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Games At Work dot Biz

Games At Work dot Biz

By: Michael Rowe Michael Martine Andy Piper
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At the nexus of games, work, and techCopyright Games at Work dot Biz, 2012-2026 Politics & Government
Episodes
  • e560 — Sweating the Small Stuff

    e560 — Sweating the Small Stuff
    Jul 6 2026
    Photo by nik biziuk on Unsplash Published 6 July 2026 e560 with Andy, Michael and Michael – stickshift & phone handsets with Ian Bogost, camping at EMF Camp 2026 & Mountain Quest 2026, brain cooling, dwarf lemurs, World Cup 2026, USMNT, ThreeLions, the tokenpocalypse and a whole lot more! Andy, Michael and Michael get things started with a TechCrunch interview with Ian Bogost on his about to be published book, The Small Stuff. Building on the success of his article on the demise of the stick shift, Ian wrote a book that focuses on the details of life that make a difference. The cohosts harken back all the way to episode 17 in August of 2012 when Ian was a guest on the podcast. Part of the discussion from the article focused on the nature of the telephone handset, which brought the EMF Camp telecommunications setup to mind for Andy. Electromagnetic Telecom allows anyone attending EMF to register a phone number on the network and communicate with other participants. Speaking of camping, Michael M shares an overview video of Mountain Quest 2026, where he was a participant the prior weekend in the mountains of North Carolina. It’s hot in the UK and in North Carolina – so the maker article about the brain turbocharger looked to be a welcome relief from the heat. This modified construction helmet recognizes when the user has been thinking hard and signals multiple fans built into the helmet to cool things down so the user’s brain does not overheat from overclocking. Recent discussions on the podcast about the Steam hardware made the BC250 an intriguing topic. Michael R recounts his recent trip to the Duke Lemur Center to see the small Fat-tailed dwarf lemur. And in the small and cool category, the team considers the “Impossible Watch” from D1 Milano. The cohosts then take a brief World Cup interlude from the tech discussions. While neither Michael is what you may consider a ‘bandwagon’ fan for the World Cup, the Lay’s potato chip television commercial is pretty funny. Check out the embedded video below. At the time of recording and writing, both England and the USA are still in the hunt for the cup – best wishes to both national teams! Wrapping up the episode, the team discusses the tokenpocalypse. The 404 Media article highlights how companies are have gone from tokenmaxxing to tokenhoarding as the price point for AI is soaring. Have you been impacted by restrictions on your token usage? Have your bots 🤖 (if you can spare the tokens!) drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz@mastodon.social (our home for now) and let us know! These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot. All rights reserved. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it. Selected Links Beating the heat by sweating the small stuff TechCrunch article: Writer Ian Bogost says ‘The Small Stuff’ can help us reclaim our lives from too much convenience Small Stuff Book by Ian Bogost The Atlantic article: The End of Manual Transmission Games at Work e17: Things Are Weirder Than Expected (for special guest Ian Bogost) Electromagnetic Telecom plc (phones at EMF Camp) Are the North Carolina mountains a rainforest? Yes. Makers (staying cool with cool stuff) Arduino blog post: Brain hot from serious thinking? This helmet automatically cools your head Aftermath article: Bless The BC250, The Budget E-waste Steam Machine Photo by Michael Rowe at the Duke Lemur Center, Durham North Carolina July 2026 Wikipedia article: Fat-tailed dwarf lemur Duke Lemur Center Gear Patrol article: This May Be the First Kickstarter Watch I’d Actually Consider Buying World Cup – England and US still in at recording time! Data Guessr site: Who wins if not football decides? Token Throttling 404 Media article: Companies Are Throttling Employees’ AI Use Because It’s Too Expensive
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    33 mins
  • e559 – Welcome to the Matrix

    e559 – Welcome to the Matrix
    Jun 29 2026

    Photo by Francis Painchaud on Unsplash

    Published 29 June 2026

    e559 with Michael R and Andy – it’s a catch-up and geek out on things we’ve been doing, games we’ve been playing, and topics we’ve been thinking about… including Apple history, Retro Computing, and self-hosting services.

    A slightly different show format this week, as Michael R and Andy decide not to cover the weekly news stories and links… and instead catch up with one another, across a range of topics.

    Michael has backed a new Kickstarter, for a podcast talking about Apple’s background and history in California. Andy talks about his recent visit to the Retro Computer Museum in Leicester, UK.

    Then, there’s a discussion of Andy’s latest work project, a new role at the Matrix.org Foundation. There’s a dive into what the Matrix protocol is and how it is used; Michael is considering whether it might be worth trying as an alternative to existing tools for our podcast workflow.

    They also stop to discuss Markdown; Michael traces it back to Waterloo Script on IBM 3081 and WordPerfect’s Reveal Codes. Andy brings up Google Cloud’s “Open Knowledge Format” (essentially Markdown + YAML front matter) as an AI-readable standard.

