey :) But the red A´s :)
I have one i could use some help identifying.. it has the "simple badge" like the cherry, but it has the dot for caps lock.. it has a commodore logo on the left "amiga" key.. but not a red letter.. its a black amiga key.. is this mechanical or rubber.. with it having the old badge but the newer caps lock button, would this end up being a hi-tek?
The easiest way to know would be to remove one single key - a small regular letter key, for example. As soon as you do it should be apparent.
@@AmigaLove so just pry them up straight out? would one of those "key pullers" be appropriate with these keyboards?
@@8bitwidgets If you have a mechanical keyboard, yes. I show how to carefully remove a keycap in such a way that keeps the "Space Invader" mechanism intact. If you have a "normal" keyboard, you can even just use your fingers (like on a cursor key). Since you don't know what you have, caution isn't a bad thing. The little plastic puller I use was very inexpensive. ua-cam.com/video/ntkzAlsKEWA/v-deo.html
The Mitsumi keyboards used across the entire line (A2000, A3000, A500 and A1200 were all physically identical with the exception that the A500 had springs instead of cups (A1200 too?). The springs are mushy and spongey, but if you can find another Mitsumi keyboard (some Apple keyboards from that same era used the same mitsumi mechanisms with the cups), then you can upgrade your A500 to feel as nice as the A2000/A3000 keyboards. I did this with one of my A500 keyboards and it went from my least favorite to my most favorite... slightly edging out my A1000 keyboard... i'm really surprised that no one back in the day sourced those cups and sold them in packs of 100+ for a keyboard upgrade kit.
Does anyone know of a modern source for the mitsumi rubber cups? I'd love to upgrade my other A500 keyboard... and put the spare Mac keyboard back together... :D
rpiguy9907 on AmigaLove.com says that you can find "tons of mitsumi keyboards for less than $20 on eBay" to steal their cups. Here is an example: www.ebay.com/itm/223658153736
Think the best keyboard cbm did produce was the c128 keyboard.
Could that not have used a DEC VAX Keyboard.
We have some at work and boy are those annoying. The stiffest keyboard I ever used.