Why we switched to WASD | Nostalgia Nerd
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Huge thanks to @Romero666 for agreeing to chat for this video!
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@Nostalgianerd
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
🚀 Install Star Trek Fleet Command for FREE now https://t2m.io/NostalgiaNerdSTFC and enter the promo code WARPSPEED to unlock 10 Epic Shards of Kirk, enhancing your command instantly! How to easily redeem the promo code 👉 https://t2m.io/promo_STFC
@JerrysPizzaWeDontKnowAndyTate
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
I still rely solely on good old IJKL
Sadly, most of my game play is just opening and closing the inventory and quest log but I'm not giving in to Big Walking
@NinjaDav3
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
thanks for the explanation. i've always wondered why we use WASD instead of the home keys (what you called ESDF). this explains it. not sure i think being able to reach the 1 key slightly more easily justifies putting my hands on the keyboard wrong every. single. time. but at least i understand now
@NinjaDav3
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
thanks for the explanation. i've always wondered why we use WASD instead of the home keys (what you called ESDF). this explains it. not sure i think being able to reach the 1 key slightly more easily justifies putting my hands on the keyboard wrong every. single. time. but at least i understand now
@pivotguydc1149
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
I was gawking at all the ways PC game controls were programmed in the old days until I realized what I used to do back when I was emulating N64 games before I could afford to buy controller adapters:
WASD as the control stick. Left Shift as left trigger (Z). O was A, H was B, and IJKL were the C buttons, with backslash as the R trigger.
Also Maplestory is a neat holdover from the old days. Arrow Keys move the character, Ctrl is standard attack, Alt is jump, and all the macros are by default on the Home/Ins/End/Delete/Pageup/Pagedown matrix.
@MasonAlvatros
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
3:54 OMG we finally got to see his WANG!
@WoodsPrecisionArms
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
I never did change to WSD I was so engrained using the arrow keys of hours and hours playing network Duke 3D
@AdamBorseti
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
I used the arrow keys from 1999-2004. I believe the Half-Life came with the movement keys set to the arrow keys by default. At least, the disc version I had. Maybe I'm misremembering but it had right shift as "walk" and right control to crouch. Then Half-Life 2 had them set to WASD and I decided to adapt. I'm surprised that some people use ESDF. I never would have thought of that.
@alancx523
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
Except left handed people….
@Heliophanus
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
Kind of ignoring one thing in this.
In the Doom days, mice were TERRIBLE. Constantly getting gunk in them and getting stuck, buttons being unreliable, etc. Of course we preferred keyboard-only.
For me, that changed with the first laser mice.
@ViperGTS_R
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
Fps? Wasd
Arcade racer? Arrow key
@dim0n1
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
We used utility called novert, disabling an Y axis mouse for doom matches and played Duke3D, Q1 with mouselook already and our binds was using numpad 8456 and every key around then 😀
@danielbishop1863
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
No mention of the QWOP controls pioneered by a terrible 2008 Flash foot racing game? 😉
@coreymartin6363
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
I assume the answer is mouse look?
@r.g.c.3897
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
My keyboard has a feature where if I press ctrl/k it switches the arrow keys to wasd. It works great to play older games that are hard mapped to the arrow keys and it's really funny when you forget to press ctrl/k again to revert back and try and type something.
@prodigal_southerner
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
I will never be your woman.
@WlodekM3
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
16:03 thats not half life 1, it's half life source
@danielwhite2231
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
Sorry, but wasd is bloody awful. Can't stand it. Doesn't feel right
@JanVP1
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
I live in one of the few non-QWERTY keyboard countries. I mostly play open-world games and still use the arrow keys for navigation. I'm 50 now, so there's little chance I'll ever switch.
@marcusfleuti2672
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
I think this is much more natural and works better for me for over 20 years:
A = forward
Y = backward
S = Jump
D = Strafe left
F = Strafe right
@luma-chroma
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
speak for yourself. arrow keys suck
@Sassquatch0
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
When Quake launched, for some reason I settled on A, Z, Ctrl, Alt as my default config. Same in Duke3D.
@awvalenti
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
As a Vim user who embraced the "stay on the home keyboard row" philosophy, I'm trying to adapt to using ASDF mapped to left down up right, so I can keep my left hand still. It's promising, but still needs getting used to!
@GaijinMecha
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
I play doom on a Macintosh, and it had a mouse.
I remember being blown away when the first unreal game came out, and I found myself playing in three axis'
Never played quake
@Emelefpi
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
What sorcery did you use to avoid content match strikes for using the music that you did? I am in awe 😮
@DjVortex-w
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
I think that ESDF would have been so much better than WASD, so it's a pity that the latter became the standard. (That's because in many games there would be good uses for the extra keys that would be on the left of ESDF.)
Of course there's nothing stopping one from remapping the keys in pretty much any game, but anyway.
@corneliussmiff2773
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
Ironically, when I first started playing PC games the arrows were still a thing and it always felt off to me as I wanted to bind more controls to closer by keys. I switched to WASD because to me that felt logical in my head. I never knew it was sort of already a thing and would become one going forward. I still feel like a smart ass for doing this (even though I am absolutely not smart at all).
@bricktimelapsebuilds
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
I bet this game is censored in germany
@garrettyates647
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
Necro but I would love a deep dive into the Romero defaults of Mouse 2 +forward and comma period for left right strafe. I lived by this for years in early comp esports. would bind J K L ; to the weapons that mattered etc. I've since de (e?) volved into wasd because binding keys these days is just too tiresome and I'm not trying to impress anyone with my frag skills anymore, but I think it's a worthwhile short story.
@andrewjacobs6370
February 28, 2026 at 1:36 pm
I prefer arrow keys. Guess im old.
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