Purveyor of fine retro-pop interface devices, 8BitDo, has announced their latest creation, a retro-styled mechanical keyboard. It comes in two flavors, NES or Famicom.
The 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard has options for wired, Bluetooth, or 2.4GHz use, much like many of their controllers. The keys can be mapped if you have a DVORAK preference. They don’t say what kind of mechanical switches the keys use, but they do say that the PCB is hot-swappable, so you can buy it for the aesthetic and trade out switches to your preference. The battery will last 200 hours on a 4-hour charge, which should cover your travel needs.
Hilariously, the images depict these two big A and B buttons that the presser just kind of glosses over. They’re kind of mentioned as “Super Buttons,” but I’m not sure what you’d use them for. Maybe you could map Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to them. I’d kind of like to map them to left-click and then use them to play The Coin Game for that little immersive flair.
It’s nice to see that 8BitDo has started targeting me, specifically. I wasn’t exactly in the market for a new keyboard, but even my husband said, “Yeah, you’re totally getting one of those.” The only downside is that they don’t have numpads, which I actually use on occasion. Maybe I’ll just buy a separate numpad elsewhere to go alongside it. Now, would I prefer the NES or Famicom version? Tough choice.
I don’t have much time to suppress my impulses, as pre-orders for the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard are starting on Amazon right now for $99.99. It’s expected to start shipping out on August 10, 2023.
