I'm working on recreating the Aperture Laboratories keyboard from
Portal (2007), and I figured I'd make a post here to see if anyone else would be interested in a group-buy to spread out the production cost for the custom keycaps and, if so, what kind of keycap legends people would want. (This post is about the keycaps specifically. I'm still in early stages of working out what to do for the case and internals.)
For reference, here's a render of the model from the game:
We can see that the keyboard is a full-size ANSI 104-key layout with the 6.25u Space Bar, stepped Caps Lock key, and key-group-spacing of a Cherry G80-3000. The in-game texture doesn't include any keycap legends, but I want mine to be labeled. Based on standard ANSI legends (and using colors from Signature Plastics's ABS swatches), I made this mockup:
However, I'm considering alternate options for some of the keycaps, and want public input:
- I may not be able to get System keycaps with the Aperture icon, due to copyright constraints. If that turns out to be the case, there are a few alternative options. If you are interested in buying this keycap set, and the Aperture icon is off the table, do you want to instead have the Windows icon, a different icon, a text legend like "System", "Sys", "Super", or something else?
- Many keyboards replace the right System key with a Function (Fn) key that adds special actions to the F1-through-F12 keys, but what actions are added varies quite a bit. The ones I personally am inclined towards are "speaker volume up/down/mute", "microphone mute", and "screen brightness up/down", but that only takes up six out of the twelve keys and I'm not sure what to use the rest for. If you are interested in buying this keycap set, do you want two System keys or one System and one Function key? If the latter, what special actions do you want legends for?
- I personally never use the Scroll Lock and Pause/Break keys. My laptop keyboard doesn't even have them, and my standalone keyboard replaces the Scroll Lock key with a "Win Lock" key that disables the System (Windows) key for gaming. If you are interested in buying this keycap set, do you want to keep the Scroll Lock and Pause/Break keys as standard or use them for different actions? If the latter, what legends do you want on them? (This could tie into the above if "Win Lock" is made one of the Fn-modifier actions.)
- I'm personally a fan of the feel of the Windows Vista / Windows 7 System keycaps with the Windows logo in an inset bubble (Wikipedia Link). I think the round bump would especially fit with the round Aperture logo, if I can use it. However, as a non-standard keycap shape, this will probably cost extra. If you are interested in buying this keycap set, do you prefer a normal flat System keycap, prefer the bubble design, or not care either way?
