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Everything about the keyboard in one place, for a real Einstein and for MAME. While the MAME window is in front, MAME lays the Einstein's keys over yours by position, so a few characters are not where your own keys say they are.
| Einstein | In MAME | What it does in BBC BASIC |
|---|---|---|
| ENTER | Return | hands the line to BBC BASIC |
| DELETE | Backspace | rubs out the character to the left |
| SHIFT-DELETE | Shift and Backspace | opens a space at the cursor |
| ESC | Esc | stops a running program, an INPUT, a LIST or AUTO; abandons an EDIT |
| CAPS LOCK | Caps Lock | on at the start; keep it on - BBC BASIC's words must be capitals |
| CTRL | Ctrl (Control on a Mac) | with a letter, the editing keys below |
| SHIFT | Shift | the second character on a key |
| GRPH | F8 | with a key, types one of the Einstein's graphics characters |
| the horizontal cursor key | Tab | cursor right; with SHIFT, left |
| the vertical cursor key | the Down arrow | to the end of the line; with SHIFT, to its start |
| Keys | What they do |
|---|---|
| CTRL-H, or SHIFT and the horizontal cursor key | cursor left |
| CTRL-D, or the horizontal cursor key | cursor right |
| CTRL-K, or SHIFT and the vertical cursor key | to the start of the line |
| CTRL-J, or the vertical cursor key | to the end of the line |
| CTRL-F | delete the character under the cursor |
| CTRL-U | delete from the cursor to the end of the line |
| CTRL-X | delete from the cursor back to the start |
Typing replaces the character under the cursor.
The Einstein does not have four arrow keys. It has two grey cursor keys, side by side at the right-hand end of the QWERTY row, each marked with a double-headed arrow:
| Key | On its own | With SHIFT |
|---|---|---|
| the horizontal cursor key | cursor right | cursor left |
| the vertical cursor key | cursor down | cursor up |
Three other keys have a single arrow printed on them, but they are ordinary character keys, and the arrow is the character they type: the Einstein draws [ as a left arrow, ] as a right arrow and ^ as an up arrow.
| Key | Where it is | Types | With SHIFT |
|---|---|---|---|
| ← (marked ¼ and ←) | end of the QWERTY row, next to the cursor keys | [ | { |
| → (marked ¾ and →) | end of the ASDF row, next to ENTER | ] | } |
| ↑ (marked ÷ and ↑) | the number row, between = and ½ | ^ | ~ |
In MAME the two cursor keys are on your Tab key and your Down arrow: Tab is right, Shift and Tab is left, Down is down, and Shift and Down is up. Your Left, Right and Up arrows are the three character keys: Left types [, Right types ] and Up types ^. That is why MAME users so often report that the Einstein's arrow keys type brackets and do not move the cursor. The keys under those three arrows are not the cursor keys.
In BBC BASIC the horizontal cursor key is CTRL-D, and with SHIFT CTRL-H: one place right or left. The vertical key is CTRL-J, and with SHIFT CTRL-K: to the end of the line, or to its start.
Tatung's own manual describes the two cursor keys and the keyboard this way, and MAME's Einstein agrees with it. What the keys do in BBC BASIC was checked in MAME, not on a real Einstein. If you have one and it behaves differently, please let us know and this page will be corrected.
| To type | On the Einstein | In MAME |
|---|---|---|
" | SHIFT and 2 | SHIFT and 2, whatever your 2 says |
( and ) | SHIFT and 8, SHIFT and 9 | SHIFT 8 and SHIFT 9 |
@ | SHIFT and 0 | SHIFT and 0 |
: and * | the : * key | the ' key, plain and shifted |
; and + | the ; + key | the ; key, plain and shifted |
= and - | the = - key: - is SHIFT | =, and SHIFT = for minus |
_ and ` | the key marked - £ | the - key, plain and shifted |
| and \ | the one-half key | the \ key, plain and shifted |
Minus is SHIFT and =. The key marked - types an underscore - the most common slip there is.
Nine characters are drawn on the Einstein's screen as something else. They are still the same characters - only the picture differs:
| Character | Looks like |
|---|---|
` | £ |
[ | ← |
] | → |
^ | ↑ |
{ | ¼ |
} | ¾ |
~ | ÷ |
| | ‖ |
\ | ½ |
So ^ (to the power of) looks like an up arrow in a listing, and ANIMAL's \ looks like ½.
MAME has keys of its own - Esc to quit, F3 to reset - and it starts with them switched off, so that Esc reaches the Einstein. Forward delete (Fn and Backspace on a Mac laptop) switches them on and off. If Esc ever closes MAME instead of stopping your program, that key has been pressed: press it again.
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