Programming question

Making a program for the Physical Science department based on a paper and pencil game they have now.

It is an oil rig simulation with a grid in which players buy plots of land and drill (different prices for different depths, etc)

basically, oil = money = more drilling and more land.


question is, what language would be best, it is going to be web based and accessible from anywhere, so i was thinking Java and PHP.

any other suggestions would be great too, since i barely know what i am doing, and maybe in a little over my head :P

Read, watch, live and breathe SICP.
http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5546836985338782440#

Nodejs

My god don't use Java or PHP. Use Python + Framework and Javascript (jQuery seems to be popular)

Or use Flash. But not Java.

Use befunge OP.

But seriously try making it a flash game.