Strafe

Strafing isn’t a mainstream word, but in this context Wikipedia describes it thus:

Strafing in video games is a maneuver which involves moving a controlled character or entity sideways relative to the direction it is facing.

This maneuver wasn’t always in use. In the halcyon days of the early 1990s 3D gameplay was still heavily influenced by joysticks and 2D platformer games. This involved the cardinal directions for movement plus one or two fire buttons.

When switching to a PC many players simply reused what they were already trained to do. One hand controlled the four arrow keys for movement, the other pressed whatever key stood in for “fire”. These players then were only able to go forward, backwards, turn left and turn right. Perhaps the prevalence of this control scheme was reinforced by early 3D racing games which had no need for going sideways.

Though even the earliest 3D shooter titles had support for strafing, many players (including me) weren’t aware this was a thing until later. It didn’t help that the initial control scheme had strafing under a modifier key that you had to hold together with an arrow key to achieve sideways movement. I certainly recall when playing Wolfenstein 3D a Nazi hiding to the left or right beyond a doorway could pose a significant challenge.

I think strafe came into prominence only when mouse control became widespread. With one hand on the mouse controlling the turning and firing, the other hand was freed up to use the more modern WASD control scheme: forward, backwards, strafe left and strafe right. This then virally spread through the Internet, because it gave players an advantage in online matches of Quake and Duke Nukem 3D lan parties.

The picture presents a scenario from the not-so-distant future where a grandpa tries to explain the old days of gaming to the disbelief of the young audience.