First use of WASD for game control

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The first game I ever used WASD in was Duke Nukem 3D online, I kept wondering why some people were pwning me then they let me in on the secret that would change all 3D games control... that said I can't remember the first game to have it as standard but remember it was a long time after I learned about it. I dont think Quake even used it as standard but I may be mistaken. Maybe SIN?
 
hardBBQ said:
Sorry...off-topic..but I just wanted to say that WASD sucks. :) YGHJ is much better, because it allows easy access to nearly every key on the keyboard.

I've never met a game where I couldn't map every single function to a key that I wouldn't have to find by looking, or where I would have to move my hand off the primary movement keys.

WASD is extremely limiting in my opinion.
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Unless you do a lot of typing and as such use a "natural" split-style keyboard. :)

WASD + MX 510 (7 buttons + scroll wheel) allows me to do everything I need to do in virtually every game. I'm transitioning to the n52 speedpad though, which will give me even more functionality.
 
H8 "natural" keyboards.

Oh, on the WASD discussion in general, I typically use it, for lack of not wanting to bother with reconfiguring keys, but I find ESDF to be a little nicer. You have to shift a lot of keys right, but it works great. F typically has a dot, divet, or other tactile locator, so it's nearly impossible to lose place of movement keys. Think of placing your hand left hand on a keyboard natually to type AWEF. Drop your pinky and ring finger down one, and you win. Pinky lands right on Z (for me) so that's crouch, or some other very commonly used function. Don't have to reorient to type, either. Your index should always remain on F, right where that tactile locator is. :)
 
accidentalsuccess said:
I think the first WASD default was marathon. . .


I personally haven't used WASD until fairly recently (Tribes and on). My brain still thinks pinky=jump and I switch back and forth depending on how the game works. I played HL2 with WASD, though.
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WASD WASSSSUP
 
I hate WASD. Far too easy to stray off the relevant button at the wrong time. Also lopsided. Ugh.

I have always remapped to the number pad since the very early days. I like to use Turn left and right as well as Strafe and the mouse. Just gives a little extra movement options and the essential Circle strafing technique which sucks with only the mouse. With the number pad you also have a selection of easily reached buttons around the movement controls. COmbine that with a mouse with thumbs buttons and a scroll wheel and you have the perfect setup.

Valve have just dropped off my Christmas list by disbling Turn left and right in CSS for some reason know only to themselves. Hopefully just a bug as playing without this extra dimension is next to impossioble for an old git like me these days.
 
I read in PC gamer a couple years ago that Duke 3D was the game that introduced mouse-look to the world (and I assume they're doing their research), so I would assume they've got to at least be influential in the WASD config.
 
Wasn't Dark Forces the first FPS with free look? Dark Forces came out in 1995 whereas Duke 3d came out in 1996.

And I remember Thresh.

And I only started using WASD recently as well. Since I got my Zboard and D00M 3.
 
superthrawn said:
Unless you were playing a different version than I was, free look wasn't enabled in DF.
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Oh that's right you had to use the page up and page down key to look around. Sorry, then Duke 3d was the first game with free look.

Or am I completely off my rocker?
 
I'm pretty sure Marathon came out around 94-95, and it had free look.
 
I have never and will never use the WASD gaming setup.

I just move the keyboard to the left and tilt it just a tad.

The 9 buttons above the arrows are used for stuff as well as CTRL, Shift, Enter and then the number pad for those games that need lots of buttons.
 
-loGan- said:
Just gives a little extra movement options and the essential Circle strafing technique which sucks with only the mouse.
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Ah yes, 7-8-6 or 8-9-4, my favorites.

Moose777 said:
I dont' ever recall Marathon. What the heck was it about?
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It's a Mac thing. Excellent game by Bungie, long before they were bought by MS.

Moose777 said:
Wasn't Dark Forces the first FPS with free look? Dark Forces came out in 1995 whereas Duke 3d came out in 1996.
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Wow, I spent hours and hours playing that game, making maps and such. It sorta had mouse look, as you could use the mouse to look side to side, but if I remember correctly you could not look up and down with the mouse, and were forced to use keys to do that (default was page up and page down). But this was really unneccessary with the auto aim :-p.
 
Punchbugy said:
It's a Mac thing. Excellent game by Bungie, long before they were bought by MS.
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That's probably why I've never heard of it.



Punchbugy said:
Wow, I spent hours and hours playing that game, making maps and such. It sorta had mouse look, as you could use the mouse to look side to side, but if I remember correctly you could not look up and down with the mouse, and were forced to use keys to do that (default was page up and page down). But this was really unneccessary with the auto aim :-p.
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I tried to install DF on my rig last night to see but it won't load under Xp. So, I dunno how to get it to work. I want to confirm if it had free look or not. I do remember the auto aim though.

*EDIT*
I used the DOS emulator and got it to run with no sound. And there is no free look. So, I think Duke3d was the first PC game with free look.
 
I for some reason use WERD, which seems to be a much more natural combo for me,

E= forward
D=back
W=left
R=right
 
I personally remember the first game I saw using WASD was Battlezone (98). Loved that game and ended up adopting the keys to my other games. I did sort of remember games afterward starting to default to that, but I can't say it was the first, just personally.
 
Lizzardx said:
I personally remember the first game I saw using WASD was Battlezone (98). Loved that game and ended up adopting the keys to my other games. I did sort of remember games afterward starting to default to that, but I can't say it was the first, just personally.
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Your Guild Wars 2 class is:

GW2_AsuraNecromancer_800x600.jpg
 
I'm pretty sure the first game with mouse look was Terminator: Future Shock

At first I was thinking it might be skynet, but I had totally forgotten about this, I think it might have used wasd or edsf too, but I can't remember.
 
Night of the living thread, indeed.

My first pc experience with the WASD keys was doom. Never played pc games before that
 
Bard's Tale or Wizardry on the Apple II+. Or were they with the arrow keys. Hmm.
 
I remember the original Dark Forces had PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN as look up and down. Hilarious!
 
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