Apricot Portable| 1984 Portable PC with Voice Recognition and Wireless Keyboard and Mouse

joshmtyler

Making a really rad and mostly forgotten about PC from 1984, the Apricot Portable. (Thanks LGR)
I have so many restrictions at work, I just wanted to cut loose on something unimportant.

C&C always welcome!

Simple Reference:

joshmtyler

Update. Still plenty of work to do. As always, C&C welcomed and appreciated

joshmtyler

More stickers and material definition!
I'm calling this section done. Now I have to throw it in Unreal or Marmoset with a little tabletop scene. I have to figure out how to make that part interesting.

bmasterson

Looks awesome. Only comment and it's really minor, is that keyboard still looks way too nice. You've given off the vibe of a hard core computer user. Unless they've replaced that keyboard a few times, I imagine there would be some gunk between the keys. Keyboards always pick up hair, skin oils, and all kinds of random stuff. Pretty gross really. Same with the track ball. 

joshmtyler

bmasterson said:

 "...that keyboard still looks way too nice." 

You're right. I don't know why, but I was struggling getting this to look better. I am going to move the keys around a bit to make a few look almost broken. Should help. I'll do one final grunge pass though! Maybe get rid of the text paint on a few keys.

Thanks!

Carabiner

+1 to @bmasterson 's comment! One other thing I noticed about the keyboard is your inset oval shapes have pretty defined ridges around them, whereas in your reference, those are more of a gentle curve.

Like this - drew up a quick diagram of the side view. Your keys are on top, what I'm seeing from the ref is bottom:

root

I think the thing I love most about this is that because it's got a transmetropolitan sticker on it, this thing has obviously continued to be in use well into the late 90s.

joshmtyler

@CarabinerI see where you are coming from, but in many of my other references, you can see a distinct lip. However, mine definitely has a more abrasive "bowl".

Alemja

Rad computer! I've never seen one of these before, such a funky design. I do agree that there is something off about the keys and I think that the lip you have it too strong in comparison to the reference image. I would reduce it down by about 50%

joshmtyler

Thanks, @Alemja, I am in love with these things! They are so unique. It was the first computer to have voice recognition; up to 6000 words! Wireless keyboard and mouse via infrared. I think I can just simply reduce the height map.