I'm trying to program a simple side scroller game using the AVR and LCD provided in the kit. I've read in a couple places that the HD44780 can't work too quickly and should be run under 4 MHz. During the programing of my game I've seen glitches with random characters popping up at random positions, could it be that the 14Mhz clock is too fast?

If so, can I keep the bootloader that came with my AVR and just tweak the fuses so that I can run off of the internal 8Mhz and divide it by 8 so its 1MHz? how?

Thanks,

Try slowing down the communication with the LCD with software first (i.e. use delays between writes), before you try the internal clock. Besides changing fuses, I believe you'd need to change the bootloader code too. Then you are talking about an outside programming device. I haven't read about the HD44780 being slow but the way the NK connect to it is via 4-bit transfers. You could try using 8-bit, or even better would be to hook-up a wire to the R/W line of the LCD and test for write "readiness". This would be faster than the standard delays built into the code.