Three or Four Players on One Keyboard: Key Layouts and the Ghosting Problem
Published · 2 min read
Who gets which keys
The game assigns a fixed cluster to each seat and shows the layout on the ready screen before every match. Player 1 (green) has the arrow keys and fires with M. Player 2 (red) has E, S, D and F and fires with Q. Player 3 (blue) is on the numeric keypad — 8, 4, 5 and 6 to drive, 0 to fire. Player 4 (orange) has I, J, K and L and fires with Y. In every cluster the top key drives forward, the bottom key reverses and the two side keys rotate the tank on the spot.
Starting the round
Pick 3 Player or 4 Player on the title screen, then each player presses their own fire key on the ready screen. The maze appears once everyone has pressed. After a kill the maze is rebuilt and the next round starts on its own.
Seating
Four sets of hands on one keyboard needs some arranging. Put Player 2 on the far left (E S D F), Player 4 to their right on I J K L, Player 1 on the arrows and Player 3 on the numpad at the far right. On a laptop without a numeric keypad there is no seat for Player 3, so run a three-player game with Players 1, 2 and 4 by choosing 4 Player and leaving the blue tank parked — or simply play three with the numpad seat empty.
Why a tank stops moving
Most keyboards cannot report every combination of keys at once. When three people hold drive keys and someone adds a fire key, the keyboard may drop one of the presses and a tank sits still until the others let go. This is called ghosting and it is the hardware, not the game. It happens less when the clusters are spread across the keyboard, which is why the layout above uses both ends of it, and it happens much less on a keyboard that advertises n-key rollover.
House rules that keep it friendly
Play first to ten kills and rotate seats after every game so the arrow-key player does not keep the most comfortable cluster. The Scrapyard counter at the bottom keeps a running total of wrecks, which is a good tiebreaker for the evening.
More from the blog
- Aiming Around Corners in Tank Trouble 2: How the Bounce Works and How to Use It
The shell in Tank Trouble 2 reflects off every wall like a snooker ball. Here is how to plan a shot you cannot see the end of, and how to stop your own shells coming back for you.
- Tank Trouble 2 and the Original Tank Trouble: What Is the Same and What JPTR Changed
The maze, the bouncing shells and the Player 1 and 2 keys come straight from Mads Purup's 2008 original. The computer opponent, the third and fourth keyboard seats and the weapon crates are the sequel's additions.