Was lookspring/lookstrafe common in early days of 3d FPS?

[invictius]

In 1998 (first pc FPS I'd ever played) I used arrow keys + alt strate + A to look up, Z to look down. It took me until playing quake 2 that a friend said "No, you use WSAD, and always mouselook". I don't recall anyone I know using controls any different. Well, apart from a rare few people using either a mouse button to run or using EDSF for strafe/forwards.

This has me super interested into lookspring and lookstrafe is even used by anyone nowadays. No friends irl that play any FPS, might also ask my retro friends online about what they use and why.

[Cherno]

In the time of Doom and Wolfenstein 3D, we used to play with the arrow key plus Left Alt for strafing, and Left Ctrl for Shooting. Since these games had vertical autoaiming, there wasn't much need for precise shooting. I think my brother even played Quake 2 with that method, and I probably played up to Quake 1 with that method. Gradually, the modern WASD+Mouse movement and aiming method was introduced. Blood's Bloodbath mode was probably the first time that furious circle-strafing was used to avoid the other players' Napalm Launcher shots. I also seem to remember playing Duke Nukem 3D with lookspring.

[drfrag]

I never used those but a bit of history here:
https://www.pcgamer.com/how-wasd-became ... ol-scheme/

[leileilol]

Only in Quake does the term "lookspring" and "lookstrafe" live, though ROTT had lookspring first.

WASD wasn't a thing until very late 1998, and even then it wasn't all that common until 2001 or so. I still don't use WASD. I irk when I see classic shooter rereleases use WASD

[Enjay]

I still don't use WASD because I'm left handed and my mouse is in my left hand so WASD is on the wrong side of the keyboard for me. Also, I "grew up" with games using the arrow keys for movement so I just stuck with them when mouselook became more and more of a thing. In games that allow you to lean around corners (etc) I might use the numeric keypad for movement and the extra buttons for leaning or whatever.

[invictius]

I still don't use WASD because I'm left handed and my mouse is in my left hand so WASD is on the wrong side of the keyboard for me. Also, I "grew up" with games using the arrow keys for movement so I just stuck with them when mouselook became more and more of a thing. In games that allow you to lean around corners (etc) I might use the numeric keypad for movement and the extra buttons for leaning or whatever.

Can you use right handed scissors? I can't, yet using a mouse with my right hand has never been an issue.

[Enjay]

Yup, no problem there. For some reason, I tend to use scissors in my right hand but I'm a bit ambidextrous with them so I can use right or left handed scissors.

In fact, I can use either type of scissors in either hand. Years ago, as a kid, I spent a bit of time working out why scissors work in one hand and not the other. Basically, you naturally sort of push forward with the thumb and pull back with the fingers when you close the scissors and doing so pushes the blades together. If you are using them with the wrong hand, the blades cross the other way so you push the blades apart instead.

If you train yourself to pull back with the thumb and push with the fingers when using scissors in the wrong hand, you can use either type in either hand. It feels a bit awkward but I've gotten used to it.