Using computers to mimic the beautiful Grand Design spirals seen through telescopes has been a century-long challenge.  While the physics which makes galaxies is fairly simple and covered at A-level, implementing that physics inside supercomputers has been frustratingly difficult.  In the past 10 years, we have finally started to generate galaxies which actually look “real”.  In this talk, I will introduce you to nearly 200 years of galaxy physics, and leave you with a state-of-the-art picture of where we stand in simulating these systems.