[AS2] Similar Game to "Snake"

[RENEE0]

I'm in a class at school called "CTA" (Computer Technology Applications), which is basically learning Macromedia Flash. We're supposed to make a game for our final project of entirely our own idea. My game idea was to make a game almost exactly like Neopets' game, "Meerca Chase". If any of you have ever played it, you know it's basically a spin-off of the game "Snake".
Does anyone have any idea as to what the ActionScript for the "Snake"/"Meerca" movement would be like?

Here's a link to Meerca Chase II. Neopets deleted Meerca Chase I from their website. Honestly, my goal is for this game to be a replica of the original Meerca Chase, but with different graphics. With that said, does anyone have any ideas on the ActionScripting involved for a game like this to work? My parameters I needed are something like the following:

onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
    if (Key.isDown(Key.RIGHT)) {
        setProperty("", _rotation, "0");
        _root.tadpole._x++;
    }
    if (Key.isDown(Key.LEFT)) {
        _root.tadpole._x--;
        setProperty("", _rotation, "-180");
    }
    if (Key.isDown(Key.UP)) {
        _root.tadpole._y--;
        setProperty("", _rotation, "-90");
    }
    if (Key.isDown(Key.DOWN)) {
        setProperty("", _rotation, "90");
        _root.tadpole._y++;
    }
}

My game involves eggs following a tadpole. I have the tadpole movement down, except I need the tadpole to go in a given direction on keypress, and to keep going in that direction without the key being held down.

Also, I need to eggs to follow the tadpole. What kind of script would I use to do something like this?

[eclection]

You could do the entire game within one frame.

var direction = "left";
var length = 1;
speed = 500; //difficulty setting
var intMain = setInterval(main, speed);

var keys = new Object();
keys.onKeyUp = function() {
  if (Key.getCode(Key.UP) && direction!="down") direction = "up";
  if (Key.getCode(Key.DOWN) && direction!="up") direction = "down";
  if (Key.getCode(Key.LEFT) && direction!="right") direction = "left";
  if (Key.getCode(Key.RIGHT) && direction!="left") direction = "right";
}
Key.addListener(keys);

function main() {
   // im assuming the game screen is broken down into squares
   // so i would create a multi-dimensional denoting what is where
   // in the matrix
  updateMatrix();
  checkForCollision(); //determine if hit self or eating something
}

[RENEE0]

Okay. So, I forgot to mention that the beginning of this semester was my first time even looking at ActionScript. What I'm trying to say is, I'm a total noob. All I know is HTML and CSS, and now just a small bit of ActionScript. Sorry about all this, you'll have to bear with me here as I learn this stuff.

Right now, I see that I should have a "matrix". I'm guessing that's like a grid of squares so that my tadpole can move over one sqare at a time. So, now my problem is that the clip doesn't move, because I don't have a matrix. Is this simple to set up?

Apologies for the terrible ActionScript skill. :\

[RENEE0]

Is there anyone that knows how to help me?