pyskool 1.2.1

A remake of 'Skool Daze' and 'Back to Skool' using Pygame

In 1984, Microsphere published Skool Daze, a game for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. In 1985, the sequel Back to Skool was published.

Each game is based in a boys’ school (though Back to Skool adds a playground and a girls’ school) and revolves around the antics of Eric, the hero. In Skool Daze, Eric must steal his report card from the school safe - the combination of which must be extracted from the teachers’ brains using flashing shields or, in the case of the history teacher, post-hypnotic suggestion. In Back to Skool, Eric must get his report card back into the school safe, this time with the extra help provided by a water pistol, stinkbombs, a bike, mice, a frog and a girlfriend.

Pyskool is a re-implementation of these classic games in Pygame, with the aim of making them easy to customise by editing configuration files or - for more advanced customisation - writing some Python code.

Requirements

Pyskool requires Python 2.7 and Pygame (version 1.8+).

On Linux/*BSD, Pygame is available via the package management system: the python-pygame package on Debian-based distros and openSUSE, the pygame package on Fedora, the devel/py-game port on FreeBSD and NetBSD, and the devel/pygame port on OpenBSD.

Windows and Mac OS X users should take care to select the Pygame installer that matches the version of Python that is installed.

Running Pyskool

Pyskool is actually five separate games:

• Skool Daze (skool_daze.py)

• Back to Skool (back_to_skool.py)

• Skool Daze Take Too (skool_daze_take_too.py)

• Ezad Looks (ezad_looks.py)

• Back to Skool Daze (back_to_skool_daze.py)

Before playing any of these games for the first time, the required images, ini files and sound files will need to be created. This can be done by using the --setup option; for example:

$ skool_daze.py --setup

This will:

• download TZX files from the sources listed in images.ini and use them to create the required images in ~/.pyskool/images

• write the required ini files in ~/.pyskool/ini

• write the required sound files in ~/.pyskool/sounds

After that, Pyskool can be run in Skool Daze mode:

$ skool_daze.py

Playing Pyskool

The keys to move Eric around are:

• ‘q’ or up arrow - go up stairs, or continue walking in the same direction

• ‘a’ or down arrow - go down stairs, or continue walking in the same direction

• ‘o’ or left arrow - left

• ‘p’ or right arrow - right

• ‘f’ - fire catapult

• ‘h’ - hit

• ‘j’ - jump

• ‘s’ - sit/stand

• ‘w’ - write on a blackboard (press Enter/Return to finish)

Other useful keys are:

• Escape - quit the game

• End - pause/resume

• Insert - take a screenshot

• F2 - save the game

• F6 - load the most recently saved game

• F11 - switch between full-screen and windowed mode

• F12 - show/hide the menu

For full instructions, see the documentation.