[DataBase]

Hello all,
im having a problem understanding something. When i was teching myself vb i used to download code and learn from it. I once downloaded a space invaders game, within this game the programmer used something which i still cannot understand.
he made a type called:

private type missile
x as integer
y as integer
end type

dim Themissle(10) as missile

Well actually to be honest i think he done this, what happened was that when i pressed space bar a missle would launch from my ship, he used bitblt to achive this. he had a counter for the max number of missles he had and once they had gone to zero they would then reload.

THE PROBLEM:
how did he achive this
when i pressed spacebar twice two missles would lanch and if i pressed it again another would follow no matter where on the screen my ship was.

this is my attempt
BitBlt Picture3.hDC, Picture1.Left, thex, Picture2.ScaleWidth, Picture2.ScaleHeight, Picture2.hDC, 0, 0, SRCCOPY

see the thing is if i reset the value of thex then the previous missle will start again from the beggining. im confused if someone could help me understand this i would be very happy. i just cannot get around the problem ive tried everything i know.

Thank you