Update: See this post for a beta release

Ok, I get about 10 emails a day on this, so I figure a status update is in order.

The Wii MotionPlus extension for the Wiimote was released last week.  Since then, I and others have been working to figure out how the device works.  Unfortunately, it does NOT work as every other extension controller has worked up until this point, mostly due to the fact that the Wii MotionPlus accessory has an expansion port of its own so all of the other extension controllers can plug into it.

In the past few days, some progress has been made thanks to the folks over at wiibrew.org, although functionality is nowhere near complete.  For example, it’s currently impossible to have the Wiimote notify you when the Wii MotionPlus is inserted into the bottom of the Wiimote, like all of the other extension controllers do.

I have been working with the information at wiibrew.org and am trying to get things working reliably with my library so that …

The very first episode of my new Coding4Fun Show is now up on Channel 9.  This is a show I plan on doing monthly, interviewing developers creating fun and interesting projects, and showcasing what they’re doing.

In this first episode, I interview Andy Beaulieu and we discuss his Physics Helper for Silverlight, Blend, and Farseer.  You’ll learn a bit about how he made the library, and how you can use it in your own applications for some pretty cool effects.  You should see the video below if you have Silverlight installed, otherwise head over to the episode on Channel 9 to watch and download in a variety of formats for offline viewing.

Have a look and let me know what you think.  It’s my first time trying this out, so I’d love to hear your feedback.  Thanks!

I will be giving a session on Tuesday, June 2nd at 6pm EST to the Facebook .NET Programmers group on XNA 3.0.  This is an online session and everyone is welcome to attend.

Topic: Building a Video Game with XNA Game Studio 3.0
Abstract: This session will demonstrate how to build a very simple 2D game (a Space Invaders clone) using XNA Game Studio 3.0. Attendees will learn how to effectively use the content pipeline, import 2D sprites into XNA, manage input from the keyboard, mouse, Xbox 360 controller and Zune, manage game state, and debug the resulting game. The sample code will be built on a PC and run on the PC, Xbox 360, and Zune platforms when complete.
Date: June 2nd, 2009
Time: 6PM Eastern | 10PM GMT/UTC - Get local event time in your city: http://tinyurl.com/l9hq65
Add to Outlook: http://tinyurl.com/mpp5of
RSVP and Event Details: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=49178981206
Live Meeting Link to join meeting: http://tinyurl.com/ago484

I’ll …

Update 11/20/09: The Surface SDK is now available to everyone at the new Surface website!  The instructions below should continue to work just fine…let me know if they don’t.

Update 10/29/09: It appears that the version of the SDK available from the Microsoft Partner site comes as a straight .exe file.  To extract this back into the MSI file to follow the instructions below, execute the following command:

"Microsoft Surface SDK 1.0 SP1, Workstation Edition.exe" /extract c:\surface

This should spit out a MSI file to the c:\surface directory and you can continue on with the instructions below.  Thanks to Tim Hurst for the info!

The Surface SDK SP1 Workstation Edition was released this week and while it will install (but is still unsupported) on Windows 7, it will not install on a 64-bit machine.  The installer has changed a bit, so my previous instructions will not work with this installer, but I have managed to get the new package to install …

Windows 7 (as of RC1) now supports a pretty spiffy new feature known as Virtual Windows XP or Windows XP Mode based on what article you read.  At its core, it is a new version of the Virtual PC product, now named Windows Virtual PC, installed closer to the OS, combined with a Windows XP hard disk image which allow you to run legacy applications under Windows XP on your Windows 7 machine in a pretty seamless way.

If you install the Windows Virtual PC add-on to Windows 7, you must first uninstall Virtual PC 2007.  By doing that, you remove the special network driver that is also required to use the Microsoft Device Emulator on the network.  The device emulator is typically used for Smart Device development.

So the puzzle:  The Device Emulator doesn’t work with the new Windows Virtual PC driver, and you can’t install the old version of Virtual PC 2007 and expect the new Windows Virtual PC to keep working.  What to do?

The answer is to extract the …