Debunking the Myth that Doom is meant to be played keyboard-only

[fraggle]

This seems to be an oft-repeated myth that somehow has gained a foothold in people's memories of Doom over time. Time erodes our memories of the past and myths like these can obscure what really happened. My goal here is to provide a conclusive debunking of this particular myth and then if anyone ever needs a citation in future then you can link this page.

 

Now first, let me clarify:

• "Lots of people in the 90s played Doom with the keyboard only" - true.
• "Some people even today prefer to play Doom with the keyboard only" - true.
• "DOS Doom in the '90s didn't have mouse support" - FALSE.
• "Doom is meant to be played keyboard only" or "The proper way to play Doom is without a mouse" - FALSE.

 

Let's look at the evidence:

 

Exhibit 1: The Doom manual

 

archive.org has a convenient scanned copy of the original Doom manual. This is the literal, paper manual that shipped with the original Doom mail order versions. Turn to page 9:

 

 

Doom's own manual recommends using the mouse.

 

Exhibit 2: Doom SETUP prompts you for your input preference

 

Here's a video of the install process for DOS Doom. This is the original v1.0 shareware version of Doom that was released on December 10, 1993. The very first thing that happens after the files are copied to your hard disk is that the setup tool is run. The very first thing the setup tool does is ask you your preferred control setup (Keyboard; Keyboard & Mouse; Keyboard & Joystick).

 

 

Exhibit 3: Doom's own demos are recorded with the mouse

 

Here's a recording of the demo loop from Doom shareware. Again, this is v1.0, the very first release:

 

 

From the very start of DEMO1, where the player (John Romero?) makes a quick turn to the left, it's obvious that this is not being recorded with keyboard controls. With a careful eye, it's obvious that the mouse is being used in all three demos.

 

By the way, the same is true in the Wolfenstein 3D built-in demos too. Even before they started development of Doom, the id guys had realised that the mouse was the superior controller.

 

Exhibit 4: John Romero himself has said Doom was made for mouse input

 

And Wolfenstein too.

 

---

 

By the way, how many people were using the mouse as opposed to only-keyboard back in the 90s? Well, Richard Ward's survey from March 1994 can help to answer that question, at least for the early days. Of 128 respondents, 36 were playing using keyboard and mouse. That's around 28%. That compares to 78 (~61%) using keyboard only. Those numbers would likely have changed as players became more adept at the game, especially among deathmatch players.

 

Remember, I'm not disputing that many people did play using only the keyboard - only that the game is not "intended" to be played that way, and it was both possible and common to use the mouse.

[Linguica]

OK, but are you aware that Doom is not 3D?

[[McD] James]

Try explaining all that to my obstinate friend Beezo, who thinks I'm a noob for playing Doom with a mouse. Nothing I say ever gets through to the guy.

[unerxai]

Necessary thread tbh.

 

By the way, I noticed in version 1.0 armor could go over 200%. Interesting.

[fraggle]

32 minutes ago, UNERXAi said:

By the way, I noticed in version 1.0 armor could go over 200%. Interesting.

Yep, there's a page here about it:

 

https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Armor_percentage_rollover

[HavoX]

Great find!

[Sparktimus]

Any claim that says "x is how you're supposed to play Doom" is full of hot air. People have played Doom with flight sticks before. Hell, you can play it on a phone screen with no keyboard at all.

 

Unless you're running some kind of tournament with a specific rule set, who gives a hoot how people play?

[DuckReconMajor]

Who is this fraggle guy? has he played vanillay doom?

 

30 minutes ago, Sparktimus said:

People have played Doom with flight sticks before.

 

My dad and I played Hexen co-op on flight-sim joysticks all the time in the 90s. 

Edited June 4, 2019 by DuckReconMajor

[Revenant100]

The following has always been the one and only officially sanctioned by its own creator peripheral of choice to play Doom:

 

[chungy]

The myth might be helped/propagated by the PDF manual that came with Doom Collector's Edition. Its version of Doom95 excluded the mouse VXD required to support play with the mouse, presumably because WinNT couldn't use it anyway, and the manual erroneously claimed that Doom didn't support the mouse originally.

