VOGONS


First post, by XtoF

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Hi!
Like many of you, I am in the process of building a retro PC gaming box. Mine will be based on a 486 motherboard circa 1993 (full ISA, no VLB).

I am currently in search of a suitable keyboard, and now I am wondering if later PS2 keyboards will work properly on my machine. Those keyboards often provide the "Windows keys" plus some multimedia functionalities that did not exist in the early 90s. If I buy such a keyboard and the Windows keys don't work, I won't care. But will the "standard AT keys" work properly??

Thanks in advance if you have any clue!

Reply 1 of 9, by Ampera

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Yes. The PS/2 standard is fully electrically compatible with the AT keyboard standard. It is however NOT compatible with the XT or PC standard (5150 and 5160), but no 486 board I know of uses those standards.

Reply 4 of 9, by xjas

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Even the Windows keys & multimedia keys will work fine, if the software or OS supports them (e.g. if you're running Win95/98.) There's no hardware incompatibility.

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Reply 5 of 9, by Ampera

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xjas wrote:

Even the Windows keys & multimedia keys will work fine, if the software or OS supports them (e.g. if you're running Win95/98.) There's no hardware incompatibility.

Was about to say, no reason they shouldn't.

For all the absolute hell that computer manufacturers have put consumers through with differing standards, you basically have two modern keyboard standards, and even they are cross-compatible in a lot of places.

Reply 6 of 9, by p24t

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vetz wrote:

Even most USB keyboards will work if you have a USB to PS/2 adapter

Be careful with this. USB keyboards have to be electrically wired to work with passive ps/2 adapters. And in my experience, most USB keyboards were not designed with this in mind. Manufacturers want to be as cheap as possible.

I used a Filco Majestouch 2 Tenkeyless USB keyboard with its included usb->ps/2 adapter, and then a ps/2 to AT adapter for my 486. It works great. But none of my other mechanical keyboards will work with a usb->ps/2 adapter. That was the whole reason I researched and bought the Filco.

Besides Filco Majestouch, WASD CODE keyboards also support ps/2 compatibility...just in case OP is looking for a nice mech kb.

Reply 7 of 9, by Azarien

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XtoF wrote:

If I buy such a keyboard and the Windows keys don't work, I won't care.

The "Windows keys" will work, that is, nothing stops the keyboard from sending their scancodes to the PC. The questions is, whether the OS will respond to them.
If I'm not wrong, Windows 95 was the first Windows version to support those additional keys.

p24t wrote:

But none of my other mechanical keyboards will work with a usb->ps/2 adapter.

I'm starting to think of making an active USB to PS2/AT adapter that would enable all new keyboards on legacy systems. I know how to do it (more or less), if only I had more spare time 😀

Reply 8 of 9, by p24t

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Azarien wrote:

I'm starting to think of making an active USB to PS2/AT adapter that would enable all new keyboards on legacy systems. I know how to do it (more or less), if only I had more spare time 😀

Someone linked this in another thread: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Network-Technologies … er/272822668611

I tried a similar device in the past and it didn't work too well--lots of input lag--but I went ahead and ordered one of these to try it out since it's so cheap.

Reply 9 of 9, by derSammler

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Azarien wrote:

If I'm not wrong, Windows 95 was the first Windows version to support those additional keys.

These keys were actually made for Windows 95. They didn't exist before Windows 95.