Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

If you played PSO back on the Dreamcast (or other consoles), did you get the keyboard to use with it? I did, but it was really awkward to have a controller and keyboard in my lap and switch back and forth. It's such a shame that the Dreamcast keyboard can't be used with a computer, too.

Yes! It was also a great way to play PSO with a friend, by letting them do all the talking.

Yes but for some reason the keyboard didn't like to work half the time. Of course I got it from the folks that make the Action Replay so that could be the reason...

When I first started playing DC PSO I already had an Innovations brand adaptor that my sister and her husband had given me as a Birthday or Christmas present (don't recall which) the previous year. The adaptor allowed you to connect a PS/2 computer keyboard or PS1 or Saturn game controller to the Dreamcast. Keyboards connected using the adaptor weren't fully functional though, but it worked well enough to simplify the chatting process.

A couple of months into playing PSO I finally got sick of certain functions and punctuation symbol keys not working and bought a used authentic Sega keyboard pretty cheap. That really improved the playability of the game as far as the online aspects were concerned.

Still, the headache of holding a full sized keyboard in your lap, or juggling it between lap and floor whilst playing PSO was a bit of a nuisance. So in 2006 I finally broke down and imported one of the official Japanese Dreamcast mini-keyboards, which was still rather expensive at that time. Talk about a drastic improvement, at only a little over half the size of a regular keyboard it no longer posed such an inconvenience to hold it in your lap while playing. My only regret was that I hadn't imported the thing any sooner.

Also purchased the official USB keyboard adaptor for Xbox PSO, but never got to use it since I couldn't go online with my Xbox.