I don't know what things are like in the land of tea n' biscuits, but I get a lot of my gaming and media keyboards from thrift stores - everything is now wireless in the K&M market - and I even find a lot of PS/2 ones there. If you want a gaming-grade keyboard though, you'll have to use USB keyboards and you know what that requires.

I have a Unicomp keyboard. Types great but no n key rollover and construction isn't great, it's creaky, gaps between panels.

I'm not sure if there's many ps/2 keyboards with n key rollover.

Good keyboards are the ones that doesn't use any rubber domes for the keyboard switches since they are awful for typing. "Gaming"-grade keyboards likely have n-key rollover, but the ones that I own with that feature doesn't use the PS/2 connector.

As for the Unicomp keyboard, I own a real IBM/Lexmark Model M 42H1292 (Made in USA) which the Unicomp keyboards are based on but with better construction quality in comparison.

Hmmm food for thought. Thanks guys.

Seems odd though, as an avid teenage gamer, I genuinely don't remember having rollover issues with seemingly cheap membrane keyboards at the time.

Leety McLeet wrote on 2021-08-08, 16:36:

Hmmm food for thought. Thanks guys.

Seems odd though, as an avid teenage gamer, I genuinely don't remember having rollover issues with seemingly cheap membrane keyboards at the time.

Did you even know about key rollover back then?

You can always get a plain mechanical keyboard (nothing with a microcontroller in it) and use an active USB to PS/2 adapter.

Oetker wrote on 2021-08-08, 16:01:

I have a Unicomp keyboard. Types great but no n key rollover and construction isn't great, it's creaky, gaps between panels.

I'm not sure if there's many ps/2 keyboards with n key rollover.

On the contrary, there are lots. For starters most Cherry G80-1000 boards (DIN or PS/2 connector), also any boards with foam&foil switches, the BTC ones are quite common. Feel absolutely awful though... and with DIN->PS/2 adapters you can use any Model F you can get your hands on.

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-08-08, 17:39:

Leety McLeet wrote on 2021-08-08, 16:36:

Hmmm food for thought. Thanks guys.

Seems odd though, as an avid teenage gamer, I genuinely don't remember having rollover issues with seemingly cheap membrane keyboards at the time.

Did you even know about key rollover back then?

You can always get a plain mechanical keyboard (nothing with a microcontroller in it) and use an active USB to PS/2 adapter.

No, rollover wasn't really a 'thing' back then, so I wouldn't have been aware of it. But I certainly don't remember it being an issue, either. For example, games like MoH where you would run diagonally, and sprint at the same time requires 3 keys being pressed. I would have been using an MS MM 1.2(?) the black and silver one, and don't remember rollover being an issue. There were plenty of games that would have required this. Even platformers, doing diagonal jumps are impossible.

Could you give me an example/link to a plain mech keyboard that would work?

Cheers

The Cherry MX Board 3.0 has 14KRO. The Cherry MX Board 6.0 has NKRO.

Not sure how the 6.0 would work with an adapter though as it is backlit.

I think a lot of the older Cherry ones have key rollover as well. You just need to make sure to get switches you like.

You can also get most of the older ones in ps\2.

Stay away from the membrane and semi-mechanical ones. They are horrid to use.

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=4182.0

Cherry-style keyboards (with mechanical switches on PCB) need diodes mounted for NKRO. They definitely don't all have that. See this page for examples of the G80-1000 models detailing which have NRKO, which don't.
https://deskthority.net/wiki/Cherry_G80-1000

The only types of switches guaranteed to have NKRO are (as I pointed out above) capacitative ones, like foam&foil and model F capacitive buckling spring. For more explanation:
https://deskthority.net/wiki/Rollover,_blocki … #n-key_rollover

But NKRO is not really needed unless you plan on pressing all the keys at once.

I also linked to a page which would help point in the right direction.

Awww man, looks like I found the 'issue'.

I didn't mention it before, for reasons I'll explain, but the TLDR version is that it was my KVM.

As a last ditch attempt, I connected the KB to a more modern system, which happens to have PS/2 and it worked fine. I could press W+A or W+D and Shift at the same time without the key presses being completely cancelled out. At that moment, I realised that the only variable was the KVM my (retro) systems are hooked up to, so I tried it again (bypassing the KVM) and it's working perfectly on 3 different systems. * Sigh

I didn't mention the KVM before because it was accepting multiple keys, so I assumed it was irrelevant!? Turns out that this is true, but with the exception of command keys like shift and ctrl, etc. Who knew.

The KVM's an ATEN CS84U, if anyone was wondering. I also have a CS82U and that seems to have the same issue. They do have 5v power ports, but they didn't come with them. That's my only last resort to see if that will help, but I doubt it.

Looks like I need to find a KVM that actually supports this 😒

Thank you for the suggestions nonetheless, guys. Appreciate it as always!

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-08-08, 20:03:

But NKRO is not really needed unless you plan on pressing all the keys at once.

I also linked to a page which would help point in the right direction.

Full NKRO isn't needed, but nasty 2KRO is nasty, whether it's caused by keyboard (Model M etc) or - as it turns out here - KVM.

I've combined both: Model M on my (Aten) KVM. Not ideal for FPS, but I'm more of a 4x person anyway.

I also had issues with KVM but with a TRENDnet one which sometimes the keys gets 'stuck' after pressing them until I press them again.