Other than Paintshop or Photoshop, does anyone know if there are programs that don't muck up the palettes of the units.pcx file and such?

Any freeware?

Corel PhotoPaint from version 6.0 onwards. You can even save the palette as a special file. You can also download Palette Editor (aka PEdit), which I have, but since Corel is an all-in-one, I prefer sticking to the same program.

The free way is to get gimp.

I d/l'd GIMP once. Seemed too un-user friendly. :(
Did it take you long to figure it out?

I couldn't work out the Gimp, actually. I downloaded NeoPaint, which you have to pay for (though you can use it for the first month for free), and it seems to do everything I need.

Wally has a pallette editor built in (check my sig for the link). It's also way more friendly (and loads faster) than GIMP.

I have GIMP v2.2, but I rarely use it, now I remember...

GIMP takes a little while to figure out, but once you get used to the keyboard shortcuts it's really easy. Unfortunately palettes is its weak point.

I judt got Wally recently.