Main ini file

The main ini file - pyskool.ini - defines key bindings and the appearance and content of the game menus. Each section is described below.

[Keys]

The Keys section defines the key bindings. Each line in the section has the form:

actionId, key1, key2, ...

where actionId is the identifier of the action to bind to the keys key1, key2 and so on. Any number of keys may be bound to an action.

Pyskool recognises the following action identifiers for moving Eric:

• LEFT - move left
• RIGHT - move right
• UP - move up
• DOWN - move down
• SIT_STAND - sit down or stand up
• OPEN_DESK - open a desk
• FIRE_CATAPULT - fire the catapult
• FIRE_WATER_PISTOL - fire the water pistol
• DROP_STINKBOMB - drop a stinkbomb
• HIT - throw a punch
• JUMP - jump
• WRITE - start writing on a blackboard
• ENTER - finish writing on a blackboard
• CATCH - try to catch a mouse or frog
• UNDERSTOOD - acknowledge understanding of a message
• MOUNT_BIKE - mount the bike
• DUMP_WATER_PISTOL - throw away the water pistol
• RELEASE_MICE - release some mice
• KISS - try to kiss someone

In addition, Pyskool recognises the following identifiers for actions not related to moving Eric:

• QUIT - quit Pyskool
• FULL_SCREEN - toggle full-screen mode
• PAUSE - pause the game
• SCREENSHOT - take a screenshot
• SAVE - save the game
• LOAD - load the most recently saved game
• MENU - show the menu
• MENU_EXIT - hide the menu and resume the game
• MENU_PREV - move to the previous item in the menu
• MENU_NEXT - move to the next item in the menu
• MENU_EXEC - execute the selected menu item

Pygame uses keyboard constants to identify keys; a full list of those constants can be found in the pygame documentation. The key names (key1, key2 etc.) declared in a line of the Keys section should match the names of the Pygame keyboard constants, but with the K_ prefix removed.

Version	Changes
1.0	Added the FULL_SCREEN action identifier
0.5	New

[Menu ...]

Each Menu ... section defines a menu and its appearance. The section name has the form:

Menu menuId

where menuId is a unique identifier for the menu. The section may contain the following configuration parameters:

• Alpha - the transparency of the menu (0=fully transparent, 255=fully opaque)
• Highlight - the background colour of the selected menu item
• Ink - the ink colour to use for the title, menu items and status bar
• Paper - the main background colour
• StatusBar - whether to show a status bar (0=no, 1=yes)
• StatusPaper - the background colour of the status bar
• Title - the menu title
• TitlePaper - the background colour of the title bar
• Width - the width of the menu (as a fraction of the screen width)

pyskool.ini contains the definitions for two menus, whose unique IDs must be Main and Quit.

Version	Changes
1.1.1	Added the StatusBar parameter
0.5	New

[MenuItems ...]

Each MenuItems ... section defines the menu items for a menu. The section name has the form:

MenuItems menuId

where menuId is the unique identifier of the menu (defined by a [Menu ...] section).

Each line in the section has the form:

operation, text

where:

• operation is the unique ID of the operation to which the menu item is bound
• text is the text of the menu item

The operation IDs recognised by Pyskool are:

• LOAD - load the most recently saved game
• QUIT - quit Pyskool
• RESUME - hide the menu and resume the game
• SAVE - save the game
• SCALE_DOWN - decrease the scale factor by 1
• SCALE_UP - increase the scale factor by 1
• TOGGLE_FULLSCREEN - toggle fullscreen mode

Version	Changes
1.1.1	Added the TOGGLE_FULLSCREEN operation
0.5	New