Service Depot: Red Alert Key Command Remapping

Wild mouse errors are caused by a conflict between the PS/2 style mice and the use of certain key commands. Avoiding the use of the CRTL and ALT keys will generally keep the error from happening. As these keys are used quite often in the game, however, you may want to use the following method to remap the CTRL and ALT commands to a different key.

Below are simple instructions on how to fix the ‘wild mouse’ problem in the DOS version of Red Alert. Because key remapping can be used for other purposes as well, a more detailed set of instructions follows. If you are not comfortable with changing settings on your computer, we recommend that you ONLY change what you need to.

WARNING: Because you are editing the INI file for the game, it is HIGHLY recommended that you make a backup copy of the REDALERT.INI file before editing any information.

Fixing the Wild Mouse Problem

If you have a PS/2 mouse, you will want to remap the CTRL and ALT keys to prevent the wild mouse effect. Since this is a DOS problem, we will look at the CTRL and ALT commands in the INI file.

1) Change to your Red Alert directory on your hard drive.

2) type EDIT REDALERT.INI <enter> – this will bring up the INI file for the game.

3) Find the section titled DOSHotKeys in brackets, as shown below:

[DOSHotkeys]
KeyForceMove1=60
KeyForceMove2=62
KeyForceAttack1=58
KeyForceAttack2=64

These keys represent Left Alt, Right Alt, Left Ctrl, and Right Ctrl in that order.

4) Change the settings so that you have the following:

[DOSHotkeys]
 KeyForceMove1=49
 KeyForceMove2=62
 KeyForceAttack1=48
 KeyForceAttack2=64

This effectively remaps the Left Ctrl key to C, and the left ALT key to V. It also leaves the right CTRL and ALT keys available at the original settings.

5) Save the INI file.

6) Start the game. Remember that you now use ‘C’ to make groups and to force attack, and the ‘V’ key to force move.

Keyboarding Remapping in Red Alert: Advanced Users

WARNING: Because you are editing the INI file for the game, it is recommended that you remap the minimum amount of keys that will allow you to play without errors. Remapping too many keys may effect gameplay. It is HIGHLY recommended that you make a backup copy of the REDALERT.INI file before
editing any information.

To remap your keys, you will need to use a standard text editor to edit the REDALERT.INI file, located in your Red Alert game directory on the hard drive. There are two sections of the INI that concern key commands – DOSHotKeys and WinHotKeys. Each of these section names appear in brackets. Under each section title is a list of the various commands in the game, followed by a key assignment number.

To remap a key:

1) Find the command you wish to change.

2) Look up the key assignment number on the chart below for the key you wish to assign the command to.

3) Change the number in the INI file.

4) Save the file and start the game.

Thereafter, the command will be assigned to your chosen key, until you re-edit the INI file.

Notes

1) As you can see from the chart, the key assignment numbers are different for the DOS and Windows versions of Red Alert. DO NOT use the assignment  numbers in the wrong version section of the game, as it can cause unpredictable results.

2) It is OK to assign more than one key to a single function, but it is NOT OK to assign more than one function to a single key.

Key Assignment Number Chart

KEY DOS # WIN95 #
NONE 0 0
 0 11 48
 1 2 49
 2 3 50
 3 4 51
 4 5 52
 5 6 53
 6 7 54
 7 8 55
 8 9 56
 9 10 57
 A 31 65
 B 50 66
 C 48 67
 D 33 68
 E 19 69
 F 34 70
 G 35 71
 H 36 72
 I 24 73
 J 37 74
 K 38 75
 L 39 76
 M 52 77
 N 51 78
 O 25 79
 P 26 80
 Q 17 81
 R 20 82
 S 32 83
 T 21 84
 U 23 85
 V 49 86
 W 18 87
 X 47 88
 Y 22 89
 Z 46 90
 - 12 --
 ' 41 --
 / 55 --
 \ 29 --
 , 53 --
 . 54 --
 ; 40 --
 [ 27 --
 ] 28 --
 ~ 1 --
 = 13 --
 BACKSPACE 15 8
 CAP LOCK 30 20
 DELETE 76 46
 END 81 35
 ENTER 43 --
 ESC 110 27
 F1 112 112
 F2 113 113
 F3 114 114
 F4 115 115
 F5 116 116
 F6 117 117
 F7 118 118
 F8 119 119
 F9 120 120
 F10 121 121
 F11 122 122
 F12 123 123
 HOME 80 36
 INSERT 75 45
 L ALT 60 18
 L CTRL 58 17
 L SHIFT 44 16
 PAGE DOWN 86 --
 PAGE UP 85 --
 PAUSE 126 19
 PRINT SCREEN 124 44
 R ALT 62 18
 R CTRL 64 17
 R SHIFT 57 16
 SCROLL LOCK 125 145
 SPACE 61 32
 TAB 16 --
 UP ARROW 83 38
 LEFT ARROW 79 37
 RIGHT ARROW 89 39
 DOWN ARROW 84 40
NUMERIC KEYPAD
NUM LOCK 90 144
 0 99 96
 1 93 97
 2 98 98
 3 103 99
 4 92 100
 5 97 101
 6 102 102
 7 97 103
 8 96 104
 9 101 105
 . 104 110
 / 95 111
 * 100 106
 - 105 109
 + 106 107
 ENTER 108 108

EXAMPLE:

Many people have requested that we allow the arrow keys to scroll the map rather than the scrollbar. This is possible using this feature. This example is specific to the Win95 version of the game. The key assignment numbers are different for the DOS version, but the procedure is the same.

In the Windows settings we have this:

[WinHotkeys]
KeySidebarUp=38
KeySidebarDown=40
KeyScrollLeft=0
KeyScrollRight=0
KeyScrollUp=0
KeyScrollDown=0

Notice that the scroll map functions are set to zero (no key). To allow the map to scroll with the keys, we have to assign the keys like so:

[WinHotkeys]
KeySidebarUp=0
KeySidebarDown=0
KeyScrollLeft=37
KeyScrollRight=39
KeyScrollUp=38
KeyScrollDown=40

Note that the Sidebar functions must be set to zero, otherwise you have two things happening with one key.

Final Word

While all of the game key commands can be remapped, we strongly recommend that you only change the ones you really need. Westwood Support will NOT give support to those that remap keys unnecessarily. If you find that the game does not work correctly with your new settings, use the backup copy of the REDALERT.INI file to restore the original settings.

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