I had a very good idea for a game. So I spent last night and most of this morning bashing it together. I figured that I could have something fun together in a week or so and then move on to the next thing.

The game was intended as something that you can play with a friend on a single laptop. The point is that I often find myself waiting around with my brother in coffee shops, and it would be nice to have a simple game that we could play together.

Unfortunately, I am a massive idiot. You see, all but the most expensive keyboards (ie, not the ones that you find in laptops) are designed to check clusters of keys. They can only hear about one key in a set at a time. This is something that PC gamers will encounter from time to time when doing something complicated in an FPS.

I knew this, but I didn't think about it because, as mentioned, I'm an idiot. Because it happens at the hardware level, you can't just check one key each frame (I tried anyway, nothing doing). You also can't take into account which clusters will be read and design the controls around them, because every keyboard is different.

I'm currently looking at some ways of reducing the number of keys needed, but if you were ever wondering why there are no action games for a single keyboard...now you know.

EDIT: On the plus side, if you want to make a PC version of Johan Sebastien Joust, this is the tool you need to do it.

I'd chime in and say that you can get sort of get around this by mapping things to the control/shift keys or whatever, but I imagine that would cause far more problems than solutions.

@Video_Game_King: Well, those keys are on the same board so they are subject to the same problem. But yes, in some scenarios that might be a solution.

You can check which buttons presses are registered with this Microsoft article on Keyboard Ghosting

@RustySanderke:Hey, that's pretty cool! It doesn't really help me get past the problem, but it's neat to read anyway. danke.

What about using an external controller that you already have on you, such as a cell phone?

@MrKlorox said:

What about using an external controller that you already have on you, such as a cell phone?

Although I'm not a programmer, I can't imagine that being very easy to implement as a programmer or as a player.

@Video_Game_King said:

@MrKlorox said:

What about using an external controller that you already have on you, such as a cell phone?

Although I'm not a programmer, I can't imagine that being very easy to implement as a programmer or as a player.

Whilst using your phone to control your PC is something you can easily do, all it does is emulate the mouse and keyboard, so the problems would still persist.

The other option is writing new drivers for the phone to somehow let it function as an input all of its own, which I imagine is a big ballache.

@Video_Game_King said:

@MrKlorox said:

What about using an external controller that you already have on you, such as a cell phone?

Although I'm not a programmer, I can't imagine that being very easy to implement as a programmer or as a player.

It's actually a really good idea, I like it. However, it would require another custom piece of software on the phone. I 100% guarantee you that this is possible (and actually it might even be doable with the Studio version of GameMaker, which I don't have), but it's well beyond what I am capable of doing right now.

@AlexW00d said:

Whilst using your phone to control your PC is something you can easily do, all it does is emulate the mouse and keyboard, so the problems would still persist.

The other option is writing new drivers for the phone to somehow let it function as an input all of its own, which I imagine is a big ballache.

Actually, because this is a hardware limitation and not a software one, emulating a keyboard on your phone would work perfectly.

@nintendoeats: Oh, well, awesome. Ha.

So this is why my computer gives me that angry beep when I press several keys together?

Man, I used to play heaps of two player games on a single keyboard as a kid.

Is this a case of keyboards getting worse overall? Because we always just had shitty basic keyboards for the longest time

@Subjugation said:

So this is why my computer gives me that angry beep when I press several keys together?

I know what your talking about, but I'm not sure if it's the same problem.

@AlexW00d said:

@nintendoeats: Oh, well, awesome. Ha.

The other problem is that I don't think I can do it with my phone, but I'm going to see if I can make it work.

If your using C# I know that has easy[er] microsoft gamepad support. I have never used C# my self. But it sounds like it is a whole lot easyer to program for windows.

@Tim_the_Corsair: Designs that don't have this problem cost a small fortune and tend to be based on very modern tech, so I don't think so. My guess would be that you were using standardized keyboards that the developers could anticipate the limitations of. On top of that, it's only a problem when you want your players to have more than, say, 2 buttons each.

