Stock Control Settings

You're playing an NES game, a typical sidescroller, and the control is what it usually is. A is jump, and B is run, or attack, or whatever action the developers had in mind. Breaking this conformity just for the sake of being different has the greater risk of frustrating the players, and breaking the immersion the developers otherwise worked so hard for. When these are altered, Damn You, Muscle Memory! may occur; when unique new control features are added and not shown to players in tutorials, Noob Bridges may occur.

This is why we have Stock Control Settings.

Naturally, the exact control settings depend on both the genre, and the controller used. To cover the controllers, see General Gaming Gamepads. Here, the focus is mainly on the layout of the face buttons. Those come in a few varieties:

• Single Row -- Two or more buttons are placed in a (mostly) horizontal row. Systems using this include the NES, the Game Boy systems, the Sega Master System, the Sega Genesis.
• Double Row -- Two horizontal rows, one above the other. Systems using this include the Sega Saturn and arcade joysticks used to play Fighting Games.
• Cross -- Four buttons arranged like points of a cross. This was popularized with the SNES gamepad, and then became the standard for gamepads.
• Shoulder Buttons -- Two or more buttons on top of the gamepad. This was also popularized with the SNES, and became the standard.
• Analog Stick Buttons -- Activated by pushing the analog sticks into the controller. Usually written as "LB"/"RB" for "Left/Right stick Button" or "L3"/"R3" to fit in with the numbering of the Shoulder Buttons.
• Keyboard & Mouse -- Typically a QWERTY keyboard, and a three button mouse, preferably with the center button being either under the scroll wheel or the wheel itself pushed down. For the menu systems of pre-mouse games and console ports, usually confirm/toggle is Return/Enter, cancel/pause is Escape, and navigation is done with the arrow (cursor) keys.
• On-Screen Buttons -- Control schemes relying exclusively on these are awkward for many action games, but they're a practical necessity for IOS Games, where no other buttons or keys are available. This kind of control scheme was used as long ago as 1987, in the Psygnosis game Barbarian.

This is largely unimportant in personal computer games nowadays, since PC games are expected to let the user reconfigure all of the game's controls (especially given the PC's numerous selection of niche controllers), and most of them do allow this. In the past, however (especially in the 8/16-bit era,) the bulk of games on most PC platforms had hardcoded controls. A burgeoning market in software and hardware to remap controls (even reserved ones like the Windows key) still exists from those times, many of which also allow inflexibly programmed games to be played with controllers that they weren't designed for.

