Yeah, I think I could make it so that if you press a button the laser fires once. That would be much faster than redrawing it every frame.
Graviter is now back to its previous state. Is /256 really that much faster than /128? maybe I should try

Good thing I did that D2 routine that BuilderBoy showed me so I can change them all at once now

I'd have to change velocity calculations so things go twice as fast, though, which could be a pain.
The way I did lasers was they just keep going until they hit a wall. There's no limit.
Also, somebody help me think of a cool transition effect from one level to the next.
Also, Portal X would be freaking awesome with lasers.
EDIT: I've also made the very judicious decision not to make scrolling tilemaps because a) it'd be too slow and b) the buttons wouldn't work anymore. At least, not in the way I'm using them right now.
EDIT2: I've finally started work on level design and in-game dialogue.