5 ms·

Video Game Keyboard Diagrams

109 points by app4soft 7y ago

netsharc 7y ago
Hah, reminds me of keyboard overlays from old games, which you could actually put on top of your keyboard, e.g: https://www.c64-wiki.com/images/9/92/Gunshipoverlay.jpg https://www.c64-wiki.com/images/9/92/Gunshipoverlay.jpg Obviously, back in the day, keyboards were one-size-fits-all...
- app4soft 7y ago
  > C64/C128 GUNSHIP CONTROL Awesome! Think, it would be cool to contribute more flightsim games keyboard bindings to «Video Game Keyboard Diagrams» database ;) FTR, I would like to contribute[0] YSFlight Simulator[1] key assignments[2]. [0] https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/wiki/Contributing https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/wi... [1] https://ysflight.org/download/ https://ysflight.org/download/ [2] https://forum.ysfhq.com/viewtopic.php?f=284&t=3938 https://forum.ysfhq.com/viewtopic.php?f=284&t=3938
- ThomW 7y ago
  Haha Gunship was totally the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the headline. What a great game that was. :)
gambiting 7y ago
It doesn't let me select a game. After picking the layout and theme, all games are still greyed out.
- nyir 7y ago
  Select the US layout, not all of the games seem to have all layouts available.
  - jrockway 7y ago
    I could only get it to work when I chose the keyboard layout and theme with the <> diamond symbol next to it.
himinlomax 7y ago
For StarCraft 2, just use the grid layout. I don't understand how anyone would want to use anything but the grid layout. It's very easy to learn: not only do the key match with the displayed icons' positions, but the key is labelled in the icon.
- plopz 7y ago
  I tried grid, but I couldn't ever unlearn the muscle memory of other games. A for attack, S for stop, H for hold position, P for patrol is burned into my hands at this point, trying to overwrite that is fruitless.
- larrik 7y ago
  I manually made my own grid layout, where Q,W,E,R were the bottom row of buttons, in order, and everything else stayed where it was, mostly. Worked well for all the units I remember, but buildings ended up having a manual grid layout instead. You end up pressing Q a lot, which was conveniently located near the group keys anyway.
zeofig 7y ago
Control of games, especially keyboard control, has long been an interest of mine... Many games go to great length to help the player control the game properly/optimally, yet many games fall short and can be improved by simple AutoHotkey programs, or more complicated xlib programs.
app4soft 7y ago
Here is its repo on GitHub.[0] Read its wiki-docs.[1] For report any bugs and/or feature requests use its issues tracker.[2] [0] https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams [1] https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/wiki https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/wi... [2] https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/issues https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/is...
elkip 7y ago
Choosing the Witcher 3 appears to give you the control scheme for Civilization
- app4soft 7y ago
  If you sure that you found a bug report it developer (see GitHub links in my other comments)
- ekimekim 7y ago
  Amusingly, it seems to be half-half, creating interesting results like a digits row 1-7 being: Religion, Continent, Appeal, Settler, Government, Political, Axii Sign. Also WASD being Great Works, Attack, Move Backwards and Strafe Right.
  - DizzyDoo 7y ago
    This sounds like a game design challenge! Design a game that uses the controls and theme of this weird controls mashup.
s5ma6n 7y ago
Apart from other suggestions, what I need the most is a search functionality (search box) to find the games I want. This could even further be pushed by giving a Steam library link and automatically create diagrams for all the games in a user's library.
0-_-0 7y ago
I just started Elite:Dangerous and this is a lifesaver
cridenour 7y ago
I'm confused to when this was built. Because the SVG code looks modern, but some of the games are completely dead MMOs (like Earth & Beyond). Seems to be a mix of early 2000s games and then games from the last couple years.
- clarry 7y ago
  There are games from the 90s. So? People still play them, just as they read book from before they were born. Changelog says the project started in 2004.
  - yellowapple 7y ago
    The comment was specifically about dead MMOs - i.e. MMOs that are no longer playable because servers no longer exist for them.
- app4soft 7y ago
  > I'm confused to when this was built. Because the SVG code looks modern SVG code was not modern enough, until yesterday.[0,1] [0] https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/issues/1 https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/is... [1] https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/commit/eea833ea0d200d1e7330cb27cbfbd270722d1cc0 https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/co...
dfee 7y ago
Reminds me of the awesome looking Optimus Maximus Keyboard from 2007: https://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/maximus/ https://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/maximus/ I always thought that’d be the future of keyboards, but instead we got the touchbar.
- metalliqaz 7y ago
  it was a really, really bad keyboard and it was insanely expensive perhaps modern e-ink could make a better product, but I think the real reason we don't have keyboards like that is because keyboards are at their best when you aren't looking at them. a good old (and free) cheat-sheet works well because you really only need to keep it out on your desk for about two weeks.
  - yellowapple 7y ago
    I think e-ink is promising here specifically because you don't have to keep supplying power to the display just to keep an image visible. You could have a separate 'key cap programmer" that would update the display for an individual keycap and that updated display would stick until you reprogram it again. Next step would be to integrate such a keycap programmer into each switch on a keyboard, so that the keyboard could program all its keycaps in one go without requiring the user to pull the cap / program it / reinsert it. ---- On the topic of whether or not you need to look at a keyboard's keys in order to use it: sure, maybe you or I - who are used to touch-typing - might be able to get by on a Das Keyboard or whatever, but ordinary people (that is: people who are not typing enthusiasts ;) ) benefit greatly from having keyboard keys labeled, and especially benefit from having keyboard keys labeled with common shortcuts for whatever applications they're using. This sort of thing could have immediate practical applications in point-of-sale, warehousing, data entry, and everywhere else where people who may or may not be technologically-savvy still need to use computers for their job duties (and sure, we could just declare "well if they use computers for their jobs then tech-savviness should be a job requirement" like the Hacker News elitists we are, but the real world doesn't work that way, nor should it, in my opinion; user-hostility is a design flaw, not a feature). Really, this would be a high-tech replacement for both 1) custom-printed keys and 2) employees taping hand-written legends to their keys.
thetanil 7y ago
I had the idea to make a web site like this years ago, but it wasn't nearly this cool, even in my imagination. Nicely done!

