working w/ health Zelda: Engine

I'm guessing, that your health is represented by 20 big hearts? And if you get hit, the end heart turns into a small heart, and then next hit, it disappears? Is that right?

If so...

SeedRnd MilliSecs()
health=Rand(0,40) ; just To test it! 

;this is the calculation 
hearts=Floor(health/2) ; big hearts = half total health, rounded down 
If health Mod 2=1 Then littleheart=1 Else littleheart=0 ;health is odd number? then little heart on the end 

;simple thing to display it 
Print health
h$="" 
For lp=1 To hearts 
h$=h$+"@" 
Next 

If littleheart Then h$=h$+"*" 

Print h$ 

but I agree, if you're having trouble with something simple like this, you've got big problems ahead...! (unless I misunderstand what you're asking for)