after looking up ambiguous, I'm wondering if this code could or should be rewritten so it can be called as a member function instead of as cin >> pause(). Don't know, just throwing the idea out there. I don't even know how to begin doing that. I just copy and pasted but don't fully understand the above code yet.
Like I said it works in windows compiled with dev c++, just not in linux with g++.

Thanks for the code. I'll be able to use it in windows apps till I find out the problem with linux.