PC games with keyboard only controls

This.

Trackmania is an outstanding game with only keyboard…

Gothic series. Well, at least the first one (never played the others).
SSI Gold Box games.
Older Ultima games (1-6). Yes, 6 supports a mouse, but it’s not required.

Helherron was a good one, mentioned earlier. However, you’re going to develop more physical problems in your working hand from having to re-cast buff/support spells over and over again. I really liked the game, but the re-cast issue was just too much for me. It actually had me wishing they had implemented a simple macro system like the old Wasteland.

Most Flash based, platform games.

Spelunky.

And lastly, mudding (I recommend 3-Scapes) with a mud client (Mudletis a great one). The majority of your play on a mud will then involve creating automated responses to text prompts. Hard to hurt your hand, when you don’t have to use it! I recommend purchasing CMUDif you really get into the genre.

To take it to an even further extreme:

Most car racing games should work with the keyboard.

Robot Unicorn Attack!

Grim Fandango

RE4. Good luck with that.

I’m so happy

Audiosurf, fuck yea!

Seconding Spelunky: keyboard controls, but not so many that you have to move your hands.

I seem to remember that you can control Guild Wars solely with the keyboard… I kind of wish Torchlight could be controlled that way.

Alternalte suggestion: Trackball? Gamepad?

With the earliest ones, you had to, because they had no mouse support. Mouselook was something that came along a little later.

Yeah. 1995. The Terminator: Future Shock.

Jets N Guns. Awesome arcade style shooter. So arcadey in fact, that I have it running on my MAME cabinet where all of the controls map to keyboard presses.

The Pirates! remake was playable with just the keyboard. Really though, Dwarf Fortress is the way to go. That reminds me, I should really try a new fortress to test my new-found appreciation of indoor cisterns.

  • Alan

Without being a doctor, I don’t understand how Dwarf Fortress is a good idea at all. Lots of moving around to page up and down menus or around the screen with seemingly nonstop input. Not to mention it’s addicting enough to play for hours, and that’s only going to stiffen up your joints.

The only reason this works for is that the ergonomics of keyboarding for me are heavily influenced by classical piano training. This involves more or less very minute finger movements and a lot of upper arm. While being very loud and limited to about 70 wpm it pretty much generates zero wrist stress when braced.

Also, I’m not pro enough at Dwarf Fortress to be at the ‘nonstop input’ phase yet.

Pirates!

A few years ago I snapped my right humerus clean in two and was completely unable to use that arm for many weeks. I discovered that the best game you can play with one hand is Pirates! since you can play the entire game with just the number pad.

God, yes. Get the LBA Win download from LBA HQ to get it running natively under Windows.