sorry it to so long to reply.. I am always intrested in advice.. my machine doesn't handle sdl well so that is why I am choosing phoenix to port to, I am intrested in tecniques that can be used with many libraries, The newer ones in particular. I may even be intrested in satiring the genre, effects like exploding, fading letters exc not available with traditional roguelikes is also something I would be intrested in. (at the time my laptop was made maybe 50% didn't handle various packages because of the graphics card).. my compiler setup is fpc 2.04 with bloodshed ide compile is set up for windows(alot of work to get the libraries up and running and I am not sure what to do for other compiles and versions for other machines). It has been quite awhile since I have used pascal (I had bought turbo pascal 5.5 or somesuch version I keep thinking it was 6.0 but that was a long time ago). store bought pascal is way outside my budget unless someone else is springing for it.