Any fellow Wing Commander keyboard players out there?

N

nishka

Rear Admiral
Hi all,

Trying to see if I'm just nuts or if there's something wrong with Dosbox and Gametap:

I played Wing Commander back in the day almost exclusively on the keyboard. I recall being able to sit on the afterburner while still being able to move my ship and firing.

When playing the game in Dosbox and Gametap, the emulation only allows for one key press at a time, meaning I can't move and fire at the same time. I never recalled the original behaving like this, but some folks claim it was always the way it's been.

So I'm looking for some expert opinions, is this how the original version on our 286's and 386's worked?
 
For me it was. Although currently I always use a joystick, back in the day I used the keyboard exclusively, and had to cope with this limitation.
 
My memory on that is fuzzy. I can't remember maneuvering + afterburners simultaneously. Key preclusion was always kind of a problem, though - and I imagine that if I could have maneuvered while using the afterburners, I would have done so. WC3 was the first time I used a joystick. (Actually, X-Wing was the first time I used a joystick. That game is basically unplayable on keyboard).
 
Hooray for keyboard pilots! :)

Ever come back from a mission in WC1 with half your components fried, most of your guns ripped off, and the "floundering" combat music running through the last half of the mission? My friends and I used to joke that one the cockpit damage textures for a totalled fighter should include the flightstick coming off in the pilot's hands, forcing the in-game pilot to use keyboard controls and switches for what remained of the mission.
 
Sycrusian said:
For me it was. Although currently I always use a joystick, back in the day I used the keyboard exclusively, and had to cope with this limitation.
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Same here, I thought WC3 and WC4 were next to unplayable. As much experience as I have with the keyboard, I could never go back.
 
I started off as a keyboard pilot (and actually played through WC1 without knowing about afterburners...) -- but I eventually got a joystick and couldn't go back. Now I've got a whole joystick/throttle/rudder setup and I have trouble playing the same games without it.
 
If you're looking for keyboard fans, I'm definitely one of them! :p

I play all my Wing Commander games + pretty much every space sim I have with a Keyboard.

The Keyboard is better than a console controller because it mentioned in PCGamer that the people playing Shadowrun on PC were able to kick the Xbox players' asses! All hail the almighty Keyboard! :D
 
I recall that using the keyboard limited you to the pressing of one key and becaue of that limitation, I exclusively played with the joystick when possible. Though I have one friend who played WC2 only with the keyboard.
 
Wow, all the keyboard fans finally speak up.

Was never much of an afterburner in the early WCs. I don't think I could manoeuvre and fire simultaneously in WC1, but I'm quite sure I could in the later games.
 
I find joysticks to be highly disorienting and end up overcontrolling all of the time when I try to use one, so I mainly stick with the keyboard.
 
Keyboard for wing 1, 2 and 4... couldent get a thunderbolt to manover in wing 3 with the keyboard, so i saved up my allowance (this was back in the early 90's) and gave in and bought a joystick. now i wonder how i played and thrashed Thrakhath without the joystick.

i do prefer a keyboard for wing 5 tho...
 
Ive used keyboard for years. Finished WCs 1-5 with it. Now i discovered a joystick. i like it.

Ever come back from a mission in WC1 with half your components fried, most of your guns ripped off, and the "floundering" combat music running through the last half of the mission? My friends and I used to joke that one the cockpit damage textures for a totalled fighter should include the flightstick coming off in the pilot's hands, forcing the in-game pilot to use keyboard controls and switches for what remained of the mission.
Click to expand...

I think that that would be pretty cool actually :)
Thats the type of hidden humour i liked in Fallout series for example :D
 
Wedge009 said:
Wow, all the keyboard fans finally speak up.

Was never much of an afterburner in the early WCs. I don't think I could manoeuvre and fire simultaneously in WC1, but I'm quite sure I could in the later games.
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Wouldn't call myself a "fan" I'm just too cheap to buy a joystick that'll work w/ my system, and too lazy to set it up to work w/ the older games. Yeah I dunno, i never liked the whole "you can't shoot and turn at the same time in WC 1 & 2." I'm sitting there watching a fighter fly passed me thinking "that cat must be roaring laughing at me." Then I say fuck it and shoot a missile up his tail pipe, my flying style ain't so funny anymore.
 
nishka said:
I played Wing Commander back in the day almost exclusively on the keyboard. I recall being able to sit on the afterburner while still being able to move my ship and firing.

When playing the game in Dosbox and Gametap, the emulation only allows for one key press at a time, meaning I can't move and fire at the same time. I never recalled the original behaving like this, but some folks claim it was always the way it's been.

So I'm looking for some expert opinions, is this how the original version on our 286's and 386's worked?
Click to expand...

It differs a bit from product to product and platform to platform, so it's not surprising people have different recollections of it. In some games and on some operating systems, even though the game won't simultaneously detect two keypresses, it'll return to one after another is pressed, and sometimes not. For example, if you're afterburning and then turn in WC2 in DOSBox, the afterburner will automatically resume after you stop turning. In WC1, I believe you have to let up and repress Tab to resume afterburning.

I played every WC game through with a keyboard the first time, but I don't recall if MS DOS and DOSBox really worked much different in this case. I've had several joysticks over the years, but usually when I hop back into a game, it's easier for me to just keyboard around rather than pull the joystick off my shelf.

Kevin Caccamo said:
The Keyboard is better than a console controller because it mentioned in PCGamer that the people playing Shadowrun on PC were able to kick the Xbox players' asses! All hail the almighty Keyboard! :D
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That's an awful justification.
 
For those that do use joysticks, which types are preferred? LOAF, which rudder/joystick/throttle setup do you use?
 
ChrisReid said:
That's an awful justification.
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I don't even care abou the justification! Historically, PCgamer is notorious for giving anything that isn't sports or "shoot em up" games extremely poor scores (Including wc 3 + 4 as I recall). As a fan of Adventure/RPG games, this offends me.
 
For those that do use joysticks, which types are preferred? LOAF, which rudder/joystick/throttle setup do you use?
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I use a vintage Thrustmaster FCS/WCS/RCS system for most of my DOS Wing Commander titles.

I don't even care abou the justification! Historically, PCgamer is notorious for giving anything that isn't sports or "shoot em up" games extremely poor scores (Including wc 3 + 4 as I recall). As a fan of Adventure/RPG games, this offends me.
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Wing Commander III and IV were highly rated by PC Gamer - the magazine was a big proponent of Origin, back in the day. They're facing double-obsolence today, though: both the number of people interested in getting their gaming news from print magazines and the number of people interested in PC gaming in the first place are shrinking into nothingness.

(Chris is right, though... but even beyond that, the idea of basing anything on people playing Shadowrun is pretty crazy - since, you know, no one played Shadowrun.)
 
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