This hasn't been tested but it should work, the general idea is there
anyway :)    



//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


//Firstly you need a particle type:


typedef struct 
  {
  int on;       // whether particle is active
  int x;        // screen y pos
  int y;        // screen y pos
  int dx;       // amount it moves per frame in y dir
  int dy;       // amount it moves per frame in y dir
  int age;      // how many frames it's been onscreen
  } Particle_type;

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


//then you can define a bunch of particles in an array:

Particle_type particle[50];


//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


//turn all your particles off before starting you main loop

void InitParticles()
  {
  for (particle_num=0; particle_num<50; particle_num++)
    { 
    particle[particle_num].on=0;
    }
  }



//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


//now you need a procedure to handle the particles every frame, this will
//be called once per frame in your main loop, you'll have to write your
//own DrawParticle func:

void HandleParticles()
  {
  for (particle_num=0; particle_num<50; particle_num++)
    {
    if (particle[particle_num].on==1)
      {
      particle[particle_num].x += particle[particle_num].dx;
      particle[particle_num].y += particle[particle_num].dy;
      particle[particle_num].age++;
      if (particle[particle_num].age >50) particle[particle_num].on=0;  //means particles last for 50 frames
      DrawParticle(particle[particle_num].x, particle[particle_num].x);
      }
    }
  }




//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------




//lastly you'll need func's to spawn the particles onto the screen, this
//will depend on what you want the particles to do but to make a simple
//explosion at xpos,ypos:

void SpawnParticleExplosion(int xpos, int ypos)
  {
  for (particle_num=0; particle_num<50; particle_num++)
    {
    particle[particle_num].on=1;
    particle[particle_num].x=xpos;
    particle[particle_num].y=ypos;
    particle[particle_num].dx=rand()%10-5;   // -5 to +5
    particle[particle_num].dy=rand()%10-5;   // -5 to +5
    particle[particle_num].age=0;
    }
  }

//this has several problems: it will not check if particles alread exist
//it will just reassign all of them to the current explosion, plus all
//the particles will dissappear at the same time.