109 points by app4soft 7y ago

Hah, reminds me of keyboard overlays from old games, which you could actually put on top of your keyboard, e.g: https://www.c64-wiki.com/images/9/92/Gunshipoverlay.jpg https://www.c64-wiki.com/images/9/92/Gunshipoverlay.jpg Obviously, back in the day, keyboards were one-size-fits-all...

app4soft 7y ago
> C64/C128 GUNSHIP CONTROL Awesome! Think, it would be cool to contribute more flightsim games keyboard bindings to «Video Game Keyboard Diagrams» database ;) FTR, I would like to contribute[0] YSFlight Simulator[1] key assignments[2]. [0] https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/wiki/Contributing https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/wi... [1] https://ysflight.org/download/ https://ysflight.org/download/ [2] https://forum.ysfhq.com/viewtopic.php?f=284&t=3938 https://forum.ysfhq.com/viewtopic.php?f=284&t=3938
ThomW 7y ago
Haha Gunship was totally the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the headline. What a great game that was. :)

gambiting 7y ago

It doesn't let me select a game. After picking the layout and theme, all games are still greyed out.

nyir 7y ago
Select the US layout, not all of the games seem to have all layouts available.
- jrockway 7y ago
  I could only get it to work when I chose the keyboard layout and theme with the <> diamond symbol next to it.

himinlomax 7y ago

For StarCraft 2, just use the grid layout. I don't understand how anyone would want to use anything but the grid layout. It's very easy to learn: not only do the key match with the displayed icons' positions, but the key is labelled in the icon.

plopz 7y ago
I tried grid, but I couldn't ever unlearn the muscle memory of other games. A for attack, S for stop, H for hold position, P for patrol is burned into my hands at this point, trying to overwrite that is fruitless.
larrik 7y ago
I manually made my own grid layout, where Q,W,E,R were the bottom row of buttons, in order, and everything else stayed where it was, mostly. Worked well for all the units I remember, but buildings ended up having a manual grid layout instead. You end up pressing Q a lot, which was conveniently located near the group keys anyway.

