7800 Computer Keyboard

The first photo is the original prototype that was designed.    It uses the Atari XL keyboard that uses a PIC processor and it plugs into one of the controller ports.  The original idea was for it to plug into the cartridge port until they realized they could use a controller port, and 2 prototypes were created within 26 hours.  Typing Tutor, Atari Lab, Programming, etc were created, plus the keyboard could have used all of Atari's existing computer peripherals.