Hey folks, I''ve finished my first couple of games (Tetris, Nibbles, etc.) and now I want to go on to a Super Mario Bros. type game (you know, side scrolling, jumping on platforms, and all of that). What I''m wondering is, do those type of games use big matrices to keep track of where everything is, like Nibbles or Pacman, or is there some other technique that I am not aware of? Any help would be appreciated. FragLegs

Read about tile graphics. There''s a whole section on them on this website under Articles & Resources. It basically is just a large matrix, but there are lots of different details. For example, many objects take multiple tiles and sometimes the player is not in one single tile.

Shalom