I’m making a snake theme superhero named Apophis (he’s one good looking guy cuz I modeled him after myself ;)) . Anyway I’m giving him a jetpack, so how do I get the flame to look right and animate when I press spacebar. I have a basic flame particle system but it needs work. 
Blender version: 2.49a
Well if you want good fire, use the smoke simulator, not a particle system. Or… if it moves a long distance (and therefore the smoke domain would be of an impractical size) use fluid particles. Not quite as good as the smoke simulation, but still pretty good.
Could u be more specific? Basically how do I make the flame appear say when I press the spacebar in the logic editor?