Other Board Tricks

TOUCH SCREEN TYPING – "COLEMAKOID" MESSAGEASE

MessagEase is a wonderful touch screen keyboard with large keys, very fast typing and lots(!) of possibilities. For touch screen devices I believe a tap-and-swipe design is superior to the traditional tap-only approach, especially since tapping your fingers repeatedly on a hard surface can be tiring. With the 3×3 large keys of MessagEase you can type fast quite comfortably; I use dual thumbs and have achieved 60 WPM without any auto-correction. In the Colemakoid MessagEase layout topic you can read more about this wonderful touch screen "keyboard" and my preferred settings for it. Highly recommended for your screen devices!

NOTE: In 2024, MessagEase became subscription-based. I subscribe to it but I understand it if people don't feel like spending money on their keyboard app. If you really want to, it's probably possible to find an older version of MessagEase which should be a legal way of using it for free. Furthermore, no features have been added since we started paying and it's still too bare-bones on Apple products so a worthy replacement might be in order. I just haven't found anything with quite the same rich functionality such as drag-return, circling, macros and composing.

My "Colemakoid" MessagEase setup, as described in the Forum topic linked to above, leaves the most common letters (on tap mappings) alone but moves the drag-mapped letters to resemble a Colemak layout. As this means going from predominantly radial drags to more mixed-directional ones, this may not suit everyone. I like to bring a bit of Colemak to my touch screen this way. I don't think it's faster than the default layout, but for a Colemak typist it should be more intuitive and easier to learn. Unfortunately, this kind of layout customization is currently only available for the Android version I believe.

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My "Colemakoid" drag mappings for the MessagEase touch screen keyboard. Shown with my "subtle blue" color scheme.

TYPING GAMING

I really enjoy the whimsical-yet-useful experience of playing a good typing game! In this section I'll showcase some of the typing games I've had the most fun with over the years.

Epic Typing

Epistory – Typing Chronicles is an excellent typing game if you like soft fantasy, and it's set in a beautiful origami world. It also has a similarly polished successor named Nanotale, and the type-runner Outshine that has more of a futuristic TRON vibe to it. The three are found together in the Typing Journey bundle if you want them all at a small discount. I liked Epistory so much that I bought the successors as well. All three games offer really well-designed fun and typing galore.

Epistory has you typing words to unlock its beautiful world while riding a three-tailed fox. The world unfolds before you as if it were made out of painted origami, which is a really nice touch. There are also creepy-crawlies to defend yourself against, some found in the wild and many more gathered in nests that you need to conquer; this is where the typing can get intense! In both cases you simply type the words that show up. Sometimes it's a single word or letter, and sometimes there are several words per obstacle.

The story literally unfolds as you type, with moods and sights aplenty
... if you can survive this guy to see the next one ...

More details about the Typing Journey:

Epistory

The story mode of Epistory is so beautiful and fun to play that I've replayed it several times. There's also an Arena mode that works as a gamified typing test. It gets intense and challenging.

Epistory has moody and interesting scenery like the Forest,
and some long words to type here and there!

A quirky and fun game mechanic is the four different types of magic you can use. If you type 'ice' your words will freeze monsters to buy you time. Fire magic burns away the next word of the monster, which can be a huge help when there are lots of two-word monsters approaching! There's also wind and spark magic, which I'll let you discover for yourself. Some monsters and obstacles require a specific type of magic.

A busy moment on the Island arena gets the combo meter going.
Note the fire-only monster near the top.

All menu options can be typed and movement is done with home-position keys so you don't have to mouse at all while playing; that's pleasant. If you're overwhelmed at any point, you won't lose lives but respawn without any punishment to try again. As an around 80 WPM typist, I mastered the top difficulty (Insane) so on my second run-through I set that instead of using the adaptive difficulty setting. The result was very similar, I think.

More long word encounters in the icy Labyrinth arena.

Nanotale

Nanotale is even more polished, immersive and epic than Epistory. There's a lot more to learn and interact with in more complex ways.

You can combo spells, focused on crystals. Give those sheep a good Large Push!

This installment takes the spell type mechanic a step further, making you solve interesting puzzles with your different types of magic.

You can also jump to these crystal foci. Find your way in the lush underground caves.

I loved how epic and lush this game is. And yet, I've played through Epistory more times precisely because it's simpler and therefore more typing focused.

Spend a quiet moment hanging out with a defeated foe.