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• Platformers usually have at least two buttons. One for jumping, and the other for secondary actions, which can be running, using a weapon, or interacting with the environment or other characters.
  • Single Row—If there are two buttons, left is the secondary action, while jumping is right button. If there are three buttons, jump is center, while both side buttons are the secondary action, or splitting them between different actions.
  • Cross—Jump is the bottom button, while there are usually two secondary actions, both split between the side buttons. A "continuous" secondary action, such as running, is typically on the left button, allowing to jump while running.
  • Keyboard & Mouse—Jump is the space bar, while secondary actions are with the mouse buttons, and a few of the keys.
    • Q/A/O/P/Space was a popular keyboard-only setup in the days of the Sinclair Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC. The Amstrad CPC allowed the "copy" key (the Left Alt key on a modern PC) for secondary actions.
    • Which sometimes made it painful for BBC Micro users to play a Spectrum game, or vice versa. BBC games tended to use the converse, Z/X/@/?/Enter, i.e. the left hand for horizontal movement, the right hand for vertical.
    • Most PC games since the dawn of the 32-bit era have stuck to inverted T-shaped key layouts (WASD, IJKL, arrows, keypad) for movement. In the 8/16 bit era, as indicated above, there were all sorts of different layouts used. Even the arrow ("cursor") keys were arranged horizontally at the time on many platforms (←, →, ↓, ↑, for Apple), though they were the standard keyboard controls for MSX games. IJKL was used as early as Lode Runner for the Apple II.
    • A very popular control scheme for old DOS games, such as Duke Nukem, Cosmos Cosmic Adventure, and Commander Keen was to assign both Ctrl keys to jump and both Alt keys to fire or some other function ("bring out pogostick" in the case of most Keen games). This was nice since it would let you have your choice of jump to the left or right of fire. Using the Alt keys became less popular with the rise of Windows operating systems, which tended to cause minimization and accidental context menu problems with Alt, so either Z or the spacebar has taken over that role if Ctrl is used for jumping.
    • Troper Tips: Windows Key getting in your way? Try remapping Ctrl and Alt as Z and V. They're about the same distance apart.
    • Another frequent choice is Enter for either jump, shoot or some other action.
    • Left shift to move left, right shift to move right, space to jump, and any of Z X C V B N M , . / to shoot (they all do the same thing).
    • Many freeware platformers also use Z for jump and X for secondary action. This is also popular with users of emulators. The reason may be because this effectively gives the left hand a corresponding mirror-image role to the usual role of the right hand on a console controller. (However this may cause problems if the controls are bound to specific letters rather than specific key positions—imagine trying to reach for Z on a QWERTZ or other non-QWERTY keyboard, for example.) When more buttons are needed, players and games often use some combination of the first nine letters on the left of the keyboard (Q W E A S D Z X and C).
    • There is some amount of disagreement over whether jump should be on the other hand or linked to the up button (or whatever's mapped to it).
    • A number of PC Platformers like Abuse use the mouse for aiming or looking around.
• JRPGs: There are four basic commands: Menu, Interact (talking to someone, examining an object, pressing a switch, etc.), Confirm, Cancel. Any extra commands depend on the game. In fact, which button is used for what basic command depends on the type of game.
  • Dragon Quest setup -- Menu and Confirm are the same button. Interact is actually part of the menu. Only Cancel is its own button.
  • Phantasy Star setup -- Similar to the Dragon Quest one, only Interact is separate from the menu (in the first game, it was walking up to a person/object; in the other games, it was its own button).
  • Final Fantasy setup -- Confirm and Interact are the same button. Menu and Cancel are their own buttons. Oddly enough, Dragon Quest VIII adopted this setup.
    • As for the actual gamepads, it's unfortunately often varied. For example, with the Cross configuration, sometimes Confirm is the right button, and sometimes it's the bottom button. Cancel is usually the opposite, but not always. And who knows where Menu will end up.
    • There was a time when Eastern and Western control schemes were different: For Cross Western had the Interact and Confirm button on the bottom, Cancel next to it, and with the Menu over on the Pause or Start button. Eastern had them all on the cross, Menu at the top and the others switching. These blending may be adding to the unpredictability of the matter now.
    • One thing that makes this worse for PlayStation games is that for western releases of games, the bottom button became assigned to "accept" as opposed to the right button X because developers thought that westerners would associate X with "cancel"...while many JRP Gs on the SNES used the bottom button for cancel and the right button for accept.
• First Person Shooters and Third Person Shooters: There are seven basic commands. Move, Aim, Fire, Run, Switch Weapon, Interact, and Menu. Typical additions are Secondary Fire, Jump, Crouch, splitting different types of interaction, and allowing two-way weapon swapping.
  • Keyboard & Mouse—Move is with the arrow keys or W, A, S, and D keys (actually called WASD). Aim is with the mouse. Fire is the left mouse button. Secondary Fire and/or grenades is the right mouse button. Switching weapons is with the scroll wheel and/or with the numerals at the top of the keyboard. Jump is space bar, like Platformers (which often have similar setups if it's an action third person game), Interact is the E key (or sometimes the F key, such as if the game has lean commands which themselves almost always Q and E), and the other commands are located around the WASD keys. Pause/Menu is Esc.
    • Slightly less common but no less uniform are are Crouch, either C or Left Ctrl, Sprint/Walk, often Left Shift, Flashlight, usually F (even if/especially if the Flashlight is already a numbered weapon slot), and Reload, often R. In multiplayer games, the Scoreboard is usually Tab.
    • Precursor to this, in ye olden days, a different setup was common with FPSes. The arrow keys were used to move and turn. Shift was used to run, Ctrl was used to fire, Space as Interact, and Alt+Direction was used to strafe. This was used in Wolfenstein 3D, Doom (and all the Doom ripoffs,) and is even set up by default as an alternate control scheme for many modern FPS games which support multiple key-bindings.
  • Dual Analog—It can be done with the SNES D-Pad and Single Analog (the N64 used the stick to aim and the C-button quartet or D-Pad to move in a WASD-like fashion,) but FPSs and TPSs only really caught on once dual analogs were standardized. Move and Aim are done with the two analog sticks. Primary and and Secondary Fire are done with the shoulder buttons. Switching Weapons is done with the D-Pad (or in the N64's case, generally the B and A buttons). Other functions are mapped to the face buttons, but more commonly used ones are mapped to secondary shoulder buttons, if available.
