General info

Contact details

To make complaints about or suggest improvements to Pyskool, or to submit some other piece of constructive criticism, contact me (Richard Dymond) at <rjdymond AT gmail.com>.

Bugs

No doubt there are bugs in Pyskool - and in this documentation - or ways it deviates unacceptably from the original games. Please report any bugs (reproducible crashes, especially) you find, and help to make Pyskool a solid and stable platform for developing new Skool-based games. If you can provide a saved game that demonstrates the bug shortly after being loaded, all the better.

Frequently asked questions

How does Pyskool differ from the original games?

Though the conversion of the original games to Python/Pygame is pretty faithful (I think), there are some differences, noted below.

General differences:

• More than one character can be talking at any given time
• Characters can talk while off-screen (so it’s possible for the scrolling screen to reveal a character mid-sentence)
• Eric cannot walk slowly

In Skool Daze mode:

• Boys can find the back seat in the Reading Room
• Eric will not be expelled until he has more than 10000 lines (in the original game, he could be expelled when he had exactly 10000 lines)
• Eric will get lines if a teacher spots him writing on a blackboard
• The broken jumping sound effect has been fixed

In Back to Skool mode:

• Eric can release mice anywhere (not just in the girls’ skool)
• Eric can re-catch mice that he has released; well, why not?
• The frog is visible from the start of the game; I think the only reason it was hidden in the original game was a lack of RAM (the frog shares its character buffer with the mouse, and the mouse needs to be visible from the start)
• The ‘conker’ sound effect is played when Albert (instead of when Einstein or Angelface) is struck by a conker

Why Python (and Pygame)?

Because Python is an elegant, expressive, and excellent programming language. Plus it enables rapid development, which is good because I develop Pyskool in my limited spare time. Pygame’s pretty good too. When I started Pyskool back in 2008, I don’t know how else I’d have done graphics with Python.

Why Skool Daze and Back to Skool?

If you need to ask, you probably shouldn’t be here. Actually, what are you doing here? Go and play Jet Set Willy, or something.