Especially if you’re a Windows or OS X user, that is. Why? Because I’d like to be able to distribute Pyskool as an all-in-one binary package - with Python and Pygame built in - for those operating systems. Why? To make installing and running Pyskool easier on those operating systems. Why? OK, stop it with the whys.

So if you are a Windows or OS X user, and you know something (or fancy learning) about py2exe or py2app, and would like to build binary packages of Pyskool, do get in touch. Since I don’t run either of those operating systems, building binary packages myself would be tricky or impossible. Of course, in an ideal world everyone would run an OS with a decent package management system, and installation of Python and Pygame would be trivial. But this is not an ideal world.

Anyway, yes, drop me a line if you want to help out. Leave a comment on this post, or dig out the contact details from the Pyskool documentation.

Well, Pyskool 0.0.3 is out, and as the title of this post foreshadows, there is almost a little bit of a game you can play now. In Skool Daze mode, the shields are gettable. That is, you can make them flash by jumping up to them or hitting them with a catapult pellet. The usual tricks of standing on your skoolmates in order to reach higher, and bouncing pellets off teacher’s heads will work too. Nothing special happens when you get all 15 shields, though. And hitting a flashing shield unflashes it immediately. I did say it was almost a little bit of a game, after all.

In other news, version 0.0.3 includes sounds effects and tunes, and the teachers give lines for some (though not all) rule breakages. Head over to the downloads page to grab your copy. The shields are waiting!

As you will no doubt agree, it’s about time Pyskool included sound effects. The silent walkings, silent firings of catapults, and silent bells are wholly unnatural, and shouldn’t have been allowed for so long. So you’ll be pleased to hear - heh - that sound will make it into Pyskool 0.0.3.

So far I have the sound effects just mentioned - walking, firing catapult, and bell - working, and I’ve already sampled all the other sound effects from the original games, so they’ll be ready to use when the time comes. Including the rare sound effect from Back to Skool that played only when you knocked Einstein or Angelface out with a conker from the tree. Why that particular event needed its own sound effect is unclear (to me, anyway), but it will be there for the sake of completeness.

Next sound effect to be implemented? That of Eric being knocked out by Boy Wander’s catapult pellet or Angelface’s fist. I should get the theme tunes going, too. Now, should hitting make a sound effect? It did in the original Skool Daze, but not in Back to Skool. Hmm, decisions, decisions…