See the video of it at the end of this blog.
In 1993 when I was a young teen, my dad bought a computer from a company in New Zealand called PC General. At the time they only had two branches with one in Wellington and one in Christchurch. We lived in Auckland so it would not normally make sense to get a PC from Wellington, however this company had excellent reputation at the time. Turns out it was a good decision as that company flourished, and two branches in Auckland opened allowing for easier service. Mind you we had very little issues with the machine to begin with anyway. It especially helped that I was learning about computers in school and had a strong interest in electronics.
However the history of my computing isn't the focus of this post, it is what came with that first computer, is. I was used to 101 keyboards at the time as the most common IBM and compatibles AT keyboards. So when PC General were advertising their computers with the 129-key keyboard, it definitely drew attention.
The first time I used the keyboard when the computer arrived, I fell in love with it. Remember this is at a time when there were no gamer's keyboard and Wolfenstein 3D had not even been out for that long. I learn't to type properly on this keyboard, I did a lot of projects for school on this keyboard. I did a lot of assignments, projects and reports when I studied Electronics engineering from 1995-1998 on this keyboard. Of course, a lot of Doom and Quake games were won using this keyboard! My first ever experience with a 3D video game was also on this keyboard since the computer came with shareware Wolfenstein 3D. I guess that the memories and how much I loved this keyboard is the reason I still kept it. The key-switch keys felt just so good to type on! It became so addictive that when I used a keyboard at somebody's house, or at Polytechnic, I just could not wait to come home and type on my keyboard again! This keyboard, without even trying to be one, was the ultimate gamer's keyboard too!
So why did I stop using it in the first place? It got old and the key's started multi-striking when pressed once. Since then I have been on the search for mechanical key-switch keyboard but never finding one. Then when manufacturers like Razor and Logitech started making them, I could not find one that would fully replace my FK-9000. A few weeks ago I decided that nobody will make a 129 key keyboard like this one so I might as well get what is out now. So I bought the Logitech G710+ mechanical keyboard. It has 6 programmable keys not 12 like my FK-9000. It has standard 4 direction keys not 8; has no calculator on board, or oversized Enter key. But it did bring back memories of my FK-9000 so I dug it out of storage and got it working on my I7-2600 based system. The motherboard has a PS/2 connector so I used a 5-pin Din AT to PS/2 adapter and got the keyboard working. I am writing this blog on my FK-9000 and I still love this keyboard. I still love typing on it. It just feels so amazing! I will stop using this soon and put it back into storage, but I wanted to write this blog first. It will probably be the last piece of work this keyboard does either for a while, or forever.
Please see my video of this in action!
