We take it for granted that FPS games\h these days are going to conform to the\h\h
control methods of WASD for movement, and your\h trusty old mouse for aiming. It feels natural,\h\h
intuitive, as life should be. But\h it wasn’t so long ago when we were\h\h
all using a more conventional\h control system… the ARROW keys.
Anyone who says they played Doom back in\h the day, but can’t master arrow keys in\h\h
conjunction with the CTRL and SHIFT keys is\h a filthy rotten liar. This was our staple,\h\h
this was how we moved, and it\h was, well it had it’s limitations,\h\h
but at least we were all on the same page.\h That is, until one guy changed everything….
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But before that, WASD and the mouse was\h already a thing. It had been used before,\h\h
and some might say, to great effect.
This is Dark Castle on the Sega Mega Drive,\h\h
and it’s a howling piece of utter sh*t.\h However, before it got there, it was here,\h\h
on the Apple Mac, in 1986, and the one\h thing the Mac definitely had, was a mouse.
STORM CLOUDS
CLASSICAL MUSIC
A DARK CASTLE
YOU FIND YOURSELF IN A DARK ROOM.
The scene is set. Now all we need to do is\h navigate this place (not like that). Our\h\h
protagonist, Duncan, can do all the\h usual platform manoeuvres… running,\h\h
jumping, ducking, and throwing\h rocks at enemy faces. Yeah,\h\h
maybe not to much the last one. But it’s\h the method of control that is unusual here,\h\h
or unusual for the time. WASD is used to dictate\h Duncan’s direction, whilst the mouse can be used\h\h
to aim his arm and fire. So, very much like\h our modern day use, just in a Platform game.
The reason the Mega Drive version was\h so utter tripe pants, is because it\h\h
tried to port this very specific control\h method to a control pad. How the hell\h\h
that was ever going to work, I have no\h idea. But, it didn’t, and it was crap.
So, that’s great you may say, but 1986 we had\h a solid set of controls…. so what happened?
Well, Dark Castle wasn’t that much of a\h well known game. I mean, it was on the Mac\h\h
for sure. But the ports it received to other\h systems weren’t popular, and were generally\h\h
inferior. Given the Mac wasn’t known as a gaming\h platform, WASD was left to the history books.
If you look at other home computers of the\h time, take the ZX Spectrum for example. One\h\h
of the most control layouts was to use the QAOP\h and space keys. Wielding the full extent of the\h\h
keyboard if you will. Here, Q is up A is down, O\h is left, P is right and Space is fire. It’s very\h\h
likely you rest your fingers on these keys\h on your keyboard now. Try it. It’s natural,\h\h
and that’s what it was all about. Finding\h a configuration that felt, natural.
So, then, along comes the IBM PC AT\h Compatible, and one thing about the\h\h
IBM PC AT Compatible, is that it has a full\h size keyboard, along with numeric keypad,\h\h
that block of weird control keys, function\h buttons, and of course, the arrow keys.
And here’s the problem. The arrow keys\h were never really a comfortable method\h\h
of control. When you rest your hand on them,\h most of your hand is hanging in mid air. You\h\h
have to pull your arm back off the edge\h of the desk. You have to work with those\h\h
keys… and really, that’s because they\h existed just to navigate Word documents,\h\h
spreadsheets and the like. Not for you to pound\h to hell as you frantically move around E1M1.
The arrow keys were not a comfortable\h choice. They were a logical choice.\h\h
They are directional. Games need\h direction. You can see the quandary.
Using the arrow keys with gaming has been\h a staple then since the 80s. Even with\h\h
the original IBM XT Machines, and their model F\h keyboards (which lacked dedicated cursor keys),\h\h
the numpad still had cursors\h using the 4,8,6 and 2 keys,\h\h
which of course carried over to later\h keyboards. When AT machines came along,\h\h
numeric pad cursor presses and dedicated cursor\h presses became essentially interchangeable.
Just don’t talk to me about Wang keyboards.\h I have no idea what’s going on there….
So games like Borgwar, or Elite\h or Outrun or Duke Nukem, etc, etc,\h\h
all used cursor keys. If you had a joystick\h and a soundcard to plug one into, then great,\h\h
otherwise the keyboard was your friend. Of\h course games towards the end of the 80s and\h\h
early 90s started heavily using mouse controls\h too. But it was uncommon for a game to need\h\h
mouse control and keyboard control consistently\h at the same time. More common was the need to\h\h
execute some functions using the keyboard,\h but with the mouse as your main control.
But action games, were mostly keyboard.\h So when Hovertank, and importantly,\h\h
Wolfenstein 3D came along, it\h stuck to the well known formula;
It went a bit like this; Forwards, backwards,\h look left, look right. But what about if you\h\h
wanted to side-step or strafe. Well, that\h would usually entail holding down the ALT\h\h
key in conjunction with left and right. If you\h wanted to move faster, you’d hold down shift too,\h\h
and if you wanted to fire, then you’d use\h CTRL. Personally I preferred the cramped style,\h\h
using all the keys on the right of the\h board, but a lot of people opted for\h\h
the keys on the left. Whatever your\h preference, this was the standard.
