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Games At Work dot Biz

Games At Work dot Biz

Written by: Michael Rowe Michael Martine Andy Piper
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 Play games with us!Copyright Games at Work dot Biz, 2012-2024 Politics & Government
Episodes
  • e539 — Wikipedia is 25!

    e539 — Wikipedia is 25!
    Jan 19 2026

    Michael R brings back Ian Hughes to discuss the recent changes with Meta’s VR investments, cool content on Apple’s Vision Pro, the new Creator Studio bundle, and 25 years of Wikipedia.

    While Andy and Michael M are not available we look at how large companies cutting back on innovation can allow new startups and companies to flourish. With Meta refocusing more on wearables, perhaps we will see an uptick in innovative uses for VR. Which is a perfect sequel way for Michael to given his review of the NBA’s recent basketball game on the Vision Pro. The experience seemed to him to be the perfect onramp for Michael M, if it were college basketball.

    We then review a few older games (Civilization VII and RetroCade), coming to Apple Arcade, before looking at the Board Tabletop Gaming Console. With all this cool tech, Michael introduces Ian to the Apple Creator Studio. Is it worth it? Ian, having recently built an AI server at home via ComfyUI, thinks it may be cheap enough for his pocketbook.

    Finally we get to Wikipedia’s 25th anniversary, and what Ian did on the Cool Stuff Collective for Wikipedia’s 15th Anniversary.

    Showlinks:

    Meta:

    • Shutting studios – https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/14/meta-three-vr-studios
    • Shifting to Wearables – https://www.theverge.com/news/861295/meta-reality-labs-layoffs-shift-to-wearables
    • Discontinuing Metaverse for work – https://www.theverge.com/tech/863209/meta-has-discontinued-its-metaverse-for-work-too

    Vision Pro:

    • NBA on the Vision Pro – https://www.macstories.net/news/immersive-lakers-game-now-widely-available-on-apple-vision-pro/
    • RetroCade – https://techhub.social/@ellenich/115894673956399018

    Games:

    • Board Table Top – https://www.wired.com/review/board-tabletop-game-console
    • Civ VII – https://www.theverge.com/news/861816/civilization-vii-apple-arcade-launch

    Creators:

    • Creator Studio – https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/01/introducing-apple-creator-studio-an-inspiring-collection-of-creative-apps/

    Wikipedia:

    • 25th Anniversary – https://www.theverge.com/news/861935/wikipedia-25th-anniversary-2026
    • Wikipedia 25th site – https://wikipedia25.org

    Cool stuff collective – https://citv.fandom.com/wiki/Cool_Stuff_Collective

    Comfy UI – https://comfyui.org/en/what-is-comfyui

    These show notes were lovingly crafted by a human.
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    38 mins
  • e538 — MagSafe Stacking

    e538 — MagSafe Stacking
    Jan 12 2026
    Photo by Michael Martine, Blowing Rock, NC 2022 Published 12 January 2026 e538 with Michael M and Andy – Stories and discussion on CES2026, EuroTech, PhoneTech, AI playing your games for you so you can watch and a whole lot more. Andy, Michael and Michael take a look at many of the announcements from CES, and share a few of their favorites. CES is the annual Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the phone technology arena, there are several MagSafe examples that magnetically snap onto an iPhone, such as charger that looks kind of like a floppy disk. Another example is a keyboard, with tactile buttons you can type with in portrait or landscape mode. The keyboard creates a form factor that is reminiscent of the Danger Hiptop / Sidekick. Between these examples and others (like a second screen e-reader that snaps to the back of a phone), the cohosts mull what it would be like to stack several of them in sequence. After discussing the Punkt phone, and the Proton suite enabled by the AphyOS, the team turns their attention to several other innovations shared at CES. Lollypops that play music, a vibrating chef’s knife, and the Lepro AMI AI companion all caught their eye. The Lepro AMI seems similar, at least in the form factor, to the Gatebox, which was first discussed on Games at Work back in 2017. Next, the team takes a look at a fork of a decompilation of SuperMario 64, where the developer added a physical coin slot and updated the code to allow for micro transactions with physical money. Then, following on a post from Mike Elgan, the co-hosts consider an article about Sony’s patent to take over a player’s avatar in case they get stuck and want help to continue their game. It’s kind of like your own personal AI Twitch channel. The Games at Work team considered a similar story about Microsoft’s gaming Copilot in 2025. Speaking of Microsoft, Michael M got excited about the potential triumphant return of Clippy, only to realize that it was clickbait. Would you like to have an AI show you how to get past a tricky game boss, or play through it for you? 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 CES2026 www.ces.tech The Consumer Electronics Show Retrododo article: This Adorable Floppy Disk MagSafe Battery Pack Is My New EDC Fave KBDcraft.store Kit Shamshel Mouse Liliputing article: Clicks Power Keyboard is a magnetic thumb keyboard & wireless power bank for your phone ohsnap.com: MCON, the magnetic transforming gaming controller Vice article: The Sidekick Was Pop Culture’s Most Stylish and Innovative Cellphone Belkin iPhone Mount with MagSafe for Mac Notebooks punkt.ch blog post: Punkt. unveils MC03, latest version of its unique smartphone offering giving users full control over personal data and usage. AphyOS Mashable article: The weirdest tech of CES: It gets very weird, very fast Games at Work e520: Cold Fusion Gaming (for the Gatebox virtual companion) tech.eu article: CES 2026 showcases Europe’s hardware renaissance Reverse Engineering Microtransactions into Retro Games Hackaday article: Super Mario 64, Now With Microtransactions AI Sony AI plays video games, so you don't have to! https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/sony-patents-ai-plays-video-games — Mike Elgan (@MikeElgan@mastodon.social) 2026-01-09T01:30:33.730Z WIPO Patentscope : WO2025080356 – AI GENERATED GHOST PLAYER Games at Work e530: Vibe It! Ready Player Chum (for Microsoft’s Gaming Copilot) PCWorld article: Microsoft pushes huge Copilot update with features like Clippy 2.0 Microsoft blog: Meet Copilot Mode in Edge: Your AI browser Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine
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    31 mins
  • e537 — Reading, Listening & Building Together

