Tribes get shout-out in Vox video

J

John the Jammer

Veteran XV
Check out this video explaining the origins of WASD. Something many of you might remember. It was great to see TRIBES get some recognition after the usual suspects, Quake/Half-Life/DOOM etc.


Why gamers use WASD to move - YouTube

I don't post or lurk anymore. I know this forum as evolved into social and political commentary, but I'll always have fond memories of playing Tribes. Until the next...
 
Yep, I was around back then playing all those games. Thresh not only invented WASD but how to dominate a map by knowing when the best weapons were going to spawn and getting them. Like him or not, he was a monster and made it look easy.

Those were the days when ping was a big deal. Thresh had a T1. There was a Quake MP game where the best players were there to take him down. He was behind up until the last second when he pulled ahead as time ran out.
 
It could be a matter of age. Most of you guys started playing PC FPS when you were kids and had those tiny little hands and had yet to learn to actually type. For older folks like me who learned to touch type on a Selectric back in the 70s the home keys are a thing and shifting over to WASD feels unnatural so if it can be remapped we often do it. [shakes cane]
 
Wolf 3D was arrow keys and spacebar but most had evolved to using mouse with Doom.

first 2.5D z-axis game that I recall was ROTT and the first 3D z-axis game was Terminator Future Shock by Bethesda





Quake I came out a year later in 1996
 
Last edited:
TheVoiceOfReason said:
It could be a matter of age. Most of you guys started playing PC FPS when you were kids and had those tiny little hands and had yet to learn to actually type. For older folks like me who learned to touch type on a Selectric back in the 70s the home keys are a thing and shifting over to WASD feels unnatural so if it can be remapped we often do it. [shakes cane]
Click to expand...

so... you use asdf or some shit?
 
samUwell said:
ESDF
Click to expand...

I used to smash people in good ole tribes with arrow keys. I had just the perfect number of keys I needed. Arrow keys would also let me quickly tweak the position of my keyboard by just grappling the keys. Fat-fingering was effectively zero chance. It was superior for Tribes.

However, once I moved onto other games, I needed far more keybinds. This meant swapping to WASD for the first time. It took me all of a week or two to realize how fucking stupid WASD is and moved to ESDF.

It's so clear that ESDF is superior in every single way to WASD, it's astounding that games still default to WASD.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top