Actually, the QWERTY layout was designed for typewriters, to prevent the typebars (metal arms) from jamming when typing. If you type two letters too quickly, or keys next to each other then the arms would collide and jam, thereby slowing the typist down as they then had to clear the jam. QWERTY was designed to reduce jamming allowing typists to complete their documents quicker as they wouldn't then spend so much time unjamming their typewriter.

As for typing speed, layout isn't so much of a factor. I believe that there have been studies on keyboard layouts and for a skilled typist even randomized and alphabetical layouts allow similar typing speeds after the initial stage of getting used to the new layout.

For those who didn't play the earlier games - In the early days of the genre, left and right keys were not for strafing left/right, but for turning. Strafing existed (even in Wolf3D), but it was done by first pressing a separate strafe key, and you could also use that in combination with the mouse to strafe with the mouse.

I learned something today. Thanks.

I heard from someone a while back about ESDF being way better. And it is. I'm just too lazy to reset everything.

ESDF puts a finger on a homerow bump (F) and gives you access to a lot more letters within easy reach.

The Terminator: Future Shock by Bethesda already had actual mouse aiming in a "true" 3D engine in 1995. Oddly enough few people know the game.

Ah, you young whippersnappers have it so easy these days. Back in my day, before the advent of monitors and whole boards full of keys, we only had one key and it was the space bar. There were no carebear options like turning both ways. When you hit space bar you always turned left. We didn't need to make an easy right. We knew that 3 lefts would get us there. It took skill and precision because you couldn't see what you were doing. I tell ya-that Z and X business ruined gaming for the modern age.

(start of completely off topic post)
When I first started PC gaming (well, when I started playing non-online Flash games) late last year, I originally started out using the arrow keys and enter/shift for my action keys. Honestly I'm not sure why I used those keys, other than it being less "alien feeling", not to mention it was surprisingly comfortable and viable on my old laptop. All that being said, it took exactly two games for me to stop using the arrow keys and shift/enter setup. (end of completely off topic post)

I remember using arrow keys playing the old Doom games and Duke Nukem 3d, blood etc. I started using WASD when I bought Dark Forces 2.


For me WASD+mouse got essential since DF2 Being a real 3D shooter so suddenly the mouse was very useful :) And the arrow keys were to close to the mouse. WASD was more comfortable for me.

There is a statistically significant (i.e., not attributable to random variations in the data) benefit from using a layout that is optimized for short moving distances of the fingers, such as the Dvorak keyboard. The magnitude of the effect isn't very large though. Even advocates of the Dvorak keyboard claim that it speeds the process up by only about 10%, and they aren't particularly picky when selecting their evidence, so the actual effect may be considerably smaller. Which is usually not enough to justify the switch unless you are a professional typist.

Not exactly. It used a mouse pointer for interacting with the UI and objects on the screen. You could use the mouse to aim in any directyion, but it wasn't quite "mouse look" as most understand the term. It did, however, use the SZXC keys - exactly like WASD but one row down (W, A and D were used for running and turning) so it's a good example of almost-WASD.

If you think the System Shock was amazing for it's time, consider that its predecessor, Ultima Underworld, was released before Wolfenstein 3D. For me, that's almost as mind-blowing as Euler's Identity.

Yeah, I'm never sure with System Shock. I think mouse look was introduced through mods, I think originally you had to click at the screen borders to pan the view with the mouse and had to use keyboard commands otherwise.

LOL, I remember when all you needed was up, down, left, right, space and ctrl.

Get off my lawn and go do some some homework, you whippersnapper!

I thought it was Half-Life that popularized WASD.

Thanks for the response everybody. It was very interesting to read, and learn from.

Some thinks that I was thinking of who invented the QWERTY-keyboard. I'm sorry for not being specific enough; it was of course "who invented to use WASD-keys for navigation in FPS games", I mean.

Personally, I remember that Duke Nukem 3D also use arrow-keys for navigation (even though the HD version at Steam have changed the default to WASD; probably because we are all used to WASD nowadays). And first time I used WASD for navigation, was in Counter-Strike 1.6 (which I played for the first time in 2002 (so it must be in 1.5, but you probably know what I mean ;) )).
I had never played Quake, so it was first in CS, I use WASD. But as far I had heard from others, it was Quake who "invented"/popularized it. And it seems, that it was correct.

I vaguely remember a story about how one of those engines 'inspired' another engine, either Id borrowing the technology for Wolfenstein or something like that.
It was a long loooong time ago I read that somewhere.
But anyhoo, those engines blew my mind back in the day because of how 3D they were.

Like everyone I do agree Quake popularized it, I remember switching to WASD to increase my gameplay during multiplayer matches. And I remember 'strange' control methods my friends used in those days, so it definitely wasn't widespread before then.