if anyone actually wants to spend the time to do this, i need some help

i am pretty new to vb but am making an rpg game

i found several resources that started me off well and such, but i ran into a little problem

i need to make a menu (like in ff5 or something) that would have categories that would go to other menus like inventory, stats, etc...

i currently have a stat thing that comes up if you hit the S key (although i do not want to keep that, but rather make the menu)

i need it to use hte same display method but somehow get anotehr image (like a pointer) that would move around to different things and when they hit a key go to the sub menu for whatever the pointer was focused on

i thought of several ideas on how to do this, but they have all failed. i will need to use the same type of system in combat for selecting to use magic, and then which spell, etc.. so it is very important.

if anyone wants to help me out it would be much appreciated, although it may take quite a while so im not really expecting anyone to

the display stats thing is a sub in the module DDraw called DisplayStats

stuff that failed before that i tried are:

i tried to get the game to pause somehow when stats came up so the arrow keys could use menu, but it just got the game to close instead of just pause temporarily

after that, i tried using other keys to move around a second image around on the stat box (like right 5 pixels if they hit the A key or something) but i didnt know how to refresh the picture of the stat box, so it didnt do anything

and some other things

ive basically given up at this point unless someone can help me out

the ideal situation is when they hit the S key, a menu pops up (and probably shows the character sprite with quick stats and menus) it pauses the game, and the arrow keys controll another image (like a pointer) through some menus on the side
then the user can hit another key to go to a submenu when one of them is selected (inventory, stats [shows more advanced htings like exp], equip, and spells -- i should be able to set those up after seeing how the main menu would be set up)

im sure i probably left out some other needed information so just ask questions
and if anyone acutally wants to help me out, thanks in advance