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Doom 1 - Keyboard or Mouse. Discuss.

Dr. Zoidberg said:
I used a Gravis Gamepad to play the Doom games back in the day.


Playstation controller here. I didn't get a gaming PC (16 bit Apple doesn't count) until a few years later. The PS was actually a pretty decent Doom experience IMO. IIRC it was most of the original Doom and Doom 2 levels strung together.
 
Alright.

In my previous post, I said that you should use whatever control scheme you want because DOOM is magical that way.

But I want to inform everyone that the real way to play DOOM is to use a Joystick & Keyboard.

Left or right hand on joystick, side to the keyboard. Other hand on the Alt, Shift, Spacebar, and Ctrl keys. Depending on your joystick, you might not even need all of those keys.
 
360 controller /w zDoom is how I play all the wad games now, mostly because I play them on a small netbook with a cramped keyboard
 
By the time I knew what Doom was I was in basic shareware and 2 came out. The options menu in dos for 2 easily allowed wasd and it was invented aorund this time. while I didn't do the stuff on the keyboad I whored out mouse controls like crazy don't see how most didn't.
 
I feel bad, but the last 2 or 3 times of playing Doom have been through XBLA...I don't remember how I played it on computer..

:(
 
TUROK said:
Try GZDoom. It's Zdoom with OpenGL support, so it's prettier.

The problem with GZDoom is that it adds 3D floors, dynamic lights, skyboxes and other stuff, which makes it feel like you're not really playing DOOM.
 
I like playing DOOM with the keyboard, and not even WASD. I use the Directional arrows and Ctrl, Shift and Space Bar to do everything. This is only because that's how I first played DOOM many moons ago....
 
I've actually was trying to play through Doom a week or two ago. I was using keyboard, since I didn't think you could strafe. I figured either way I'm just moving forward or backward and turning the camera left or right.
 
I played all of those games keyboard only back in the day. I haven't touched them in years, I have no idea what I'd do today. Probably keyboard only just for the sake of nostalgia.
 
Doom is most functional keyboard-only. There are a lot of viable control schemes with the most primary schism being between those who play with strafe-toggle and those who don't. Playing with strafe toggle usually involves using the arrow keys and alt/ctrl/shift. There are a lot of ways to play without it; someone mentioned one involving WASD and the arrow keys in this thread.

What's more important, however, is to make sure that if you play a source port, you play it without mouselook OFF. And be wary that zDoom has a bug that causes the weapons to fail to account for the Z axis past a certain distance; this makes playing it kind of stupid without mouselook. If you can get it to work, play either the DOS versions or Doom 95.
 
I only play Doom in DOSbox with a keyboard. Anything else is weird and unnatural. Just be sure to map strafe left and right and never use alt.


Artadius said:
Pfft, I cut my teeth playing multiplayer Descent on Kali...... keyboard only!

Now that was crazy.
You're a madman.
 
Ionic said:
Keyboard + Mouse. But only horizontal looking. Full mouselook is just sinful in Doom.
Same here. Horizontal mouselook + WASD is the only indulgence I will allow myself.
 
Artadius said:
Pfft, I cut my teeth playing multiplayer Descent on Kali...... keyboard only!

Now that was crazy.
descent works really well keyboard only. I used to prefer descent keyboard only to joystick + keyboard even. it helps that it auto snaps/adjusts itself to all the 90 degree angles of course.
 
Played through Doom 1 & 2 on keyboard back in the day, using the hold down alt key method for strafing. Not pressing the windows key was a challenge in itself.

Anyone else graduate to Duke 3d and Quake and try shooting things above and below you, using the page up and down keys? *embarrassed face*
 
Muchi Muchi Pink said:
If some PC Guys say keyboard, the should never ever show up in a console-topic and talk about how shooters can't be played without mouse.

That would be like saying a console player couldn't talk about how great dual analog stick shooters are because they mentioned the N64 pad being the best way to play Goldeneye 64.
 
Keyboard at the time, but modern play with source ports is mouse all the way.

Quake 2 was the game that made me change. Specifically the tendency of the machine gun to drift. I thought I'd try out the mouse, and found I could compensate for it much better.

Yes, that does mean I played through the entirety of Quake 1 with the keyboard. I'm still not quite sure how I managed that, these days.
 
MTMBStudios said:
Uhm, im pretty sure DOS Doom always supported the mouse (or atleast Ultimate). Turning on the KB sucks.

Wolfenstein 3D supported the mouse. I played through the first chapter with it. Even though the Y axis was mapped to walk forwards/back.
 
I'm okey with both of them. The last time, actually, I played Doom using only gamepad (x360), and feels good man. Can't see any possible reason to quarrel here.
 
Gravijah said:
That would be like saying a console player couldn't talk about how great dual analog stick shooters are because they mentioned the N64 pad being the best way to play Goldeneye 64.

But *two* N64 pads was the best way to play Goldeneye :-)
 
I played it with cursors for movement (no strafe) and space to shoot.

I even played that way Doom2, Wolfenstein and Duke3D, and my first mp matches in Quake 2.

I got beaten badly, of course, I only killed people that played like me, it was fun seeing both players without moving and shooting each other blasters, hoping to be the one with more health lol
 
Played Doom 1 and 2 with the keyboard when it came out.

Using the mouse at the time is kinda weird but when Quake came out still stayed with the keyboard for a bit.

I discovered Quake CTF and constantly getting my ass handed to me by mouse+kb players, I switched.
 
TUROK said:
I've been playing Doom all my life, so I welcome the change. It mixes things up a bit.

http://i.min.us/icg8rm.png
http://i.min.us/ieslEu.png

wC3Qj.gif
 
Keyboard is fine - but secret option number 3, a joypad would definitely work better than a mouse, shoulder buttons for strafing is ace!
 
Keyboard of course.

Back in the day we even played Duke 3D with keyboard only. You could and had to look up and down (using Page Up / Page Down IIRC). Descent as well.
 
I remember playing Wolfenstein and Doom the way they were meant to be played (tm) as in arrow keys, alt for strafe and ctrl for shooting. Mouse just didn't feel right... I also remember playing Quake with the said arrows and using pgup and pgdn for y-axis looking :P Those were the times!
 
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