    The gaming section covers Michael ordering the D&D-themed Demeo game. Andy has neglected his Meta headset for six months but has been hooked on Forza Horizon 6.

    Finally Michael wants a single “home page” for all of his communities (Slack, Discord, RSS, forums). Andy uses Glance on his homelab for a dashboard, with Uptime Kuma monitoring the show’s infrastructure.

    Thanks for joining our one-to-one this week! Let us know what you thought!

    Selected links
    • “Designed in California” on Kickstarter
    • Retro Computer Museum
    • the Matrix.org Foundation
      • This Week in Matrix 2026-06-26
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUSX1Hm201c
    • Matrix Overview
    • Continuwuity (a Matrix homeserver)
    • Google Open Knowledge Format
    • Forza Horizon 6 – get a DeLorean
    • Glance app
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    27 mins
  • e558— Exploding Bananas

    e558— Exploding Bananas
    Jun 22 2026
    Photo by Gabriel Meinert on Unsplash Published 22 June 2026 e558 with Michael M and Andy – slowing things down with games where you walk, fly, sail, throw bananas and play ball, along with 3D printing innovation, a new flip phone from Commodore and a whole lot more! Michael M and Andy get things started while Michael R is away with cornucopia of games. First up is StonkRider, which bills itself as “motocross meets wall street” where you ride a motorcycle up and down a stock ticker. Then, from the makers of Untitled Goose Game, is a new title called Big Walk, where, as the title suggests, you go out for an unstructured walk. This harkens back nicely to the discussion between Ian and Andy in last week’s episode. And it reminds Michael of a story he saw recently about Google’s take on Flight Simulator using Google Maps. Next, the pair discuss TinyWind, a pixel pirate sailing game, where you might charter an accountant and sail the wild accountancy. Then, an even more retro game appears – Gorilla.JS. This DOS game has gorillas throwing exploding bananas at one another from across a cityscape where you can choose the angle and force to throw. Both cohosts promptly thew their bananas with such little force that it went up in the air and exploded on their own gorilla. Batter up! Andy and Michael’s next set of topics take them to America’s pastime, and the adjacent sport of cricket. After checking out the game visualization of Ribbie, the pair get into a discussion on what 8-Bit really means. Michael remembers the SmallBall game, and was disappointed to learn that this game is no longer maintained. On the other hand, he is happy about his university playing in the College World Series. Baseball and cricket really lend themselves well to games because of all of the stats that are kept about each player and the games themselves. Andy shared the story of the Wisden Cricketers Almanack which chronicles enormous details in it’s 1,500 pages! After turning to innovations in 3D printing and visionOS collaboration, the cohosts consider the slow tech movement using the example of the new Commodore Callback flip phone. This phone features the promoted ability to run 99% of Android apps while completely blocking social media and browsers. Andy and Michael wrap things up with a new LEGO Ideas set – a playable LEGO space themed pinball machine. Links to all of the fun are below – check them out! What do you think the Commodore Callback model number 8020 means? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz@mastodon.social (our home for now) and let us know! These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot. All rights reserved. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it. Selected Links Games StonkRider This Is Colossal article: ‘Big Walk’ Is a New Video Game about … Walking and Talking Games at Work e557: The British are Coming! Google Maps Platform Documentation entry: Fly around the world (Experimental) Why I 🧡 the web: TinyWind is a "pixel pirate sailing game" with real wind physics. Even has a leaderboard. https://tinywind.io 🏴‍☠️ #games #pirates #javascript — David Bisset (@davidbisset@phpc.social)2026-06-15T23:16:22.396Z TinyWind Retro Computer Museum post: Awesome World Famous Legendary Gathering* 20/06/26 GORILLA.JS, a web port of QBasic GORILLAS with online multiplayer:https://gorillas.zone/ — Anatoly Shashkin💾 (@dosnostalgic@mastodon.social)2026-06-16T19:01:37.978Z Gorilla.JS, a recreation of the classic DOS game Baseball and Baseball adjacent kottke.org blog post: Watch Baseball Games in Realtime in 8-Bit View ribbie.tv GoHeels.com College World Series Central Wikipedia article: List of Atari 8-bit computer games Fandom Aesthetics Wiki: 1980s 8-Bit Game Design Aesthetics Reddit r/SmallBall – sadly the game is no longer available TinyTeams Baseball American Baseball Coaches Association: Charts & Documents Wikipedia article: Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack AR / VR / Replicators hackster.io article: Layer-Free, Ultra-Fast 3D Printing Is Now Available to You Apple Developer video: Collaborate on structured 3D models in visionOS TechCrunch article: Snap finally debuts its long-awaited AR glasses, Specs, and, oof, they aren’t cheap SlowTech TechCrunch article: The smartphone era created an attention crisis — slow tech is fixing it Android Police article: Commodore, the 80s computer legend, has made a flip phone, and it’s hugely exciting The Commodore Callback LEGO Retrododo article: LEGO Officially Reveals New Playable Pinball Set LEGO Icons Arcade Pinball Machine 11374
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    29 mins
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