March 19th, 2012 by Benj Edwards
That must be one heck of a spreadsheet you’re working on.
[ From Marlin P. Jones and Associates Electronics Catalog, 2000 ]
Discussion Topic of the Week: Do you prefer playing classic PC games (say, pre-Doom) using a keyboard, a mouse, or a joystick?
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That must be one heck of a spreadsheet you’re working on.
March 19th, 2012 at 9:51 am
Back in the days with the inverted T was used to navigate…
March 19th, 2012 at 9:06 pm
It really depends on the game. I’ll play Ultima, Defender of the Crown, and even MechWarrior II with a keyboard. However, King’s Quest III & IV, F-15 Strike Eagle, and Tongue of the Fat Man got the joystick treatment when they were played in my house.
March 19th, 2012 at 10:21 pm
Actually, I could see that joystick attachment being pretty useful if you were, say, playing some Street Fighter on your PC and you didn’t want to shell out the dough for an actual arcade stick. Just map the punches and kicks to the numpad keys and you’re good to go.
As for the question, I’ll second Dementropy and say that it depends on the game, but usually a combination of keyboard and mouse if supported.
March 20th, 2012 at 9:20 am
Okay, that’s kind of near. Ex-gf’s C128 had a clip-on joystick(clipped onto the keyboard) that didn’t use keys. It was entirely separate.
March 21st, 2012 at 3:39 pm
Joystick only for flight sims. Even when Doom came along, nobody in my dorm was using mouselook; circle-strafe with the keyboard FTW!
March 22nd, 2012 at 2:06 am
I remember these! Had one for my PC flight sim games, really helped when you had 93 keys to remember, and made it flight slightly more like flying a plane, rather than just a sim. Slightly.
March 23rd, 2012 at 8:46 pm
I started using the keyboard to control games after seeing my father play Earl Weaver’s Baseball and realizing that he was much more precise than I was with the joystick. I then preferred the keyboard up until the point when games started to require mouse control.
The two biggest exceptions I can think of are Silpheed and Red Baron; I could never get the hang of those with the keyboard and always preferred joystick control. It’s kind of strange how the joystick has been almost completely lost to the game pad these days.
March 26th, 2012 at 5:25 am
I played all my classic PC games (including Doom) with a keyboard. I felt I had a lot more control in my movements that way. This applied to everything from flight sims (Red Baron, Aces of the Pacific) to first-person shooters (Castle Wolfenstein 3D, Doom)
The only time I realized a peripheral device was way better than keys was when my brother showed me how deathly accurate and efficient a trackball was in Duke Nukem. In conjunction with the right setup on the trackball’s buttons, it completely put the keyboard to shame.
April 3rd, 2012 at 7:16 am
I would love to try one of these little clip on joysticks – specially for the work computer. 😀
P.S. Type Wozniak without the z = cool.
April 5th, 2012 at 1:26 pm
That’s kind of cool. I wonder if there’s something similar to that around these days. I’d love to be able to use it for MAME or other emulators…
August 23rd, 2012 at 7:48 am
Is there someway to by keyboard joystick these days???
June 23rd, 2014 at 9:09 am
Hi everybody! I am selling one of those, new. Please send me an email if interested! Jo.
April 29th, 2015 at 5:57 am
I would like to have this joystick.where can i find it to buy it?
April 29th, 2015 at 6:02 am
Hello…i want to buy one of these joystick….is it possible to find it?