Writing a dynarec, step by step

Emulators for computers or consoles that came out in the 21st century are generally built around a Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler, more often called dynamic recompiler or "dynarec" in the emulation scenes. They are very complex pieces of software that take years to create, and get more and more complex the faster they become.

In 2014 I started to work on my own dynarec for the well-known Playstation emulator, PCSX. In this talk, I will walk through the steps of creating Lightrec, from the original concept idea of a cross-platform dynarec, all the way to running it on the Sega Dreamcast.