It's been a while since I revisited this thread.

I've been toying with a basic engine under Delphi(for now. I plan on moving to FPC once I get comfortable with an IDE).

Here is the source and win32 binary for my prototype.

I had just finished the map obsicle tile collission detection, which was a needlessly long story. In short: Sometimes the easiest, more modest solution is the best choice.

Next I plan on incorporating the scrolling and map editor. From there, basic sprite animation, new map tile types (implimenting ladders and damage blocks), in-game objects and characters and so on.

EDIT: It uses JEDI-SDL...