February 13, 2026
Buy low, code high
Show HN: I spent 3 years reverse-engineering a 40 yo stock market sim from 1986
Legendary 1986 money game returns—Reddit hails a 'chosen one'
TLDR: A young developer is reviving Wall Street Raider, a famously complex 1986 finance game, after others failed for years. Commenters are split between “take my money” excitement, nerdy questions about hooking ancient code to modern tools, and memes about the “chosen one,” all demanding one thing: a release date.
The internet is losing it over a resurrection arc: after decades of failed attempts by big studios, a 29-year-old developer says he’s remaking “Wall Street Raider,” a brutally nerdy stock market sim from 1986. The community instantly grabbed his playful “I am the chosen one” line and ran with it—half myth, half meme, all hype. Even folks who don’t care about games are hooked on the story. One reader gushed they rarely read game pieces but finished this one, while others applauded the writing as much as the code. Think Rocky comeback, but with spreadsheets.
Then the comments split into two camps: the “take my money” crowd vs. the “how’d you even connect this ancient beast to modern code?” squad. One fan wishlisted the remake and begged for a release date, while a curious tinkerer asked how he bridged the old PowerBasic engine (think: a very old programming language) to new tools—FFI means “foreign function interface,” a way to make old and new talk. Meanwhile, Steam once called it “too niche,” but the thread clapped back with wallet emojis and love for “spreadsheet games” like Paradox titles. Jokes flew about summoning circles of CPAs and a final boss made of tax forms. The vibe: bullish, nerdy, and gleefully dramatic.
Key Points
- •Wall Street Raider, a complex financial simulator, resisted remakes for decades despite attempts by companies and a Disney-linked studio.
- •Commodore Computers abandoned a remake effort after three months with the source code; Steam rejected the game as “too niche” during Greenlight.
- •In January 2024, developer Ben Ward contacted creator Michael Jenkins and received the source code despite Jenkins’ skepticism.
- •About a year later, Ward announced that the game was being successfully remade.
- •Jenkins conceived the game in 1967 as a board game, then began coding in 1983 on a Kaypro CP/M machine using Microsoft BASIC materials.