BODY: For anyone who grew up squinting at a translucent console glowing under the TV stand, 8BitDo just dropped a love letter in keyboard form. The accessory maker has opened pre-orders for the 8BitDo Retro 87 Keyboard – Clear Blue, a mechanical board styled directly after the "Funtastic" clear blue Nintendo 64.
The headline feature is the see-through chassis, mimicking the crystal-blue plastic that made the N64's later hardware revision a collector's favorite. But 8BitDo didn't stop at the shell. The keyboard reproduces the console's distinctive color language, scattering the red, green, and blue accent tones of the original controller's face buttons across the layout.
The cleverest touch is reserved for the cursor cluster. The N64 controller's unmistakable yellow "C-button unit"—the four-direction camera and aiming keys that defined late-90s 3D platforming—has been reimagined as a set of bright yellow arrow keys. It's the kind of detail that rewards fans who remember exactly where their thumb sat during a round of GoldenEye 007.
As with 8BitDo's other retro boards, the Retro 87 is expected to ship in a tenkeyless (87-key) form factor with hot-swappable switches and the company's oversized "Super Buttons" that can be mapped to macros or media controls. It's a working keyboard first and a nostalgia object second—though for the target audience, the two are inseparable.
The insider take
From a Tokyo vantage point, this release is shrewd timing. Nintendo's hardware nostalgia is running hot right now, and 8BitDo—a Hong Kong-based brand that has earned genuine trust among Japanese retro-gaming fans through its licensed-quality controllers—knows the clear blue N64 carries outsized sentimental weight here. That specific "Funtastic" color was a late-cycle Japanese-market darling, so reviving it as a desk centerpiece feels aimed squarely at the 30- and 40-somethings now buying mechanical keyboards. Expect it to move fast on Japanese pre-order pages.
Originally reported by 4Gamer.net − 最新記事 (Japanese).