zeofig 7y ago

Control of games, especially keyboard control, has long been an interest of mine... Many games go to great length to help the player control the game properly/optimally, yet many games fall short and can be improved by simple AutoHotkey programs, or more complicated xlib programs.

app4soft 7y ago

Here is its repo on GitHub.[0] Read its wiki-docs.[1] For report any bugs and/or feature requests use its issues tracker.[2] [0] https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams [1] https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/wiki https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/wi... [2] https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/issues https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/is...

elkip 7y ago

Choosing the Witcher 3 appears to give you the control scheme for Civilization

app4soft 7y ago
If you sure that you found a bug report it developer (see GitHub links in my other comments)
ekimekim 7y ago
Amusingly, it seems to be half-half, creating interesting results like a digits row 1-7 being: Religion, Continent, Appeal, Settler, Government, Political, Axii Sign. Also WASD being Great Works, Attack, Move Backwards and Strafe Right.
- DizzyDoo 7y ago
  This sounds like a game design challenge! Design a game that uses the controls and theme of this weird controls mashup.

s5ma6n 7y ago

Apart from other suggestions, what I need the most is a search functionality (search box) to find the games I want. This could even further be pushed by giving a Steam library link and automatically create diagrams for all the games in a user's library.

0-_-0 7y ago

I just started Elite:Dangerous and this is a lifesaver

cridenour 7y ago

I'm confused to when this was built. Because the SVG code looks modern, but some of the games are completely dead MMOs (like Earth & Beyond). Seems to be a mix of early 2000s games and then games from the last couple years.

clarry 7y ago
There are games from the 90s. So? People still play them, just as they read book from before they were born. Changelog says the project started in 2004.
- yellowapple 7y ago
  The comment was specifically about dead MMOs - i.e. MMOs that are no longer playable because servers no longer exist for them.
app4soft 7y ago
> I'm confused to when this was built. Because the SVG code looks modern SVG code was not modern enough, until yesterday.[0,1] [0] https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/issues/1 https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/is... [1] https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/commit/eea833ea0d200d1e7330cb27cbfbd270722d1cc0 https://github.com/mjhorvath/Video-Game-Keyboard-Diagrams/co...

dfee 7y ago

Reminds me of the awesome looking Optimus Maximus Keyboard from 2007: https://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/maximus/ https://www.artlebedev.com/optimus/maximus/ I always thought that’d be the future of keyboards, but instead we got the touchbar.

metalliqaz 7y ago
it was a really, really bad keyboard and it was insanely expensive perhaps modern e-ink could make a better product, but I think the real reason we don't have keyboards like that is because keyboards are at their best when you aren't looking at them. a good old (and free) cheat-sheet works well because you really only need to keep it out on your desk for about two weeks.
- yellowapple 7y ago
  I think e-ink is promising here specifically because you don't have to keep supplying power to the display just to keep an image visible. You could have a separate 'key cap programmer" that would update the display for an individual keycap and that updated display would stick until you reprogram it again. Next step would be to integrate such a keycap programmer into each switch on a keyboard, so that the keyboard could program all its keycaps in one go without requiring the user to pull the cap / program it / reinsert it. ---- On the topic of whether or not you need to look at a keyboard's keys in order to use it: sure, maybe you or I - who are used to touch-typing - might be able to get by on a Das Keyboard or whatever, but ordinary people (that is: people who are not typing enthusiasts ;) ) benefit greatly from having keyboard keys labeled, and especially benefit from having keyboard keys labeled with common shortcuts for whatever applications they're using. This sort of thing could have immediate practical applications in point-of-sale, warehousing, data entry, and everywhere else where people who may or may not be technologically-savvy still need to use computers for their job duties (and sure, we could just declare "well if they use computers for their jobs then tech-savviness should be a job requirement" like the Hacker News elitists we are, but the real world doesn't work that way, nor should it, in my opinion; user-hostility is a design flaw, not a feature). Really, this would be a high-tech replacement for both 1) custom-printed keys and 2) employees taping hand-written legends to their keys.

thetanil 7y ago

I had the idea to make a web site like this years ago, but it wasn't nearly this cool, even in my imagination. Nicely done!