Let's settle this once and for all....

[Morkin]

BTW, on the basis of the 15-0 voting so far, I am claiming a conclusive victory in the QAOPM-vs-QAOPN debate @Morkin and I have had since 1984. He's clearly a complete freak.

...I voted for QAOPM

[Mpk]

S as my secondary button.

Then you have to take your finger off A ! What's up with your thumbs?

In conclusion :



( But with the proper 4-way dpad, if you like )

[Nitrowing]

In conclusion :

Never!

[Joefish]

Surely it's QAOP and the entire bottom right half row.

That makes sense for anything coded after the appearance of the Spectrum+, 128, +2 etc. But programmers of early rubber-key Speccies wouldn't have anticipated the revised keyboard layouts.

Also, if there's a 'redefine keys' option, then the code might not be able to cope with multiple keys as a default setup, depending how it's implemented.

[Joefish]

Then again, my take-away from this poll is 'redefine keys' is a waste of time, just to quieten a few DOOM-obsessed stragglers!

I really don't see the appeal of WASD unless you need your whole right hand free to operate a mouse, which I think we can agree is fairly rare in Spectrum games.

For such folk, the whole WASD thing, do you switch your middle-finger back and forth between W and S, or somehow crook your thumb underneath to move backwards?

[TheMartian]

HJKL... VIM style, yeah...

(Just kidding, QAOP usually, but I found that Ghosts n'Goblins plays better using MILJAS for down, up, right, left, jump and fire)...

[blucey]

Then you have to take your finger off A ! What's up with your thumbs?

Hmmm. This might seem odd but I don't. I use my ring finger for Q, middle for A. Is that odd? I mean I use index and ring for K and L (left and right).

If I'm using QAOPM I'd not be using my thumbs for M.

[Rorthron]

Hence my conclusion is that the only correct answer to the question of which are the best keys, is that the game should allow for user defined keys ALWAYS.

So anyone voting for any of the first six option rather than “SOMETHING ELSE” (‘cuz the op for some reason did not include user defined) should stick their hands in their pocket, wallet or purse and donate to charity. One £ pound, € Euro or $ US Dollar (or equivalent amount) per vote at least. I suggest donating to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) to help Ukrainian citizens

Code: Select all

0 OK, 0:1

Mark

The poll doesn't include a redefine-keys option, as that would include all the other options and make the poll meaningless.

But I do wish I'd added 6789+0 and QZIP+N.

[Rorthron]

...I voted for QAOPM

Did you see the light, or did your thumb just shrink?

[Morkin]

Did you see the light, or did your thumb just shrink?

Nah, the 'N' key started failing...! My thumbs are as freakish and clumsy as ever...

[+3code]

Wow, I think have never seen here a poll with 62 votes. Clearly a hot topic.

[Bedazzle]

67890

[Cosmium]

QAOPM feels pretty natural on the rubber keyed Spectrum. Or equally AZOPM. Right thumb feels just about in the right place for Fire.

In a pinch 67890 (using the interface 2 option) works for games with unwieldy key choices and no redefine option.

Or even cursor keys! I think that's a throwback from getting used to games using them on the ZX81

[Matt_B]

That makes sense for anything coded after the appearance of the Spectrum+, 128, +2 etc. But programmers of early rubber-key Speccies wouldn't have anticipated the revised keyboard layouts.

Yes, and there are even some games that use Symbol Shift as left and Space as right. That's really not a good combination on the Plus.

Also, if there's a 'redefine keys' option, then the code might not be able to cope with multiple keys as a default setup, depending how it's implemented.

If you can redefine the keys you can just pick whichever of the five is best for you, so that's not really an issue.

Still, Design Design came up with a nice system where you could assign multiple keys to the same function and that would let you pick an entire half row for something, or even recreate things like the Penetrator control set where moving right and firing are on the same button. I don't think many would want to, mind you.

