I would suggest using ALLEGRO (http://www.allegro.cc)

It''s a wonderful API for 2d graphics. Very easy to use after you get it installed. The install isn''t too bad, you can download prebuilt binaries for MSVC, etc.

It''s possible, but not exactly fast. Also, just to correct you on one minor thing, you''re still using an API, that is to say, the Win32 API. Almost all programming will involve an API of some sort.

As far as scrolling, the first step is to learn how to display bitmaps on the screen. If you can do that, it''s fairly straightforward. Just store the screen position in variables, and draw to the screen like this:

for (int x = screen_x_pos; x < screen_x_pos+SCREEN_WIDTH; x += TILE_WIDTH){     for (int y = screen_y_pos; y < screen_y_pos+SCREEN_HEIGHT; y += TILE_HEIGHT){          DrawTile(map[x/TILE_WIDTH][y/TILE_HEIGHT],x,y);     }} 

You''d also have to remember to invalidate the screen frequently so you can actually draw new stuff on the window. For that, just use InvalidateRect(NULL) when you recieve input.

One final note, this is probably going to run too slow on Windows to be worth spending too much time on. In that case, I''d suggest you do look at some other API. You''ll find, however, that in a lot of cases they operate pretty much the same in regards to how you''d draw tiles.

I couldn''t tell whether you were asking whether you could use the Win32 API, or whether you should use the Win32 API, so I tried to answer both. Could: sure. Should: probably not.

-Arek the Absolute