on the ZX Spectrum it was always QAOP, and because there was no space bar (a small space button was in the bottom right), fire was M. this worked nicely as rarely did a game require you to use any other keys, and a mouse was just a Disney character.
This always blew my mind when going round to my friend’s house. He had a speccy, I had a c64. I can’t remember what the default was on C64 but it wasn’t anywhere near as “odd”/“iconic”
I was going to say the same, and I’m not changing from QAOP after all these years! ;-)
Yeah, I am with Madmarcus here on this point. Games I tend to play rely on Shift and Control, and lately Tab, too much for me to shift over that far, I believe.
I think a multi buttoned mouse helps with the Lshift, Ctrl, Tab dilemma in these modern days.
WASD is perfect for my thumb on the spacebar, and access to the Ctrl, shift, etc. I don’t want the standard typing position… I’m not typing!
WASD has been adopted as the standard because it’s the objectively perfect mapping for shooters. But hey, I’m in support of key remapping for people who are afraid to fly too close to the sun.
I decided on this setup in college and used it for a long time, but eventually I got tired of spending time rebinding keys for new games and just gave in. It’s never going to be the default, and I’d rather waste keyboard real estate than time these days.
ESDF would be my preference for those extra pinky buttons, and I think that was the default in Tribes 2, but yeah, there’s no way I’m rebinding every game I own.
I J K M forever.
(ok, not really)
Close, but the actual optimal config is hjkl, aka vi-keys. All text inputs on a computer should support vi input modes.
ESDF is OK i guess because it at least preserves the home row, but if you are going to have to remap everything might as well do it right in the first place.
I cannot imagine what benefit would be worth rebinding everything in every game I play. I usually don’t rebind anything unless the default mapping is totally weird (and honestly, things are so standardized these days that is vanishingly rare). Although I suppose part of the thing is I’m not one of those people that plays the same game for 4000 hours. I skip around a lot.
Sorry, but my brain can’t not pronounce that as “Asswad”. I’m not sure if that’s what he intended, but either way… yuck.
I don’t use Dvorak, but I switched to Colemak, which is a bit less radical, a few years ago and have been very happy with it. When I was first learning it I struggled switching back and forth with QWERTY, but now that I’m more comfortable with it I find my brain can change gears pretty easily – just a minute or two of adjustment for my brain to summon up the right muscle memory and I can type with most of my former QWERTY speed.
Unfortunately you can’t switch to Colemak in Windows without installing some modifications, but, like I said, if I have to use QWERTY it’s not the end of the world.
(These days that problem is partly solved because I use a Moonlander as my main keyboard with a Colemak layer set in firmware. It’s small enough to stick in a backpack if I think I’m going to be going somewhere where I’ll be making extended use of a computer I don’t have admin rights on. Or on vacation to go with my laptop.)
Hi there, my name is Rob and I care a lot about keyboards. :D
Also a lefty. Cannot use anything but the NumPad, although I’ve made repeated, unsuccessful attempts to retool my brain and muscle memory.
OG arrow keys 4 lyfe.
RDFG? Pah. As if anyone needs all those ‘extra keys’ since consoles dictated Thou Shalt Only Carry Two Guns, anyways.
I’m staying on WASD for simple reasons:
- I only ever use 2 keys on the sides of forward movement: Q/Tab, E/R.
- Only 2 keys on the sides of lateral movement: Caps and F.
Whenever I try to use any keys that are further away(be it left or right), they just do not work for my hands. When I played MMOs, i just used the extra mouse buttons for more bindings so switching would accomplish absolutely nothing.
No thanks.
Just curious, what kind of games are you playing where you need so many keys?
As a lefty, I just use the keys that literally describe the action I’m taking- forwards, backwards, left and right. I also like having the extra blank real estate around the keys.
I was gutted when Cyberpunk came out and you couldn’t use those keys.
You don’t really need more for most games, but two genres in particular really benefit - MMOs and military sims. Personally, in World of Warcraft, I generally had a lot of cooldowns that I didn’t use frequently but always wanted to have close by, and clicking those meant I wasn’t using the mouse for the camera. And in PUBG/EFT/etc, you’ve got all kinds of commands for zeroing scopes, chasing walking speed, using different inventory slots.
Also personally, I find ZXC awkward to hit regardless of where my hand rests, so it’d be nice to have more space on the left to rebind those if I wanted. I’m not bothered enough by it to do anything about it - just enough to chime in when I see a forum post about it.
WHAT! I think I’ve only ever played the WASD set up?