Setting up Mission Python – Catalina Edition
A couple of years ago I picked up a copy of Sean McManus’s – Mission Python: Code a Space Adventure Game from No Starch Press.
In my opinion, it’s still a great book to get into coding a game in Python using Pygame Zero.
The book explains how to set up your adventure on a Windows PC and Raspberry Pi, but been a macOS user, I decided to post the steps below on to set up your adventure on a Mac.
macOS 10.15 (Catalina) now ships with Python3 but I would recommend installing a second version as not to “upset” the OS native shipped version.
The book recommends Python 3.6.6 (at time of writing), I have based this post on Python 3.7.7 (I recommend not going to a higher version as Pygame Zero still has some install issues on the latest Python version 3.8.2).
Install Python 3.7.7
Download Python 3.7.7 from https://www.python.org/downloads/mac-osx/
Double click the installer and follow the on-screen instructions.
Once installed Open Terminal (Cmd+Spacebar, type Terminal, press Enter).
Type which python3, at the prompt
You should get the below result-
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/bin/python
Install pip3
pip3 (19.2.3) is automatically installed with Python3 (3.7.7), I would recommend updating it to the latest, in Terminal>
Type pip3 install --upgrade pip
Type pip3 --version
You should get the below result-
pip 20.0.2 from /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pip (python 3.7)
Install Pygame Zero
In Terminal>
Type pip3 install pgzero
Type pip3 show pgzero
You should see the below in the results-
Name: pgzero
Version: 1.2
Once the above has been completed, you are ready to test Mission Python on your Mac.
Download the Mission Code file from https://www.sean.co.uk/books/mission-python/index.shtm
Once the file has downloaded and unzipped from within Terminal move to the escape folder (I unzipped the into my Downloads folder to test).
Open Terminal (Cmd+Spacebar, type Terminal, press Enter).
Type cd Downloads
Type cd escape
Type pgzrun escape.py
Once you have done the above the game should start. You are now ready to begin your adventure with Mission Python.