I guess I'm feeling better-ish, although still not top of the world. I decided to do this a bit more gradually instead of doing it all at once and assembling. The beta attached looks identical to earlier versions, and it isn't the finished version for 0.008, but it shows the corrected off-by-one error I mentioned earlier and the code generating the scanlines for the P bar is about 1/11th the size of version 0.007. I managed to loop it up with just a few bytes added to one sample line and moving a couple things around to account for the difference in timings.

I guess the majority of the problems with the last attempt were with adding the second bar, since I have to attempt to reposition P0 in a single scanline while maintaining a slightly async playfield. "slightly" in that only PF2 changes during the line I attempt to reposition P0, to keep the item-equipped displaying properly on the right side of the screen.

The next thing I tackle however, will be modifying the status bar so that it properly shows both bars. However both will always read the same value as I won't attempt the sprite repositioning to read the player's Mana/Spell Power for the second bar just yet.

and Happy Halloween!