Bah!!! I've had botox treatments so I'll have you know my old a.s is
smooth as a babies....

As far as a bash is concerned it's available anytime... Just get
enough people together to make it worthwhile...

Was it? Half-Life was the first game I played that defaulted to WSAD
although I had set up Q2 for WSAD before that...

Civilian_Target

ESDF or YGHJ, actually. Here's a cut 'n' paste of my Key Config sermon:

---------------------------------------------------------------------

There's no one perfect setup and each player must find their own best
config, but I'll share my thoughts on the matter.

In my opinion, there are a couple of main goals in creating your layout:
1. Functions which will never be used simultaneously can be bound to
keys operated by the same finger.
2. Functions which *will* be used simultaneously must be bound to keys
operated by different fingers.
3. Most important functions should be bound to keys you can press
without contorting your hand

The main movement functions are Forward, Back, Strafe Left, Strafe
Right, and Jump. Additional important movement commands (in Half-Life)
are Crouch, Walk, Swim Up, and Swim Down.

The main gun functions in HL are Fire, Alt Fire, Reload, Next Weapon,
and Prev. Weapon. Last Weapon can also be an important function
depending on your preferences, and some mods have additional very
important functions, such as TFC's Gren1 and Gren2.

The miscellaneous important functions are Use, Commandmenu (or radio
menu, depending on mod), and Flashlight.

My philosophy is to bind all the gun functions to my mouse, since it's
also the device which controls aiming. Left button is Fire, right button
is Alt Fire, thumb button is Reload, and mousewheel is Next/Prev weapon.
The mousewheel button could be used as Last Weapon.

This frees up my left hand on my keyboard for the movement keys. The
"inverted-T" configuration is arguably the most popular movement layout,
and for good reason: it divides the movement function in a way that is
both logical and ergonomic. This inverted-T was inspired by the arrow
keys next to the keyboard's number pad, but you can use any group of
four keys in an inverted-T shape. The most popular is WASD, which is the
HL default. This works, but there are two problems: first, it crams your
hand to the edge of the keyboard, limiting the number of nearby keys you
can bind. Second, it pulls your hand off the "home row", so people who
are touch typists need to reposition their hand in order to type a
message.

A better choice is ESDF. It has more nearby bindable keys, it's on the
home row, and it even has a raised bump on the "F" key to help you find
the proper hand position without looking down. (Personally, I use YGHJ.
It offers the maximum number of nearby bindable keys, has raised bumps
on both the J and the F, and is in a central position that makes it easy
to use all the number and Function keys. But ESDF is an excellent choice
for most people, especially those who don't have a desire to bind dozens
of team messages.)

With the inverted-T on ESDF, the middle finger operates both E for
forward and D for back. This is logical since you can't go forward and
back at the same time. Ring finger on S is Strafe Left and index finger
on F is Strafe Right, with the thumb on the space bar for Jump. The
pinkie on the A key is a good choice for Crouch.

By dividing these functions among four fingers and a thumb, you can
combine them in every way possible. And by isolating all gun functions
(including aiming) on the right hand, you have a setup that is *very*
flexible. For example, you can run diagonally back to the left (Strafe
Left + Back) while jumping (Jump) changing weapons (Next Weapon) and
reloading (reload). As you land you do a quick 180 turn (Mouselook),
crouch (Crouch) while moving diagonally forward to the right (Strafe
Left + Forward), zoom in (Alt Fire) and shoot (Fire).

Where you place the other functions is pretty much up to personal
preference, with the dexterity of your fingers as your only limit. For
example, I have my pinkie operate a great many keys. For movement, I use
it for all height/speed functions: Crouch, Walk, Swim Up, and Swim Down.
I also use it for Gren1 and Gren2 in TFC. This allows me to combine
*any* of these functions with the basic movement and gun keys, allowing
me to (for example) throw a grenade at any time. Yet most of these will
never be done simultaneously. If I'm crouching, I won't need to walk. I
won't need to swim both up and down at exactly the same time. And I
probably won't need to walk underwater.

The only limit is that I can't throw a grenade while crouched, swimming
down, etc. But that's a small price to pay since I still have all the
other movement skills. At one time I operated the grenades with my index
finger, and quickly realized I couldn't strafe right while holding a
primed grenade. On my first attempt to strafe left into a hallway and
throw a grenade at a SG, I was instantly blown up since I couldn't make
the switch back to Strafe Right fast enough. Time for a change.  :-)

That anecdote also illustrates my final recommendation: experiment,
experiment, experiment. You should definitely sit down for an afternoon
and think through what you want, but you'll probably come up with a few
different ideas. Try 'em out and evaluate each one. Be sure to give each
layout (including the one I suggested above) a fair trial, however; a
new config won't feel comfortable for several hours (or even
days/weeks). Evaluate a layout not on how familiar it feels, but how
useful, logical, and ergonomic it is.

Good luck!

Errrrr. Wow. Sceeeeeeary.

I let a mate of mine have a go of TFC on my machine the other week, he reassigned all the keys to
absolute horrors - I think mouse 1 was forward or something, and he had no back - didn't use strafe
at all. So I set up a LAN game and kicked his a.s every which way. He said he'd learn "proper" keys
after that hehehehe

Of course technology increasing is good. Bigger and faster PC's and more
video, great. But I have bought new games that just suck and have bugs. Or
are smaller than past games like Thief or HL.

A good way to choose games is with a game review site submitted by gamers
so your hard earned money is not wasted by games like Iron Storm.

He's right.  Your card is not the best.  My ti 4200 has been great.  I've
got the gainward version, factory designed for overclocking.  The rest of
your specs seem ok.  This AMD 1900 w/512 runs the demo @ very high fairly
well.  If I were buying today, I'd probably look at at least a radeon 9700.
You'll probably be fine with a video card update.  Stop whining, new
hardware is FUN!  :)

but how do u survive. its so hard trying to fight those stupid monster
without much ammo and everything. i died so easily when i went down
that escalator and a whole mess of stupid beasts were surrounding me.