[Nymbus_Hustle]

I don't understand why someone would unironically use keyboard-only. What gameplay benefit is there aside from nostalgia or pretending you're better than others?
 

Whatever tho, when it comes down to it; do things how you prefer and don't force it on others, other people's opinions usually don't matter

[Lila Feuer]

The only thing about keyboard only is it'll put you more on level with the monsters but that's it.

[LadyVader1138]

1 hour ago, Revenant100 said:

The following has always been the one and only officially sanctioned by its own creator peripheral of choice to play Doom:

 

This is glorious.

34 minutes ago, Nymbus_Hustle said:

I don't understand why someone would unironically use keyboard-only. What gameplay benefit is there aside from nostalgia or pretending you're better than others?

I didn't play Doom until 2008, so nostalgia isn't a factor and I don't consider myself better for it. I started as it was the most comfortable way to play with my laptop on my bed as I couldn't get the mouse in a position that would cause my hand to cramp. So, I tried using keyboard only and I've just gotten used to it to the point that I was able to beat Doom on UV as easily as if I had used a mouse. Again, that's not me saying I'm better, just my personal preference.

[fraggle]

1 hour ago, chungy said:

The myth might be helped/propagated by the PDF manual that came with Doom Collector's Edition. Its version of Doom95 excluded the mouse VXD required to support play with the mouse, presumably because WinNT couldn't use it anyway, and the manual erroneously claimed that Doom didn't support the mouse originally.

You weren't kidding, and this is a real bullshit excuse they included:

 

 

(found in readme.rtf on the root of the CD)

[cybdmn]

5 hours ago, Linguica said:

OK, but are you aware that Doom is not 3D?

 

 

OK, but does it work with Brutal Doom?

[chungy]

10 minutes ago, fraggle said:

(found in readme.rtf on the root of the CD)

Well, I was wrong about being in the PDF, but it is on the disc anyway. Shows me for not checking =p

[Gifty]

I'm 90% sure in the back of my Doom Survivor's Guide there's a blurb somewhere in which John Romero says he tested and mapped on mouse and keyboard. Based on that I always assumed that this was the primary method of control that the game was developed around.

[banjiepixel]

1 hour ago, Nymbus_Hustle said:

I don't understand why someone would unironically use keyboard-only. What gameplay benefit is there aside from nostalgia or pretending you're better than others?

 

Technically same could be said about not using freelook. There was actually time when I moved from using freelook to using keyboard only. Played on a laptop then and at that point keyboard only felt just most simple and comfortable way to play. I later moved back to using freelook and then ended up finally using proper classic doom controls, with just vertical mouse movement disabled. Playing with keyboard only is alot like playing with a gamepad, that is what I liked about it. It could be a fun challenge to actually someday complete Doom with snes controller or maybe even with arcade stick.

[Doomkid]

Ahhhh damn, Fraggle - you beat me to it!! I saw a bunch of really irritating misinformation in the SIGIL thread and had started writing a script for a YT video about it. My evidence was just going to be the 1.0 version of SETUP.EXE included with the earliest ever shareware release though, you went a few steps further than I did. Glad you made this, I feel like it's been explained in various threads over the years that Doom was designed with mouse input in mind but they just get lost to time.

 

The fact that the Doom95 developers completely bullshitted to excuse their crappy mouse support is hilarious, but it probably is, or at least was in the past, a big contributor to the stupid myth that Doom was meant to be played with a keyboard.

Edited June 4, 2019 by Doomkid

[whirledtsar]

2 hours ago, Nymbus_Hustle said:

I don't understand why someone would unironically use keyboard-only. What gameplay benefit is there aside from nostalgia or pretending you're better than others?

Using the keyboard ironically would be even more odd.

[Graf Zahl]

Thread like this one remind me...

 

There's only one way Doom is meant to be played and that is to have fun.

