Wall Street Raider
Games
business simulation game
SHOW HN2026
Legend
Wall Street Raider
I spent 3 years reverse-engineering a 40 yo stock market sim from 1986
wallstreetraider.com#stock market simulator#wall street raider#dos game remaster#early access#powerbasic
How HN took it
45 positive, 34 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 26 critical, out of 108 comments about the project. Thread score +0.22.
Idea: 13 for, 4 againstDocs: 5 for, 9 againstExecution: 7 for, 6 againstPricing: 0 for, 1 againstDesign: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Well-written story and impressive remaster work
From 2 comments
This is such a well written story, and congratulations Ben, it sounds like it's been a lot of hard but ultimately successful work! I know you'll deservedly get a lot of credit…
JohnHammersley on HNCongrats on such an achievement. The remake looks great, but those DOS screenshots have an undeniable charm. With such a large scale game, something I always find interesting is…
DigiEggz on HN
Engine and original code are solid
From 2 comments
Options pricing was not correct, which MJ knew because he simply based it on lookup table using ratios of a spread on a random security in his brokerage account decades ago! I…
benstopics on HNI continue to advocate for the fact that Michael's code is not bad at all. There are some anti patterns in it for sure, what engineer hasn't fallen into those traps. The fact is…
benstopics on HN
Objections
Article reads as LLM-written and was criticized for it
From 3 comments
You can tell that by the end of it you got tired and it's less manually edited and more straight from the LLM's mouth. I don't really care in this case though, it's an awesome…
deaux on HNIf you could get an LLM to write the article, why not just get it to rewrite the code?
MagicMoonlight on HNI feel like this is the sort of thing AI could do in 10 minutes. Did you try?
blobbers on HN
Some design decisions disliked by a subgroup of players
From 1 comment
Most people enjoyed it. It is the same as the game. Most people like the remaster direction, a subgroup vehemently dislike specific design decisions and they don't always…
benstopics on HN
Requests
Cross-platform or mobile version
From 2 comments
I would love to do this. I do plan to code a PowerBasic virtual machine in order to make the game cross platform which would allow for a future with Wall Street Raider Online…
benstopics on HNI understand the code now after working with it for so long. I even improved the options code to use Black-Scholes so I have a few tricks up my own sleeve. The reality is, now…
benstopics on HN
Source code release
From 1 comment
If you dropped the source code here you'd probably get a versiojn in each of the 5 major languages quick smart.
wewewedxfgdf on HN
Questions
Why keep it in BASIC rather than port it
From 2 comments
A technical question for you around the porting being a dead end: I see from other replies that you now understand the code reasonably well and feel you can expand/extend it…
PaulRobinson on HNI did exactly that originally. But here is the reality. Michael only knows BASIC and he has felt the agency to continue patching and working on the code, adding features even,…
benstopics on HN
How the FFI bridge to the legacy engine worked
From 1 comment
I enjoyed the read. How did you tap into the legacy Power Basic engine? Was there a FFI or some kind of bridge you could hook into? And what languages were you using?
replwoacause on HN
Alternatives named
Original DOS version by Roninsoft
From 1 comment
I am working with Michael to remaster it. He transferred the domain name to me and I just redid the website. I'm not sure when the last time he updated Roninsoft website, but he…
benstopics on HN