: Check out this unbelievable review of Marathon "the Doom clone."
: It's old and it might have been mentioned before, but I can't remember it.
: http://www.erasmatazz.com/library/JCGD_Volume_8/Design_by_Cloning.html
: "What really astounded me was their mapping of mouse functions. In Doom,
: left-right motions of the mouse rotate the player, while forward-backward
: motions move the player forwards or backwards. All absolutely intuitive.
: But for some unfathomable reason, the designers of Marathon chose to make
: the forward-backward motions of the mouse move the player's aim up and
: down! The result is one of the most insanely counterintuitive interfaces I
: have seen on any piece of commercial software. You swing right or left
: with the mouse, but move forward or backward with the keyboard. Thus, any
: kind of maneuvering requires your hand to jump frenetically from mouse to
: keyboard and back." (...)
I played Doom with the mouse and keyboard the same as I played Wolfenstein 3D. While you might think it is intuitive that moving the mouse forward and backwards moves the player forward and backward, it involves a LOT of frantic pumping the mouse around on your desk. I had to clear off the entire right hand side of my desk to make room for the maniac mouse. When Marathon came around I was annoyed only 2.7 seconds at the change in the mouse actions. Then I realized it was a GOOD thing. What was a bit goofy to me was the it was the opposite of an airplane yoke. I immediately got used to it. I now have the exact same mouse and keyboard configuration today playing modern games as I did playing Marathon 1 with the exception of mapping additional keys for jumping, crouching, scope zoom etc. Looks like Marathon got the last laugh on that know-it-all.
Gary Simmons
the Battle Cat
