Changing the Escape key's default function might be a good idea.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Expected behavior

In most video games released anytime in the last two decades or so, the Escape key brings up a menu of some description or another, and its usage as such is a deeply-ingrained instinct in gamers.

In most non-videogame programs, pressing escape does nothing.

Actual behavior

In VBAM, in default keybinds, the Escape button immediately and without prompt kills the program.

Steps to reproduce the behavior

Open VBAM with default settings, load a game, (for maximum impact load an RPG of some description,) play for 2-3 hours, desire to do something else and to save your progress before doing so, and press escape out of muscle memory intending to save your game. Watch as your progress is immediately lost. (Swearing at this point is optional, but may prove to be of some cathartic value.)

[ghost]

you can actually re-assign the hotkey to whatever you want. but there's currently issue with regards to hotkeys. one is that the new hotkeys are not saved(try deleting hotkeys for quit. the next time vbam-is run the original hotkeys are returned), and on some systems, or installations hotkeys does not work(for example initially i reported hotkeys not working in tumbleweed, but recent recompilations seems to remedied it somehow for no clear reasons and its working for most parts...)

[ShadowDragon8685]

Oh, I know you can, but as I said; the problem is that the default setting for the escape key does something that is practically the exact opposite of what every videogame I've played in the last twenty years has programmed into me: that Escape = Menu.

Even if Escape did nothing, it wouldn't be terribly bad, because all it takes is one or two presses of Escape to remember "Oh shit, I'm playing an emulator, the in-game menu is [whatever I've assigned the Start button to] and the emulator menus are standard Windows menu bar options I can click on," but that realization is way too little, far too late, if the programmed muscle-memory stab of escape causes the program to terminate without any warning, thus killing any progress I've made.

And I would be using savestates frequently and often, but experience has taught me that, especially with certain emulated games, this is setting myself up for a slow-burn corruption that will become inevitably unplayable but which finding an old-enough save to have averted the disaster might as well be starting anew anyway.

[rkitover]

I looked at this before but couldn't find where the escape key was mapped, I'll try to take a look again and remove the mapping by default.

[ShadowDragon8685]

I don't know if this helps you, but in VBAM itself, you can find the binds by going to Options -> Key Shortcuts -> File -> Quit, where it has a number of default keybinds, which rather frustratingly seem to rebind themselves to the defaults if you vacate those binds.

[rkitover]

Related: #334

[rkitover]

Fixed in master finally.