[pygame] freetype + unusual font format: What am I doing wrong?

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Subject: [pygame] freetype + unusual font format: What am I doing wrong?

From: Jason Marshall <jmm0@xxxxxxxxx>

Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2013 05:50:51 -0700 (PDT)

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I would like to use the freetype module to render text from a BDF font file, but I am getting a vague error. I am using the 8x8 font from this site:
http://beej.us/c64bdf/c64bdf/c64.bdf

>>> import os
>>> os.environ["PYGAME_FREETYPE"] = "1"
>>> import pygame
>>> pygame.font
<module 'pygame.ftfont' from 'C:\\Python33\\lib\\site-packages\\pygame\\ftfont.py'>
>>> import pygame.freetype
>>> pygame.freetype.init()
>>> c64 = pygame.freetype.Font(r'C:\Users\marshalls\Downloads\c64.bdf', 8)
>>> s = c64.render('TEST', pygame.Color('white'), pygame.Color('blue'))
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
SystemError: error return without exception set
>>>

Can somebody spot what I am doing wrong?

I am using a recent build of pygame 1.9.2pre and Python 3.3 (32-bit) on Windows.

Thanks,
Jason