Disappointed after my XNA module player idea went bust, I was itching for another side project to change things up and keep from getting burned out working on the same thing constantly. Most of the other ideas I had, while simpler than a 4D game to be sure, were full fledged projects in their own right. I wanted something smaller and less architecturally taxing, so I could get charged up from brisk progress and tangible results. In addition, I wanted something that would excersize a different skillset than just another XNA project.

I've been a fan of emulators for a long time, so when the notion got floated for a more windows-centric fork of one of my favorite emulators, I had an idea. The emulator is written in native code, as most are. Unfortunately, it's been years since I've touched the stuff. However, there was a middle ground: c++/cli.

Using c++/cli, the core could be wrapped into a CLI compliant object model, thus facilitating the use of my more recent skillset. I'm no fan of c++ to be perfectly honest, but the simple fact is that it's ubiquitous, particularly in the games industry. So I figure it's best to maintain a moderate working knowledge of it, particular since I had already invested the effort to learn it years ago.

To its credit though, c++/cli does a fantastic job of interop between native and managed code. I was constantly googling the syntax to get things like events and properties working, but that was to be expected. Also to be expected was general rustiness all around. I was constantly forgetting things like the semicolon after the class definition, the ^ before reference types, proper includes, etc.

Speaking of, one thing I sure as hell don't miss is header files. They feel so clumsy and archaic compared to a proper module system to which I had grown accustomed. Preprocessor macros are also a minefield of errors waiting to happen.

That aside, it's still relatively painless to get a managed class up and running that can then be consumed by C#. I was constantly trying to break it with different combinations of managed/unmanaged calls and marshalling, but every reasonable scenario I could think of was working. I'm sure there are scenarios when things get nasty, but for now it's working great, even in x64 mode (which took registry hacks to get working in vc++ express, but thankfully I found an automated script that handled that for me).

So we'll see how it goes. I'm definitely enjoying this a lot, as a fresh change of pace, and am finding it easier to work on it for longer. I'll discuss it in more detail and show pictures if and when it gets working. Ideas are still brewing for the 4D game, and in time I'll be able to attack it again from a fresh perspective.