e540 with Michael, Andy and Michael – Stories and discussion on mobile controllers, AI playing Anchorhead, Zork & Roller Coaster Tycoon, an isometric NYC, human artistic creativity and a whole lot more.
Michael, Andy and Michael get things clicking with some mobile controllers. Starting with one of Andy’s latest technology acquisitions, the team enjoys hearing about Andy’s experience with the MCON. And they especially like the “saucer separation” functionality. The featured image from Unsplash was selected because there were very few TNG images – if you want to see the saucer separation that inspired this week’s show title, have a look at the YouTube video below. After discussing the Anbernic controller, which has some interesting features like a screen and heart rate monitoring, the team moves forward with AI.
Claude features in a couple of the stories – first with an article from Fernando Borretti who details how he hooked Claude into the text based adventure Anchorhead. The co-hosts have been intrigued by this kind of thing for years, and were reminded of the recent open sourcing of Zork. Ramp Labs also used Claude with Roller Coaster Tycoon, which struck the team as a great way to run optimization routines across a multitude of data points that make us the game. Next up was a story about using AI to create a SimCity-style rendition of New York City (New York City!) with astounding detail. There were a couple of jumping off points of note from this story – Nvidia’s Omniverse digital twin, traffic optimization routines and another being the language in SimCity called Simlish – and a translator is included below for the listeners to enjoy.
After all the news on AI – it is refreshing though unsurprising that Hermès selected human creativity, complete with the imperfections that make the artwork more real. Wrapping up the episode, the team closes with Netflix’s foray into social engagement.
What game would you like to have AI set up to play? 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: 55
Photo by Mihály Köles on Unsplash Published 26 May 2025 e515 with Andy, Michael and Michael – the Fortnite Darth Vader NPC, IO, both from Google and Open AI, AI hardware, an intriguing Vision Pro use case, infrared conta…
Photo by WTFast on Unsplash Published 19 May 2025 e514 with Michael R and Andy – generative ads & LEGO, Aston Martin x Apple CarPlay Ultra, new Vision Pro UX, an Internet Roadtrip, Leroy Jenkins and so much more. While M…
Photo by Hande B. on Unsplash Published 12 May 2025 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…
Cartoon versions of Andy and Michael M, generated by ChatGPT Published 5 May 2025 e512 with Andy and Michael – E Ink monitors, Agent run companies & towns, winning arguments with AI assistants, pixellating reality and mu…
Photo by bill emrich from Pexels: Published 28 April 2025 e511 with Michael, Andy and Michael – Vibe coding with the Vision Pro, E Ink, ePaper, multi and single player MMORPGs, Minecraft London and much more. Michael, An…
Photo by Ádám Berkecz on Unsplash Published 21 April 2025 e510 with Andy, Michael and Michael – AI stories ranging from privacy, dolphin communication, open source models for robots, Game Transfer Phenomenon and much mor…
Photo by Josiah Farrow on Unsplash Published 14 April 2025 e509 with Michael and Michael – stories and discussion all around AI, LLMs, llamas, generated Quake, grokking, generalization and much more. Michael and Michael…
Photo by Ben Griffiths on Unsplash Published 7 April 2025 e508 with Michael, Andy and Michael – stories and discussion on AI Conversational Swarm Intelligence, the Pokétax game and numerous Nintendo stories and much more…
Photo by Braedon McLeod on Unsplash Published 31 March 2025 e507 with Michael, Andy and Michael – stories and discussion on AIs training humans, non-serindipious searching, doomed VR gaming, playlist portability and much…
screen capture of a presentation agenda with a photo of a painting of a mountain Published 23 March 2025 e506 with Andy and Michael M – stories and discussion on the attention economy, focus, pirated data used in trainin…
