diff --git a/Rakefile.rb b/Rakefile.rb
index c0058b7..acb89b2 100644
--- a/Rakefile.rb
+++ b/Rakefile.rb
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ base_env = Rscons::Environment.new do |env|
   env["CXXFLAGS"] << "-std=gnu++11"
   env.parse_flags!("!sdl2-config --cflags --libs")
   env.parse_flags!("!freetype-config --cflags --libs")
+  env.parse_flags!("!pkg-config --cflags --libs ruby-1.9")
   env["LIBS"] += ["dl"]
   if RUBY_PLATFORM =~ /mingw/
     env["LIBS"] += ["opengl32"]
diff --git a/runtime/main.rb b/runtime/main.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0bbd80d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/runtime/main.rb
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+puts "hi from main.rb"
diff --git a/src/main.cc b/src/main.cc
index 481aea7..84fc625 100644
--- a/src/main.cc
+++ b/src/main.cc
@@ -1,15 +1,44 @@
 #include <iostream>
 #include "GUI.h"
-
-#include "Core.h"
+#include "ruby.h"
 
 using namespace std;
 
+RUBY_GLOBAL_SETUP
+
+static int bootstrap()
+{
+    int rv = 0;
+    int err_state = 0;
+    rb_eval_string_protect(
+      "load File.expand_path('../../runtime/main.rb', $0)",
+      &err_state);
+    if (err_state != 0)
+    {
+        VALUE e = rb_errinfo();
+        VALUE s = rb_funcall(e, rb_intern("message"), 0);
+        fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", StringValueCStr(s));
+        rb_set_errinfo(Qnil);
+        rv = 1;
+    }
+    return rv;
+}
+
 int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 {
-    jes::Core::instance.init(argv[0]);
-    jes::GUIRef gui = new jes::GUI();
-    if (!gui->load())
-        return 2;
-    return gui->run();
+    int rv = 0;
+    int ruby_argc = 1;
+    char prog_name[] = "main";
+    char * ruby_argv[] = {&prog_name[0]};
+    char ** ruby_argv_p = &ruby_argv[0];
+    ruby_sysinit(&ruby_argc, &ruby_argv_p);
+    {
+        RUBY_INIT_STACK;
+        ruby_init();
+        ruby_init_loadpath();
+        ruby_script(argv[0]);
+        rv = bootstrap();
+        ruby_finalize();
+    }
+    return rv;
 }