July 18, 2009: Dice-O-Matic!

Anyone can roll dice. But for online games, you need an objective roller, capable of generating as many rolls as you need. And if you're GamesByEmail.com, you need quite a few -- over 80,000 every day!

After tinkering with a Lego version, Scott Nesin has constructed the Mark II Dice-O-Matic, a "7 foot tall, 104 pound, dice-eating monster, capable of generating 1.3 million rolls a day." He's got a chain driven dice bucket, 200 dice in a hopper, and a USB camera counting the colored pips.

His page has quite a few nice pictures, but for the real feel of what the Dice-O-Matic is, watch the YouTube video. The sound of hundreds of dice rattling through their random paces . . . glorious!

-- Paul Chapman