From: j.press@ukonline.co.uk (Isaac Abraham)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: MINI-REVIEW: Power Tower Keyboard
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Date: 23 Sep 1998 12:43:26 -0400
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
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Reply-To: j.press@ukonline.co.uk (Isaac Abraham)
Keywords: hardware, keyboard, commercial
X-Review-Number: Volume 1998 Number 23
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After purchasing an Eyetech EZ-Keyboard to go with my Eyetech Tower, I
was shocked to discover that Eyetech had misinformed me as to the
functionality of it - multiple cursor keys would not work, and there
was no CTRL key. Thus followed a hasty sale of said keyboard, and the
purchase of the Power Interface with an A4000 keyboard.
Installation is a mite tricky. The shielding MUST be removed, although
it can be partially refitted afterwards. Instead of using the
conventional ribbon slot, this interface neatly slots onto the 8502
chip to the PCMCIA side of the ribbon slot. I had to bend one of the
components slightly in order to firmly fit the card onto the chip, but
eventually, after a few tries, it stuck firmly onto the chip. The
actual keyboard is the same as the stock A1200 one, only that of
course it is cased with a lengthy cable and the C= Amiga logo on the
top right. Apart from that, there's no difference. Keys are easy to
press, although I found that the Alt key was a little small compared
to my older Fellows PC keyboard. However, the real advantage is the
existance of the CTRL key, plus the ability to use multiple cursor
keys, useful in 3D games such as DoomAttack, as well as just in
general typing (if you're a fast enough typer!). The only problem with
this is that the reset combination does not seem to always work -
perhaps it is something else in my system, or maybe the chip is
socketed correctly. Nonetheless, it is not a huge problem, and I would
give Power a pat on the back for this minor miracle. Excellent.

- Isaac Abraham, j.press@ukonline.co.uk

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