• MMORPGs often have a similar Keyboard & Mouse control to FirstPersonShooters, but use Q and E for rotating due to the fact the mouse is mainly used for clicking stuff. Alternatively, a keyboard or mouse button is held to enable mouse-controlled camera, then released to free the cursor again.
• Racing
  • Dual Analog—Left analog stick steers. The right analog stick is less standardized, but is mostly used either for the camera/looking around or the car's transmission. The four face buttons will be divided up into Brake/Reverse, Accelerate, Handbrake, Rear-View Mirror, and if present, Nitro Boost, though mapping any of these to the shoulder buttons is not unheard-of. Secondary automotive functions like horn and headlights (if present) will be relegated to the shoulder buttons; and switching view modes (from cockpit mode to chase cam, etc) are usually mapped to the D-pad or the analog stick buttons.
    • There are a few variations for the shoulder buttons - shifting up/down a gear, sharp turning and initiating powerslide are common uses.
  • Gamepads with shoulder triggers (Xbox, Gamecube, Playstation 1/2/3) -- Left analog stick steers, right analog stick looks around, throttle goes in right trigger, brake goes in left trigger, and the face buttons are mapped to handbrake, Nitro Boost, camera change and secondary function. This has the advantage of using the triggers' analog nature to better control your virtual pedals.
  • Keyboard controls are typically basic third-person movement keys with Forward/Back for Accelerate/Brake and Left/Right for steering with various other keys assigned to whatever other functions the game includes.
• Fighting Games and Beat Em Ups: There is at least one kick, and one punch (or sword) button. Optionally, there may be different powers of those attacks, or there is a block button (especially if it's a 3D fighter). Jumping is usually done with Up.
  • More accessible fighting games use a simplified system; light attack, middle attack, and heavy attack is a common alternative. Whether a "light attack" means punch, kick, sword swipe, or whatever just depends on the character. Super Smash Bros.. takes it a step further and has only one (primary) attack button, but gets a lot of usage into it, with normal attacks, strong or "tilt" attacks (tilting the analog stick while attacking), smash attacks ("smashing" the analog stick and pressing the attack button at the same time), aerial attacks...
  • A common default setup on keyboards was arrow keys to move, Enter for punch, and Shift for kick. If blocking was a separate key, it was usually the Spacebar.
• RTS games also have quite a few controls we've gotten used to over the years. Even though the specifics differ, most games nowadays at least have several: Left-Click selects entities, Right-Click performs the selected entities' default action, Numeric Keys (sometimes F-Keys) select groups, Control+Numeric Key assigns groups, Spacebar moves the camera to the last event, A activates attack command, S activates stop command.
  • Old style RTSes, such as Dune II, and the early Command & Conquer series used what was later called One-button control, where left selects and issues commands, right deselects. Rarely used nowdays, and leads to muscle memory problems when swapping between old and recent.
• Shoot Em Ups typically offer a shot button and a Smart Bomb button, and in some occasions extra buttons for a special ability, or a third button for rapid fire shooting (unless the main shot button is rapid-fire).
  • Mars Matrix instead maps all attacks to one button. The attack you use depends on how you press it (tapping, continous tapping, or holding it down).
  • On the other extreme, the Saturn port of Radiant Silvergun allows you to give each of your ship's seven weapons its own button.
  • Do Don Pachi Dai Fukkatsu Black label plays with the existance of both normal fire and rapid fire buttons. In other Cave shooters, pressing both will have the effect of pressing only either button, not both. But in DFK BL, pressing both allows you to fire your normal shot and laser shot, but this comes at a dangerous cost: the "red mode" meter will increase, allowing you to score more points but causing the Dynamic Difficulty to rise significantly.
  • Common keyboard controls are arrows to move, Ctrl or Alt to shoot and Spacebar for superbomb. If the mouse is supported, it's usually mapped to movement and the left mouse button to fire. The superbomb function is either left on the keyboard or mapped to the right mouse button, depending on what other functions the game includes.
    • However, most doujin shmups would employ Z as normal fire and X as superbomb, with C as rapid fire and A/S/D as pause being used occasionally and their functions varies with different games.
• Puzzle Games--particularly of the falling piece variety—usually have a button for clockwise rotation and a button for anticlockwise rotation. Moving the pad, stick, or arrow keys horizontally slides the current piece sideways, while moving it vertically will drop the piece (sometimes instantaneously, sometimes it will simply make the piece move down faster).
  • Many older puzzle games only offer rotation in one direction. Annoyingly, one version of Sega's 1988 Tetris game has three rotation buttons...and they all rotate in the same direction.
    • On the other hand, Tetris the Grand Master offers two anticlockwise buttons and one clockwise button. This scheme was probably implemented to allow your leading finger to do rotation in either direction and the adjacent finger to rotate in the other direction, though some players take advantage of the existence of two ACW buttons to do quick 180-degree rotations.
• Roguelike RPGs generally use the entire keyboard. Many of them actually have no menu except that for selecting a target of the chosen action. Several layouts are used, many with frustrating differences—for example, Nethack uses 'q' for "quaff" (for using a potion) while ADOM uses 'q' for "quit."
  • Popular commands include ',' to pick something up, the numpad for movement, '5' to skip a turn, 's' to search, 'o' to open, 'c' to close, 'O' for options (capital letters are separate commands), 'l' to look or loot, and so on.
  • Nethack and ADOM both have reprogrammable keybindings, though.
• MOBAs use the right mouse button to move your character and attack enemies, the left to select objects, QWER for spells, S to stop moving, A to force attack (used to attack friendly units to deny), as well as 1-6 to use items, and some games add D and F for extra spells while others feature hotkeys to set and reload unit groups. Ctrl, Space and Alt tend to do something as well depending on the game. The original Dota did not yet use the standardised and easy to reach QWER button mapping; its spell buttons were all over the place and very hard to reach quickly, prompting players to use a remap tool to fix this.