[Bolton80]

My favourite as a kid with a 48k+ was IPQZ Space (with O or Enter as an extra action button).

[StanVanman]

QAOP-whatever here.

The 'whatever' I guess depends on whether you had a real proper rubber-keyed Spectrum, or one of later variants for SOFT LADS

There was nothing soft about dragging your poor fingers across the hellscape of hard edges and sharp corners and treacherous pinch-gaps that was the keyboard of the Plus/128.

[firelord]

I can't remember in my real ZX + if I preffered QAOP+M or QAOP+space. I remember that those were my favorites.

Nowdays when I must test many games (just for a few seconds) I usually prefer a joystick option (56780 / 678990) to avoid having to define or find the game keys.

[uglifruit]

Still, Design Design came up with a nice system where you could assign multiple keys to the same function and that would let you pick an entire half row for something, or even recreate things like the Penetrator control set where moving right and firing are on the same button. I don't think many would want to, mind you.

In Return of the Things (design design) you definitely definitely definitely want the keys you choose as direction keys to be also be defined as Fire. The game becomes an amazing primal rage of running around and shooting (it auto aims). 100% recommended.

[Einar Saukas]

Then again, my take-away from this poll is 'redefine keys' is a waste of time, just to quieten a few DOOM-obsessed stragglers!

I really don't see the appeal of WASD unless you need your whole right hand free to operate a mouse

Actually WASD doesn't mean up/down and left/right in DOOM/QUAKE either. It means forward/backward and strafe sideways. The mouse controls up/down, left/right and fire since these movements require more speed and precision.

Therefore arguing that WASD is somewhat standard for up/down/left/right makes no sense

[Rorthron]

BTW the poll closes tomorrow.

[Morkin]

My favourite as a kid with a 48k+ was IPQZ Space (with O or Enter as an extra action button).

I'm assuming you had a Speccy+, rather than the rubber key model, for this layout

[Rorthron]

The people have spoken! Well, 87 of them....

Their Royal Majesties, the King Keys, Holy and Righteous Defenders of the Chuntey Field, QAOP, are the clear winners. Even with Putinesque electoral corruption splitting the QAOP vote, they still ran away with it.

Right-thinking QAOPers were fairly evenly split between M and SPACE for fire, with a small preference for the former. Not even Morkin is freaky enough to like N any more.

I am a little disturbed there are quite so many non-QAOP deviants out there, though comforted that a good chunk of them are just big-hand-bragging (or small-keyboard-owning) QZIPers. But QWERT??? What the hell were you guys thinking?!

The Four Keys of the Apocalypse, the Controls of the Beast, the blasphemous, heretical WASD (spit!), were the Liz Truss of the vote. And no, you don't get 115 grand a year for the rest of your life, if you voted for them. Count yourselves lucky the QAOPers haven't formed a lynch mob.

[1024MAK]

There are 1715 members on these forums here. 87 is far short of the threshold (at least 50 per cent of those entitled to vote must have voted in order for a majority vote in favour to be accepted for a legitimate ballot result…)

But if you bung me 115 grand, I’ll look the other way and sign off the results for you

Mark

[Pobulous]

I'd be interested to know if people still stick with their (mostly wrong ) choices in games that don't use up/down such as most platformers and space invaders.

In that case I prefer QW with P.

I think there's definitely a case for different control layouts suiting different game styles, rather than one size fits all.

QAOP has precise movement but slow firing rate. Cursors, QWERT, 67890 have imprecise movement but rapid fire. QW+P has best of both.

[Morkin]

I'd be interested to know if people still stick with their (mostly wrong ) choices in games that don't use up/down such as most platformers and space invaders.

In that case I prefer QW with P.

If a game just needs left/right/fire, I'd probably stick with something like (right hand) O = left, P = right, bottom row key (left hand) = Fire.

If the game needs left/right, or left/right/fire where fire = jump, I might sometimes flex it and go Q = left (left hand), P = right (right hand), bottom row key (thumb) = Jump