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Pressing All Arrow Keys at Once?

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teejusb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 18, 2010
16
0
I finally switched over to Mac's and I'm extremely happy with my purchase :D But the only problem that I've found is that in Stepmania (DDR simulator), I can't press more than 2 of the arrow keys at once. Some of the songs require 3, or even 4 to be pressed down at once. I tried with WASD and same issue. I would think that for a $2k laptop, there would be a 3 or 4 key rollover on the keyboard. Normally this problem is a hardware issue, but I was hoping that in the case of a Mac it wasn't. Could someone shed some light on this issue, and also suggest a combination of keys similar to the arrow Keys or WASD which allows all four, or even 3, of the keys to be pressed at a time.
 
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Wattser93

macrumors regular
Sep 6, 2010
176
0
ctrl + opt + cmd + 8 inverts the colors on your screen, so 4 button commands are possible.

I don't know if the keyboard supports more than 2 keys at once though, holding down all 4 arrow keys at once isn't part of a typical workload so including it may have no occurred to Apple.
 
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HippieMagic

macrumors 6502
Dec 21, 2011
311
163
Some keyboards only let you press multiple buttons at once on the left hand side to allow for gaming while keeping the right hand side one or two keys only it really depends on the keyboard.

I know you can at least press 2 buttons at once on the MBP 15"(late 2011).
 
Z

zeemeerman2

macrumors 6502
Feb 21, 2010
272
25
With many, many keyboards, regardless of supplier, you can't press all four arrow keys at once. Only a few might, I don't know any.

In the advice of StepMania, my brother who is an expert at StepMania (rating of A or AA on step level 17 or so) has his keybinds so that left and down are played with his left hand (with some of the WASD keys) and his right hand plays up and right (with some of the IJKL keys). You might try that one, let us know if it works. :)
 
saberahul

saberahul

macrumors 68040
Nov 6, 2008
3,645
111
USA
Wattser93 said:
ctrl + opt + cmd + 8 inverts the colors on your screen, so 4 button commands are possible.

I don't know if the keyboard supports more than 2 keys at once though, holding down all 4 arrow keys at once isn't part of a typical workload so including it may have no occurred to Apple.
Click to expand...

Cool tip!
 
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teejusb

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 18, 2010
16
0
@zeemerman - I have tried out similar keymappings, with the arrows in the line but I never could get used to it haha. BUT I did try it out and it does seem to work. I used the 1 and 2 keys for left down, and the 9 and 0 keys for up right and I could hit all four arrows at once.

So I tried out other keymappings. WASD, IJKL, UHJK and PL:"... From what I noticed, I can press the 3 keys on the same line at once, but can't press 3 keys if I utilize the Up alternative key. The best I found was the PL:" combination because I all combinations of 3 keys could be pressed except Up, down, right... which I shall learn to live with haha. 4 Keys are not possible with any of the combinations unless they arrow keys are mapped in a line. Thank you for all your guys' help!
 
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iThinkergoiMac

macrumors 68030
Jan 20, 2010
2,664
4
Terra
VMMan said:
For recommendations on working around this issue, hardware related or not.
Click to expand...

True, but it's not possible unless you scatter the four necessary keys around on the keyboard so you find some that can all be pressed at once, making gameplay impossible.

The solution is to get an external keyboard that can receive all those keypresses.
 
E

Elevon

macrumors regular
Nov 29, 2011
157
1
Wattser93 said:
ctrl + opt + cmd + 8 inverts the colors on your screen, so 4 button commands are possible.

I don't know if the keyboard supports more than 2 keys at once though, holding down all 4 arrow keys at once isn't part of a typical workload so including it may have no occurred to Apple.
Click to expand...

Wow, I didn't know this combination until now! Thanks!
New prank on my friends MBP, hehehehe... :D
 
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