Hi Ken, Thanks for replying! >although I probably could have used a 5 byte >header for the first sprite after the background to >turn off indirect mode According to the docs, Maria switches to direct mode automatically - more cut-n-paste: >Indirect mode, when selected, only lasts as long as the >corresponding header is being processed. MARIA will return to >Direct mode before the next header is read. Is that incorrect? Thanks, -Bob