Pre WSAD & Mouse gaming

[Guest2]

FPS gaming in the early and mid 90s was mainly cursor keys, left ctrl to shoot and left alt to strafe.

FPS turning on a mouse with a ball was probaly the reason, it wasnt a great experience and pre PS/2 and USB serial mice also had slower response times than keyboards.

That being said, some of my fondest memories was playing Doom, Quake and Duke Nukem 3D with the keyboard only. It was only later games like Unreal, Quake 2 and Unreal tournament that changed default key mapping to WSAD to move forward, backwards and strafe with the mouse as turning and left click shoot.

It still feels strange to me to play Duke Nukem 3D with a mouse, similar with Doom. I completed both (and Quake) with a keyboard only as controls. I might have a replay of Duke 3D on keyboard only

The only early games I remember playing were some Amiga games like Behind the iron gate where different mouse control options could be selected at the main screen . e.g. mouse move forward to move forward

What games do you remember playing on keybaord only or am I the only one that prefers some games to be no mouse controls at all. Millenials must not know what i'm talking about, "Like OMG, keyboard to turn and strafe AND shoot??"

 

[Guest2]

WASD is mainly what I used from the start in the early 90s, never been a cursor key player much other than when I had to because they couldn't be rebound.

WSAD as in a turn left, d turn right?

Early FPS games had only horizonal movement, so a mouse was never really required. Im sure it was the build engine that introduced look up and down was only momentarily. Page up and page down if memory serves

 

[Guest2]

I hated FPS games without freelook mouse input (even ones with only horizontal axis) - even Quake you could do +mlook in the console and it was a way better experience even with older ball mice - you have to go back a long way to where mouse response time was so slow it was a problem. I think even our 286 had a PS/2 port and mouse responsive enough for games of the era.

About the only game I played like that was the original Wolfenstein on RISC OS where I don't believe there was mouse support but I might be wrong, most of the games since you could get to work with mouse input - even Doom out the box.

Personally I hate any first or third person view game where you can't use the mouse to look around and won't play them or that way and never have.

I think it was more that the default control method was cursor keys and ctrl to shoot. Not knowing any better we played like that and got used to it.
Same with holding left shift with my middle finger for the entire game instead of using caps lock for autorun!

It was certainly more a challenge to complete Duke Nukem 3D with alt as strafe instead of using the mouse. I did play Quake years later with a mouse and +mlook - stupidly easy in comparison

 

[Guest2]

Took me a while to get used to mouse+KB controls, the moment I discovered piracy and when we started having broadband really around 2000 when I was aroudn 10 years of age, before that we had ISDN to just used internet to download patches/updates and stuff...
Or slightly before, when I started buying pirated games as a kid.

I was never really bothered by any latency, I learned mouse controls because of Age of Empires and Transport Tycoon Deluxe in the mid 90's. After starting on MS-DOS with mostly keyboard only games.
First games I started using mouse + KB combo a lot and WASD was GTA3 and MoHAA. Before those I sticked to strategy and Sim games mostly, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Sim City, Transport Tycoon and especially a lot of AOE and AOE2...

Interesting thought on where general mouse control was picked up.

I had an Amiga 500 which I used since around 1991 - Earliest memories are basic things in Workbench such as 'Say' and using the OS. I tried Deluxe Paint which my dad mainly used.
Gaming wise it was Settlers, Lemmings, Cannon fodder, Theme park, Populous (but was too young to know how to play it) and Moonstone.
First person shooter gaming on Amiga was limited but I remember Behind The Iron gate and Death Mask were my favourites in 1995. Behind the Iron gate you controlled with a mouse and worked really well.

How they made that run on a stock A500 with a good framerate was due to some really great programming

I got a PC in 1996. The first games I played with a mouse properly was C&C and Dungeon Keeper. This was when FPS gaming was cursor keys for me (Duke 3D etc.)

 

[Guest2]

I'm 37 and distinctly remember finding it hard to move over to WASD. I grew up playing Doom & Quake. Used to have LAN matches with my Dad in DOOM (BNC network lol) and races in MicroProse F1. All with the cursor keys. This was when my school didn't even have computers and maybe one other kid in my class had one.

