BIOS like, interactive menu, for python text based game

Question

I am writing a text based game in python and as you'd expect, it has many questions with multiple answers e.g. yes/no.

I have been been using the usual, input your answer, answering technique, but I was hoping to make it a bit more interactive in answering some options, such as the main menu. I do not want a full on GUI but is there some way to have something similar to, for example, the modern BIOS menu, where you use the arrow keys to navigate, and press enter to select?

http://www.washington.edu/lst1/help/computing_fundamentals/troubleshootingxp/img/bios.gif

Thanks for any reply's, whether it's possible or not!

P.S. I would rather not have to download any plugins etc, because I have to be able to use this at school where I cannot use them.

Answer 1

This is a rather open-ended question (not have to download any "plugins")? But what you want is the curses library, to which Python has an interface with its curses module. The Python docs provide a simple tutorial for using it.

There is also a library called Blessings which provides a nicer, more modern object-oriented interface to curses. I haven't tried it but it's well supported and looks pretty good.