Thank you for pointing out the create-meshes setting. Im sure it's right, and important, but when I tried it, it resulted in a level that booted up with a veiwpoint hanging in space, slightly below the floor, with the floor up above and the sky cube below. None of the keys or moving the moouse did anything.

I uninstalled GameStudio 8, and downloaded a fresh copy using the full option. Running that with my key file results in a better program. Now the project manager works, re importing code, wheras before it crashed. Anyway I next got curious about a folder called "Events" (Aum 102? 103? Low and behold it has the perfect starter level for me. Anyone wanting to start with A8 should take a look at it. It has a simple rectangular room with a flat floor, and movement keys for the player which move forward, back and rotate, which I prefer to strafing. Also it has half a dozen event examples and are a tremendous help to learning to write the kind of programs I want to do. I'm learning from it now.
The player walks on the floor fine, and is stopped by the outside walls.
Thank you again for telling me about the mesh setting. I guess some of the blocks the programmer used in this demo didn't have it set, because although the player is stopped at the outside walls he can walk right through other blocks in this demo level.