I think I like the 24 pixel tall one.  I don't want to remove the analog, because I think it looks really nice.  It would be pretty bland with just numbers and a couple icons.

Hmm....what about having a button that gets rid of/brings up the HUD? Then you can play fullscreen, but run the risk of not seeing your fuel.

I can look into that, but keep in mind that the map scrolling may be impacted by allowing that to be defined with a variable.

Yeah, I'm doing a smaller HUD, so you get one extra row of tiles.
Attached is a GIF of the new version.

Here are two smaller HUDs I threw together in case you wanted them. They're both (for the most part) only 16 pixels high. You'll see why I say "for the most part" when you see the second HUD. Although redrawing that small portion of it will take up a bit of space and CPU time, I think it looks pretty neat.



EDIT: How to draw and then later erase the portion of the second HUD extending into the game. I also attached a tokenized version of it, because this is a pain to convert.

{16*12+0+L₆}ʳ→{0+ᴇBE6A}ʳ·ᴇ0080﹢ᴇ0360→{16*12+0+L₆}ʳ
{16*12+0+L₃}ʳ→{2+ᴇBE6A}ʳ﹢ᴇFF7F→{16*12+0+L₃}ʳ
{17*12+0+L₆}ʳ→{4+ᴇBE6A}ʳ·ᴇ01C0﹢ᴇ0E38→{17*12+0+L₆}ʳ
{17*12+0+L₃}ʳ→{6+ᴇBE6A}ʳ﹢ᴇFE3F→{17*12+0+L₃}ʳ
{18*12+0+L₆}ʳ→{8+ᴇBE6A}ʳ﹢ᴇFC1F→{18*12+0+L₆}ʳ
{18*12+0+L₃}ʳ→{10+ᴇBE6A}ʳ﹢ᴇFC1F→{18*12+0+L₃}ʳ
{19*12+0+L₆}ʳ→{12+ᴇBE6A}ʳ﹢ᴇE003→{19*12+0+L₆}ʳ
{19*12+0+L₃}ʳ→{14+ᴇBE6A}ʳ﹢ᴇE003→{19*12+0+L₃}ʳ
DispGraphʳʳ
{0+ᴇBE6A}ʳ→{16*12+0+L₆}ʳ
{2+ᴇBE6A}ʳ→{16*12+0+L₃}ʳ
{4+ᴇBE6A}ʳ→{17*12+0+L₆}ʳ
{6+ᴇBE6A}ʳ→{17*12+0+L₃}ʳ
{8+ᴇBE6A}ʳ→{18*12+0+L₆}ʳ
{10+ᴇBE6A}ʳ→{18*12+0+L₃}ʳ
{12+ᴇBE6A}ʳ→{19*12+0+L₆}ʳ
{14+ᴇBE6A}ʳ→{19*12+0+L₃}ʳ


This I like. Awesome work!

Sweet! I think the gravity looks a little strong going down, though. you should be able to cushion yourself. Of course, if you made it harder to damage yourself than the original, it's not a problem. It looks really nice though.

So I've got some bad news.  I finally got some final numbers for how much memory I need for this game, and sat down to do some serious math.  With the current plans, the best I can get is 300 bytes more than I actually have.  So, some cuts will have to be made.  But some good news - if I make the map one tile narrower, I'll meet my memory requirements with 33 bytes to spare.
Another problem that came up is the accuracy of physics.  Right now, there are 16 units to a pixel.  After recently fixing a bug that only let you dig 113 feet down, I found another limit - the calculator crashed 255 feet down.  Coincidence?  I didn't think so, either.  Turns out that -255 feet is my physics engine's limit.  It can't handle depths past that, though the map spans far below.  So, the quality of physics will take a hit.  I'll change the units per pixel to 6.  This means that physics will be half as smooth (but I predict that there will not be a major noticeable difference).  6 is the maximum units per pixel that I can use.  However, it isn't as fast to divide a number by 6 as it is to do it by 16.  This means grayscale will take a hit.

So, in order for this project to be feasible, here's a concise list of the changes that have to be made:
-Map is one tile narrower
-Grayscale will suffer slightly
-Physics will loose precision

In better news, I have made the HUD use live data.  It updates every 8 frames, and even correctly rotates the dial on the analog fuel meter.