I''m the one donating the prizes to this contest, but I didn''t know what it was going to be about until I saw it here like everybody else. I just want to say... I think it''s great! This is what game developers do. Real game developers, who make real money, often get stuck using whatever artwork their producer or artist gives them. Many times it isn''t technically correct. The palettes don''t match, the sizes are wrong, things don''t fit together right. It''s up to the programmer to put it all together. Often times you are working around the artist, not with him. Have you ever tried to explain a 236 Windows palette to an artist? Forget it. Those guys are creative, not technical. They just give you what looks good to them, and you are stuck writing utilities to reduce, expand, match, optimize and fit together whatever you get. The sprite lib stuff is actually a lot better than some of the artwork for commercial games I''ve worked on in the past. Believe it or not. So I''m expecting to see some real good entries, and no lame-o excuses about the artwork. Get to work, guys. And if anybody wants to play with it, there''s an early-90''s style level editor and sprite editor at http://www.makegames.com/sidescroller. Good luck! And may the best coder(s) win. Diana