My SX needs a keyboard, it has a new CRT analog board and I upgraded the kernel to jiffy dos and added a reset circuit with a switch to disable drive reset. I have a soft spot for 80s lug-ables, they need to make a comeback.
I really enjoyed mine. It was fun back in the day to have such a mobile unit. I'd had Atari's before I got that, the last being an 800 if I recall and then I found the SX-64 on a close out sale on one of the online 'puter sites. I would've never been able to afford it otherwise, but it was one of those dirt cheap deals on a brand new one ... I guess they had a hard time selling them at the high retail price they originally sold for. Great machine ... but it gave up the ghost for me after a good long use when the keyboard cable went. I tried to repair, but with no success ... and a new one at the time cost almost as much as I paid for the whole computer, so I moved on. I took that thing everywhere and used it constantly, it was a fun toy. After that I think I just started building my own IBM clones. The day of Commodore/Atari had come and was by then gone.
I never had one back in the day but when I lived in Texas I would frequent a local C= usergroup that would get together at a 80s heavy metal themed pizza joint with a bunch of arcade gear. There were two guys who would bring totally kited out SX rigs and I knew I had to have one. Fun times with a pitcher of beer, pizza, and huddling up to a small CRT to play games or look at some assembler code.
The keyboard seems to be a weak factor in the SX and the 128D. I have three 128 desktops and only one of the keyboards functions after much repair. Perhaps somebody will take it upon themselves to make a new version of both with clicky keys like Kipper2k for the Amiga 500/1200.
Yeah, I was in the AF back then and worked in a 24/7 control center. We rotated shifts and worked in pairs, so when I drew the night shifts I'd bring that bad boy in and we'd play games and such all night long. Those were the hours when absolutely nothing was going on, so we had nothing but time. Just had to be there in case the Ruskies decided to nuke us ... luckily, they never did. A good time was had by all. Damn Russians!
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