Ok, I am new to Java, I have a decent amount of GUI and such, but no Graphical abilities at all. i’m supposed to make a mildly complex game, but After a few tries with source codes, I still have failed to produce a simple picture. Does anyone have a simple game source code that can involve maybe a guy that moves around on key command, not environments or anything? I just need to see code to understand how to do this. A few classmates of mine are ahead of the class so we haven’t gotten to this stuff yet, so we’re just feeling around in the dark here.
depends what you want to do the game in, you could try java 2d, but personally i would recommend you go for a java opengl binding.
You could try http://www.lwjgl.org the download contains a space invaders demo which is most easy to understand.
well, you could ofcourse check kevin’s tutorials on Space Invaders. They give you a nice insight and should get you started like they got me going ;). The link is www.cokeandcode.com/tutorials 
Hmm, the spave invaders looks promising, thanks for the tips and help guys.
advice from other noob:
I found this tutorial very easy to follow as it builds up from a small beginning instead of doing a whole big game at once
http://www.javacooperation.gmxhome.de/TutorialStartEng.html
(yes i call spaceinvaders a big game!!).
Buying either of the following 2 books would be helpful: Developing Games in Java, Killer Game Programming in Java. You can get them cheaply from Amazon.com. KGPiJ is from O’Reilly, so you can probably buy it as an ebook.
Since this is a class assignment i assume there are specific ways they want you to do this,
such as with Java2D.
If not though then I agree with going to OpenGL BUT trying to use raw OpenGL, which is intended for 3D, as a 2D API can be pretty intimidating not to mention needing some pretty advanced math (vector algebra, which typically is taught after calculus.)
I’d recommend instead you look at our own Kev Glass’s Slick API. Hes done all
the hard work of “taming” OpenGL for 2D games for you.
Designing drawn graphics with sizzle is a fine art. I also lack the required talent, so I’ve
adopted the style of using graphics based on images of real objects. They look
great, and only rudimentary graphic ability is needed.
see :http://www.boardspace.net/ for games using this graphics style
howto page, with sample code : http://andromeda.com/people/ddyer/java/imagedemo/transparent.html