[Coco] CoCo 1/2 arrow keys versus CoCo 3 arrow keys

[Jeff Teunissen]

I don't think "WASD" was a thing at all until the _late_ 90s, when it
was popularized in Quake tournament play by a guy called Thresh. I can
find no reference to it earlier than that. And even then, it only
happened because of a thing called "mouse look", where you would be
able to turn your character with the mouse in your right hand.

WASD came about because you wanted to be able to move using your left
hand while your right hand was looking around, and since the WASD keys
are both on the left side of the keyboard _and_ in a very similar
pattern to the arrow keys on the right, your previous experience on
other PC games still mostly applies. And while it seems totally
obvious in retrospect it wasn't at all obvious at the time.

You may be thinking of other schemes like that used for some Unix
programs like vi, which used HJKL for navigation on terminals that
lacked arrow keys. Why HJKL, you may ask? Because most keyboards of
the time -- and especially the most popular ones, the DEC VTxxx
terminals -- put all their arrow keys in a straight line.

On Wed, Jan 11, 2023 at 9:32 PM Allen Huffman via Coco
<coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
>
> > On Jan 11, 2023, at 6:05 PM, Mark via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
> >
> > Our first computer was the TRS-80 Model I, with the cursor keys on the left and right like the CoCo 1/2. So after many, many hours playing games with that layout, it became natural for me. Eventually my father bought me a Coco 1, so that layout was perfect.
> >
> > Ever since "graduating" to a PC, I have never been anywhere near as proficient using the clustered arrow keys, even to this day. And sadly, on a lot of laptops and compact keyboards, the arrow keys are an afterthought...
>
>
> The same is true for many of us that grew up with arcades and Atari — we had joysticks!  But the later generation was fine with smashing a pad like NES, Sega, etc. adopted. To this date, I still play much better with an actual joystick. The others are just used to it because that’s what they used the most.
>
> The two handed keyboard approach on the TRS-80s was easier for me, too. There was that slight learning curve with one hand doing one direction versus the other, then it seemed much more efficient.
>
> For machines without arrow keys, WASD was normal — for left handers. Then the arrow keys were the same type of shape but on the right. Which is it? Left or right handed? Folks use whatever they are used to, and learn it.
>
> Arcade games, which I play sometimes at a retro bar-cade, are interesting to me. On games with a joystick then button(s) to the right, that’s how I play — left handed. Some games are the opposite, and you use right handed joystick. I play those fine because that’s how that game has always been.
>
> Then there are some games with a center joystick, and button on left or right that do the same. I find myself trying both to remember which one I like better :)