Is this game supposed to be like the card game memory?

Where you turn over two cards and if they match you count the pair (usually removing the cards) and if not flip them back over?

So for each user turn:
the user should pick a first card
you 'turn face up' the first card
(display the grid)
the user should pick a second card
you 'turn face up' the second card
(display the grid)
if the cards match, remove the cards from play
if the cards do not match, turn then back 'face down'
(display the grid)

until the user has either matched all of the cards or quit

This means that each location in the grid has one of 3 states: face down, face up, empty

If you would like further assistance, please implement more of the code. It would also be nice if your posted code would at least compile, and if you want to use an external file, a sample of what that file was intended to contain would also be useful.

PS- As an alternative design to the 'scrolling text' method you are using, if you are at least passing familiar with the python graphic support, this application would lend itself well to a grid of buttons. Although it would be a very different approach from what you have, I think the result would be more user friendly.