Worst. Controls. Ever.
Right... time to have a vote on the worst keyboard controls ever!
Here's some suggestions to start you all off:
(1) The standard cursor keys. Need I say more?
(2) Sabre Wulf. What were they thinking? At least with other QWERT games it was R=up, E=down, hence using the same up/down fingers as if it was P/L or K/M... but for some reason, Ultimate reversed it on Sabre Wulf, making a joystick an absolute necessity.
(2A) Sheer Panic. Committed the same crime as Sabre WUlf, with 6=left, 7=right, 8=up, 9=down. So it could have worked with the Sinclair joystick, if only it had been 8 and 9 the other way round... and there were no redefinable keys!
(3) Any isometric game which used "straight" keys (i.e. QAOP). So, if Q was up, did it move north east or north west? Some games went NE, others NW... confusing. At least Batman and Head Over Heels were redefinable to a "diagonal" control method. Which brings us onto:
(4) Super Robin Hood. A=left, X=right, K=up, N=down. Probably designed as a more "relaxed" version of ZXKM, but... isometric controls on a straight up/down game? Madness. They weren't quite so terrible to use, if you could remember which side of the keyboard was up/down and which was left/right...
(5) Starfire, in "Battlestations" mode. T=up, B=down, F=left, H=right, 4=fire. Fingers crossed, awkward fire button. No wonder the Xtardans had such an easy time of it on anything above ZX81 intelligence level...
(6) An "unofficial" contender: Jumping Jack. Symbol Shift=left, Space=right may have worked on a 48K Spectrum, but it's tricky on a +2 and impossible on Spectaculator...
Any other contenders?
Here's some suggestions to start you all off:
(1) The standard cursor keys. Need I say more?
(2) Sabre Wulf. What were they thinking? At least with other QWERT games it was R=up, E=down, hence using the same up/down fingers as if it was P/L or K/M... but for some reason, Ultimate reversed it on Sabre Wulf, making a joystick an absolute necessity.
(2A) Sheer Panic. Committed the same crime as Sabre WUlf, with 6=left, 7=right, 8=up, 9=down. So it could have worked with the Sinclair joystick, if only it had been 8 and 9 the other way round... and there were no redefinable keys!
(3) Any isometric game which used "straight" keys (i.e. QAOP). So, if Q was up, did it move north east or north west? Some games went NE, others NW... confusing. At least Batman and Head Over Heels were redefinable to a "diagonal" control method. Which brings us onto:
(4) Super Robin Hood. A=left, X=right, K=up, N=down. Probably designed as a more "relaxed" version of ZXKM, but... isometric controls on a straight up/down game? Madness. They weren't quite so terrible to use, if you could remember which side of the keyboard was up/down and which was left/right...
(5) Starfire, in "Battlestations" mode. T=up, B=down, F=left, H=right, 4=fire. Fingers crossed, awkward fire button. No wonder the Xtardans had such an easy time of it on anything above ZX81 intelligence level...
(6) An "unofficial" contender: Jumping Jack. Symbol Shift=left, Space=right may have worked on a 48K Spectrum, but it's tricky on a +2 and impossible on Spectaculator...
Any other contenders?
Post edited by The Mighty Dopethrone on
Comments
Actually, I always used the AGF/Cursor joystick option when I did not know the keys of a game; I even redefined the keys according to that pattern whenever possible. It seems I was the only Spectrum user I am aware of to do so. Today however, on the PC keyboard, I find the right Sinclair combination (6-0) more comfortable.
_________________
Dr Jones will never believe this
[ This Message was edited by: Alessandro Grussu on 2003-10-18 16:18 ]
SpecMem
So my vote goes to...
Starfire !!!! Not even I can stand "fingers-crossed" controls ! What were they thinking ?? And wait, there's even worse, I can think of a beat'em game with 8 keys for each direction, laid out in a circle. CRAP.
Where did the QAOPM/Space combo come from anyway? First game to use it anyone?
Battlecars had many keys but half the fun of a 2 player game of it was grabbing the "steering wheel" of your opponent when you were down on your ammo.
It has more to do with the fact that they were lazy basts. Maybe they were in cahoots with joystick interface manufacturers, making it bloody impossible to play their games on the keyboard.
Write games in C using Z88DK and SP1
Ye gods. I'm sure I've got a game somewhere amongst my ever-expanding collection where this is the case. I'll dig it out eventually...
No idea, but the main objective would be logic. Q is effectively directly above A, O and P are next to each other, so it's like the individual up/down and left/right controls that were on some of those horrible Nintendo Game & Watch machines (i.e. the ones which didn't have a D-pad - Donkey Kong did, Squish didn't.)
