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All of the recent versions of Doom that I have seen use W/S/A/D + Mouse or Xbox 360/One controllers out of the box.

What were the original controls of the 1993 version of Doom? (aka Doom 1.0)

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    Using the exact question title in Google leads me to doom.fandom.com/wiki/Controls. Would have been worth looking this up yourself, IMO. "The default controls, in vanilla Doom, for the most often-used functions are as follows..."
    – TankorSmash
    Jan 30, 2020 at 5:19
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    @TankorSmash I get the controls of Doom 2016, and interestingly, this question.
    – Lemon
    Jan 30, 2020 at 6:29
  • 1
    I can't understate the importance between turning and strafing, and how people did not use strafe to move. It was something learned over a number of games.
    – Andrey
    Jan 30, 2020 at 21:20

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
81

← to turn left
→ to turn right
↑ to move forwards
↓ to move backwards
Alt + ← or → to strafe
Ctrl to fire weapon
Space to use (open doors and use switches)
Shift + movement keys to run
1 - 7 weapon selection

Taken from the original game manual, page 9:

Original Doom game manual pp. 8-9

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    Also note that in 1993, the Alt and Ctrl keys were right next to each other, without Windows/Menu keys between them, so the layout was less uncomfortable that one may think.
    – Joker_vD
    Jan 27, 2020 at 23:21
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    @Joker_vD: I remember the positions being the same, they just had an empty gap between them
    – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft
    Jan 28, 2020 at 3:31
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    I like how it suggests to use the mouse and keyboard simultaneously when you're comfortable.
    – user1841243
    Jan 28, 2020 at 12:41
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    @user1841243 I remember it being rather awkward at first to play using that combination. But since one of the first games I played that way was Descent, it apparently wasn't that hard to get into (I loved the free movement, and remember, once I was used to it, being amused by people who would move their heads along with the movement on-screen).
    – Joachim
    Jan 28, 2020 at 12:52
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    Argh... I'm old enough to remember it, without needing a manual.
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Jan 29, 2020 at 6:55
37

F1 = this menu.

enter image description here

Controls Screen Doom v1.0 – The Cutting Room Floor

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    I remember it being somewhat difficult to transition to WASD for movement because I had trained my hand to use RMB for forward.
    – amonroejj
    Jan 28, 2020 at 18:17
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In FPS games of that era, players were not expected to (and in the case of doom, could not) explicitly aim vertically, they just had to aim horizontally and the game would take care of the vertical component.

The default control setup in many FPS games of that era (at least, Wolf3D, Doom, Duke3D, and Quake), revolved around using the right hand on the arrow keys for moving forwards/backwards and for turning. Other important controls were typically in locations intended to be convenient for the left hand, often on modifier keys (presumably to minimize the possibility of key rollover issues). Weapon selection was on the number keys, which was easy to remember, but not so convenient to press.

In the case of doom specifically, the arrow keys were used for moving/turning, control was used for firing, alt was used as a strafe-modifier and space was used as the activate button. "," and "." could also be used to strafe with a single key press, but this seems like a bit of an afterthought and was not mentioned in the manual.

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  • Doom could be played using keyboard only. That is only possible if you do not have to aim vertically.
    – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen
    Jan 30, 2020 at 18:09
  • Right, and it's not just doom, other FPS games of the era had very similar setups. I'm not sure when mouselook became effectively mandatory, maybe that would make a good new question.
    – Peter Green
    Jan 30, 2020 at 18:12
  • Yes, but it was awesome. People used to move their head as a fireball approached.
    – Paul McCarthy
    Jan 30, 2020 at 21:14
  • Fun fact: One of the reasons that you couldn't aim up or down in Doom, is that it wasn't technically 3D. As in, there is height, but it's only visual, from what I remember. Doom II did some shenanigans so you could have bridges(With empty areas beneath), but otherwise, the entire map is actually, from a coding perspective, completely flat, and there are only x and y coordinates, not z. They just use trickery to render it as if there was height.
    – MartinArrJay
    Feb 4, 2020 at 15:12
  • From memory, later versions of DOOM allowed you to use mouselook, but you couldn't move while it was active.
    – Powerlord
    Feb 5, 2020 at 5:24
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If your keyboard worked well you could press LEFT ARROW + UP or DOWN and run in a 45 Degree Angle to the left. The same worked of course for right. This was important, since strafing else took you off only in a 90 Degree Angle.

Not all keyboards were able to take this input from more than 1 key at a time, this was in the age of PS2 or AT keyboards.

I played Doom competitively at the time and one of the only ways to out do your opponent was by positioning since there was more or less auto aim.

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    Hi Lars, this provides some nice info, and serves well as a comment, but it's not an answer to the question at hand.
    – Joachim
    Feb 3, 2020 at 15:39
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    @Joachim, it does mention the fact that you can strafe at an angle under certain circumstances which relates to controls and doesnt seem to be covered in any other answers
    – Dragonrage ♦
    Feb 3, 2020 at 20:15
  • @Dragonrage, I agree it's a nice addition, but it doesn't answer the question. I thought that's were comments were for. Or is it okay to post insightful information as an additional answer, when the question itself has already been answered in other answers? If so, it would be good if that was mentioned here, or in other relevant places.
    – Joachim
    Feb 4, 2020 at 12:16
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    @Joachim I dont see it as commentary on another post, but I would consider it a partial answer (It addresses some controls, though not all), and partial answers are ok.
    – Dragonrage ♦
    Feb 4, 2020 at 21:52

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