You’ll first need to use belina or whichever to flash the SD card. After the OS is installed and everything you can ssh and install PyGame directly.
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Ah!! So the downloaded file isn’t something you copy to your Gameshell over an SSH.
You need to write it to an SD card. You will need to remove if from your Gameshell, and insert it into your computer, via some form of reader.
The file will be a compressed *.bz2 file.
You will need to decompress it, with a program such as WinRar.
https://www.rarlab.com/download.htm
After that you will have a *.img file. That’s what you use the Etcher program to write to the SD card.
This is another thing a lot of people get confused over! 
Theoretically, you don’t have to actually install the new OS 0.5 in order to use pygame. It just has newer drivers, generally better performance, stability and features. It would just be a pity to do a heap of work on the stock OS 0.4, only to realise you need a feature of 0.5, then lose a lot of your progress.
Something else to learn for extended reading re pygame: look up the programming language known as Python. It’s one that is a great first step into learning a coding language from scratch. Some people get their kids learning this early on in life.
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Haha, I think my computer doesn’t even have the right reader! Which reader is the one I need?
A lot of SD readers are for the standard postage stamp sized cards. You can get an adaptor to insert the micro SD card into fo make it one of these.
Most shops that sell digital cameras should stock a USB memory card reader. Just ask for one that can read SD micro cards.
A lot of laptops come with a postage stamp SD reader built in. Not many conventionally come with a micro SD reader.
Normally when you buy a new SD micro card, it will come with a larger SD card adaptor. Ask any of your technologically minded friends if they have a spare if you don’t have one. I have them scattered all over the place.
Here what a USB one can look like.
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Lemme check my Samsung, I think it might have a microSD slot
It will, but I don’t think you can easily write an image using an android, unless you have root priveleges. Probably best not to go into that here; that’s for an entirely different device/topic haha.
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Wow, I’m starting to question that medical short attention span, you have been a godsend.
So, I need a USB-C Hub and Card Reader.
Not necessarily USB-C, or a hub - just any kind of USB. A lot of newer laptops have USB-C and this was just one of the newer ones my local camera shop stocked. Didn’t even consider to check! The hubs usually just come included as a bonus on some readers for convenience. Completely optional!
The bare minimum would be to have USB2.0. Any slower would be painfully slow, and more prone to errors. If you don’t specifically know you have USB C or USB3.0, you most likely don’t, so just get a USB2.0 one. Any computer within the last 15 years should have it.
And ha! My short attention span comes as a result of being bored. If I’m interested, boy to I hyper fixate and get invigorated. You … can kinda tell by the fact I type too much, and stay up till 5:30am. Whoops! Would you look at that. Sleeping now for real! Take care!
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lol
I’ll be right back
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Hey tor! I don’t wanna wake up javelin (sounds like he’s sleeping). Turns out I have a USB 2.0 that says
MS/MS pro Duo
SD/NNC/SDHC
It has like 4 slots. Should I risk ruining the SD that came with my Gameshell by trying to insert it into one of those slots?
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Might just need an adapter, I wouldn’t try to force anything. Not sure if you’ve got one of these laying around.
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i’ll check, thanks for the help!
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Of course, no problem 
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I don’t have one. Any brands and/or models you’d recommend?
Also, javelin said earlier:
can I use any old SD card, or must it be a Linux one?
There aren’t really “Linux SD” cards. Imagine them more as really tiny USB flash drives. It is just a storage medium like a harddrive.
Older is fine but it needs to be at least the class 10 as was mentioned. So yeah, if class 10 and I’d say at minimum 8GB, recommend 16GB for extra wiggle room.
I don’t really have any recommendation since I use a mix of Kingston, samsung, and MicroCenter branded ones all without issue. Samsung might be the highest quality though.
If you grab them from a store they usually come with the adapter bit. I’ve got a drawer full of them now 
which is funny because I use a USB adapter instead.
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Just be super careful with buying them online. There are shifty sellers that sell fake cards. Not only do they have a misleading overwhelmingly large size for a ridiculously cheap price. They even have modified headers to trick your computer to reporting it is the same inflated size.
Think a dodgy merchant selling you a bottle that can be filled indefinitely, but instead receiving a bottle with a hole in it.
It’s funny. As a complete side commentary, not to confuse you with anything here, In the raspberry pi community, they actually sell SD cards for beginners that have Linux pre installed with a configuration program called NOOBS. It lets you choose how you want things set up, and installs things accordingly. Ahh that would be kinda awesome to have on Gameshell one day.
@gameshell1 definitely consider getting a new card. For a few reasons!
- Having more space to load up more content is always fun. I prefer to use 32GB. It’s bigger, but not so big that backing off up takes up too much space. I used to get the Sandisk 128GB ultra cards. Genuine ones. I had problems with having them essentially crash, having them become write locked. This only happenned with larger capacity cards. Sandisk were no doubt aware, and promptly replaced them under warranty for free. No questions asked.
- Having a separate card to muck about with, without fear of ruining your installation is great. Compiling code can take hours. Even days! Sometimes you just want to keep a day to day card just for relaxing and knowing it will work.
- If you get a new card with the adaptor, you can be sure it will work, especially with the same brand card if came with. You can get some dodgy fit problems if you try and buy an adaptor on its own. Plus in reality they’re probably worth as much as a cotton bud. If you pay more than a dollar, you’re getting ripped off.
- An SD card actually has a limited finite number of read and writes till it can no longer be used. Writing an OS again and again uses a lot of those lives up. As a wear and tear item, it’s good to have a card you can just test things without caring. Heck. I even have a spare gameshell just to have plugged in for extensive compiling sessions and file transfers. The heat generated having it on is not great for the battery, and screen.
- Besides the official OS 0.5, sometimes you come across users who have made a customised OS. These are great fun, however since they’re not officially supported, you may run into some compatibility problems, and sometimes people won’t be able to help you, due to directory structures being different to what is expected. Here’s an example:
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(God I feel bad asking so many questions.)
Can I “flash” to a USB instead of an SD card? Or is this a dangerous way? If you don’t mind, could you tell me what you would do if you were me? (Don’t feel like you have to answer as soon as you see this reply 
Also, let me know whenever I should create a separate thread rather than a reply. Or when I should buzz off and ask Google instead of wasting your time)
If you did flash to a USB instead of an SD card, you will need to have the gameshell read directly from a USB drive instead of a SD. This is something that isn’t a simple task, and in short, the best answer is to stick to flashing to an SD card.
Even if you have your SD card plugged into a USB reader, it’s still identifies as an SD Card.
Keep in mind, whatever you choose to flash will have all of its contents erased. Make sure you don’t ever do an entire hard disk with important files.
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Actually I think I do have one of those. So I take the tiny one out of my gameshell, put it into that one, then put that one into the USB 2.0, and plug the 2.0 into a USB slot on my computer?
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