Weird problem when running standalone game WITHOUT 'use viewport render' checked

My blend is somewhat large so I will post if needed after I strip it down…
Anyway, I have several hotkeys that allow manually changing the viewport camera’s FOV. They work fine running either the Embedded Start or Standalone Start using the ‘viewport render’. It’s a pain though always having to make sure the viewport camera view is expanded to the boundary.
I discovered that when I don’t use the viewport render in standalone mode, the standalone player automatically fills the view with the camera. But…the hotkeys don’t work. In fact, neither does a ‘hotspot’ object that changes the cursor when I float over it using a Mouse Over sensor with a script.
I’m performing these triggering scripts with bricks.
This is a head-scratcher. What gives?
thanks