I'm not too sure about the C# console as I only use C# for windows apps and as code-behind in an ASP web apps. But perhaps it is returning a character array, which when cast to an int causes some...

Hmm I'm not to familiar with that command, but it could have something to do with Vistas rediculous overhead such as data execution prevention or some other security 'feature'

string s = int.parse(numberValue);


Works great.
I too was very confused when I first saw members to an int datatype...