An old question, but...
Walrus	Ok, I know this has been discussed A LOT on this and other forums, so let me form the question a little bit diffrent: I am thinking of making a 2d game. I have some experience with DirectDraw(7) and no with DirectX8. Apart from some of the DX8's features(rotation, alpha-blending), is there any really important reason not to use DDraw7? Thanks in advance for any answers.
sdw	I don't think so, but I've never tried anything new than dx7. But I think you can do pretty much anything from dx8 in dx7 with help of some dlls. But perhaps it's done faster in dx8? Not sure. I use Dx7 and I have no problems with it. There could be problems using dx8 on older machines too.
Krazex	DX8 is less compatible (Intel GFX Adapters), it is harder to make buffers and surface graphics transfer in DX8 and you have to use more enumeration to get compablilty. Tho DX8 is way faster at Alpha Blend, but if your good with buffers go for DX7.
Walrus	Thanks! [:)] So I'll use DirectX7. To be honest, I'm not much of an expert in graphics programming, but I think I've been using DirectDraw for long enough now to use it well.
Peter	Well, after using D3D for a while, its really hard to go back to DirectDraw. Overall its faster, more flexible, and yields better graphics (even for 2d games) But use whatever api you're comfortable with.
Walrus	Not that this'll change my mind, but I am interested - what exactly do you have in mind with "yields better graphics" ?
Krazex	I has easier way to do graphic manipulation and alpha channels +++