History of WASD (and a little about gamepads)
Most likely, you have once wondered: why WASD?? There is a lot of information about this on the Internet, and therefore, in order to make interesting material, I scoured several sites (and noticed a lot of copy-paste, by the way), and then I decided to make a single article where everything is clearly described. This article will also talk about gamepads.
For those who prefer video format (what if):
The nineties were a harsh time for gamers, especially for ours, who, among other things, were experiencing a severe crisis. I didn’t see this time, but there were echoes of it in my childhood. Developers and publishers fought for the market, because everyone had already survived the crisis of 1983, and therefore there was no unified system for creating games, and accordingly, there was no management either.
The very first typewriters were made in alphabetical order.e. instead of QWERTY there was ABCD and so on. But as it turned out as a result of use, this location turned out to be incredibly inconvenient, because.To. the levers located in the machine often touched each other. Through experimentation, the creators of typewriters perfected this system by arranging the letters in four rows, starting with QWERTY.Remington-1 became the first car with such a layout, which people later got used to. True, this does not mean that she remained so. Now we can see probably not the most convenient, but very comfortable solution. For us (for me personally), the keyboard can be used without looking, but in my opinion, this is not ideal yet.
Father of all fathers
Meanwhile, arrows had already become a classic for players, but competed with the mouse. This especially affected first-person games, the first of which was primitive, but important for the industry"Maze Wars» ’73.id Software, organized in 1991 by people from Softdisk, became known for shooters and platformers, but now they work mainly on the former. "Wolfenstein 3D" and "Doom" became incredible hits and used the arrow scheme, and the developers became masters of shooters. And as you can understand, it was their game that was the turning point in our topic today. True, ourselves id Software were not directly involved in this.
The first part of the epic "Quake», released in 1996, presented the world with a mind-blowing shooter for those times with good (also for those times) graphics. True, they love it not for this, but for the multiplayer. There was complete chaos in the arenas, and for good reason
"Shiver» considered the beginning of eSports. In the 2000s, I managed to play the third part on my then new computer (and now unchanged since 2006, and incredibly weak, as I realized) that I really didn’t understand what to do and who all these creatures were. Well, what’s there – I realized that it was legendary "Quake III Arena" just last year. Realizing that this is real online success, Romero and Carmack, one of the main people in id Software, started holding online competitions.
The beginning gamebookers-casino.uk of a legend
1997, June 21, Atlanta, E3, Red Annihilation tournament.
Dennis Fong, by nickname "ThresH", gives a light blow to Tom Kizmi, nicknamed "Entropy", on the map "Castle of Damned". Score: 13: −1.
Most likely, in addition to his skill, Fong’s layout, which was quite unique at that time, also played into Fong’s hands. It consisted of combining the keyboard buttons W, A, S and D, as well as the mouse. These keys were also used once in ’81, in a 2D game "Castle Wolfenstein" and its sequel, which, ironically, later came under the wing of id Software. Then Dennis left for John Carmack’s Ferrari. Fong’s rival claimed that "TresH" was incredibly fast, and turned 180 degrees as maneuverably as anyone could. Before this, the mouse was not used in games like Doom or Wolfenstein, because.To. there was no need to look along the Y axis, t.e. up and down. However, here the use of the mouse was the main reason for winning. Many players asked the champion what layout he had. Dennis later released "Quake Bible", which was a manual for the game and described the layout. Fong himself played Doom with his brother, but he constantly lost, and it was the layout that was able to change his skills. Before this he also experimented with ESDF or ZXC + mouse. Then there was also an A Shift Z X layout, where A is forward and Z is backward. System Shock 2, released two years later, used the WADX pattern, but used the S as a squat.
But it is worth noting that this choice is not surprising, because the keyboard can be intuitively divided into “left” and “right”, and therefore we would hardly go further than the Latin T, G and B.
Young Dennis Fong at a match
Here comes Doom
However, let’s return briefly to “Quake». The game engine was easy to modify, and the game showed this phenomenon perfectly"Half Life» 1998. Valve significantly improved the graphics and released another hit. With WASD keyboard. What is true, Uncle Gabe stated that it is much more convenient for him to play on ESDF, because.To. allows you to be in the key area for typing letters. Developers"Half Life" They don’t even remember how and why they added the WASD layout, but they believe that they took it from their “parent” – "Quake".
Gabe most likely plays on ESDF
By the way, in the second part of the game by Romero and Carmack, the Phong layout was added as one of the possible standard ones, and in the third it was already the default. Dennis himself believes that he himself did not popularize this layout. It’s also worth mentioning the game also from 1998, Starsiege: Tribes, which again used DFS. Less well-known companies simply began to use the scheme of more experienced and popular competitors in the industry, and therefore, since the beginning of the 2000s, more and more games with such a scheme have appeared.
The final decision in approving WASD was World of Warcraft, which captured the minds of gamers and used the same layout.
That’s how we got to where we are now. However, there are many other layouts that are strange to me and perhaps to you, but for some – incredibly convenient. As far as I know, lefties sometimes use a pattern like Gabe’s – ESDF. However, in some games, for example – games Bethesda, E key is used for action, t.e. selection of an item, and is not reassigned in any way, as in the case Fallout 4, making it impossible to play.
What about our hero Dennis?? For 100 thousand. he opened dollars with his brother GX Media, holding, which owned several profitable businesses, and now Fong controls Plays.tv – network for recording games. The 42-year-old, almost the first e-sportsman in the world, also continues to engage in gaming and runs his own Twitter, also runs Instagram, * plays new games, like Apex Legends, and also started a family. In general, he lives to the fullest.
