Pre WSAD & Mouse gaming

BowdonUK said:
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.
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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

 
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varkanoid said:
Right on WASD is for wimps. I`m right handed but play always play FPS left handed. Cursor keys, 0 jump 1 crouch INS/HOME/DEL/PGUP etc for my game/utility keys. I started on a ZX80 thats back in the day when you needed a hammer and chisel to operate the keys. Although I did build my own joystick for my ZX81. Vic 20 was keyboard, CBM 64 and Amiga was joystick. Then back to keyboard and mouse for PC.
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Wait... WHAT? your right handed but play left handed? using the mouse in your left hand?!?!?!
 
Before switching to WASD I used to just use the arrow keys or the numpad.

Have not gone back since but this was many years ago! lol
 
I used to be an arrow keys player with RMB for move forward. Of course I'd need to reconfigure the keys on every game, or fresh install. One or two games didn't even allow for key changes (perhaps it was Deep Space) and especially RMB for forward so I made the switch, grudgingly, to wsad in the end.

Once the hand is on the keyboard you forget but moving hand away and back to the wrong area was super frustrating.
 
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I've been using WASD for almost as long as I remember, I think I vaguely remember using arrow keys to begin with but I must have changed over to WASD quite early on. I suspect it would have been a game came using WASD as default and just got on with it. Couldnt tell you which game that was or when it was though.

I've ordered a Razer Tartarus Pro which I should get tomorrow. I was originally looking for a 60% mech to accompany my new laptop for gaming when I'm away. However, whilst looking the Tartarus Pro caught my eye, the old Logitech g13 always interested me, but never really got round to trying one. The Mech Keyboard wouldnt really be put to much use as I dont use the laptop for anything other than Gaming/Youtube/Netflix etc, all work related stuff is done on my work laptop/home PC. So thought I'd give the Tartarus a go and see if I can get along with it, and I can use it with both my home PC and the gaming Laptop. So that will be my first venture away from traditional WASD/Mouse gaming (Except for Race/Flight sims where I use wheel/HOTAS respectively)
 
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I completed Doom 2 and Quake using keyboard only but I transitioned to mouse during Quake when I started playing deathmatch (against bots initially) as it's basically impossible to compete without it. When I started I was using the menu option where you held down a mouse button to enable freelook, eventually I realised I was basically holding it down all the time so then went full +mlook.

I don't think mouse hardware was THAT much of a problem. Yes, serial mice were like 40hz and PS2 around the same unless you clocked to 200hz with PS2rate. But TBH framerate was really low then anyway, a 1000hz mouse isn't much use if you're only getting 30fps or whatever. I'd take a 40hz mouse over aiming with keyboard any day.

I've never used WASD (except in SP games where I CBA to remap the controls), basically what happened was I determined that cursors were too far away from the weapon change keys, so I adopted TFGH which I still use today. WASD just seems illogical and suboptimal to me because it's at the side of the keyboard so is restricting the number of key you can access (pinky not fully utilised).

Playing keyboard only probably did make you think a bit more about positioning and using 'cheesy' tactics as you couldn't just rely on being able to instantly react to threats and have fast accurate aim. Strafe from behind cover, shoot, strafe back behind cover. Whereas playing Doom and Quake with mouse is just a whirlwind of action, constantly on the move to dodge attacks whilst locking your aim onto the enemies.

In Doom, it's not quite such an issue playing SP with keyboard since it's basically a 2.5d game, no looking up and down so you basically just need to pivot left and right but obviously when it comes to multiplayer you're going to be toast if you can't circle strafe (especially due the speed of player movement in Doom). People would quite literally run rings round you.
 
champ222 said:
Wait... WHAT? your right handed but play left handed? using the mouse in your left hand?!?!?!
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I was the same! I'm right handed and played Doom and Quake keyboard-only with with my right hand on the arrow keys, and left hand on Left-Ctrl. Then eventually for Quake 2, I think, I started playing online and I realised it was holding me back. It made sense at the time to keep my right hand on the arrow keys and use my left hand on the mouse. It was definitely extra difficult at first but eventually I got used to it and I was a strong competitive player. It became natural.

Several years later, I realised it was probably quite stupid of me to do that, so I switched to mousing with my right hand. I remember being terrible with left handed WASD movement, and it was frustrating as it felt like learning to play FPS games all over again. It took a good while before I got used to it and could play at a high level once more, but it was worth it.

I now main the mouse with my right hand. That said, during a heavy FPS or general gaming session when my right hand gets tired or the carpal tunnel starts playing up, I'll switch mouse hands and carry on. So in a way, it all worked out for the best.
 
Interesting read, i forgot about this since title got changed.

I used to play Duke3d with keyboard only, even during the Dukester X days, and i could compete alright. Arrow keys to look, comma and full stop to strafe, space to shoot, alt to jump and ctrl to crouch.

I never bothered with WASD, and i gave up with PC after getting tendonitis on my mouse arm, i was playing RTS mainly at the time too.

Still today i just don't bother with WASD, mouse and gamepad i like, and even games without aim assist i'll happily use a just gamepad. Played Stalker with just a gamepad and loved it, ~30 programmable buttons required though :D
 
Guest2 said:
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
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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 :p
 
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Duke said:
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 :p
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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 :)

images
 
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Nitrogen666 said:
I was the same! I'm right handed and played Doom and Quake keyboard-only with with my right hand on the arrow keys, and left hand on Left-Ctrl. Then eventually for Quake 2, I think, I started playing online and I realised it was holding me back. It made sense at the time to keep my right hand on the arrow keys and use my left hand on the mouse. It was definitely extra difficult at first but eventually I got used to it and I was a strong competitive player. It became natural.

Several years later, I realised it was probably quite stupid of me to do that, so I switched to mousing with my right hand. I remember being terrible with left handed WASD movement, and it was frustrating as it felt like learning to play FPS games all over again. It took a good while before I got used to it and could play at a high level once more, but it was worth it.

I now main the mouse with my right hand. That said, during a heavy FPS or general gaming session when my right hand gets tired or the carpal tunnel starts playing up, I'll switch mouse hands and carry on. So in a way, it all worked out for the best.
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Thats quite impressive. I would probably struggle to even load the game using a mouse left handed.
 
Until i built my new pc end of last year i used to play everything on Arrow keys and the surrounding keys, also played with inverted mouse. It used to be normal.

Switching to WASD isnt too much of an issue, though i have semtex myself at the buystation in DMZ more than i would like to admit and get messed up every now and then.

Can not move away from inverted mouse though, its just locked into my brain thats how it works. Turning it off actually makes me feel sick.

That said some of us are old enough that QA OP and space were common controls, or even zx and space. hell i found a book full of poke codes for manic miner etc written in my own childish hand when i cleared out my folks old place after they died.
 
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