I found my essence rare: Northgate Evolution Touchpad

[ChairmanNow]

I've been waiting for years for one of these to come up at a price that I could afford. It showed up today, in the original box (sadly, no accessories or doco), in like-new condition:



It is the most wonderful keyboard I've ever touched. If anyone here has gotten the touchpad working on a modernish OS, I'd love to hear how (I'm on Win7/x64) - I'm waiting on a serial port bracket (my computer has a COM header). Will report back if I get something going. Might replace the touchpad if there's a PS/2 or USB equivalent, as heretical as that might sound.

[Muirium]

Quite a sensible layout, too. Small space bars, central cursor and navigation islands, and a ready waiting function layer key in the ideal position right of right shift thanks to big ass enter. Strange to see that present with Windows keys; or it seems unusual to me at least. Same for the full 2 unit backspace. Big ass enters typically skimp on those.

[ChairmanNow]

On the other hand, I keep on reaching to the right to get to the arrow key cluster, and the "b" key is on the wrong side - at least, I was taught to use my right pointer finger to hit that key.

Otherwise? Dreamy.

[Daniel Beardsmore]

White Alps?

The Windows and menu keys should be pad printed, and the rest double-shot, right?

I never paid that design much attention before. For example, the trackpad buttons are at the top, instead of being under your thumb, which seems iffy. Also, that navigation cluster is a long way up.

Not sure about converting \ into Fn, but there's two space bars, and I only ever use the right-hand side, so that's a whole switch spare.

Interestingly, there's a Macro Mode LED, but no Macro key.