Keen Controls: What do you use?

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CapnClever
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Keen Controls: What do you use?

Post by CapnClever »

Some people started talking about what controls they use when playing Keen (I assume Galaxy because Vorticon doesn't let you re-bind, although Commander Genius can let you do that I think?) and it made me wonder just how many people go with the default settings and, for those that don't, how many different control setups there are out there. I mean it's only directional keys and three buttons, how varied can it be?

Somehow when I was a lot younger I had decided to swap the fire and pogo buttons, so my layout looked like this:
  • Movement: Arrow Keys
    Jump: Ctrl
    Pogo: Space
    Fire: Alt
I couldn't say why, exactly, but I figure it had to do with playing other games. Most PC platformers only had two buttons to use aside from directional movement: jumping and firing with Ctrl and Alt, respectively. Since I played Galaxy for the most part when I was younger, I didn't have the sense from the Vorticon games, so my comfort came from other platformer setups. And, because I was so inexperienced, I didn't use pogo much anyway, so it was put on the "other" button.

When I started playing the games "for real" (like Hard saveless and eventually speedrunning) I kept this setup, since it was what I was used to. Unexpectedly it may have worked to my advantage, since it allows me to use my index finger as part of jump-related movement and helps with the precision of pogoing in general. (Trying to perform IPTs consistently seems like it'd be harder using middle/pinky fingers, anyway.) However, I found that the keys themselves were a bit bulky and tended to stress out my hand after some hours. This led to my current setup:
  • Movement: Arrow Keys
    Jump: Z
    Pogo: V
    Fire: C
The buttons fit in the same hand configuration but do so more comfortably, and I almost never have stress problems with the left hand anymore. As Plasma Captain previously mentioned, I would probably be okay with A/F/D too.

So what do all of you tend to set when you play Keen? Are defaults good enough or do you spice it up?
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Fleexy
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Post by Fleexy »

I typically use the defaults and can't stand it when modders ship weird controls. For one-handed runs, I use the right-hand Ctrl/Alt, unless the keyboard has the Windows key and context key, in which case I bind one to the 0 numpad key.
Plasma Captain
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Post by Plasma Captain »

I didn't realize how potentially interesting this subject could be.

I keep my controls mapped in one of the following setups:

Movement: Arrow Keys
Jump: X
Pogo: Z
Fire: C

Or

Movement: Arrow Keys
Jump: S
Pogo: A
Fire: D

With my index finger on the C or D key. Probably because it's my primary finger on that hand, so I like it to be the trigger finger. Jumping feels like a secondary action to me, so I have my middle finger on it. This leaves my ring finger with the pogo, and the presence of three keys (jump, pogo, and fire) is the only reason why I have the key set extended out to C or D - if I'm playing a game with two buttons, I generally have them mapped to Z and X.

I just feel more comfortable with my hands on either side of the keyboard when playing a game. I just used the default keys for Keen back when I first played it on a DOS machine. I probably picked up the Z/X keys when using SNES emulators in the late '90s or whatever, since their keys were defaulted to Z/X. After discovering how much better those smaller, more closely-placed keys felt when playing, I've just always stuck with them.

In retrospect, the Space Bar in particular seems an insane choice for most games, at least to me, because it is so big and long, and because you're probably only pushing on one side of it due to hand placement. It's unnecessarily clunky for that kind of a task.

With that being said, I wouldn't personally disregard the Space Bar for every type of game. Not long ago, I was mapping the default keys for a game, and actually decided to use it, simply because it is the only key used by the player's left hand in the game. It has its merits, but... as a pogo? Seems strange.

At least, in retrospect.
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troublesomekeen
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Post by troublesomekeen »

Space Bar is like the Big Red Button, which always means something dangerously explosive. It makes sense to me that this is the Fire key. I've always been used to it that way since I played so much Star Control in my younger days.
Jumping (right ctrl) is the most important action for a game of this type, so it is the key closest to the movement buttons, the arrow keys.
I seldom land a jump with the pogo still on (Net-Keen style) which means I am constantly pressing the jump key. Right alt makes for a good support key.
So yeah! I use the defaults.
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lemm
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Post by lemm »

Arrows to move, SDF for Pogo Jump Fire
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Levellass
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Post by Levellass »

Change... controls...?
What you really need, not what you think you ought to want.
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MoffD
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Post by MoffD »

Levellass wrote:Change... controls...?
mortimermcmirestinks wrote: Now I wish MoffD wasn't allergic to me.
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guynietoren
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Post by guynietoren »

MoffD wrote:
Levellass wrote:Change... controls...?
Right... I knew about changing the firing method (1 or 2 button) but nothing further than that. Is this something you setup with DosBox?
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Post by Plasma Captain »

guynietoren wrote:
MoffD wrote:
Levellass wrote:Change... controls...?
Right... I knew about changing the firing method (1 or 2 button) but nothing further than that. Is this something you setup with DosBox?
Nope, the options are in the games themselves.

Keen 1-3: F3
Keen 4-6: Configure > Use Keyboard > Movement/Buttons

Pretty sure that the other two were just saying that they're comfortable enough with the defaults that changing the controls is unthinkable to them.
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guynietoren
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Post by guynietoren »

Plasma Captain wrote: Nope, the options are in the games themselves.

Keen 1-3: F3
Keen 4-6: Configure > Use Keyboard > Movement/Buttons

Pretty sure that the other two were just saying that they're comfortable enough with the defaults that changing the controls is unthinkable to them.
Okay then. Yeah I'd change it if I knew better. I hate using the space bar, it's just too clumsy for me.
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Post by Roobar »

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DHeadshot
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Post by DHeadshot »

I use standard controls, however I used to always use the Ctrl/AltGr on the right (and in other games too) instead of the Ctrl/Alt on the left that most people used (and I use now). I switched after keyboards with two buttons between the right Ctrl and AltGr became overly common...
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Post by tulip »

I've been known to ship weird control setups with some of my early mod releases.

D Jump
S Pogo
D+S Fire :0 YES two button firing!

I hate it when people mod vorticons to use space as firing button and deactivate two button firing. I died so often
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Levellass
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Post by Levellass »

I LOVE the spacebar! It has a good, solid feel to it. When you space something to death you know you're going to consider the weight and responsibility of each shot, weight its pros and cons and fire responsibly.

When you ctrl-alt to shoot, you become fiddly and neurotic, prone to mistakes and accidents.
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Post by Ceilick »

Woah, a lot more people using right ctrl and alt than I had thought!

My left hand uses three fingers on spacebar for shoot, my pointer on right alt for pogo. My right hand uses my pointer on right ctrl for jump, my middle on left and ring on right; I switch off my middle and ring for up and down, depending on what direction I'm going.

For netkeen, my left middle finger is on M for boobus bombs, because bombs are like a big middle finger :dopefish
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