    e537 — Reading, Listening & Building Together
    Jan 5 2026
    Photo by Scott Gruber on Unsplash Published 4 January 2026 e537 with Michael M and Andy – ringing in the new year with the amazing power of music to move and heal, LEGO and retro builds and a whole lot more. Andy, Michael and Michael would like to wish all of our listeners a very happy 2026! Michael M and Andy start off 2026 on a good note – or perhaps better said – a series of good notes. Michael shares some of his vacation reading, beginning with the book, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord by Daniel Levitin. In this book, Levitin highlights the power of music to move and heal, and provides a Linktree to listen to the songs featured in the book, which is included in the show notes below. One particular example from the book was the Ella Fitzgerald recording of Mack the Knife in Berlin, and the magic she created in the moment when she forgot the lyrics. Andy highlights an amazing musical creation moment with Jacob Collier’s improvisation with the National Symphony Orchestra. This reminded Michael of Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander’s book, Art of Possibility, and maestro Zander’s TED talk on the power of classical music. Michael also brought up David Byrne’s book, How Music Works, and his learning in Puerto Rico on how dancers conduct the musicians as they perform together. Byrne discussed mixtapes in his book, and the modern equivalent of them are the playlist, which is exactly what Levitin’s Linktree leads to. Michael created a mixtape to express musically what he was trying to say in words for his NCSSM convocation speech at the start of the 2025-26 school year. Andy shares a couple of intriguing ways to create music through retro devices and common household products – all of these are in the links below. Moving to the building part of the episode, Andy and Michael start off with LEGO, and this is about to be a banner year for the company with so many new sets coming on the market. There’s a new LEGO Icons building, which has in it a music store and includes a sousaphone player minifig. The cohosts touch on the Star Trek Enterprise set which was also just launched, which includes a minifig of Commander Riker with his trombone. Andy describes the awesomeness that is the LEGO GameBoy with the inventive buttons on the device, and the team then touch on a couple of retro consoles such as the Commodore 64 reboot. The team wraps up this episode with a mention of Andy’s grumpiness on the year end Tech Grumps podcast. What music has inspired you in 2025? What builds (LEGO, retro or otherwise) are you planning for 2026? 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 Reading I Heard There Was a Secret Chord by Daniel J Levitin Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Die Driegroschenoper – listen to the “Moritat von Mackie Messer” excerpt sung by Bertholt Brecht in the Featured Audio & Video section Games at Work e485: Barbarians at the Rhubarb Bar (for flow, and of course Barbara’s Rhabarberbar) Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander Benjamin Zander’s TED talk: The transformative power of classical music Games at Work e9: Reality is Broken (for Jane McGongial’s book, and Benjamin Zander’s Ode to Joy) How Music Works by David Byrne Listening Wikipedia article: Mixtape Listen to the songs featured in A Secret Chord – https://linktr.ee/secretchord Michael M’s Apple Music Mixtape for NCSSM’s convocation Michael M’s Spotify Mixtape for NCSSM’s convocation Making of Boléro by Linus A Kesson Building LEGO and more LEGO Icons Shopping Street #11371, with sousaphone musician (see picture 13 in photo gallery) LEGO Icons Star Trek: U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D™ #10356 with trombone player Commander Riker minifigs.me LEGO Gameboy #70246 build and additional new Retro Console #31380 Wired article: Review: Commodore 64 Ultimate The Lost Outpost blog post: Retro-tastic! Other Stranger Things Woe Industries game TechGrumps 3.3.5: – Bless The TechGrumps (Special holiday special) Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own. Michael Martine
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    32 mins
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