Hi Steve =), nice to meet you, its awesome that you used to make your own engine, i always prefer to make my own things (2d sprites 3d models etc you know) and while i never did my own engine, i used to use dark sdk that is like a directX wrapper that saves lot of work, but yes i agree with you, after trying unity it seems a lot better due its visual interface and built in features like physics particles etc. Sports and physics games are really fun, i made a racing game (in steam for now), I hope you complete your game really soon and can distribute it here with steam keys (i want to do that too due its protection feature), i hope you can share your experience when its out, good luck!! =)