My recollection is that the term "Tank Controls' derives not from tanks themselves directly, but rather from the Atari-era game "Tank",
All tanks, from the very first designs, turn by making one track move more slowly than the other. In WWI and early WWII tanks, this was done by braking one side or the other, so that the tightest turn a tank could make was when one track was fully stopped and the other was moving forward or back, rotating the tank around a point on the middle of the side with the stopped track. With the earliest tanks, this just expended the energy driving the braked track into the brakes (much like driving your car with the parking brake on) and wasting power, so that the tank slowed down when turning, and would come to a stop when turning most sharply. A more advanced design allowed power to be rerouted from the braked side to the other side, reducing the speed loss when turning, although the tank would still have to come to a stop when turning with the inside track fully braked. Later in WWII, more complex transmission designs allowed the tracks to be driven in opposite directions, allowing tanks with these transmissions to "neutral steer" — pivot around the center of the tank. This was only done when the tank was stopped; when the tank was moving, slowing the inside track to turn the tank in that direction was still the norm. In practice, neutral steering infrequently done, because it imposes higher stresses on the tracks, increasing the chance of breaking or throwing a track (the repair of which is usually a multi-hour effort by the entire crew).
Edited by srmalloy
Wouldn't most classic FP Ss (and some modern-ish ones like Metroid Prime) count?
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Do you have some examples of Classic FPS games that would count? Because I can't think of any.
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Turning and strafing at full speed dates back at least to Wolfenstein 3D, and that's the earliest FPS that I'd call "classic."
Now, mouselook and its attendant precision wasn't really locked in as a fundamental FPS mechanic until Quake, but that's not the same thing.
The article currently defines "tank controls" as not being able to turn and move forward/back at the same time. I have never, ever heard it used this way, only to mean games where you can move forward and back and (slowly) turn, but not strafe/sidestep or fast-swivel like in an FPS. Most of the games in the examples fit my definition, which makes me think it's probably the commonly-used ones. Any objections? If not, I will probably change it.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't all modern (as in, last 60 years) tanks capable of turning by making one track go slower than the other?
Not that I'm suggesting the trope name should be changed, but perhaps the header text should be altered to read something like:
The thing about tanks is that they work with treads- with the very earliest ones, in order to turn, one side of the treads has to go in reverse while the other goes forward. Because of this, they couldn't move forward while turning. They had to stop completely, rotate, and then continue on their way. All modern tanks can turn while moving, and can move around freely, but the earliest ones were very restricted.
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