Controls

Keyboard, mouse, gamepad, touch screen and accelerometer, as the code reads them on 2026-11-10.

Press F1 at any time for the controls panel: black text on a translucent white panel over the frozen screen, closed with F1, Esc or its [Close] button. The main menu's Help button opens the same panel. What the actions do is explained on Gameplay.

Keyboard in play

WASD and the arrows are combined per direction, so holding both is not faster. Since the letters are also typed cheat words, letters that start a cheat word stop moving Blupi until they are released.

Function keys

The function keys and Tab are left out of a demo recording, so they never end up in a replay.

Mouse

• Left click presses menu, Pause, Setup and editor buttons.
• In play, hold the left button and drag to look around Blupi without turning him; walking brings the camera back behind him.
• The on-screen play buttons take clicks only on a device with a touch screen; elsewhere a click there is camera look.
• During a main-menu demo any mouse button or the wheel stops it; moving the mouse does not.

Gamepad

The first connected gamepad in XNA's slots 1-4 controls play. Mobile Eggbert has no gamepad support, so this mapping is Galaxy Eggbert's own, chosen to read like the keyboard (src/GalaxyEggbert/Game/GamepadInput.hpp: each button stands for a key).

The stick counts once it is pushed past half way. On the main menu Start or Back, like Esc, opens the goodbye screen, after which any new press closes the game. A plugged-in gamepad does not disable the mouse. Typed cheats and F1 need a keyboard.

Touch screen

Play's on-screen controls appear only when CNA reports a touch screen, including on devices that also have a keyboard. They take several fingers at once (stick and Jump together, for example):

• a stick in one bottom corner, with a back-up button over it;
• Jump and Action in the other corner (the Setup's "Jump button on the right", on by default, chooses the side), and a crouch button, the original's PlayDown;
• a Pause button;
• a Fire button while driving the tank or the helicopter; held, it repeats at the original's rate.

Touch Jump also climbs the helicopter. In menus and on the editor's screens a touch is a click; a screen keyboard (ScreenKeyboard.hpp) names a galaxy or a demo without a keyboard.

Accelerometer (Android)

The Setup's Accelerometer toggle (off by default) steers Blupi by tilting the device, as in the original; its Sensitivity slider (50 by default) appears while it is on. Since 2026-11-09, once the sensor delivers readings the stick gives way to a Forward and a Back button in its corner, and the tilt turns him. A dead zone follows the sensitivity, and nothing happens until the device has been held level once. GALAXY_ACCEL_PAD=1 shows the two buttons on a desktop without a sensor.

Menus and other screens

• Main menu: click the buttons; Enter or A plays; Esc (or Start / Back) opens the goodbye screen.
• Resume: Enter or A continues the interrupted mission, Esc goes to the main menu.
• Pause: Esc or Enter continues; the buttons are Home, Back, Setup, Restart, Continue, Record and Original.
• Setup: Esc returns to where it was opened from.
• Win / Lost: Space, Enter, A or the return button.
• Demo positions, galaxy screen and world screen (since 2026-11-10, FocusNavigator.hpp): the arrows or the D-pad choose a button, which is drawn lit; Enter or A presses it; the mouse or a touch ends the choice. B leaves the demo positions opened from Pause.

Vehicle fire in detail

Fire is F, gamepad RT or the touch Fire button; in the tank Left Ctrl fires too, while in the helicopter it climbs. The tank shoots along its exact heading, at any angle; the helicopter drops glue straight down, only while airborne and off a lift. Both need ammunition (the green ammunition pack gives ten shots), and holding Fire repeats at the original's cooldown. Getting in and out stays on Action.

3D world editor

The editor has its own controls: W/A/S/D fly, Ctrl rises, Shift or Z descends, Space places, the mouse aims and the icon palette chooses what to place; the gamepad (sticks fly and look, A places, X removes) and touch (Move pad, Up/Down, Tools) cover a whole editing session without a keyboard. The full list is on 3D World Editor.

In the code

VerifyGEInputPad (a CTest case) covers the touch layout and the cheat parser. How input flows through a tick is on Input.