TheRetroArcade
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Posts: 2,005
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
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When I'm not working for the split spacebar tourism board, I'm usually tinkering in Linux (new user, having a good time) or testing out a new liquid cooler with even more screens than the last one.
There are countless upgrades you could make to your gaming setup. A wireless this, a bigger that, a faster thing. But how do you know what's going to be a genuine upgrade worth investing in? Personally, I think it might be split spacebars.
Hear me out.
A spacebar is greedy. Most keycaps are 1U. Or one unit, in relative terms. The bottom row of a keyboard is usually around 1.25U; one unit in size plus 25%. The right shift key is usually 2.75U. A spacebar is 6.25U. It's over six times the size of a standard key. What a hog. All that real estate simply because you might give the key a nubbin' with either left or right thumb.
Mess with your spacebar, mess with your entire key layout. While it's often very easy to reprogramme your spacebar to do a different action via your keyboard's software, it's a lot harder to reprogramme your brain to hit any other key when you try to jump in game. Spacebar makes you jump. Everyone knows that; it's practically etched onto your brain if you're a long-time mouse and keyboard player.
So, why does a split spacebar help with that? It comes down to this: once you know which side of a spacebar you tend to thwack with your thumb, you can programme the other side to do whatever you want. I hit the right-side of my spacebar every time when I'm typing. Therefore, when I started using a Wooting 60HE v2 with a split spacebar, I set the left-side to be the delete key; the keyboard lacking a dedicated delete key for its 60% size.
Though for gaming, the split spacebar offers much more varied purpose. People do strange things with the WASD keys that I won't litigate here, but I'm pretty sure most gamers use their left thumb to strike the spacebar for gaming. Right? Right. If you fall into this category, you have the option of using the right-side spacebar for things like a chunky melee key, or, my personal favourite, an in-game voice chat key.
You can do whatever you want, really. Those are two I find almost universally useful for the games that I play, though, of course, have something specific to a game—like counter in Deadlock to the right-hand side so you don't keep forgetting about it—can be pretty useful....Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
When I'm not working for the split spacebar tourism board, I'm usually tinkering in Linux (new user, having a good time) or testing out a new liquid cooler with even more screens than the last one.
There are countless upgrades you could make to your gaming setup. A wireless this, a bigger that, a faster thing. But how do you know what's going to be a genuine upgrade worth investing in? Personally, I think it might be split spacebars.
Hear me out.
A spacebar is greedy. Most keycaps are 1U. Or one unit, in relative terms. The bottom row of a keyboard is usually around 1.25U; one unit in size plus 25%. The right shift key is usually 2.75U. A spacebar is 6.25U. It's over six times the size of a standard key. What a hog. All that real estate simply because you might give the key a nubbin' with either left or right thumb.
Mess with your spacebar, mess with your entire key layout. While it's often very easy to reprogramme your spacebar to do a different action via your keyboard's software, it's a lot harder to reprogramme your brain to hit any other key when you try to jump in game. Spacebar makes you jump. Everyone knows that; it's practically etched onto your brain if you're a long-time mouse and keyboard player.
So, why does a split spacebar help with that? It comes down to this: once you know which side of a spacebar you tend to thwack with your thumb, you can programme the other side to do whatever you want. I hit the right-side of my spacebar every time when I'm typing. Therefore, when I started using a Wooting 60HE v2 with a split spacebar, I set the left-side to be the delete key; the keyboard lacking a dedicated delete key for its 60% size.
Though for gaming, the split spacebar offers much more varied purpose. People do strange things with the WASD keys that I won't litigate here, but I'm pretty sure most gamers use their left thumb to strike the spacebar for gaming. Right? Right. If you fall into this category, you have the option of using the right-side spacebar for things like a chunky melee key, or, my personal favourite, an in-game voice chat key.
You can do whatever you want, really. Those are two I find almost universally useful for the games that I play, though, of course, have something specific to a game—like counter in Deadlock to the right-hand side so you don't keep forgetting about it—can be pretty useful....Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?