As you’d expect, Id’s DOOM was no different, and\h really popularised this FPS control format. From\h\h
this point on, almost every 90s FPS\h would rely on the same set of keys.
However, despite myths suggesting otherwise Doom\h actually had mouse support from the go. In fact,\h\h
Version 1.0 of the game had it right\h there in the setup menu. In fact,\h\h
Wolfenstein 3D also had mouse support, too,\h it’s just that, well, most people didn’t use it.
The first reason, especially for Wolfenstein,\h\h
is that many machines didn’t actually come\h with a mouse. If you didn’t have Windows,\h\h
and lived exclusively in the realm of\h DOS, well, there wasn’t much need for one.
The second reason for that is familiarity.\h People stuck to what they knew. For action games,\h\h
that meant the keyboard. It just a bit\h weird to use a mouse in this manner.\h\h
Especially pushing the mouse forward and\h backward to step forward and backward.
The third reason was that Doom was a DOS\h game, and out of the box, DOS doesn’t have\h\h
mouse support. To get mouse support you needed\h to install a MOUSE driver upon boot. Easy enough,\h\h
but a mouse driver used precious conventional\h memory, and for DOS users that stuff was vital.
Plus – and this is important – have you seen\h the DPI on these old Mice. It is ATROTIOUS.\h\h
Playing any game that required quick movement\h was HELL, unless you had a VERY expensive mouse.
A January 1994 Usenet survey by Richard\h Ward actually reported around 28% of\h\h
users to be using mouse controls,\h compared to 61% using the keyboard\h\h
and 11% using a joystick. But this was\h die hard Internet primed gamers. From\h\h
a more casual perspective, I would\h assume it was about half of that.
But actually, if you got down to it,\h\h
it was clear the Mouse was the superior\h controller… as Romero himself testifies.
Nerd: “So, John Romero, legend… can you confirm\h that Doom was designed to be used with a mouse?”
Romero: “Absolutely. Even Wolfenstein\h was designed to be used with a mouse.\h\h
Doom was absolutely designed to be used with\h a mouse. We put strafe on the mouse (the 2nd\h\h
mouse button). It’s the best way to play\h the game. You try and deathmatch somebody\h\h
who’s using keyboard only… they’re done.\h Yeah the mouse just changed everything”
Nerd: “So it makes it quicker,\h more nimble, everything is better”
Romero: “Yeah, it will beat\h everyone on a console on a\h\h
console if you were using a\h mouse and a keyboard, yeah”
Nerd: “Perfect, thank you very much!”
Just take a look at the Doom Demo loops. It’s\h blatantly clear here that John Romero was using\h\h
the mouse to record these. Whereas\h a keyboard offers a digital input,\h\h
and therefore a consistent speed\h of turning, the mouse is analogue,\h\h
which allows you to spin quickly (or slowly)\h from left to right, giving you greater control.
It also allowed you to strafe around enemies\h with a steady and constant aim on them,\h\h
rather than the jerky controls offered by the\h keyboard. It’s the same concept as early racing\h\h
games. On a keyboard, you are either turning\h fully or you are not turning at all. Steering\h\h
is on or off. With analogue controls, such as the\h mouse, you get a proportionate amount of control.
But, what made things feel restrictive here was\h that you couldn’t look up and down. Doom isn’t a\h\h
true 3D game. This world isn’t true 3D. It’s\h Pseudo 3D and so, our abilities are limited.
That’s where Quake comes in.
BUT before we get to Quake, it was again\h the Apple Macintosh that got there first.
In December 1994, Bungee released a game called\h Marathon on the Mac, featuring a full 3D world,\h\h
and making full use of the mouse in the process.\h Featuring Free-Look, you could use the mouse to\h\h
explore your world fully, looking up and down\h and left and right. The thing with Marathon,\h\h
is it didn’t include default controls to\h make use of this. It’s almost like the mouse\h\h
looking control was designed to be used completely\h independently to the keyboard controls. With Doom,\h\h
it wasn’t really an issue, as you could\h push the mouse forward to move forward,\h\h
and backward to move backward. With Marathon,\h you’d have to use the keyboard to move,\h\h
and then attempt to strafe with one hand….\h it just wasn’t simple. Some people opted\h\h
for key configurations such as ASDC,\h with A and S to strafe left and right,\h\h
and D and C to move forwards and backwards.\h A sort of proto-WSAD if you like.
But again, being on the Mac, it just didn’t\h reach the audiences of PC based game.
[The Look by Roxette plays]
[Quake sounds]
By the time Quake arrived in 1996,\h you could also now look up and down,\h\h
BUT, it wasn’t really necessary. Gamers had\h become so used to playing with the keyboard,\h\h
that adding LOOK controls into the equation was\h just a pain. I mean, how would you even do that?
