Quick questions on graphics:

- Is there an easy way to make sure images are not anti-aliased when I cut them from a base image?  I have cut the image  in paint.net but then have to go pixel-by-pixel to make the lines clear.

- When rotating images, even after they are not anti-aliased, the lines become anti-aliased when I rotate the image.  Flipping horizontal and vertical appears to keep them non-anti-aliased.

Yes, rotating sucks balls!  There is not really a way I have found to do this except pixel by pixel.  On Risky Kong I had to rotate the planes and they clean them up and that's why some of them look different than the others.  The problem is the software trying to keep the same image in the new position and not being intelligent enough to compensate.  It's not its fault, it was just born that way.  If it is possible, the best thing to do is change the entire image to 1 color and then rotate it and clean because most of the stray pixels will turn the same color and make it easier for you to spot, but I don't think there is an easy way.  Cram would be the guy to ask so maybe post on his profile.

Anti-aliasing is only a problem if (a) the old background against which the cut image was anti-aliased is a significantly different hue from the new background or (b) you need to use the cut image to make your continents for the fill layer and the anti-aliasing is screwing up selecting a clean outline.

In the case of (a) there's not much you can do except a pixel-by-pixel fix. Sometimes I'll select the outline of the cut image and then shrink it by a pixel or two and then delete everything else to a get a little bit cleaner edge (can also add a 1-pixel wide black or gray border over this deleted area).  A glow can work on the right board to help blend images as well.

In the case of (b), it is often easiest to trace over the base image by hand in another layer, using a pencil tool with anti-aliasing turned off. If that doesn't work, you'll have to play around with your selection tools to get a (non-antialiased) selection outline that you can then fill with a nice solid color.

Yeah, thank god for dual layers.  Definitely makes the anti-aliasing issue easier to deal with.