CPCRetroDev 2018 - OPQA vs. QAOP: The Final Battle

[Manu]

Hi everyone,


I've decided to create a separate thread for my game, in order to explain some details about it that may be strange to people who don't live in Spain.


The title is a nod to a popular meme here about the proper way to name the keys we normally use to play games in 8 bit computers. Some people in Spain (including some developers from that era) think that OPQA is the "canon way" and others argue that QAOP is the logical way. It's just nonsense really, but the debate always amused me.


The characters in the game represent one of these two "sides" and they are...


Team OPQA

   
• Sabrino: Javier García Navarro, main developer in 4MHz (creators of the amazing Operation Alexandra).
• Zarrancio: Ignacio Zarranz, host of the popular podcast Fase Bonus.
• CPCGamer: Toni Ramírez, developer in Retrobytes Productions (creators of Jarlac).
• Julito: The one and only Julio Iglesias. He is here because of a t-shirt I wore on RetroZaragoza 2017...
• Spectrunks: Javi Ortiz, youtuber and member of El Mundo del Spectrum.
• Professor CPC: The sprite of Dr. Light is a nod to Fran Gallego (ronaldo) who is very well known around here.
• Burrizking: Igor Errazkin, developer and scener of the Commodore 64.
• PriniVanilli: Ignacio Prini, music lover and creator of the popular web Program Bytes 48k.

Team QAOP

   
• Rastapan: Donkey Kong was the previous avatar of Miguel Ángel Montejo, better known as Radastan. A legend in the retro scene here.
• Yards: Rafa Corrales is "the" MSX fan here and is the original founder of the MadriSX / RetroMadrid events.
• HalfMetr: Fran Loscos (Metr81) is an awesome player and he has tested a great number of homebrew CPC releases.
• HeavyLong: Jevilon is the developer of the Spectrum game "Escape from the Holy Tower".
• Chemastran: This avatar, based on the character from Day of the Tentacle, is dedicated to Chema (Jose María Velo), a key member in the CPC scene.
• TorreznoMan: Jon Cortazar is a known member of the MSX scene (RELEVO Videogames), and he has developed Invasion of the Zombie Monsters for the CPC.
• TotalJamao: Jesús Martínez del Vas is a great comic artist, member of El Mundo del Spectrum and writer of several books.
• Whiteless: Atila Merino (Blackmores) is a founder of Amstrad Eterno and Un Pasado Mejor, and he has written an upcoming book about the CPC.

I've also updated the game with a change in game mechanics and a proper loading screen that Errazking kindly created for me. You can download the new version and the updated project here:


https://github.com/manuelsagra/OPQAvsQAOP


Thanks for reading!

[Gryzor]

Are you kidding? QAOP OF COURSE!

It's left to right, that's the sensible way. Also, up/down/left/right, who says left/right/up/down?


Tsk, some people...

[mr_lou]

People say WASD, which has nothing to do with a specific order of the keys. 
I'm guessing that became the form simply because of its sounding or looks.

So without considering the two options, but finding something that sounds and looks good, I would say QAOP - and that just happens to be one of the options.

[Manu]

I'm with the OPQA side 


There are two main reasons:

   
• It sounds better in spanish.
• Many games redefine keys starting with left and right, and then jump/up, down/crouch.

Some manuals say OPQA and others QAOP (and many other strange combinations...).

[asertus]

Probably preference depends on the keyboard layout you are using, qwerty is more OPQA and, maybe, azerty is QAOP.

Mine, OPQA 

[Gryzor]

The first post should have a poll

[Emashzed]

The first post should have a poll

Yes ! Let the people speak.
Even though of course, QAOP is the obvious, only reasonable choice 

[Manu]

The first post should have a poll

Why? OPQA has already won


https://twitter.com/AmstradEterno/status/914235336653512704

[Gryzor]

We don't really count Spaniards

[johnlobo]

OPQA rulez!!!

[Gryzor]

OPQA rulez!!!

...goes to show :p

[XeNoMoRPH]

[remax]

AQOP-Espace for da win...


Damn you Qwerty users!

[Gryzor]

Oh yes, do blame the rest of the world :p

[remax]

Oh yes, do blame the rest of the world :p

The goal of the Qwerty/Azerty layout was to be the most unnatural possible way of arranging the letters...


I think Azerty wins by a great margin on this point !

[robcfg]

Don't forget the german Qwertz keyboards!


I think they are as anoying as the Azerty ones...

[mr_lou]

Connect an old phone! Use T9!