The Challenge
Can AI take an existing desktop application and convert it to a fully functional web app with little effort? Especially when the project involves complex, performance-sensitive features like real-time sound chip emulation and high-performance audio visualizations running in a browser.
The Process
This project would never have been started from scratch. But with a working Windows player already built in surprisingly little time, it seemed worth trying. A huge advantage was that the AI could now convert from C# rather than having to work from the original Z80 assembly — the hard work of understanding the replayer logic had already been done during the MBM Player build. The initial steps were amazing — on one of the very first prompts, the AI began converting the C chip emulator sources directly to TypeScript. It had attempted something similar during the Windows build (converting to C#) but gave up then because DLL wrappers were easier. This time there was no shortcut, and it actually managed the full conversion. Genuinely impressive, given the precise timing requirements and the Web Audio API constraints involved.
The UI came together remarkably fast as well, including the oscilloscope and Lissajous goniometer visualizations. Adding support for downloading and handling ZIP archives was slightly trickier but still finished at an incredible pace. Most of the actual time spent on this project went into dealing with different screen sizes and adding features that didn't exist yet in the Windows version — responsive layout, touch controls, and mobile-friendly interactions.
Surprises & Disappointments
Many things were surprising here. The AI converted the chip emulators to TypeScript almost flawlessly in a single run. It used modern web platform features — some that were new even to an experienced web developer — and the overall quality and performance of the result was impressive. The browser-based player ended up feeling just as responsive and accurate as the native Windows version.
Hardly any disappointments worth mentioning on this one. This was one of those builds where everything just came together.