Most of the
eighties computer games fell into 2 categories.. the IJKM games and the AZ left right games
These letters of course refer to the controls for moving whatever game
character you were using. When I got a new game, it invariably was copied off a friend and the first few hours with it were spent trying to work out the keys to control it.
Games like
Aztec on the
Apple II took ages with it 20 or so control keys.. until you worked out the help key and had it all in front of you.
These days we all have
numeric keypads and they have taken over as the default control keys for a game... but then again I buy all my games now and so don't need to muck around
keyjamming for the first few hours. I just read the manual.
Besides, imagine trying to work out the keystrokes for something like
MechWarrior 4, or
Age Of Kings without a manual. Kids these days must be all amateur
cryptographers. Either that or have nothing better to do than sit at their
computer for 12 hours a day.... oh ... yeah....