{"slug": "micropolis", "name": "Micropolis", "category": "browsers", "category_name": "Browsers and extensions", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 3, "warners": 0, "score": 2.539, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2026-02-05", "latest": "2026-02-11", "why": "pull in the Micropolis repo and give it some guidance", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "pull in the Micropolis repo and give it some guidance", "kind": "game", "icon": true, "domain": "micropolisweb.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://micropolisweb.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Micropolis", "MicropolisWeb", "Micropolis Web"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 751664352, "item_id": 46979022, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46979022", "by": "aed", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "pull in the Micropolis repo and give it some guidance", "excerpt": "I'm glad you're enjoying it! It was fun to build and I almost can't believe I got this to work. I don't think it would take much to run locally. In fact, before I did this public version I did a local version on an exe.dev VM (more details here: https://dunn.us/notes/vibe-gaming-simcity/). So you can either use my code, or just have your coding your agent of choice pull in the Micropolis repo and give it some guidanc", "context": "", "use_case": "Open-source SimCity engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: AI agents play SimCity through a REST API"}, {"id": 750392192, "item_id": 46899512, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46899512", "by": "yuppiepuppie", "date": "2026-02-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Amazing! I have added this to the HN Arcade", "excerpt": "Amazing! I have added this to the HN Arcade https://hnarcade.com/games/games/micropolis-simcity-clone-in-emacs-lisp", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Micropolis/SimCity Clone in Emacs Lisp"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["simcity-style city simulation", "open-source simcity engine"], "compared": [{"slug": "emscripten", "name": "Emscripten", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "exe-dev", "name": "exe.dev", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [{"id": 767553072, "item_id": 47972067, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47972067", "by": "DonHopkins", "date": "2026-05-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I'm working on Micropolis (based on the original SimCity Classic code, cleaned up, and compiled with Emscripten into WASM)", "excerpt": "I spoke to Yoot about it recently. There are some issues with Nintendo and licensing that may take some time to work through. My fingers are crossed, but it might take a while and require patience. We all want it to happen though! Meanwhile I'm working on Micropolis (based on the original SimCity Classic code, cleaned up, and compiled with Emscripten into WASM), and also reimplementing The Sims character animation sy", "context": "", "use_case": "Open-source SimCity port", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 751696947, "item_id": 46981059, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46981059", "by": "DonHopkins", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I've written a tile rendering engine in TypeScript/WebGL", "excerpt": "Sam Earle did exactly this with RL agents trained via quality-diversity methods on Micropolis: https://github.com/smearle/gym-city For running locally, I'd recommend the MicropolisCore repo over the one linked in the original post. MicropolisCore is a clean C++ rewrite that compiles to WASM -- runs headless in Node or in any browser: https://github.com/SimHacker/MicropolisCore The Raspberry Pi wall display idea is gr", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: AI agents play SimCity through a REST API"}, {"id": 751696192, "item_id": 46981012, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46981012", "by": "DonHopkins", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I developed the open source version of this game, called Micropolis.", "excerpt": "I developed the open source version of this game, called Micropolis. Great to see more people building on it! A few years before the LLM era, Sam Earle took a different approach -- training reinforcement learning agents with fractal neural networks to play Micropolis, optimizing for population at variable map scales: Using Fractal Neural Networks to Play SimCity 1 and Conway\u2019s Game of Life at Variable Scales: https:/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: AI agents play SimCity through a REST API"}, {"id": 751576289, "item_id": 46973518, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46973518", "by": "DonHopkins", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "compiled the C++ simulator engine with emscripten into a WASM module", "excerpt": "When I ported the Mac version of SimCity to Unix using NeWS/HyperLook for the front end, I naturally had to split it into and engine (the C simulator back-end \"client\"), and the user interface (the PostScript/NeWS/HyperLook front-end \"server\"), and define a network messaging interface (API) between them. https://donhopkins.medium.com/hyperlook-nee-hypernews-nee-goodnews-99f411e58ce4 That made it a lot easier to later", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Micropolis/SimCity Clone in Emacs Lisp"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46946593", "title": "Show HN: AI agents play SimCity through a REST API", "mentions": 5}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46897332", "title": "Show HN: Micropolis/SimCity Clone in Emacs Lisp", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50194536", "title": "How to run a city builder on 16 MHz", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47937814", "title": "item 47937814", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 803582785, "item_id": 50223924, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50223924", "by": "DonHopkins", "date": "2026-10-24", "stance": "compare", "quote": "mainly for historical purpose, and it's probably better to use the newer MicropolisCore repo for development", "excerpt": "Thanks for the link! That's the older C/TCL/Tk code from the original micropolis repo and OLPC release. Here's the latest version of the code, translated to C++ with better names and comments, in the newer MicropolisCore repo: https://github.com/SimHacker/MicropolisCore/blob/main/packages/micropolis-engine/src/simulate.cpp#L132 Chaim Gingold wrote a book all about \"Building SimCity\": https://mitpress.mit.edu/97802625", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "How to run a city builder on 16 MHz"}, {"id": 751696946, "item_id": 46981059, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46981059", "by": "DonHopkins", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "trained via quality-diversity methods on Micropolis", "excerpt": "Sam Earle did exactly this with RL agents trained via quality-diversity methods on Micropolis: https://github.com/smearle/gym-city For running locally, I'd recommend the MicropolisCore repo over the one linked in the original post. MicropolisCore is a clean C++ rewrite that compiles to WASM -- runs headless in Node or in any browser: https://github.com/SimHacker/MicropolisCore The Raspberry Pi wall display idea is gr", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: AI agents play SimCity through a REST API"}, {"id": 751669376, "item_id": 46979336, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46979336", "by": "frikk", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Cool, thank you. I love projects like this. Great work and thank you for sharing! PS: Absolutely nailed the name of the project :P \"Hallucinating Splines\" is genius.", "context": "", "use_case": "SimCity-style city simulation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: AI agents play SimCity through a REST API"}, {"id": 751664352, "item_id": 46979022, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46979022", "by": "aed", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "pull in the Micropolis repo and give it some guidance", "excerpt": "I'm glad you're enjoying it! It was fun to build and I almost can't believe I got this to work. I don't think it would take much to run locally. In fact, before I did this public version I did a local version on an exe.dev VM (more details here: https://dunn.us/notes/vibe-gaming-simcity/). So you can either use my code, or just have your coding your agent of choice pull in the Micropolis repo and give it some guidanc", "context": "", "use_case": "Open-source SimCity engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: AI agents play SimCity through a REST API"}, {"id": 750392192, "item_id": 46899512, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46899512", "by": "yuppiepuppie", "date": "2026-02-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Amazing! I have added this to the HN Arcade", "excerpt": "Amazing! I have added this to the HN Arcade https://hnarcade.com/games/games/micropolis-simcity-clone-in-emacs-lisp", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Micropolis/SimCity Clone in Emacs Lisp"}]}