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# Playing Pyskool

## Skool Daze mode

### Original game instructions

In the role of our hero, Eric (or any other name you decide to call him and the rest of the cast), you know that inside the staffroom safe are kept the school reports. And, being Eric, you realise that you must at all costs remove your report before it comes to the attention of the Headmaster.

The combination to the safe consists of four letters, each master knowing one letter and the Headmaster’s letter always coming first. To get hold of the combination, you first have to hit all the shields hanging on the school walls. Trouble is, this isn’t as easy as it looks. Some of them can be hit by jumping up. Others are more difficult. You could try and hit a shield by bouncing a pellet off a master’s head whilst he is sitting on the ground. Or, being Eric, you may decide to knock over one of the boys and, whilst he’s flattened, clamber up on him so that you can jump higher.

OK. So all the shields are flashing wildly, disorientating the poor masters. Knock them over now and, before they can stop themselves, they’ll reveal their letter of the code. All except for the history master, of course, who because of his great age and poor eyesight can’t be trusted to remember. His letter has been implanted into his mind hypnotically. To make him reveal it, you must find out the year he was born (which, in case you were wondering, changes each game). Then, creep into a room before he gets there and, if the board is clean, write it on the blackboard. When he goes into that room and sees his birthdate he will, as if by post-hypnotic suggestion, give away his letter.

Now that you know all the letters of the combination, all you have to do is work out which order they go in. You know that the Headmaster’s letter is always first, but as for the other three...you’ll just have to try the various possibilities. Find a clean blackboard and write out a combination.

Rush back to the staffroom and jump up to reach the safe with your hand. If nothing happens, then the combination must be wrong, so you’d better find another clean blackboard and try a different one.

With the safe open, your troubles still aren’t over, as the flashing shields are rather a giveaway. To stop them flashing, you now have to hit all of them again.

Done it? Congratulations! You are now allowed, along with all your friends, to move on to the next class at school. But remember, there will be reports at the end of this term...

### School Rules

Boys shall attend lessons as shown in the timetable at the bottom of the screen. (Remember that because you cheated in the exams last year, you always go to the same lessons as the swot.)

Boys do not score points by attending lessons, but may be given lines if caught in the wrong place.

Boys who acquire over 10,000 lines shall be expelled immediately from the school.

Boys are not allowed to enter the staffroom or the Headmaster’s study. Take care.

At playtime, boys are supposed to be playing and not in any of the classrooms.

Boys shall not hit their schoolmates.

Boys shall not fire catapults.

Boys are expected to walk quietly in the corridors - they are not for running or sitting in.

School dinners are compulsory.

Boys will be neat and polite at all times.

## Back to Skool mode

### Original game instructions

Having managed to steal your report during the last few skooldaze of term, you’ve spent the whole holiday forging teachers’ signatures and handwriting to make yourself look like the brightest, sweetest natured, most helpful little soul ever to carry a satchel.

Now all you’ve got to do is get it back into the Head’s safe...

A couple of years ago, your elder brother had exactly the same problem and has lent you his old copy of the School Rules, on which he’s scribbled some notes in invisible ink. Holding the paper over a bonfire made from the swot’s cap, you can just make out the following:

- Key to safe round nek of gurls hedmistris. She hates frogs.
- Put frog in cup in gurls kitchin so you can nock it down onto her hed. Remmember the bike.
- Frogs ar kept in loked siense lab stor room. Combernasion letters held by masters - get them drunk.
- Sherry in hedmistris’s cubord - only unloked wen sheez shure all the boys ar back in skool.
- Fill water pistle by jumping up to botel. Put sherry in skool cups and use catopult to nock cups onto masters.
- Stink boms - Hed will open window if you drop one wen heez near.
- Cairtaker - if you nock him out with a conker by firing catopult from top window of skool, yool be able to get passed him.
- Bike - chaned to conker tree - 4 number combernasion has to be ritten on blackbord to relees it. Each master nose 1 number - soke them with water by nocking water-filled cups with catopult wilst they ar under.
- Water pistle and stink boms - hidden in desks. Remmember there ar desks in the gurls skool too.
- Water makes flours grow.
- Catching mice is fun. Letting them go in the gurls skool is even funier.
- If you get lots of lines to do, try being ekstra nice to your gurlfrend!
- Only the Hed can open the study dore - yool have to jump up to reech the safe.

## Keys

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)

Eric always walks fast. In the original games Eric walked slow unless you held down the shift key; I always held down the shift key, so didn’t feel motivated to include a ‘slow mode’.

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
- F12 - show/hide the menu

Screenshots are dumped to a BMP file (if using Pygame 1.7) or a PNG file (if using Pygame 1.8+).

Use the up and down arrow keys to move between items in the menu, and press Enter or the space bar to execute a menu item.

### Back to Skool mode

Back to Skool mode also uses the following keys:

- ‘c’ - catch a mouse or frog
- ‘d’ - drop a stinkbomb
- ‘g’ - fire the water pistol
- ‘m’ - mount the bike
- ‘o’ - open a desk (while sitting at one)
- ‘r’ - release mice
- ‘t’ - throw away the water pistol

To pedal the bike, use the left and right arrow keys (or ‘o’ and ‘p’). Use the up arrow key (or ‘q’) to stand on the saddle, and the down arrow key (or ‘a’) to dismount. You can jump while standing on the saddle by pressing ‘j’ or the up arrow key (or ‘q’).

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