A few days back I released a video on how to run the Metal Slug, mission 1 demo for the Atari ST. Since that demo program doesn't seem to natively support Joysticks, I promised to release this follow-up video on how to use shortcuts in the STeem Atari emulator.
Here you'll the keystrokes for this program and how they are mapped for the on-screen movement you'll need for playing. As you can see the normal WASD is used with the W used to point the aim up, A to move left, S to squat down and D to move right.
Then the N key used used to shoot, the b key is to throw bombs and the m key is to jump. Of course any of these keys can be used in combination with each other or in combination with the WASD keys.
But what if you're a joystick player? Especially since a lot of the old Atari games were played with a joystick. Well, all you need is a joystick, wired or wireless, that is attached to your Windows system and the STeem Atari ST emulator.
What you should see is the default mappings for the Atari ST, namely the ST Help, Undo and other ST function keys. To start, we are going to click on the 'new shortcuts' to create a new list of keystrokes. The first keystroke will appear. Simply click on the first box on the left to highlight it. Then using your Joystick, move a joystick or press a button to have the emulator record which one you want to map. An indicator should show up, letting you know it recognized which one you pressed. If you pressed the wrong one, just click on the box to clear it and press the correct one. You can define up to two more keys to simultaneously press for that action. You can also use the drop down to select the type of action you want to create the shortcut for. In this case, we're going to leave it at the default 'press ST key'. Then, in the box on the right we're going to press the actual key.
So for the first mapping, I'm moving the left joystick up and we see it indicated here. Then, after clicking in the far right box, I pressed the W key and a w appears in the box. Then, to enter another mapping, i press on the Add new button and repeat the process again for the next mapping until you have all your directional movements done. Then create another entry and press the Fire button on your controller and then the N button for the keyboard command. Again, continue until you have all the other mappings done for the remaining actions.
There is one more step to do to use these settings. You'll notice in the upper list of the mappings, there is either a green checkmark or a red x. These indicate if that particular set of mappings is currently activated. Just click on the indicator to turn that set on or off. You also can have more than one set active at a time. For example, if a program responds to the normal Atari function buttons but you also want it to respond to your specialized mapping, turn both on. Or any combination of both on, both off, #1 on and #2 off, or #2 on and #1 off. And you can make any number of shortcuts each with their own actions.
For complete instructions and a walkthrough
watch the video below