I suppose it makes more sense than the "left-handed" controls (e.g. QWPL), as Q is more directly above A than P is above L. Using O/L instead of P/L was a bad idea as you have to twist your fingers round to get them in the right position.
The 16K and 48K machines, though, were very small. And though I never had one (moving from a ZX81 to a +2), I know several people who did, and QAOP must have been less comfortable on those machines than on the + and anything that followed. Hence, those odd games which used QZIP instead of QAOP must have had a point.
This does bring me onto another contender for awful controls, though...
Anything with the fire button between left and right!
Micromouse Goes Debugging and Two Gun Turtle were both defined as QZIP, with O as the fire button. Agh!
Mummy! Mummy! was also an offender - QAIP, with D or 0 to dig a hole and F or 1 to fill it. Reaching D and F from that position is a bit of a stretch!
But, it has come to me. The worst controls of the lot:
3D TUNNEL!
Any key Q to T = SW
Any key Y to P = SE
Any key A to G = NW
Any key H to ENTER = NE
I know what they were thinking - move your fingers on the T, Y, G and H keys as if they were a joystick - needing two keypresses (eg. T+Y for "down") for straight directions and one for diagonals. But it was so utterly terrible to use! If you didn't have a joystick, you were screwed! It also seems they've defined the keys (and the Sinclair Joystick) so that "up" = "dive" and "down" = "climb", just like on a flight simulator, but it doesn't feel like one at all and I end up getting the up/down confused, and crash into the side of the tunnel all the time...
That's my final nomination, and if this doesn't win the Golden Broken Keyboard, I'll eat that three-week old mince with all the mould on it that's been growing on top of the microwave...
You don't have to. It was the infamous Way Of The Exploding Fist.
There was a type-in called Lawnmower I found in a book once (another one I don't have anymore... damndamndamn), which used all the keys around S to move in whatever direction, and S to put the brakes on. The idea being, the lawnmower could be controlled diagonally. This has two flaws: (1) It's perfectly possible to use IN to read several keys at once and define a QAOP combination that will operate diagonally; (2) All the grass was in a straight line anyway, so there was no need for any diagonal control...
I could upload this game to the type-in archive, but I have no idea where it came from. Arjun, if you're reading this, do you still want it for the archive, then maybe someone might be able to identify it?
wins by a mile :)
just go and try it..
That was a good layout of keys that! My brother used to mock me for choosing a different key combination for Exploding fist other then the circular configuration until I realised it made sense. Works the same as the numerical pad with 8, 9 for up right etc.
Hall of the Things and Warlock were one of those cult games similar to a film that mostly seems terrible but has one redeeming feature that seems to make it worthwhile. I used to love playing Hall of the things but the amount of weapons you had compared to what they were actually good for (i.e. nothing) was ridiculous.
And you can work with that ?? You're a better man than I am ! :)
I also think the keys to Way of the Exploding Fist worked well.
Dave
This has been mentioned on the forums before. There's a hacked snapshot, with improved controls, here, if you want it.
As Judas claims, Escape from krakatoa is a top game in this class aswell :)
I also recall Super Scramble simulator's keyboard selection. Looks like it was done for long fingered players: 1 Z Up down, 9 0 and Space, IIRC
Ivan
18 controls keys? With up/down next to each other and upside down?
MADNESS!
And Way of the Tiger. I still don't know the keys!
And erm... Psi Chess? I remember someone on this forum decided that he is going to figure out the keys by pressing every dang key on the keyboard and seeing what happens! And he did too - the superb instructions on WoS for Psi Chess are from him! Ed, was it you?
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
Actually, Psi Chess' keys aren't so bad when you get used to them, and it's not like you need split-second timing like in Lunar Jetman or Ant Attack. A menu-based system might have been better, but maybe there wasn't room.
Thanks Ed for the tip! Even before I thought that would make sense, but had not checked it.
SpecMem
W - Up
Z - Down
A - Left
S - Right
Q - Change weapon
These controls, like all terrible controls schemes, can of course NOT be changed FFS.
Not only this but it is the only shoot 'em up I have ever known to feature weapons that fire automatically without even holdingdown the fire button!
Bak 2 Skool had odd keys : pick up mouse - open desk - ride bike - jump out of window etc
But nothing beats WERTYUIO<space> for playing WOTEF.
And if we could use our pc mouse to emulate the control keys, even in games that don't have joystick nor mouse nor laser gun option, it would be even better!
Now, if I had the time and the knowledge and if none of the options described above were availabe, I would disassemble these games and see if the original keys could be redefined permanently, something like what was done with 3D Ant Attack.