Thank you so much for playing the game and for you«r kind words and honest review!
I am quite happy with the result, since I got the Elk my aim was coding a game using mode 2 and fully masked sprites. I have coded n sprite engines and this is the best one so far. Not using a backbuffer or double buffering by hardware due to memory constraints.
You are spot on regarding its shortcomings. The first issue(stalling) was something that wasn't happening at first but it caused problems elsewhere during gameplay(when moving to a room above) so I decided it was a small price to have the game working. I still have it noted down to fix it when I have the time and disposition to do it. The second problem I will have to look into it to understand what is the best way to correct it.
I want to release a version for the bbc micro but I have other game projects I need to finish first.