Well, it turns out by using the same method as\h STRAFING. Just holding down another button and\h\h
pressing up and down. But it’s cumbersome, and in\h the heat of the action, that’s not what you need.
So, you can use the mouse, but\h this was such an alien concept,\h\h
that you had to enable it using the\h Quake console. Open it up type +MLOOK,\h\h
and THEN you can use the mouse to\h look around. It’s not even a standard\h\h
option in the menu. To the game, this was\h effectively the same as holding down a key.
If you wanted to play Quake on anything other\h than Easy, this was really the way to do it.
Now, you might ask why it wasn’t a default\h option, and the reason is simple. It’s legacy,\h\h
it’s that old adage of sticking to\h what we’re used to. John Romero even\h\h
said it himself “…when we released Quake\h I thought mouselook was too advanced as\h\h
a default so made it an option.\h Defaulted on in later update.”.
It wouldn’t be until Quake 2 when\h mouselook would become default,\h\h
and that’s when players really started upping\h their game, especially in the online arena.
ONLINE
Services like BT Wireplay allowed\h users to dial up to servers,\h\h
and engage in huge multiplayer battles.\h You could do this with Duke Nukem 3D and\h\h
you could do it with Quake 2… and the\h thing that happens when you have a lot\h\h
of people playing against is other, is\h some of them get good…. REALLY good.
This realm. This mixing pot of good players does\h something. It leads players to come up with ways\h\h
of making themselves better, of levelling up\h even harder, and that means taking a step back,\h\h
looking at methods of control, and thinking…\h how can I make this better serve me?
That’s exactly what a gentleman by\h the name of Dennis “Thresh” Fong did.
On Monday August 26th 1996, the\h Wall Street Journal featured an\h\h
article about the first “professional gamer”
“Thresh”… short for “Threshold”, had\h been into gaming since the years of\h\h
MUDS. But it was Quake which really made his\h senses pop, and Thresh got good, REAL good.
On 27th August 1996, the San\h Francisco Examiner reported;
“At the start of a recent computer tournament\h near here, fingers twitched nervously on mice\h\h
and keyboards as 200 young enthusiasts from around\h the country waited for the marathon competition to\h\h
begin. Suddenly, there was a gasp in the hall.\h Someone glancing at the roster of entrants spied\h\h
a name that provoked instant fear. “THRESH”? he\h exclaimed. “Is he playing?” another asked. Soon\h\h
the room was in revolt, with contestants refusing\h to play, relenting only after Thresh agreed to\h\h
withdraw. “I’ll challenge anyone to a deathmatch”,\h said Jason Langas, a 17 year old gamer from San\h\h
Jose who attended the June tounrament in Santa\h Clara. “Except Thresh. He’ll kill be blindfolded”
And part of the key to Thresh’s ability\h was the control setup he had adopted.
In a 2019 Vox interview, he explained.
“some people used arrow keys, which were on the\h right hand side of the keyboard, and the mouse,\h\h
some people would only use a keyboard,\h some people would use a horizonal row,\h\h
like ASDF… I found WASD on my left hand, and\h then using the mouse on my right hand to be\h\h
the most comfortable…. By default you have\h to switch the numbers to switch weapons…”
Thresh may not have been the first, but\h he was undoubtably the most notorious,\h\h
to land on this particular configuration.
Whereas some may have preferred to use ESDF as\h their inverted T, or even RDFG. WASD had the\h\h
benefit of being close enough to the SHIFT and\h CTRL keys to use your pinky, close enough to the\h\h
SPACE BAR to use your thumb, and within easy reach\h of the number buttons. For most it was perfect.
“people started copying and using WSAD and\h the mouse as their standard key configuration”
Thresh was becoming so well known, not just in\h the gaming community, but also in the media,\h\h
that people wanted to know his secrets, and this\h was one that could be applied to almost everyone.
This became so well known, that\h by the time Quake 2 did come out,\h\h
not only did it have mouselook as default, but\h you could also type THRESH.CFG into the console,\h\h
and immediately use Thresh’s control\h setup. Including sensitivity and speed.
This then, was the breeding ground,\h and from there it didn’t take long\h\h
to spread to other FPS games as default controls.
So, when Half Life came out in 1998, using WASD\h and mouse as default, the deal was sealed. Half\h\h
Life was such a popular game, that the arrow\h keys of old made way, and WASD took over.
Of course, this wasn’t the end for arrow keys.\h Other games still made use of them for years,\h\h
and indeed still do. But their podium place\h was toppled. Where once they were King,\h\h
they were now an option, just\h like WASD had been in the past.
In a full circular pattern the Arrow keys were\h back where they started. Serving Spreadsheets,\h\h
Word documents and command lines. Living out\h their old age in peace, just like they should be.
We still love you arrow keys, we always will.
Thank you for your service.
Until next time, I’ve been\h Nostalgia Nerd. Toodleoo.
[The Look by Roxette plays out]