An Apple II Homage for the Modern Mac
If you’re a retro tech nerd—and since you’re reading Galactigeek, we can safely assume you are—you probably already know and love 8BitDo. They’re the masterminds who have spent years keeping our thumbs blister-free with glorious, affordable retro gamepads and nostalgic mechanical keyboards. But now, 8BitDo is celebrating Apple’s 50th anniversary by taking a massive leap into the macOS ecosystem with the newly announced Retro 68 Keyboard – AP50th Limited Edition.
This absolute beauty of a peripheral is a loving, meticulously crafted homage to the original 1977 Apple II. We’re talking about that iconic, warm putty-beige and brown colorway that confidently screams, “I still play *The Oregon Trail* and I know exactly what a floppy disk is”. It’s 8BitDo’s first real dedicated push into the Mac world, fully supporting macOS natively right out of the box (along with Windows and Android, because why not). It even comes with those famously massive programmable dual super buttons, which are also beautifully dressed up in classic Apple II beige. It hits you right in the nostalgia bone, perfectly blending vintage aesthetics with modern wireless connectivity, Bluetooth, and hot-swappable mechanical switches.
The Five-Hundred-Dollar Elephant in the Room
Before you excitedly throw your credit card at the screen, we need to talk about the catch. The AP50th Limited Edition comes with a massive, eye-watering caveat: it costs $500.
Yes, you read that correctly. The hardware company famously known for wallet-friendly, budget-conscious gear has decided to release a super premium, limited-edition run that costs roughly as much as an entry-level Mac Mini. Why the astronomical price tag? Because 8BitDo decided that standard plastic simply wasn’t good enough for Steve Wozniak’s brainchild. Almost every single external millimeter of this 68-key beast is machined from solid aluminum alloy. The chassis is aluminum. The retro keycaps are aluminum. Even those giant super buttons are made of cold, hard aluminum.
The result is a keyboard that tips the scales at an absurd five pounds. It’s less of a portable typing accessory and more of a desk-anchored weapon. If a burglar breaks into your home, you could feasibly defend yourself with this keyboard, and the premium Kailh Box Ice Cream Pro Max switches would probably still actuate perfectly afterward.
The AP50th LE keyboard has truly stunning build quality. We just can’t stomach the price tag.
Where Did My Function Keys Go? (And What We Want Next)
As stunning as the AP50th is, its compact 68-key layout presents a minor annoyance for productivity. It completely ditches the dedicated function key row. For Mac power users, losing quick-access hardware keys for screen brightness, Mission Control, and media playback is a tough pill to swallow—especially when you’re shelling out half a grand for the typing privilege.
Here at Galactigeek, we are desperately hoping 8BitDo hears our plea: please, make a regular, non-premium model. We completely adore the Apple II aesthetic, but we’d happily settle for high-quality plastic if it meant bringing the price back down to 8BitDo’s usual $100 ballpark. Furthermore, we would absolutely love to see this available in an 87-key tenkeyless (TKL) variant, or even a sprawling 108-key full-size model. Give us our function keys back, give us a number pad, and let us relive the glorious dawn of personal computing without having to skip our rent payments!
