Jason can you code and if so have you lent your hand to grephics before. The "limitations" you list are the same in all progamming laguages unless you are a lamer and take someone else's api cos you are too lazy to work for your money. Transparency effects and so on are easy to produce using your brain and some code. Java implements things in strange ways, I know, but once you take time out to look through it's standard api and realise that all types are inheritors from the simple char it becomes easy to see how you can modify your types to your advantage.
Personally I have Java as a language, but then others swear by it and claim it to be the future. Time will tell, but till then I'll return to C/C++ and ASM. Anyone know where I can get ASM docs for the ARM9?
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