If in the console you can use a simple

char map[20][70]; //array

And then use loops to set the outlying borders. Then a simple collision check would be to see when the character moves if that next space is whatever you use for borders, and if it is then -1 from his current location after you calculated that movement so that he's not inside the border before you display.

alternatively you can set the borders at the declaration of the array, too.

@SuperVGA ...huh, I had no idea they were so messy. I received the code from a friend that had been using it a while and blindly trusted it, thanks for the link.