e530 — Vibe It! - Ready Player Chum

e530 — Vibe It! - Ready Player Chum

Author: Michael Rowe, Michael Martine, Andy Piper September 29, 2025 Duration: 31:47
Friendly bipedal robot strolling down a path
Photo by Kindel Media from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-robot-toy-on-gray-concrete-floor-9026299/

Published 29 September 2025

e530 with Michael and Michael – an AI extravaganza with vibe coding, AI gaming chums, rating LLMs via Infocom games, robots for construction, self assembling space habitats and a whole lot more.

Michael and Michael get things moving this episode with an AI extravaganza while Andy is away.  The co hosts start things off with a vibe coding assistant to help you with your QBasic programming needs.  Next up, the pair consider a couple of stories dealing with assistants who can help users be more effective in playing games.  There is a real Goldilocks zone for the assistant to help the player remain in a state of flow, where the game is neither too easy due to the assistant’s help, nor too frustrating to play.  Michael R gives an example of his trying to get to Orc Town to progress in Mines of Moria.  Continuing on the theme of AIs playing games, Michael and Michael take a look at TextQuests, where a variety of LLMs take up the challenge of playing Infocom text based games.  With all the discussion on AI slop in the news, the article from Computerworld about the mathematical inevitability of hallucinations is particularly timely.

Michael and Michael move from AI to robotics and take a look at the construction bot from Dusty Robotics, which prints out a life size blueprint directly on the floor.  Michael M shares a space habitat construction solution from Aurelia that uses magnets to self assemble in orbit.  Michael R shares a story about the engineering feat of moving a viking ship without damaging it, which reminded Michael M of the challenge of moving the Cape Hatteras lighthouse.  Check out the links below for all the details.

What would your ideal game chum be like?  What do you think about the current state of AI chum?  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

AI

hackaday.io AI Coding Assistant for Microsoft QBasic

Engadget article: Google is turning Gemini into a gaming sidekick with a new Android overlay

PC Gamer article: Microsoft’s new Gaming Copilot AI tool promises to be ‘your personal gaming sidekick’ but it mostly seems to do the work of a Google search, with the potential for ‘hallucinations’

Games at Work e488: Fight. For Your Right. To Pla-aaay! for Jane McGonigal and flow 

The Gamer article: How To Find Orc Town In The Lord Of The Rings: Return To Moria

404 Media article: AI-Powered Animal Crossing Villagers Begin Organizing Against Tom Nook

TextQuests.ai 

Wikipedia article: Infocom

OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws
computerworld.com/article/4059

— Charlie Stross (@cstross@wandering.shop)
2025-09-21T17:14:32.576Z

Computerworld article: OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws

Rule 34 by Charles Stross

Accelerando by Charles Stross

Games at Work e306: Weak Ties for Accelerando 

hitchhikers.fandom.com: Infinite Improbability Drive

Washington Post article: AI firm Deepseek writes less secure code for groups China disfavors

Robots

Dusty Robotics

Aurelia: Tesserae: Self-Assembling Prototypes

Magnatiles

This is Colossal article: A Feat of Engineering Transports the World’s Best-Preserved Viking Ship to Its New Home

National Park Service article: Moving the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Two More Things

Six Colors article: Apple Announces a New Set of Immersive Film Releases

Random Thoughts post: My AirPods Review


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: Language: en-us Episodes: 50

Games At Work dot Biz
Podcast Episodes
e541 — Invisible Llamas [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:33
edited picture from Lars H Knudsen: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-close-up-shot-of-a-llama-7845603/ Published 2 February 2026 e541 with Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on AI with local Claude (and Clawdbot,…
e540 — Saucer Separation Button [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:29
Photo by Aneta Pawlik on Unsplash Published 26 January 2026 e540 with Michael, Andy and Michael – Stories and discussion on mobile controllers, AI playing Anchorhead, Zork & Roller Coaster Tycoon, an isometric NYC, human…
e539 — Wikipedia is 25! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:29
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 av…
e538 — MagSafe Stacking [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:47
Photo by Michael Martine, Blowing Rock, NC 2022 Published 12 January 2026 e538 with Michael, Michael and Andy – Stories and discussion on CES2026, EuroTech, PhoneTech, AI playing your games for you so you can watch and a…
e537 — Reading, Listening & Building Together [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:13
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, Michae…
e536 — Can we skip all AI this time? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:53
Photo by Alexander Grigoryev on Unsplash Published 22 December 2025 e536 with Andy, Michael R, and guest host newly-retired Ian “Epredator” Hughes – a dive into gaming in 2025, retro computing and games, how to fix old p…
e535 — The Poetry of DOOM [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:13
Photo by David Klein on Unsplash Published 15 December 2025 e535 with Michael M and Andy – adversarial poetry to jailbreak LLMs, iFixit’s FixBot, power of digital twins, putting the breaks on Rewind, Nintendo Virtual Boy…
e534 — Hiding in Plain Sight [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:22
Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash Published 24 November 2025 e534 with Michael, Andy and Michael – AI and ML training data, camouflage, ppen source Zork, Deadpool VR, NPH movies and a whole lot more. Michael, Andy and M…
e533 — Rings of Power [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:16
Photo by Fallon Michael on Unsplash Published 17 November 2025 e533 with Andy, Michael and Michael – rings to chart the heavens and control your home, repurposing smart TVs, retro La Machine and Vectrex hardware made new…
e532 — Spooky Scary Tech Skeletons [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:00
Photo by Chris Charles on Unsplash Published 3 November 2025 e532 with Michael and Michael – Halloween Spooktacular edition with AI whale communications & implications, robotic vacuums that phone home, ad supported TVs a…