I have an IBM PS/2 AT keyboard. One of the best keyboards ever made (no shitty windows keys). It weights a ton, tough... 😁

Ah, yes. IBM Model M bliss... The One True Keyboard.

One standard to bind them all.

"My precious"

😁

dvwjr

I'm using a black Benq 6312-TA... formerly known as Acer 6312-TA. It's the best inexpensive keyboard money can get... much better than those membrane keyboards...

I don't know, I have absolutely no problem with the keyboard I have now. It is actually very nice. It's a Logitech Y-SG13 104-key keyboard with rectangular Enter key. I can't stand the L-shaped Enter keys, it's too hard to punch the backslash, and I seriously don't need to have so much space for ENTER.

I'm using a microsoft digital media pro keyboard. Its very comfortable and works great.

I am currently using a Keytronic board that uses a L-shaped enter key and the backslash is to the right of the Right Shift key. As the backslash key is no longer so widely used in the post-DOS world, the L shape makes more sense. If the keyboard company, Unicorp, can't give me a reasonable price for my IBM/Northgate hybrid, I probably will buy their normal 101 keyboard in black.

Zenith ZKB-2 AT keyboard. I actually prefer it to the model M because it does not make those loud click noises when you type (great for at night) but still uses real ALPS keyswitches. Weighs a ton, built like a tank, and no annoying Windows keys. It has been with me through countless computers, from an old 286 desktop system to my current Athlon XP system. I'll never give it up. 😁

I wonder how many of the newer keyboards support "n-Key rollover" as do keyboards which follow the IBM (Model M) keyboard standard. Might affect just a few games.

Open a "Command Prompt" or "Dos Window" or use MS-DOS and try the following test:

Press the six keys labeled: "S", "D", "F", "J", "K", "L" at the same time and then release them all at the same time. If you get all six characters displayed in some random order (order not important) then your keyboard properly supports the IBM standard "n-Key rollover". If you only get two, three, four or five characters then you have a sub-standard keyboard.

I wonder how most of the cheap modern keyboards will perform???

dvwjr

Mine can do that (about 20€)... but I remember fake keys and keys presses not identified by programs (when pressed some keys at the same time).

Can you explain more about "n-Key rollover"?

Zup wrote:

Mine can do that (about 20€)... but I remember fake keys and keys presses not identified by programs (when pressed some keys at the same time).

Can you explain more about "n-Key rollover"?

Sure can...

N-key rollover

N-key rollover means the code(s) corresponding to each key press are transmitted to the host system as soon as that key is debounced, independent of the release of other keys.

When a key is released, the corresponding break code is transmitted to the host system. Several keys can be held pressed at the same time. However, if two or more key closures occur within a time interval of less than 5 ms, an error flag is set, and those closures are not processed. This feature protects against the effects of accidental key presses.

The information relates to a keyboard matrix chip, more detail here:

The encoder scans a keyboard organized as an 8 row by 16 column matrix for a maximum of 128 keys. Smaller size matrixes can also be accommodated simply by leaving unused pins open. The SH703-600 provides internal pull-ups for the row input pins. When active, the encoder selects one of the column lines (C0–C15) every 512 µS and then reads the row data lines (R0–R7). A key closure is detected as a zero in the corresponding position of the matrix.

A complete scan cycle for the entire keyboard takes approximately 9.2 ms. Each key found pressed is debounced for a period of 20 ms. Once the key is verified, the corresponding key code(s) are loaded into the transmit uffer of the serial communication channel

Source: Semtech Documentation - SH703-600 data sheet PDF file, page 4.

Now here is some more information about ways to 'correct' problems with the keyboard matrix and decoding. It is by Dave Dribin titled: Keyboard Matrix Help dated June of 2000. This should give you the background information you requested.

Hope this helps,

dvwjr

Same old problem since my ZX Spectrum...

I just tried that and it worked 😁

One question to you keyboard buffs, do you know the solution to my problem? If I hit too many keys at once (certain keys like shift etc trigger it) then it beeps and ignores my commands.. 😦 Its a common issue with newer keyboards but is there a simple solution?

The problem is happening in a chip inside your keyboard, so the only way to get different behavior is to buy a new keyboard.

I decided to make the jump to USB and it's mostly better but with mixed results. On my keyboard I can often hold down several keys and it will auto-repeat all of them instead of just one. Here's a real example of what happens when I hold some keys down at the same time:

flsdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjkdjk

My keyboard also still has limits on what keys can be used at the same time. I was controlling MAME with my keyboard the other day and had severe problems with a couple of games because my keyboard wouldn't let me do certain combinations of movements and action buttons that I needed to do to avoid dying in the affected games. It doesn't seem as bad as most PS/2 and AT keyboards I've used over the years though.

I can't believe it, but the Keytronic keyboard I have at home cannot pass this test while the cheaper Keytronic kepyboard I use at the office can.