the joystick is from parallax and is four directional buttons and a center click.
as far as my approach, i couldnt agree more. even if i borrow someone elses code, i make sure to type every line myself. my problem seems to be combining elements from existing sketches- so many ways to acheive the same results. i would even appreciate suggested "baby step" projects to get my walk before my run.
so anyway... do i need to include color in my array? one color was just int pixels[8][8] but do i need to add a "layer" for two colors? like int pixels[2][8][8]?