Microcosm Industries – Simulation toys and software microcosms

In plain words

Microcosm Industries is a clearinghouse for simulation toys—software that lets players interact with complex miniature worlds inspired by games like SimCity and cellular automata. The platform curates existing simulation toys across disciplines including education, gaming, and complexity science, allowing users to playfully explore interconnected systems. It aims to serve as a hub for creators building this type of software and as a gathering point for the simulation toy community.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Simulation toys and software microcosms

Microcosm Industries is devoted to fostering simulation toys: software that allows you to play with a complex miniature world. We are inspired by computing history, interdisciplinary science and mathematics, and open-ended play ( read more here ). If you are building a simulation toy that Microcosm Industries can help with, please reach out . And if you are interested in submitting one that should be included on this page, please let us knowfrom microcosm.industries

In the maker’s words, at launch

I’ve been obsessed with simulation toys (software that allows you to play with a complex miniature world) ever since I was young and playing with SimCity and cellular automata. This kind of software exists at the delightful and weird intersection of simulation, complexity science, education, and gaming. And I want…

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  AI agents play SimCity through a REST APIFeb 2026 · hallucinatingsplines.com · ▲216

  This is a weekend project that spiraled out of control. I was originally trying to get Claude to play a ROM of the SNES SimCity. I struggled with it and that led me to Micropolis (the open-sourced SimCity engine) and was able to get it to work by bolting on an API. The weekend hack turned into a headless city simulation platform where anyone can get an API key (no signup) and have their AI agent play mayor. The simulation runs the real Micropolis engine inside Cloudflare Durable Objects, one per city. Every city is public and browsable on the site. LLMs are awful at the spatial stuff, which…

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  Microlandia, a brutally honest city builderDec 2025 · microlandia.city · ▲144

  It all started as an experiment to see if I could build a game making heavy use of Deno and its SQLite driver. After sharing an early build in the „What are you working on?“ thread here, I got the encouragement I needed to polish it and make a version 1.0 for Steam. So here it is, Microlandia, a SimCity Classic-inspired game with parameters from real-life datasets, statistics and research. It also introduces aspects that are conveniently hidden in other games (like homelessness), and my plan is to continue updating, expanding and perfecting the models for an indefinite amount of time.

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  Micropolis/SimCity Clone in Emacs LispFeb 2026 · github.com · ▲176

  This is a little game implemented over a week of tinkering and targeting Emacs. The point is both to have fun with this kind of simulations, and also explore the "functional core / imperative shell" approach to architecture. I also developed a tile and tile effect definition DSL, which makes this even easier to extend. From this point of view it's a success: easy testing, easy extension, Gameplay-wise the simulation is too simplistic, and needs input from people interested in this kind of toys. The original Micropolis/SimSity is the last time I built a virtual city.

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  Little Procedural Pixel Worlds2022 · jason.today · ▲227

  Took a break from the falling sand simulation blog posts this week to work on another small project. It's a little pixel world generator- each time you visit, you'll see a new little world. I really like this stuff and had a blast building it yesterday!

• II
  I implemented Pong as a cellular automaton2019 · ericu.github.io · ▲225
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  I built a refinery simulator game to explain job to my kidsMar 2026 · fuelingcuriosity.com · ▲127

  Hi HN, I’m a chemical engineer and I manage logistics at a refinery down in Texas. Whenever I try to explain downstream operations to people outside the industry (including my kids), I usually get blank stares. I wanted to build something that visualizes the concepts and chemistry of a plant without completely dumbing down the science, so I put together this 5-minute browser game. Here's a simple runthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is-moBz6upU. I pushed to get through a full product pathway to show the V-804 replay. I am not a software developer by trade, so I relied…

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  SimCity, but with Permits▲936

  A free city-building game in your browser. You are the mayor. You know what the city needs. Now get it past the zoning board, the neighbors, the appeals court and the next election.

  Life & fun · 3d ago · permit.petercai.com

• IV
  I've been paying for a rural Tanzanian's education for 10 years▲778

  Life & fun · 16d ago · tanzaniaeducationproject.org

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  Bigwords.page – Turn any screen into a sign. The URL is the app▲728

  Turn a phone, tablet or TV into a sign. Type a message and it fills the screen: welcome signs, timers, Wi-Fi passwords and more. No app, no account, free.

  Life & fun · 16d ago · bigwords.page

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  Guitoro, a virtual guitar you strum with your keyboard▲573

  Play a free virtual guitar online with your keyboard or by touch. Slow songs down and see every chord, string and strum. Acoustic, classic, electric and bass.

  Life & fun · 10d ago · guitoro.com

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  See *almost* any carriers phone settings▲432

  Carrier settings from iPhone, Pixel and Galaxy firmware, decoded and compared: APNs, VoLTE, 5G and Wi-Fi Calling per carrier, and what each build changed.

  Life & fun · 14d ago · carrierexplode.com

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  The whole Solar System and every tracked satellite, live in the browser▲407

  Life & fun · 24d ago · space.bl2.net

• IR
  I replaced a $120k bowling center system with $1,600 in ESP32s▲2,935

  I might be the only SRE on Earth with his own bowling center. It's a more in-depth gig than you'd think. My family and I bought an abandoned 8-lane bowling center in the rural mid-west. In our small town there weren't many recreation options for families. You've heard of a food desert? This is an R&R desert. It had been abandoned for a good reason. The roof leaks, the electrical system was constantly surging, and my 70-year-old bowling equipment (still) doesn't work perfectly. The system that keeps your score is particularly interesting to me. It's the thing you watch during your game, but…

  Life & fun · Jul 2026

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  Elevators▲1,680

  How elevators push your buttons

  Life & fun · Jul 2026 · john.fun

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  18 Words▲1,160

  Play 18 Words, the free daily word puzzle. The official home is 18words.com. Tap Play now to open today

  Life & fun · Jul 2026 · 18words.com

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  Bento - An entire PowerPoint in one HTML file (edit+view+data+collab)▲1,033

  Over the past few months, our team has been building more and more slidedecks using web frontend technologies with coding harnesses like Claude Code, but a common complaint is to make even small edits we need to edit the code either manually or via the harness. To avoid this loop, I ended up creating Bento, a single HTML file with everything you need in a slide tool including animations and shared editing. There's no install or cloud login, everything works offline. The default deck is around 560 KB and it doesn't need to fetch anything once you got it. Open it in a browser and then you can…

  Dev tools · Jul 2026 · bento.page

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  Getting GLM 5.2 running on my slow computer▲937

  A few days ago I found myself trying out GLM 5.2 and was really positively impressed. The capabilities and security I was getting from this LLM are similar to those I've gotten from models like Claude or GPT, and this really surprised me. But then I thought, "I wonder how it would work on a normal computer like mine," and above all, "I wonder if it would work without going into OOM on a computer like mine." So I started working with the help of agents to test this possibility. I started converting the model to int4, understanding MTP usage, and if possible implementing DSA for long context.…

  AI · Jul 2026 · github.com

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  OpenSEO▲928

  Hello! For the last 2 months, I've been building OpenSEO. It's a user friendly UI wrapping the DataForSEO API which has high quality SEO data for keywords, backlinks, AI SEO and competitor research. Instead of paying $100+ per month, you buy DataForSEO credits and pay only for usage. The coolest thing about the project so far has been hearing about what people are building on top of it. People are using coding agents to quickly integrate with Google Search Console, Google Ads and building their own AI SEO and reporting features. Many were already building their own custom solutions around…

  Dev tools · Jul 2026 · openseo.so