Say hello to the elgato stream decks great grandpa – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Sean Hollister
Say hello to the Elgato Stream Deck’s great-grandpa.

Before he left The Verge, my colleague Jon Porter was able to try the Optimus Popularis — the LCD keyboard that paved the way for every LCD keypad since. While we weren’t quite able to feature Jon’s hands-on images in our feature story, we figured you might appreciate them!

Psst: if you’ve got the even earlier Optimus Maximus lying around, I’d love to try it!

<em>By 2012, the keys already looked much like the Stream Deck’s lenses.</em>
<em>They’ve got that concave, inverse </em><a href="https://thevergetoday.pages.dev/23706779/stream-deck-pop-bubbles-bubbledeck"><em>bubble-wrap effect</em></a><em>.</em>
<em>We couldn’t resist adding Verge icons and Verge-y colors.</em>
<em>Bonus: Here’s the keyboard’s industrial designer, Timur Burbaev, holding up the lens assembly on our video call.</em>
<em>The inside of the lens array.</em>
1/7
By 2012, the keys already looked much like the Stream Deck’s lenses.
Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge
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