Quote Originally Posted by k3v1nP View Post
If i'm going to use up eight pins I might as well get as many switches as I can out of them.
Well, if you've got a batch of precision resistors, theoretically, you could get 1024 switches on each analog input pin on a PIC with a 10bit ADC.
Or a 74C150, 16 switches per pin, 4 pins, 4 select bits, 64 switches total. But again, a secondary PIC might be easier.