The DK'Tronics Keyboard - the Spectrum's New Clothes
I suppose there comes a time when we all need to think of the adult world a little bit, even as an 11 year old going on 12. The question had been asked , what did Julie want to be when she grew up? Quite frankly I had no idea. It was the early eighties, I could be anything I wanted ( as long as it didn't involve driving .) However the general parental consensus was that my future would involve office work, being chained to a typewriter or word processor and being a good little secretary or receptionist , (it did eventually come to pass , but only after I had avoided it for 23 years!) In my parents' eyes there was one barrier to an early start on this type of education.
Those little rubber keys , they were going to have to go. Admittedly Daley Thompson, Atic Atac, Miner Willy and Sabre-man had all taken their toll on the rubber keyboard. Plus it smelt faintly of cheese and onion crisps and had orange squash residue stuck to it in places. But, it was part of what the ZX Spectrum was ( possibly not the cheese and onion crisp part though !) The little black box with it's rainbow stripes were what made it look unique. My protests fell on deaf ears. So on the eve of Christmas 1984 the little black box with the rubber keys and the rainbow stripes went under the knife. Chief surgeon 'Daddy' Munckton was leading the team.
By Christmas morning an amazing transformation had occurred , the caterpillar had turned into a ...wait..that's the wrong way round. The butterfly had turned into (I'm sorry DK'Tronics , a rather bland caterpillar.) Hmmm....where had all the colour and quirkiness gone ? It was just black , grey and red. On the upside the power adaptor was now hidden away inside the casing and the top of the keyboard was now wide enough to heat up a sausage roll on .In fact with the power adaptor now contained in there , it also provided enough heat to do that!
Also it should be noted there was a little something extra my father had added , it had developed a power off button to save wear and tear on the cable. Which was I have to admit a good idea, if you look closely at that picture you can see the power cord had already acquired a coat of electrical insulation tape (as did most electronic things in our house.) But good ideas aside, my best buddy had grown up, lost it's rainbow stripes and it's bouncy keys , in fact my mother proudly commented that it looked like a real computer now.
But did the changing of the keyboard change my gaming habits, did I settle down and use more educational software? Did I buy a word processor cassette? Did I type in more programs from magazines? Did I learn to program in BASIC? Did I in fact do any of these things due to having a more sensible keyboard? Nope....
In fact I began to play more games, as I found the new keys harder to play games on due to their depth I began to use the joystick more. So more shoot 'em ups were played.
There was another strange effect as well . I know I referred to the keyboard as bland after the delights of the little black box, but, none of my friends had a keyboard like that. In a way my little Spectrum became even more unique. Despite my fears, the Spectrum still found a way to be quirky and different ( possibly thanks to the addition of my fathers magic reset switch on the side ), no matter what 'clothes' it wore. Another life lesson taught and one that I hope I live by.
It doesn't matter what the exterior looks like ,it is what is inside the box that counts. No matter what you have to wear......stay quirky, stay fun and most importantly stay unique.
In fact I began to play more games, as I found the new keys harder to play games on due to their depth I began to use the joystick more. So more shoot 'em ups were played.
There was another strange effect as well . I know I referred to the keyboard as bland after the delights of the little black box, but, none of my friends had a keyboard like that. In a way my little Spectrum became even more unique. Despite my fears, the Spectrum still found a way to be quirky and different ( possibly thanks to the addition of my fathers magic reset switch on the side ), no matter what 'clothes' it wore. Another life lesson taught and one that I hope I live by.
It doesn't matter what the exterior looks like ,it is what is inside the box that counts. No matter what you have to wear......stay quirky, stay fun and most importantly stay unique.