Players who are new to the gaming world do not know those dark days when we used to move our characters with the arrow keys. In the past, games were played only with the keyboard and the mouse had no function in games. We used the keyboard to move our character, select weapons, shoot, and even change the camera angle.
Although it was difficult to move with the arrow keys, not being able to control the camera angle with the mouse made the players of the period feel like suffocation. Exactly 26 years ago, a Quake player attracted attention by constantly winning tournaments. Our story begins right here.
Players used the keyboard to both move and change the camera angle; mouse had no function in games
The most popular games of its time, released in the 1990s; Players were making serious efforts to play games such as Doom, Quake and Hexen. When it came to competitive games that supported multiplayer, such as Quake, it was completely out of control.
On the one hand, you had to choose your weapons in the game, on the other hand, you had to reach the remote keyboard keys to move the character. Briefly; Playing video games was more of an ordeal than a pastime.
The tournament organized by Quake 2 in 1997 became one of the most important events in gaming history.
26 years ago, The Red Annihilation, the first official esports tournament in gaming history, took place live in the USA with the participation of more than 2000 players. The player who won the tournament would own the Ferrari of Jonh Carmack, the programmer of the Quake 2 game.
When it came to the final stage of the tournament, the player Dennis Fong, nicknamed Thresh, and the player Tom Kimzey, nicknamed Entropy, faced each other. The winner of this breathtaking fight was Dennis “Thresh” Fong. So why did this win change the fate of the gaming world?
How Dennis “Thresh” Fong’s tournament victory ushered in a new era in gaming.
The winner of The Red Annihilation tournament is Dennis “Thresh” Fong, the world’s first esports player; It attracted the attention of many players during the tournament. Players of the period played Quake and many other games using the default keys determined by the game.
Although some of the players competing in the tournament had assigned different keys, it never occurred to any player to use the mouse for the camera angle.
Fong replaced the movement arrow keys with W, A, S and D keys; To adjust the camera angle, he used the mouse instead of assigning any keys on the keyboard. This key arrangement he made won him both the world’s first esports tournament and John Carmack’s 328 model Ferrari.
With this arrangement, Fong made great contributions not only to himself but also to the gaming world. Using W, A, S, D keys as arrow keys and using the mouse for camera angle has now become the first choice of players.
The Red Annihilation tournament made a big splash among gamers, and in 1998, the WASD + mouse combination came as default in a game for the first time.
After The Red Annihilation tournament, which made a huge impact around the world with its grand prize and large number of participants, Dennis Fong became a well-known name in the gaming world, and the legendary keyboard and mouse combination he used was adopted by the players.
Half Life, which was released in 1998 and is still known as an unrivaled legend today; For the first time in history, it was officially the first video game in which the camera angle could be controlled with the mouse and the WASD keypad was used for movement mechanics.
Valve wanted to use the ESDF key combination instead of WASD in the Half Life game.
Gabe Newell, founder of the game’s production company Valve, has always been an advocate of ESDF keys against the WASD keypad.
He wanted to add the ESDF key combination by default to the Half Life game, but since the players were already accustomed to the WASD keys, he had to define the WASD keys as the default movement keys of the game.
Although WASD keypads are still standard movement keys today, ESDF-WASD debates still continue, especially for players of the 1990s.
Although the discussions have been going on for 26 years, the WASD sequence of default keys has not changed and we will probably not see a new key combination that will replace these keys for movement mechanics in the coming years.
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