Now let’s talk about something slightly different – gamepads. This section is rather personal for me, and debatable, so to speak. Also, this information is not in the video, but instead there is a short story. The main, informative part is over, so if you suddenly don’t like this, then you can safely close the tab (just don’t forget to rate it depending on your feelings, please).
It turns out that I prefer them more than the keyboard, because the controls are much more intuitive and you understand the game quite quickly (though, if it’s a shooter, then a couple of times you can blow yourself up with a grenade, but that’s the fault of my crooked hands). And such a change occurred relatively recently – a year or a little more ago. Kinda like Sleeping Dogs. Now I also play on the keyboard, but not so often: for example, I never mastered New Vegas on my controller, although I easily passed Skyrim with the additions. Before the next section, we will talk about something somewhat personal, so it is not necessary to read it.
Initially, I played on a Gembird gamepad, which was an analogue of the Dualshock. I really rarely played on it, and not everything ran due to the specifics. For example, in Saints Row IV the camera simply broke and it was impossible to continue playing. Like all Saints Row. This required a special program that emulated an Xbox360 gamepad. Although it didn’t work in the third one, as far as I remember. In Hitman: Absolution I had to download a completely incomprehensible assembly for the same emulator, because the starting one did not work, from a South American blogger, which to my surprise worked. Overall, I didn’t play many games on that gamepad. And when I couldn’t get enough of Saints Row 2 and Saboteur (as it turned out, “Saints” required a separate modification), I decided to buy an original Xbox360 gamepad. I don’t remember how much I paid for it, but after two months I started to regret it, because it stopped working due to problems with USB. True, I’ve played it enough time. I took it in for repairs a couple of times, but both the first and second did not work for a long time. After that I bought EOX (it seems so), which also resembles the XBox360 layout. It works great and looks good, but lately the USB has been failing at the computer itself, and not at the gamepad, as in the previous case. I gave my second one, an Xbox one, to a programmer friend, and he calmly fixed it and is playing the third Witcher. T.e., The problem was not with the gamepad, but with the master. The first one, Gembird, I actually destroyed: I cut off the cable and painted it for the “collection”, but now I understand that it was VERY WRONG. I also have an OTG cable (it didn’t work on the previous gamepad), with which I play on my phone when traveling, although I bought the same cable for myself. And now I’m thinking of finally trying to change my computer, because I’ve had it since 2006. During this time, the following stopped working: a DVD connector, one USB connector stopped working, and the second one is held on by snot, an uninterruptible power supply without a front panel, one speaker comes off and problems with the microphone. In short, the Frankestein of the computer world.
In 2010, Teiyu Goto, chief designer of Sony consoles, nevertheless spoke about the meaning of the buttons on the DualShock (and Sixaxis, respectively) gamepad. Besides this, I will also TRY to describe other controllers.
Playstation
* The top green triangle means "point of view or direction". Used as "usage» something. In the recent Sekiro, the triangle is used to change the mode of the prosthesis, and in GTA V (and similar open-world projects) – to sit down, or vice versa – to get out of the car.
*The left pink square means "sheet». In Sekiro it is used for "action", and in GTA V it is used for jumping or moving up/down (for myself and for Sasha!), or changing weapons in transport.
* The right blue cross, according to Goto, means "negative answer", but only in Japan. In the rest of the world, it means, on the contrary, “positive answer». T.e., often used in dialogues. In Sekiro – a jump, in GTA V – a run or a quick answer to a question, and in a car – a brake, the same answer to a call, and if you are flying on a military aircraft – a shot from its guns.
* The lower red circle, as can be understood from the previous paragraph, in Japan means “positive answer", but all over the world it’s the other way around. In Sekiro, a circle means a dash, and in GTA V it means reloading a weapon, hitting, or ending a phone conversation (or immediately answering the call), and in a car it’s like changing the camera.
The functions on Logitec gamepads are similar, and we will compare using the same games.
* The bottom green button A is most likely based on the old scheme, where there were only buttons A and B. And most likely this means “Action” and “Beat”. In Sekiro it functions as a cross, just like in GTA V.
*Right red B button is used to cancel an action, or strike. In Shadow Die Twice and GTA V serves as a circle.
*Left blue X button. I don’t know why this particular letter, but it performs the functions of a square in Sekiro and GTA V.
* Top orange button Y – use, t.e. just like a triangle. Perhaps the Y button is named after the word "using" instead of the letter U, but I’m not sure.
Nintendo
Nintendo controllers can rightfully be considered one of the first creators of modern controllers, taking over the initiative from Atari, together with Sega. The color scheme, and the very appearance of the controllers and buttons, often changed, starting from the SNES, which is shown in the picture, and ending with the modern Switch and 3DS, in which the buttons themselves are no longer colored. We will analyze the scheme using the example of two other games similar to the previous ones.
* The top X button is used in tLoZ: BotW for jumping, and in L.A. Noire – for getting into the car.
* The left Y button is used in tLoZ: BotW for attack, and in L.A. Noire – for starting a conversation, dodging in a fight, or for "Bad Cop" mode during interrogation.
* The right A button is used in tLoZ: BotW to take an item or action, and in L.A. Noire – for the same, or hitting/taking a weapon, or using the “Good Cop” mode.
* The bottom button B is used in tLoZ: BotW for running, and in L.A. Noire – to cancel something.
— As we have seen, the Xbox and PS schemes are completely identical in terms of placement, i.e.To. in both cases the top button is responsible for the same actions in the game on different ports. It would be more correct to compare one or two games that are on all three consoles, but I’m a bit of a moron and didn’t think of that right away.
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