Whatever that means to any single person out there. I guess most people's idea of "fun" is so far removed from Vanilla and its constraints that discussions like this make me chuckle. :P

 

[WalterAB]

As the one who started the conversation (At least I think it was me) on the SIGIL post about classic DooM's controls, allow me to say something:

I'll admit that I thought that the keyboard-only was the primary mode of play, given that it was the default settings, and I didn't know about the hint in the manual. But I was just proven wrong. Maybe the developers knew it played better with the mouse, but set the keyboard as default because it was a more familiar control scheme for most players, especially considering how the genre was still extremelly young, and a lot of people hadn't even played Wolfenstein, so they had no familiarity at all with the game mechanics.
Still, I think that the original Doom was developed with the limitations of keyboard-only controls in mind, because there were a lot of people who didn't even had a mouse back in the early 90s. I don't think the developers would want their game to be unplayable by so many people. So I think the monsters and the encounters were designed with all that in mind. And this is why I argue that modern control scheme breaks the original maps difficulty. I do not claim that keyboard-only is the "right" way to play the game. I don't even play that way.
Now, and this is an honest question, even the keyboard + mouse controlers used back then weren't as versatile as they are today, right? Like the easy strafing and stuff. I do remember mouse being supported, I don't remember WASD + mouse at all.

[seed]

5 hours ago, Sparktimus said:

Any claim that says "x is how you're supposed to play Doom" is full of hot air. People have played Doom with flight sticks before. Hell, you can play it on a phone screen with no keyboard at all.

 

Unless you're running some kind of tournament with a specific rule set, who gives a hoot how people play?

 

Pretty much.

[Noiser]

5 hours ago, Nymbus_Hustle said:

I don't understand why someone would unironically use keyboard-only. 

I like to use keyboard-only from time to time. Of course, I also play with mouse and WASD. I'm always changing it.
 

I think it's fun with atmospheric or imersive maps. I don't know how to explain, but for some reason there is this kind of "intimacy", the controls are less floaty and I can concentrate more on the environments and the enemies at the same time. I don't know if it makes sense, but it something that clicks on my brain. 
 

5 hours ago, Nymbus_Hustle said:

What gameplay benefit is there aside from nostalgia or pretending you're better than others?

The nostalgia thing is very true, but why I should feel better than other people? o_o

I mean, it's indeed satisfying when you manage to beat a hard mapset (which is totally doable when you get used to it). But I'm not better than anyone. Hell, I'm not even a good player. The important thing is having fun, I guess. 

Edited June 4, 2019 by Noiser

[ReaperAA]

I love this thread. Now I can just quote this thread to the so called "Purists" who say that doom is only meant to be played with a keyboard and make them look like noobs for not configuring their controls 😈.

Edited June 4, 2019 by ReaperAA

[kb1]

8 hours ago, fraggle said:

Exhibit 3: Doom's own demos are recorded with the mouse

 

Here's a recording of the demo loop from Doom shareware. Again, this is v1.0, the very first release:

 

From the very start of DEMO1, where the player (John Romero?) makes a quick turn to the left, it's obvious that this is not being recorded with keyboard controls. With a careful eye, it's obvious that the mouse is being used in all three demos.

Great thread! By the way, I think the first TNT demo is keyboard only (or keyboard+joystick), for comparison. You can tell, because turning speed feels constant. I imagine a demo analysis tool would easily tell the story.

 

I always wanted Doom to support analog input for an analog joystick, but instead it treated all joysticks as digital.

[HorrorMovieRei]

Shout out to the troopers that play mouse only. I know you're out there, don't be shy

[beloko]

The original and only way to play Doom is using a touch screen on a mobile phone. 😉

Edited June 4, 2019 by beloko

[CyberDreams]

Interesting topic fraggle! Quick question though: Were you able to turn off vertical mouse movement in sourceports before novert was created? Or was the novert utility created first and then sourceports adapted it? I'm assuming sourceports had that function first.

 

I'm not entirely sure when novert was created though. Possibly around 2000 like the textfile in the one uploaded to the idgames archive states as i know that originally there was no way to turn off vertical mouse movement in DOS Doom.

Edited June 4, 2019 by CyberDreams

[unerxai]

A few years ago I discovered that MS-DOS 6.22 came with a mouse driver that allowed you to modify both vertical and horizontal sensitivities separately. This way I managed to lower the y-axis to almost zero. I wonder if anyone used that back then.