Talk:WASD keys/Archive 1

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Archive This page is an archive. Please do not edit the contents of this page. Direct any additional comments to the current talk page.

Are we sure this was first done in Quake? I remember doing this back in my Doom days, cuz it was easier to coordinate with the arrow keys as turn and look up/down.

But it wasn't the default config in Doom. Orange Goblin 09:03, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Quake, by default, uses the Doom config (Up/Down = Forward/Backwrd, Left/Right = Turn Left/Turn Right, Comma/Period = Strafe Left/Strage Right with A and Z for looking up and down respectivly.
It could have been Quakeworld that introduced it, or some gamers coming up with the improved config and spreading it around on IRC or Usenet.
Gamers began to use it I think from Doom, but even in Quake and Quake 2 it was not in the default keyboard layout. The first game I played that had WASD was Half-Life.
I remember using it for DOOM once mouse-support was enabled (so I assume people having older FPSers like Wolfenstein probably used it for the very first instance). This was certainly before Quake, but it was the Quake games which made it widespread.
But doom lacked of any way to look up or down ... In wolfenstein I thing moving mouse up and down was translated to moving back and forward.
And in default quake 1 config there is no sign of ASWD, a is +lookup, d is +moveup, s,w are unbound. I have not found any modified default keyboard config in quakeworld, as it just take the default keys from quake. So it was players that brought ASWD in their configs in Quake, not quake or qw itself. --Bilboq 21:03, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

I thought it was Half-Life that originally introduced this as a default layout. Yes the above poster is right, Doom used arrow keys to move, CTRL to fire, ALT to strafe, SPACE to open, SHIFT to run.

Quake used SPACE to jump, other keys same as Doom by default.

Duke Nukem used A to jump, Z to crouch, and PGDN / PGUP for looking up down.

Half-Life in my opinion revolutionzed by using Mouse to look and WASD to move BY DEFAULT.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 63.226.175.89 (talk • contribs) 05:24, 20 May 2006 (UTC2)

There was never a IJKL, it is HJKL in reality (yes, still used today).

There's a reverence on the Arrow keys page.--82.140.41.197 02:42, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

Made popular by UT? Come on, it's Quake. Orange Goblin 07:49, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

Quake was the first to bring in usable mouselook (though duke nukem 3d was somewhat close to that, but still it was only pseudo-3d) In doom I used right hand for arrow keys and left hand for "other tasks" like shooting, etc and IMHO the mouselook is the cause why people start using ASWD.

Lets try small experiment to prove that:

  • Try putting right hand on arrows and left hand somewhere near < > ? and spacebar .... comfortable? Quite yes
  • And now quake bring in mouselook. As most people are right-handed, grab mouse with your right hand.
    • Now try to put your left hand (while holding the mouse) on the arrow keys. Pretty awkward position, right? (unless you move the keyboard way away.)
    • Try putting left hand in ASDW (or somewhere close, like SDEF, DFRG ... ) ... It's comfortable now ...

--Bilboq 20:57, 3 August 2006 (UTC)


I just changed the page, it was DOOM and NOT QUAKE that started WASD. Everyone that played over multiplayer online through BBS connections knew about the WASD movement. I really disagree that it was popularized by QUAKE. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.68.186.61 (talk • contribs) 17:46, 25 January 2007

I've removed the part about which game made the keys popular, since it seems very much like original research to me, feel free to add the info back in with an attributable source. I'll see if I can find some references for the article in general later, though it might just be best to merge the article into some other. W 10:28, 7 March 2007 (UTC)