I also remember playing Full Throttle for the first time at my dads mates house, on a trackball mouse!

Fond memories, miss my Dad

Similar age (well, 38)
School around the age of 11 (1995) had Acorns and then in upper school at age 14 (1998) it was back to BBC micros! Quite terrible really when I had a Pentium 133 in 1996. By 1998, the hardware was moving on quickly and im pretty sure I had a Voodoo 2 around then, maybe 1999.
Full throttle came with my PC in 1996 - I played Full throttle with my dad too. Fantastic game

 

[Guest2]

I've been playing Ultima Underworld 2 recently, which uses old style controls and is very clunky because of it. I certainly remember Wolfenstein and the first Doom being all keyboard controls.

I think I had the first game which properly embedded mouse look - Terminator Future Shock. Predictably - at the time it got complained about by the reviewers because of the 'awkward controls'!

I tried Future Shock the other day, fantastic game

Looking back it's remarkable how much we put up with crappy controls, try playing FPS's games on PS1/Saturn/N64 era controllers. Back in the 90's before I got a PC I really enjoyed playing Exhumed on the Sega Saturn, to look up and down you had to press and hold the buttons to the far right of the controllers and it wasn't quick to adjust either. Playing it now is a jarring experience but at the time I had no problem with it.

I remember trying C&C on my friends Playstation. It was laughable on the joypad

 

[Guest2]

I'm probably in the minority here but I don't use WASD and mouselook. I use ASD and replace W with RMB for forwards. I use W for melee. Given that I am now 60 I can't see that changing.

Interesting, what do you use to look up and down?

 

[Guest2]

I've always played pc games with the wasd and the mouse.

I don't remember a time when pc games were keyboard only. Though I was coming from the Amiga so might have missed that part.

What FPS games did you first play on PC?

I came from Amiga too and many games used the mouse, only a couple in FPS games though.
The main reason for me using keyboard only on PC was default controls were cursor keys and ctl for shoot, alt for strafe. I just left them as they were and didnt bother thinking about using the mouse. Setting up advanced mouse controls to play Duke 3d shareware in early 1996 when I was 12, no thanks. Just let me play it!

Now it feels more nostalgic using game default controls, especially Duke 3d with alt for strafe. Harder and more rewarding. When I use a mouse it's so easy... but doesnt feel right

 

[Guest2]

I think it was the first Doom.

I remember back in the day it was initiated by DOS command lines, and we had to select the sound card type, and I think keyboard and mouse type on some of them.

The PC wasn't the best machine for games back then, in my opinion. But when the Amiga crashed PC makers saw an opportunity.

Doom in 93 / early 94 was light years ahead of Amiga first person shooters. 'Gloom' on the Amiga was the closest thing, but even that you needed an A1200 and even then it ran like spuds.
I guess the downside of the Amiga was how underpowered it was and hardware was moving fast mid 90s. Games like Behind the iron gate were released in 1995, it was a fantastic FPS for Amiga but this was made to run on Amiga 500 and it was too late.
PCs were on about Pentium 133 in 95 / 96. 20x as powerful as an A500 and 5x as powerful as an A4000.

Early sound on PC however was shocking, early as in late 80s. I had only been on friends parents PCs in the late 80s and most only had PC speaker. My parents bought me a second hand Amiga 500 in 1991 (A500 was released in 1987) The sound in some games was mind blowing. Turrican and Turrican 2 for example had jaw dropping sound as did many games. Some are still etched into my brain - PP hammer from 1991 for example. The Paula sound chip brought the Amiga to life. PC speaker was no comparison at all

 

[Guest2]

This was one of my favourite games on the Amiga and I think it was towards the end of my Amiga ownership originally. My friend and me used to drop ammo and things as a way to find our way to the exit after setting off the bomb thing, I have no idea why we didn't just draw a map on paper

I think you were supposed to use the strange and sometimes creepy pictures on the wall to remember areas.
Dropping ammo is a genious method too, like unwinding red string from the bomb