I'm trying to create a simple game in javascript and I'm stuck on how to deal with keys. Small example: function keyUpEvent(event) { alert(event.keyCode); } window.addEventListener("keyup", keyUpEvent, false); I'm running Ubuntu 9.10 and testing it in Firefox 3.5 and Chromium. If I press and release a button instantly I get an alert, which is to be expected, but when I press and hold a button I get a small pause and then a series of alert windows, the expected result is that I only get an alert window when I remove my finger from a button. I reason it has something to do with the fact that when I press and hold a button in a text area for example I get one character, small pause, and then a series of characters: dddddddddddddddd. I believe it's possible to get around this or do it more right or whatever since this game for example: http://bohuco.net/testing/gamequery/pong.html seams not to be affected by this. But I notice if I try out the jquery keyup demo ( api.jquery.com/keyup/ ) I get the same problem. How can I implement basic game key event handling?