Universe Generator

1996: Access Basic and Virtual Dice

There’s a piece of code I’ve been carrying around for thirty years. Yes, thirty years. Since 1996. It was part of a personal project related to role-playing games, built on Microsoft Access 2.0, prehistoric stuff. In Access Basic, the scripting language that preceded VBA. For its time, it was incredibly advanced.

The system was a simple generator of space sectors based on probability tables. I found the tables on the internet, designed as aids for space-themed role-playing games. Using d6 and d100 dice, it could create star systems, their stars, and their planets. It was very simple, without many details (stellar class, planet type, diameter, and number of moons) and no pretense of realism. It was enough for me to let my imagination soar through outer space.

(This post is also available in Italian, change the language in the top-right corner to read it / Questo post è disponibile anche in Italiano, cambia la lingua in alto a destra per leggerlo)

The Two Daemons of the Developer

Every developer lives with two inner daemons.
And if you catch the pun, you’re probably a developer or at least a bit of a nerd: in operating systems, those invisible background processes that keep everything running are called daemons.