e513 with Michael and Michael – Clippy + LLMs, social AI, first person video, Duck, Pong & other games, and so much more.
While Andy is away, Michael and Michael start off this episode with good friend Clippy, the Microsoft Office Assistant from the early 2000s. Felix Reiseberg has made a version of Clippy that can use a variety of LLMs while retaining the look and feel of the 2000s user experience. Meta has enabled or borrowed – you pick your favorite – the capability of making user interactions with it’s AI app public, in much the same way you can browse other people’s exchanges on Venmo. And for the sports fans, there is a new AI capability that produces play by play and color commentary. This example highlights the thrill of victory in a match of Pong.
The Games at Work switches gears to the automotive world, where an article examines the (triumphant) return of the Yugo. Michael R remembers the Adobe parody from Saturday Night Live, and also shares news of the return of the Karman Ghia with Michael M. The story of the return of physical buttons from Wired reminds the cohosts of an earlier Games at Work episode where this comeback has been in the making since at least 2023.
A comedic triumph turns 50 years old this year – Monty Python’s Holy Grail, and somehow, we’re not quite sure how, Michael and Michael refrain from going through all of the quotable quotes from the movie. After this amazing restraint, the pair turn to the Apple Vision Pro Adventure series, with an in-depth article about the making of these feats of moviemaking. Michael R has experienced them on the Vision Pro, and describes how he felt while viewing them. The Pike’s Peak race takes Michael M back to a 1972 film about a race through the streets of Paris called C’etait un Rendezvous.
After a discussion about the games of Duck, Eco Dolphin, and Minecraft removing support for VR, the co-hosts reflect on a Wired article about how industry is keeping the metaverse and 3D Internet dream alive through digital twinning.
The team wraps up this episode with a reflection on the end of support for Windows 10 – or is that really the case?
Clippy, the Yugo, the Holy Grail and Windows 10 are among the things that are not dead yet.
Are you more excited about the return of the Yugo or the Karman Ghia? Is there a vehicle you would dearly love to see come back in a new form? 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.
The weekly conversation hosted by Michael Rowe, Michael Martine, and Andy Piper, Games At Work dot Biz, explores the intersection where our digital play and professional lives collide. This isn't just a review show; it's a deep dive into the technology that powers our hobbies, the business behind the leisure, and the cultural news shaping both worlds. Each episode feels like pulling up a chair with three friends who are as passionate about the craft of game development and the evolution of hardware as they are about the pure joy of finding a great new title. You'll hear specific discussions on everything from the latest graphics card impacting performance to the narrative design of an indie darling, all filtered through the lens of professionals who live in the tech space. The Games At Work dot Biz podcast operates on the belief that the games we play and the tools we use are inextricably linked, offering listeners a consistently thoughtful and engaging analysis that goes far beyond a simple score. Tune in for a regular dose of insightful commentary where the serious business of technology meets the serious fun of games.
Author: Michael Rowe, Michael Martine, Andy Piper
Language: en-us
Episodes: 50
Photo from the International Space Station 1 April 2026 of the exhaust plume from Artemis II in Earth’s atmosphere – NASA ID: iss074e0431736 Published 20 April 2026 e551 with Michael, Michael and Andy – a tour of the Atm…
Mashup of photo by Victor Serban on Unsplash & images-assets.nasa.gov/image/art002e009287/art002e009287~orig.jpg Published 13 April 2026 e550 with Michael, Andy and Michael – celebrating Moon Joy with the Artemis II crew…
NASA photo art002e009057, 4 April 2026 Published 6 April 2026 e549 with Andy, Michael and Michael – boldly go into a deep set of space discussions featuring Artemis II, ways to keep track of the historic flight, COTS sof…
Photo by NEOM on Unsplash Published 23 March 2026 e548 with Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on uncomfortable valley & uncanny valley, Nintendo’s Talking Flower, 8bit Pixel Agents for AI orchestration and a w…
Photo by Michael Martine, Chapel Hill, NC March 2026 Published 16 March 2026 e547 with Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on bot to bot communications, 50 years of Apple, LEGO SmartPlay SmartBricks and a whole…
Published 9 March 2026 e543 with Andy, Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on LEGO’s new Smart Play brick, this is a human brain (cells) on Doom, orc audio for vibe coding, Liquid Death’s Spotify urn for playlis…
Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash Published 2 March 2026 e545 with Andy and Michael – Get to talk about mostly non-AI topics this week, as we look at a cool kickstarter, Titan, that is building out a futuristic ga…
Photo by Masahiro Naruse on Unsplash Published 23 February 2026 e544 with Andy, Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on rumoured AI devices, addictive predictives, listening through bananas (or mud), and what hap…
Photo by Viktor Keri on Unsplash Published 16 February 2026 e543 with Andy, Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on Agentic AI and the changing nature of work, agents renting humans, real time translation, artist…
Photo by Mihai 👑 on Unsplash Published 9 February 2026 e542 with Michael, Andy and Michael – Stories and discussion on programming language localization, Virtual Boy hardware & emulation, LEGO terrestrial & orbital dwell…
