8BitDo has a retro-styled mechanical keyboard incoming

Purveyor of fine retro-pop interface devices, 8BitDo, has announced their latest creation, a retro-styled mechanical keyboౠard. 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 ꦏof 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 ꦚsure 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 for that little immersive flair.

It’s nice to see that 8BitDo has started targeting me, specifically. I wasn’t exa𝔍ctly 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 actuallyꦐ 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,♌ 20💮23.