Actually, I wound up starting from scratch. My pacman game was useful in some regards, especially with determining offset constants, but it had a few fundamental limitations. And yes, kenshinakh is correct as to why I cannot draw the tiles partially. I am not writing the images directly to the background for layering purposes. I could theoretically do this, but since you can't draw the objects on it then anyway, there is not much point. Builderboy, you are almost correct. I am actually using a third method: storing all the isometric objects in an array. Each time it needs to be re-layered(e.g. a person goes to a new tile) it redraws the objects from the array. If it happens that an object would need to be added outside the world, it then just ignores it. Each act cycle then the world tells each object in the array that is not actually visible to run its act cycle.

I too like the SFX. I find it obnoxious however that as the ball speeds up, it becomes impossible to move the paddle fast enough, even without hitting the purple thingys.

You need a lifetime if you want the arrow to stop eventually! Otherwise you can just wait until it hits the edge of the world and remove it then. If there is no time at which it is removed, then you wind up with too many arrows :P