Homelab Infrastructure, Simulated Properly
Silicon Pirates is a browser-based rack simulator where power, networking, and
storage aren't abstractions, they're systems you actually wire together. Rack
real devices, run real cable topology, and watch load, heat, and uptime respond
to the choices you make, not a progress bar.
You start with $1000 in Lab Credits and an empty rack. Everything from there,
what you buy, how you wire it, whether it survives a fault, is on you.
Also playable on your phone: sp.silicon-pirates.com/m/ -- same account, same rack, no separate signup.
You can play the whole game with zero signup, your rack saves and resumes
automatically either way. But registering a real username, free, inside the game
(click your name in the top bar), locks it in permanently, guaranteed, and unlocks
the Marketplace: real cross-session trading with other actual
players for racks, devices, and cosmetic trinkets. Every item you register also
keeps a full, readable ownership history from the moment you get it onward, through
however many hands it passes through after.
Your existing save, chips, and progress don't change when you register, it just
attaches a real identity to what you already have.
See the full breakdown in the Marketplace manual.
The browser build is live and playable right now, free, no install.
It's a genuine work in progress: new systems, devices, and balance passes ship
regularly, and this site tracks the current state as closely as it can.
Follow active development on r/SiliconPirates,
or see what's shipped so far versus what's still ahead on the
Roadmap.
Core Systems
- 18-device rack roster: PDUs, UPS, routers, firewalls, switches, NAS (3 tiers), servers, AI compute, crypto rigs, hosted game servers, terminal servers, KVM consoles, and a Comm Device, each bought as a real, individual unit, not an unlimited unlock
- Real power distribution: grid slots, PDU/UPS chains, overload and brownout risk down to individual outlets, an hourly bill that swings with both your own load AND real time-of-day peak/off-peak pricing, and genuine disconnection (and a paid reconnection) if that bill goes unpaid too long
- An overloaded PDU chain can genuinely catch fire, and that fire can spread to every device plugged directly into it, not just the PDU itself
- Layered networking: routers, switches, DHCP, ISP uplink, a full terminal command set to diagnose it, and a live bandwidth graph driven by your actual hosted-game players, AI compute rentals, and mining activity, not a canned animation
- NAS-backed storage with real capacity, growth, sharing, and failure states, disaster recovery (mirror a share to another device and it survives a fault the primary wouldn't), and a rack-wide storage overview showing exactly how much of your capacity is unprotected right now
- A full terminal: `man` documentation across 20+ topics, scripting, cron automation, and live diagnostics on every wired device
- An offensive and defensive hacking loop: firewalls and Heat/Reputation on one side, a rotating target board and scan/exploit/steal hacking tools on the other
- Custom racks and cross-rack cabling, so a single-rack setup can grow into a multi-rack operation with shared links between them, including full cross-rack PDU/UPS power sharing -- a cross-rack-powered device behaves identically to a locally-powered one in every system
- Three recurring hacker collectives (one assigned at random per rack, each with a distinct personality) with ransomware, a mailbox, and a hackback path once you're far enough in
- A darknet market for grey-market repair parts and exploit kits, plus a separate used device market for buying and selling physical units at fluctuating, rolled-condition prices
- Client contracts, including black-box security audits that actively trigger a fault to test your response instead of just checking ambient state
- Device degradation, thermal modeling, and random faults that force real maintenance decisions
- Anonymous, zero-signup save/resume, so your rack is exactly as you left it next time, no account required, plus a one-click Reset Save if you'd rather start clean (any Chips you've bought are always kept)
- Optional free registration locks in a permanent username (never lost or reset) and unlocks the player Marketplace: real cross-session trading with other players for racks, devices, and cosmetic trinkets, each carrying a full, readable ownership history forever
- The Comm Device: the first real step toward multiplayer. Own and power one to open a live directory of other active players, usernames, Reputation rank, and how recently they were online, reachable either through the device itself or a terminal
players command
- Dark Room mode: dim the rack view down to real low-light lab lighting, servers and chassis barely visible, every LED and cable glowing bright against the dark, free for every player regardless of tier
- A premium shop (chips): cosmetic device/rack skins, full-UI accent themes, a custom rack nameplate, time-savers like a Hacker Ward or an Insurance Policy against your next fault, and a one-time Cable-Tie Auto-Organize that routes cables into clean left/right rails, never anything that outperforms honest free play
- Terminal-tracked achievements that pay a real one-time cash + Reputation bonus the moment you earn them, and a fully playable DOOM easter egg hidden in the simulation
In-Game Screenshots
These screenshots are taken directly from the active development build.
Everything shown, power draw, device state, networking, terminals, LEDs,
and failure conditions, is simulated in real time.
This is not a cinematic mock-up or static UI. What you see reflects actual
game state, configuration choices, and system behavior as it exists in the
current build.
Rack Overview / Power & Thermal State
Terminal Server / Live CLI Control
Networking / DHCP / ISP Uplink
Your Own Data Center / Fully Wired Rack
Wallet Markets / Pump Predictor Mini-Game
Client Contracts / Lab Credits + Reputation
Visuals, layout, and device skins will continue to evolve as systems are finalized.
In-Game Videos
Real clips from the active development build. These are not trailers, this is live simulated state.
Click any panel to open full playback.
Video previews are muted by design. Full playback opens in a dedicated page with controls.
Service Manuals
Every device in Silicon Pirates ships with internal-style documentation.
Learn how systems behave, fail, and recover, just like a real lab. The same
docs are also searchable live in-game via the terminal's man <topic>
command and the Library panel.
Support Development
Silicon Pirates is built like a real lab: power, networking, storage, failure states, recovery,
a real anonymous save system, and terminal workflows that actually change state. That level of
simulation takes time, testing, assets, and real infrastructure (this site and the game both run
on infrastructure I pay for and maintain myself), and I'm building it independently.
The fastest way to support the project still costs nothing: play it, tell people about it, and
send feedback through Contact. If you'd rather support it
directly, the in-game premium shop (cosmetic skins, themes, and time-savers, never anything that
outperforms honest free play) is the one real way to do that right now. Longer-term plans for the
project, including what additional funding would accelerate, are laid out honestly on the
Roadmap.
HOW TO HELP
▸
Play and share: the browser build is free, and word of mouth is the biggest lever a solo project has
▸
Buy cosmetics in-game: the premium chip shop funds real hosting and infrastructure costs directly, no pay-to-win, ever
▸
Report what's broken: bug reports and balance feedback go straight into the next build
▸
Follow along: dev logs and milestones post to r/SiliconPirates as they ship
DEVELOPMENT STATUS
Active
Browser build: Live
Mobile Companion App: Early Access
CURRENT FOCUS
Mobile companion polish (Notifications screen now live, deploy pipeline hardening + a real device pass next), multiplayer (the Comm Device active-players directory just shipped; PvP raiding + AI opponents next), balance passes, and expanding service manual coverage