Ok.. I`ll look at the pop baloon source tomorrow. I think I got the Alimonster method working (well, stuff is moving around) but there's no improvement.
I have several questions:

Should wait for vblank still be on?
Unless I multiplied my movements by HUNDREDS ie. x:=x+2 becomes x:=x+(200*elapsed), nothing moved.
Movement is as jerky as before (if not more!)
I had to kill the dxtimer, or application.idle didn't occur...
I set tickrate to all sorts of values and no discernable difference