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

[RETRO Innovations]

On 1/14/2023 1:14 PM, Jeff Teunissen via Coco wrote:
> There is a lot of post-hoc rationalization out there; people tend to
> think of the past as just an earlier version of the present, as if
> what we have today was somehow always going to happen. It wasn't
> inevitable.

Not sure if this is partly directed at me, but I was trying to to make 
the point that clustered keys were already in wide use prior to the CoCo 
1 intro.  So, it seems odd to me that they'd put the keys on opposite 
sides of the KB when I don't know of any prior config anywhere like 
that.  Consoles and uprights had clustered movement in the joystick, 
home computers and terminals used clustered keys, and D pads and such 
were yet to arrive when the CC1 was introduced.

It sounds like, though, the answer to my initial question is that games 
were written with the split movement config in mind, which makes it 
harder to play those games on a clustered setup.  I'd love more detail 
on that, as I'm not a gamer and examples would help.

As for my "Inverted T" comment, I was just noting that folks use that 
clustered format all the time, so it seems fine for games in general.

Jim


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