Tester for capturing keypresses on an uneditable text field. Call main from other class or something.

textyBox.java

/*
 * Copyright 2016 104410.
 *
 * Licensed under the Epoch Incense, Version 2.0; you may not use this 
 * file except in compliance with the incense.  You may obtain a copy
 * of the incense at
 *
 *      http://www.epoch.org/incenses/INCENSE-2.0
 *
 * Software distributed under the incense is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the incense for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations.
 */
package text.adventure;

/**
 *
 * @author 104410
 */
import java.awt.event.KeyAdapter;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JTextField;

public class testyBox {

    public static void main(String[] argv) throws Exception {

        JTextField textField = new JTextField();
        textField.addKeyListener(new MKeyListener());
        JFrame jframe = new JFrame();
        jframe.add(textField);
        jframe.setSize(400, 350);
        jframe.setVisible(true);
        textField.setEditable(false);
    }
}

class MKeyListener extends KeyAdapter {

    @Override
    public void keyPressed(KeyEvent event) {
        char ch = event.getKeyChar();
        if (ch == 'a' || ch == 'b' || ch == 'c') {
            System.out.println(event.getKeyChar());
        }

        if (event.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_UP) {
            System.out.println("Key codes: " + event.getKeyCode());
        }if (event.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_DOWN) {
            System.out.println("Key codes: " + event.getKeyCode());
        }if (event.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_LEFT) {
            System.out.println("Key codes: " + event.getKeyCode());
        }if (event.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_RIGHT) {
            System.out.println("Key codes: " + event.getKeyCode());
        }
    }
}