Click above to get retro games delivered to your door ever month!

INKEY$                   Most Recent Character at Keyboard

 s$ = INKEY$

    Returns, without echo, the character most recently entered into the
    keyboard buffer, or a null string if no character is pending.

   -------------------------------------------------------------------------

      Notes:    The system variable INKEY$ must be assigned to an ordinary
                string variable before it can be used in a BASIC
                statement.

                If the most recent character is one of the 255 IBM ASCII
                characters, INKEY$ returns that character only. If the
                most recent character is a "special" character--a function
                key or a cursor keypress, for example--INKEY$ returns a
                two-byte string; the first byte is 00h, and the second
                byte is the extended code corresponding to the key
                pressed.

                If a key defined with the KEY statement is pressed, INKEY$
                returns with the sequence of characters mapped to the
                key--as if the characters had been entered independently.

                Cursor control keys, such as TAB and BACKSPACE, are
                returned to INKEY$ without processing ("raw" mode).

                The following keys have special functions and are not
                returned through INKEY$:

                    Ctrl-Break          Terminates the program unless the
                                        Keyboard break option in the
                                        Options menu is turned off.
                    Ctrl-Alt-Del        Resets the computer system.
                    Ctrl-NumLock        Suspends the system.
                    Shift-PrtScrn       Prints the current screen display.