Photo by Michael Martine, South Yarmouth MA, July 2026
Published 13 July 2026
e561 with Michael, Andy and Michael – arial-aquatic robotic locomotion, Puffin wingspan, e-ink mini PDAs, maker marketplaces such as Tindie, Lectronz and SmallRun, custom vinyl, cooperative LLMs and a whole lot more!
Michael, Andy and Michael get things started with a new robot that can fly and swim, and transition between the air and water on it’s own. This amazing feat was inspired by diving birds such as the puffin. This story inspired the cohosts to consider the wingspan of the puffin, and while writing up the show notes, the Wingspan boarding game and the airborne velocity of the swallow.
Switching to non-robotic tech, the team take a look at the PocketMage PDA, which then opens up a whole discussion on (dare we say vintage) other PDAs, and the maker culture of EMF Camp, where Andy is spending some time as discussed in e560. Crowdsupply’s Open Printer article primed the team for a number of favorite maker marketplaces which you can check out in the show notes below. Examples like Tindie, Lectronz and SmallRun all get the benefit of the Games at Work bump. And a google search turns up another SmallRun website that provides the service of creating custom vinyl for recordings, and inspires Andy on a potential gift.
The team then looks at a couple of YouTube videos where a number of different LLMs are tasked to work collaboratively to play Pico Park. You can see these below, and it is an intriguing way to consider how multiple autonomous agents may work together (or not) in other contexts. In e173 in 2017, the cohosts discussed an example of two Google Homes talked to one another on Twitch.
Rounding out the episode, there is an Inc article on what happened when the Starbucks app had a failure. The behavior was very reminiscent of last week’s discussion on Ian Bogost’s new book, The Small Stuff. The article concludes “Connivence creates its own fragility” – what an interesting turn of phrase.
Have you had an example of when convenience created fragility 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.
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 by Mikey Frost on Unsplash Published 8 June 2026 e556 with Michael, Andy and Michael - Michael R’s annual edu-cation, chatbot trickery, data center data visualization, LeRobot Humanoid open source robotics, LEGO an…
Photo by Michael Martine: The Bean in Millennium Park, Chicago, IL, June 2019 Published 25 May 2026 e555 with Andy, Michael and Michael - Ploopy’s The Bean and Lenovo’s TrackPoint, The Guild, The Movie, AI in commencemen…
Stories and discussion on a robot monk, the Dead Internet Theory, agentic autonomy, Happy Net Box, the Artemis II minifig.me crew and a whole lot more!
e551 with Michael, Michael and Andy - a tour of the #Atmosphere with #ATProto, #Sifa, @eurosky.social, #Leaflet, a #LEGO #cacophonous #karaoke of “Mad About Me” and a whole lot more!
e550 with Michael, Andy and Michael - celebrating #MoonJoy with the #ArtemisII #crew, #Nutella in space, #AI, an #isomorphic reboot of #Wolf3D and a whole lot more!
e549 with Andy, Michael and Michael - boldly go into a deep set of #space discussions featuring #ArtemisII, ways to keep track of the historic flight, #COTS #software & #hardware aboard the #spacecraft, #BernieSanders co…
e548 with Michael and Michael - Stories and discussion on #UncomfortableValley & #UncannyValley, Nintendo’s #TalkingFlower, #8bit #PixelAgents for #AIorchestration and a whole lot more.
e547 with Michael and Michael - stories and discussion on #Bot2Bot communications, 50 years of #Apple, #LEGO #SmartPlay #SmartBricks and a whole lot more.