@Dagbiker: The last game that I made used 360 controllers (I work in GM, but I have done some C# and the integration is very good in XNA). The problem is that very few people have 2 wired controllers, and I want people to be able to play this one.

@Tim_the_Corsair: Designs that don't have this problem cost a small fortune and tend to be based on very modern tech, so I don't think so. My guess would be that you were using standardized keyboards that the developers could anticipate the limitations of. On top of that, it's only a problem when you want your players to have more than, say, 2 buttons each.

@Tim_the_Corsair said:

I can't remember the game, but I have a distinct memory of playing a platformer of some sort in the early-to-mid 90s where I was controlling the game using WASD + Y and U and my mate was using the arrows + Ins and Del

In that specific example, my guess would be that it's because those keys are all on different lines on opposite ends of the keyboard. Also, for some reason I can only picture Lode Runner. No idea why, no reason to believe that's it.

Usually only two keys will be used at a time for WASD or the arrows, assuming you were using them for movement (fewer if no diagonals, or you used Q as the diagonal of W and A). So wouldn't that leave you two keys on that circuit (cluster?), assuming the left and right sides are on different circuits (whatever) with their own key limitation of four apiece?
 
I also remember playing a Need for Speed with two people on the keyboard back in like 96 or 97. And NES/SNES emulators around that time as well come to think of it. Might wanna download one and check the default key setup for an idea of what generally works.

@MrKlorox: There are quite a few more buttons at play than that in this case, but your definitely right in your theories. As for emulators, I might take a look at those.

@Tim_the_Corsair said:

I can't remember the game, but I have a distinct memory of playing a platformer of some sort in the early-to-mid 90s where I was controlling the game using WASD + Y and U and my mate was using the arrows + Ins and Del

In that specific example, my guess would be that it's because those keys are all on different lines on opposite ends of the keyboard. Also, for some reason I can only picture Lode Runner. No idea why, no reason to believe that's it.

@Tim_the_Corsair said:

often think about Lode Runner, just 'cause

XD I think it's just because of the name. It's such a weird name. Lode Runner. Not Load Runner. Not Loaded Runner. Lode Runner.

Odd.

@RustySanderke said:

You can check which buttons presses are registered with this Microsoft article on Keyboard Ghosting

Rusty beat me to it, but this deserves repeating. It's the closest you'll get on a laptop keyboard. Buying an expensive gaming (mechanical) keyboard will also fix the issue, but you can hardly expect your customers to buy a keyboard just to play.

If the focus really is on laptop gaming, may I suggest you map a couple of things to the left and right mouse buttons? Most laptops have keyboards so close to the mousebuttons that you can run both with one hand.

@BitterAlmond said:

@RustySanderke said:

You can check which buttons presses are registered with this Microsoft article on Keyboard Ghosting

Rusty beat me to it, but this deserves repeating. It's the closest you'll get on a laptop keyboard. Buying an expensive gaming (mechanical) keyboard will also fix the issue, but you can hardly expect your customers to buy a keyboard just to play.

If the focus really is on laptop gaming, may I suggest you map a couple of things to the left and right mouse buttons? Most laptops have keyboards so close to the mousebuttons that you can run both with one hand.

the problem that I've found is that often trackpads are tied in with the keyboards on laptops. I hadn't thought of using just the buttons though, that's a good idea.

@Tim_the_Corsair said:

@nintendoeats I can't remember the game, but I have a distinct memory of playing a platformer of some sort in the early-to-mid 90s where I was controlling the game using WASD + Y and U and my mate was using the arrows + Ins and Del There was also Micromachines and TMNT where we shared the keyboard, and Pacman too I believe, off the top of my head.

Probably not the one you're thinking about, but I seem to remember Soldat had 2 player keyboard support.

@Tim_the_Corsair said:

@nintendoeats I can't remember the game, but I have a distinct memory of playing a platformer of some sort in the early-to-mid 90s where I was controlling the game using WASD + Y and U and my mate was using the arrows + Ins and Del There was also Micromachines and TMNT where we shared the keyboard, and Pacman too I believe, off the top of my head.

Probably not the one you're thinking about, but I seem to remember Soldat had 2 player keyboard support.