Outshine

Outshine feels very different from the others. It's a level-oriented dodge-and-run game with a futuristic techno vibe. And yet, it has a backstory that unfolds as you finish levels. It's a really good and visually pleasing game.

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Horror Typing

The Typing of the Dead

The Typing of the Dead is a weird and wonderful thing: The 1998 SEGA rail shooter arcade game House of the Dead 2 and its 2009 successor Overkill converted into typing games! Heh. So much fun.

The conversion is quite faithful, but with extra silly elements added – particularly in the first game. Zombies will often throw or wield kitchen utensils instead of knives and axes, and the main characters have their guns replaced with a SEGA Dreamcast console sporting a huge dry-cell battery strapped on their backs as well as a keyboard before them.

The original is still lying about and considered abandonware, so if you're interested you may give it a spin of the barrel. The original's drills can be downright handy for practising a particular aspect of your typing. There are exercises focused on typing speed, accuracy, reaction and special keys. There's even a typing tutorial (QWERTY-based but still quite useful).

In The Typing of the Dead, you'll meet various challenges such as the Tower boss. Type in the right answer to defeat it.

The newer installment The Typing of the Dead: Overkill is available on Steam, optionally bundled with several add-on dictionaries. It has more shine, but only three extra minigame modes. And ... I have a feeling that it's managed the nigh-impossible task of being even cheesier than the original. Beware!

The Typing of the Dead: Overkill has hi-res sound & graphics, and custom dictionaries such as this Shakespeare one!

As much as I like and enjoy both, I play mostly the new one now. The original is what I've gone to for basic typing training, though. And Overkill can sometimes be a little too hard for casual play – but it's well worth it!

TTotD info and downloads:

TotD 2000

• See MyAbandonware's The Typing of the Dead 2000 page (free Windows version).
• After unpacking the .rar file there's an install.exe and then a setup.bat you should run to unpack sounds.
• I've gotten it to run on an extended monitor, without changing color depth (on Win 10). If you have a second monitor and want to play on your main one, disable the other one.
• I had to start it up with a standard US or UK layout active, or some keys became weird. After that, you can switch to any other Win layout such as my MSKLC Cmk-CAWS.
• Locale layouts may struggle as they can have some symbols on AltGr or dead keys that US/UK QWERTY have on normal/shifted keys.
• EPKL (AHK) works so I can use Extend to navigate etc. Using System or VK/SC layouts you can type with it too. I still like to use my installed MSKLC Colemak layout underneath.
• I replaced the gun sound files (TotD\sound\SE\COMMON\gun#_22.wav [1-5]) with typing sounds (TotD\sound\SE\typing\typing#.wav [1-5]) which are far more pleasant.
• If it's hard, set it to "Very Easy" in Options. There are other settings there that may help too.

TotD: Overkill

• See Steam's The Typing of the Dead: Overkill page.
• On my aging Lenovo laptop, the game simply wouldn't run: It'd barely start before crashing to the desktop.
• Luckily, in the Steam Community I found a helpful article on resolving the issue.
• What worked for me in the end was simply renaming the game's executable file from 'HOTD_NG.exe' to 'HOTD_NG-safemode.exe'. It works, yay!
• The Steam menu couldn't find the executable after this, but I could just run the .exe manually from its directory and make a link to it.
• Later on I got a new Windows 11 laptop, and now it just works without any worries. Yay!

Blood Typers

This is a really good and actively developed horror typing game and so I heartily echo the praise it receives. In addition to typing fast and accurately, you'll have to stay composed and tactical under the onslaught of hellish hordes. Gory fun!

Select one of this quirky film crew to be your hero. Your friends, if available, can select theirs.

You can bring different characters, use a variety of found weapons and make beneficial dishes from foodstuffs. All while fighting baddies and trying to find the means of escape.

Give that zombie hell, word for word!

The Textorcist

Wow, a bullet hell typing game. I was sceptical when I tried this out, but it's actually good fun. Especially if like me you've played old games back in the day, with their humor and grit.

There's some story fluff involved, but it's funny. And then you can replay any of your previous fights for a better score and items.

Brush up your Latin and evasion skills for this game.

Backspace Bouken

Speaking of retro: Backspace Bouken took me all the way back to my 8-bit adventuring days. It's a humorous dungeon crawler that has you typing your way up the "Tower Of F8". This game's absurd and quirky and clunky ... and I found it an absolute delight. A word of warning though: It really is old-school, with only one save slot that you can't use manually.

