How do I print something to the console when using the game engine? I am having trouble just starting a script in BGE 
for example 

cont = GameLogic.getCurrentController()
print dir(GameLogic)


This does not print out in a console window - In fact I get no interaction with the console window at all At this point I would love to simply print something out from a script to the console. Is there a quick test to check my system? Is there a  tutorial which just gets things rolling? Thanks in advance
You need to import GameLogic before you can use it, print statement has been replaced by a function in python3 print( arg ).
This works:
import bge
import GameLogic
cont = GameLogic.getCurrentController()
print(dir(cont))

or alternatively
cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController() # bge.logic is automatically imported
print(dir(cont))

Note that the script wouldn't work in the python console (Editor Type) only when wired in the logic editor.

The output goes to console opened via main menu: Window / Toggle System Console
Related:

Is it possible to dump an Objects Properties and Methods?