Retro-Themed Digital Audio Dice Towers

John Anderson grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons in the late 1970s, and while a physical dice tower is sufficient for most tabletop gamers, others prefer a digital version. Anderson decided to build his own take on this sort of digital pseudo-randomizer, integrating new processors into retro hardware from the 1960s and '70s. Making these builds even more unique, they speak your virtual rolls in a beautiful(?) robotic tone.

It’s a truly epic series of projects, spanning over a number of years and iterations. The results that are quite fascinating, which you might call a series retro-futuristic art pieces. The ongoing saga is an impressive display of creativity within a uniquely interesting theme.

While not originally intended specifically as assistive devices, Anderson received requests to make this type of device for visually impaired tabletop gamers. He generously made a number of these to give away. A sample of his audio retro gaming-art pieces are seen in the videos below, and more builds/info are available via the project page.

This Heathkit HD-16 mod above is one of the coolest implementations of this concept, speaking rolls in the series' characteristic robotic tone. Knobs are used to adjust volume, dice count, and type of dice used, as well as other unique features depending on the iteration.

This particular "tower" version is based on a '70s-era Bell and Howell multimeter. Option knobs are used to set parameters, and beautiful Nixie tubes also provide visual feedback. Notably, an AVR chip is shown here running the device, which is typical of these builds.

This build is stuffed into a "Wildlife Materials Tracking Receiver" that was a spectacular find at Goodwill. Typical controls are found on this one, plus an "EMP" button for empower – or perhaps electromagnetic pulse depending on the game!