Other Typing Games

There are several other typing games and other programs on Steam and around the internet in general, so do snoop around!

Typer Shark Deluxe is a fun game I used to play a lot. You type increasingly difficult words to zap sharks that are out to get you.

The Abyss is endless, and these tiger sharks take three hits each. Good luck!

The CAPSLOCKDAY Steam bundle is for those who want to try out what's around. It's a bunch of more or less typing related games at a somewhat friendlier price, but if you aren't interested in all you might as well buy just the ones you want. I tried them out, and had fun with most but not all of them.

There are some free games out there too, of course! Most of those are browser-based. The Fast Typer games are good examples. They play like unforgiving word typing tests with timers, and you need high accuracy to keep the timer back.

TypingBird is a nice online typing game collection, providing entertaining kid-friendly games for free. Several of those are fun for us "grown-up kids", too! And while playing, you're also training. These little games are quite to-the-point, so you'll be typing a lot in no time with them.

Note, though, that a few games may be based on key scan codes instead of what your system or remapped layout says (virtual key codes). These games will use QWERTY, no matter what you do, unless you use a hardware mapping solution like a programmable keyboard. Thus, they're pretty useless for many layout enthusiasts.

This won't bother you if you have a programmable keyboard or USB device. And I have good news for the rest of us: The developer said on the Colemak Forum that they'd look into it, and have already rewritten several games to support alt-layouts. I love that kind of dedication and service-mindedness.

On the Training page I've described and linked to some more game-like training methods.

HARDWARE REMAPPING – QUICKIE DEVICES

USB-to-USB remapping devices are programmable microcontrollers that allow you to remap and enhance your keyboard. I've decided to call this kind of device a QUICKIE (QWERTY USB In, Colemak Key Input Emulated)! ￣(=⌒ᆺ⌒=)￣

It's a very interesting XKB/Win/Mac-independent trick: A USB-to-USB device that plugs between the keyboard and whatever you're connecting your keyboard to, provides an OS independent solution that can accommodate many of my tricks! For people having to deal with zealous IT security rules, this may be the only solution short of getting an expensive remappable keyboard. It could let you type Colemak to, say, a PlayStation. And it could be fun to make one yourself if you're adventurous and DIY oriented! If you do have an actual programmable keyboard, you can probably use nearly the same (TMK) code for it.

It'll remap only key strokes so basic layout and ergo mods such as Colemak-Curl(DH)AngleWide(+Extend) are possible, but not easily AltGr or dead key mods such as Colemak[eD].

The safest and easiest option may be to order the brilliant USB to USB Converter from GeekHack user Hasu, who has also developed the TMK software for converting keyboards to more awesome keyboards. I provide TMK files in the USB-2-USB Big Bag topic.

For more info, see the Big Bag of Tricks topic – USB2USB edition! Note that some keyboard controllers can be programmed with TMK or its fork QMK. My code should work for these controllers too, at least using TMK, and then you wouldn't need a separate device.

Hasu's USB to USB Converter for TMK Key mapping

PHYSICAL KEYBOARD MODDING

You don't need special hardware to use a special layout. On my laptop I've blind typed happily away for years using Colemak-CAWS and the only change I made was scratching the N (QWERTY K) key a little to aid homing since I have a Wide ergo mod. But some will want the visual to match the experience. And naturally, many layout enthusiasts are also keyboard hardware enthusiasts!

These days, there are many many options to buy or make a keyboard to your liking. I have an old and somewhat dated physical board modding topic where you may pick up some ideas, but you may also want to search around for newer topics.

There's a quite comprehensive key cap guide on Reddit, by redditor 'Present_Lingonberry'.

I also suggest checking out the Deskthority.net Wiki and the GeekHack.org forums as they are great founts of knowledge and opinions on most things keyboard. Especially mechanical switches, but lots of other things too. For all questions hardware, there's also the Colemak Discord #Hardware channel, always full of knowledgeable and helpful enthusiasts.

My Unicomp SpaceSaver Buckling Spring (IBM Model M ISO type) keyboard with "American/Ninja" caps, splendidly sporting the Colemak-CAWS layout.

IMAGINATIVE COLEMAKING

You may or may not feel the need for Colemak-related images, but I do. In my Image topic you can see a showcase of them. Some are useful as help images, others are interesting and some are hopefully funny.