Angband on a laptop?

[Jude]

OK, so I'm sick with some infection after getting my appendix taken out, and laid up for a while...one way to pass the time would be to do some dungeon crawling on my dad's laptop (I need to lie down or at least be in bed). However...it seems like trying to play a roguelike without a numeric keypad would be way more trouble than it's worth. Has anybody else ever tried working Angband on a laptop keyboard? Is there any good way to pull it off or should I just play some other game?

[Pete Mack]

OK, so I'm sick with some infection after getting my appendix taken out, and laid up for a while...one way to pass the time would be to do some dungeon crawling on my dad's laptop (I need to lie down or at least be in bed). However...it seems like trying to play a roguelike without a numeric keypad would be way more trouble than it's worth. Has anybody else ever tried working Angband on a laptop keyboard? Is there any good way to pull it off or should I just play some other game?

The usual way to do this is to use the roguelike keymap (gameplay option). However, it means a nearly completely different set of commands. If you ever plan to get your own laptop, this may be the way to go...

Alternatively, you may be able to define your own 'keypad' by making a keymap for all the run and walk commands, and remap any overloaded commands to some other characters.

[Nick]

I pay with the original keyset on a laptop - you get used to using the Fn key after a while.

[Dragonboneman]

I also use the original keyset on a laptop and it's really not much bother. I use the cursors for about 90 per cent of movement commands, only using Fn when I have to move diagonally.

[fyonn]

I only own a laptop and have done for years now. I pay angband mostly on the cursors, and I use 1,3,7,9 on the top row of the keyboard. I'm kinda used to it now. those rectangular rooms with a checkboard interior aren't too bad as I can navigate by only using the numeric diagonals, but earthquakes annoy me (but then, they always did).

[Slortar]

Whenever I've *banded on a laptop, I go to the Accessories/Accessibility menu under Program Files and pull up the on screen keyboard. That gives you mouse-driven access to the number pad (and other keys). Works great for me. I usually keep a shortcut to it in my *band folder for quick access.

[Pah]

Get an external keyboard. It's not expensive.

[Blackened]

For me as a VIM user, rogue-like keymap is the only natural way to play; it doesn't really matter then whether I have my external keyboard plugged in or not.

[arcum42]

You can buy a usb numeric keypad, and use that with your laptop. That's actually one of the first accessories I picked up for mine...

[rdermyer]

I play on my macbook, and I could never get into the roguelike keyset, so I use a combination of mostly touchpad with number keys for precision movement. The mouse support got me back into Angband, since then I could play it on my laptop without having to learn the other command set.

[Frood]

I used to play using the original keyset on my laptop using the 123456789-keys to move around. It actually works pretty good, except that it is somewhat awkward to run in a particular direction. Also it is a pain to move your hands whenever you want to do anything other than just walk or attack.

Now I play using the roguelike keyset and that works much better. One big advantage is that you rarely have to move your hands away from the normal typing position. You can learn it pretty quickly, it takes maybe two hours to be able to play without having to look up keys too often.

[slashme]

Now I play using the roguelike keyset and that works much better. One big advantage is that you rarely have to move your hands away from the normal typing position. You can learn it pretty quickly, it takes maybe two hours to be able to play without having to look up keys too often.

Darn right. I used to play with the keypad and original keyset, but I found that that made me seasick looking up and down from the monitor to the keyboard every time I had to type anything with my right hand.

<digression>Of course, that was back when I was doing absolutely ridiculous savefile scumming. I used to save before killing a unique or reading a scroll of acquirement, and if I didn't like what I got, I restored, took a step, and tried again!!! I soon realized that that playing normally was much more fun and much faster.</digression>

Anyway, I learned the roguelike keyset (took me a while to get used to the diagonal keys) and never looked back. Now I don't move my hands at all, and keep my eyes on the screen.