[ponderings]

On the vic 20 and the Commodore 64 we had 4 function keys (f keys)[0] The order was a bit weird and the usability was not optimal. Without pressing shift you had F1 F3 F5 F7

If you designed a menu with just 4 options it would look something like.

[F1] - new game

[F3] - high scores

[F5] - settings

[F7] - credits

After seeing it just once reading wasn't really required. You would just hammer F1 twice for [F1] new game > [F1] easy mode You might see the second menu flash for a frame or not at all.

If the menu got more complicated you could chose to use the shift+F key for options used less regularly or you could move the option under a sub menu, or a sub sub sub sub sub menu.

The weird thing was that if you accessed a sub sub sub sub sub menu a few times it would get mapped into muscle memory. I remember hammering out something like [F3][F3][F5][F7][F1] you press the second button twice then the one below, then the bottom one below and end with the top one. If there was any hesitation the visual menu would show up and trigger the memory before even parsing the text.

It would almost instantly get me to the correct action out of a seemingly unlimited number of options.

Not counting the unusual even options, if the menus have 4 options each 4x4x4x4x4 is 1024 things!?!

I remember the awe seeing other people instantly plop things onto the screen.

Of course with such a limited computer there was not much need for such elaborate navigation but it was truly fantastic. My hands would navigate menus I didn't even know I knew.

Trying to navigate windows with the keyboard was a big disappointment by comparison. I now had to repeatedly think how to do things which on C64 was almost never the case. After finding something my mind had to noticeably get back to what I was actually doing.

[0] - https://www.nightfallcrew.com/wp-content/gallery/c64_brown_f...