I really enjoy the brief period just after the release of IBM PC, where manufacturers could see where things were heading, but were still trying different things to set themselves apart.

Sirius 1 had the weird floppy drive and unusal high-res graphics. Apricot had Display-in-keyboard and compact form factors. Olivetti had charming italian design and the strange upside-down motherboard (when battery leaks it drips down instead of eating the PCB, talk about ahead of its time!)

All ran MS-DOS but not "PC compatible", so none of them really took off. Then everyone started to do 100% compatible clones, and it was a race to the bottom.

> "Then everyone started to do 100% compatible clones, and it was a race to the bottom."

Maybe in the "who can make the cheapest clone" business. Because post-consolidation, plenty of outfits offered machines that set themselves apart. They had to.

I wouldn't even call it a "race" to the bottom. It took until maybe 1995 for prices to drop enough for some of the clone manufacturers to start going out of business. Radio Shack caught on around 1991 and got out early, but Zeos didn't go out of business until 1995 for instance.

Which is why nowadays vertical integration like everyone was doing back then is back.

As survivor of that era, Apple proved the point of higher margins, and the remaining OEMs want a piece of the pie, even better if it is ARM based instead of x86.

Is anyone doing vertical integration in the computer space besides Apple?

Most of the laptop vendors, with their pre-installed Windows, alongside OEMs differentiation customisations.

Android tablets with detachable keyboards.

Chromebooks as well.

The only PCs left with customisation are those aquariums full of rainbows, built by gamers.

In mainstream of course, then there all those little brands that only HN like audiences care that they exist.

The original Apricot was basically a luggable Sirius 1. ACT was the European distributor of the Sirius.

The Olivetti M24 was a PC compatible.

An active converter is needed to use modern USB on retro computers. I made one a few years ago for many different computers.

https://github.com/dekuNukem/USB4VC

There's also a more recent project called HIDman, but only for PCs.

https://github.com/rasteri/HIDman

I once didn't want to wait to get a ps/2 keyboard in the mail to set up an older PC so I made a quick and dirty adapter out of an arduino.

Another one is ps2x2pico. I've been using it in my retro machines and it works great. For my Logitech G305 mouse (1000hz), I have ps2x2pico configured to force a 100hz mouse polling rate so the cursor is super smooth in Windows 98 without needing to use a program like PS2Rate. For my Keychron S1 keyboard, N-key rollover works flawlessly.

https://github.com/No0ne/ps2x2pico

However if you want to go the other way and use USB keyboards on ADB mac (and many others), check out my USB4VC project: https://github.com/dekuNukem/USB4VC

And if you have even older Mac (128/512/Plus) and want to use an almost modern PS/2 keyboard with it, please check my https://github.com/trekawek/mac-plus-ps2

And if you have an obscure Canadian TV computer from 1982 and want to use a USB keyboard with it, check out my https://youtu.be/93LBVhSx8cs?si=bC8OW3SpWIIlsgNN

(I should really get around to taking that project beyond the prototype stage)

Seems like keyboard adapters are a popular thing around here.

Or if you have a Mac of that vintage and want to use its mouse on your modern PC, you can use my adapter: https://jfloren.net/b/2022/7/8/0

(I recommend against doing this except as a party trick, because these old mice were never intended to be used on a high-resolution screen)

What I would love is to be able to use modern laser mice with vintage PCs -- I have a Mac Plus which is a nightmare to use because those old ball mice are flippin' terrible.

I think you could fake the quadrature signals pretty easily. When I designed my laser mouse, I initially wanted to be able to reprogram the microcontroller to output USB, PS/2, quadrature, etc. but that got dropped so as to just get it out the door... but I think a USB->quadrature adapter would be pretty doable.

I have a 512ke and no keyboard, keep looking for ways to use a "modern" board on it instead if paying a good $ on Ebay for one. This is exactly what I was looking for, thank you.

Thank you for this! I am just about to fix the PSU on my Mac Plus 1MB and this might come in handy.

Excellent! From the headline I expected the article's project to be USB keyboard -> ADB host, not the other way round - so I'm glad to see such a project does exist!

-5V has became optional in recent ATX specifications, and many newer PSUs don’t have it at all. (including the one I used here)

-12V is still mandated and on all ATX PSUs, so it’s more compatible to get -5V out of that.

Backplanes of industrial PCs occasionally also have a spot for adding a -5V voltage regulator for the same reason.