e565 — Building Minas Tirith

a tree with white bark against a blue sky, reminiscent of the White Tree of Gondor
Photo by iridial on Unsplash

Published 17 August 2026

e564 with Andy, Michael and Michael – invisible prompt injections in legal briefs and resumes, podcasting games, No Man’s Sky & Pokemon Go’s anniversaries, LEGO and a whole lot more!

Andy, Michael and Michael begin with invisible prompt injections.  The first example is in legal briefs with the intent to influence AI agents reading the filings.  Another example attempts to influence agents evaluating resumes.  Continuing on the theme, the co hosts consider a story about machine-readable watermarks in text and images in accordance with the EU’s AI Act.  

Next up is an intriguing podcast game from friend of the show, Ian Hughes.  In this game, the player collects stories that appeal to the co hosts of the podcast in order to put together a show.  Bravo, Ian!  Andy shares his Twine take on the Games at Work choose your own adventure game including inventory and time constraints.  Andy’s game even allows you to create a choose your own adventure Twine game in the game!  Then, the team celebrates several 10 year milestones – for No Man’s Sky and for Pokemon Go.  

Next – it’s time for LEGO!  A new Nike + LEGO AF1 creation replete with a Spaceman minifig sporting Nike logos on his space boots makes its appearance.  LEGO also announces the “Masters Academy” at the LEGO house, where you can learn to become more creative with your builds.  This inspires Michael M on how LEGO can spur creativity in other settings, following on LEGO’s Serious Play offerings.  Michael R found the Minas Tirith build with all 8,278 pieces while the builder was watching the entire extended edition of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.  The builder was wearing an Oura ring to track their stress level and included in the article are screenshots from the ring’s app.  Check them out from the link below.

Closing out the episode, the team takes a look at Prima, a retinal implant for macular degeneration.  Amazing times we live in.

What features would you like to see in the Podcasting games?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (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

404 Media article: Person Hides Prompt Injection in Legal Filing Telling AI to Side With Them

Fast Company article: ‘Fighting fire with fire’: Job candidates are sneaking AI prompt injections into their applications

The Verge article: Claude will apply invisible watermarks to AI text and images

Made by Human

European Commission article: EU Icons for labelling AI-generated content

Podcast and other Games

LinkQuest: A Tech Podcast Adventure from Ian Hughes

Games at Work Podcast Game from Andy

Games at Work e35: Pirates of Pizzazz (for the Games at Work choose your own adventure game)

Games at Work Podcast Game from Michael M

Games Radar article: No Man’s Sky Cosmos is the next big update as Hello Games refuses to slow down after 10 years

Kotaku article: No Man’s Sky Players Have Visited Less Than 1 Percent Of Its Planets After A Decade Of Exploration And 40 Major Updates

Damp Squib / Damp Squid references

IMDb: Remarkably Bright Creatures

Pokemon Go news: Every Trainer can celebrate 10 years of Pokémon GO with a special Mewtwo!

LEGO

IGN article: LEGO Reveals Nike Air Force 1 Set With a New Version of the Classic Spaceman Minifigure

Stuff article: I became a better builder at Lego House’s epic Masters Academy sessions – and you can too!

Games at Work e130: The Final Countdown (for LEGO Serious Play)

Stuff article: I tracked my stress while making an 8000 piece Lego set, and the results are surprising

Tech

New Scientist article: Eye implant that restores vision lost to age approved for use

Prima

e564 — Saving Drowning People With Spiders

Orange lifebouy ring floating on water
Photo by Zac Taheriyan on Unsplash

Published 10 August 2026

e564 with Michael, Andy and Michael – a spider filled episode with AdTech and lifesaving robotic implications, VR Mario Kart, quantum lawn mowing, identity management and a whole lot more!

Michael, Andy and Michael begin the episode with Spider-Man showing up in an unexpected place – a BMW infotainment system!  The negative reactions from the articles and cohosts were not surprising.  The team have discussed ads you don’t want showing up where you don’t want them – like on automotive windshields, in AR, and more – see e481 from 2024 in the links below for more on this.

The team shifts to a more enjoyable driving experience, where Andy describes what he did to enable a VR version of Mario Kart.  Next up – a reflection on 30 years of Quake with an anniversary release.  Then, appealing to the team’s sensibilities on mowing lawns and penchant for NP quantum problems, a lawn mowing optimization game from Pudding.  

Switching from software to hardware, the cohosts take a look at a surprising smaller than expected device called the Octopus 16 which measures EEG brain signals to allow the user to control a computer.  See the show notes below for the original box for the Emotiv headset from the July 2015 kickstarter.

Then, the titular post for this show, a new robot based on nature for rescuing people who are drowning.  The inspiration for this robot was a fishing spider who walks on water to capture its prey.  Your show notes thankfully do not include pictures of such spiders, though if you click through to the Arxiv paper, there is a picture, so consider yourself warned.  While not discussed in this episode, Dr. Kate Darling’s book The New Breed: What Our History with Animals Reveals about Our Future with Robots explores social and ethical themes on robotics that fit nicely into this theme.  Michael M had a chance to hear her speak at Duke earlier this year and an article about that talk is included in the notes below.

Rounding out the show, the team wraps up with an identity service from Meta called Facebook Verified.  This free service is intended to help identify when a person is a human and distinguish from AI agents.  The cohosts shared thoughts about this topic and the service before the recording time was exhausted.

Aside from spiders, what other robotic form factors based on the animal and insect kingdom would you want to see?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (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

Friendly, Neighborhood (Automotive) AdTech

Consumer Rights Wiki post: BMW Spider-Man in-car advertising

Techspot article: BMW is putting Spider-Man ads on your dashboard, after promising it never would

Games at Work e481 — Services You Don’t Need (for ads you don’t want and hyper-reality)

Driving, Quaking & Mowing Simulations

Retrododo article: Mario Kart VR Puts You In the Driving Seat Through Classic N64 Courses

Bethesda article: Quake – 30th Anniversary Update

Kottke post: Are You Good at Mowing Lawns?

Pudding post: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

Arxiv paper: Solving The Travelling Salesman Problem Using A Single Qubit

CNX-Software post: Play games with your brain signals using Octopus 16 wireless EEG device

Games at Work post from July 2015 – Getting All Emotiv(tional) (for the Emotiv headset)

Spiders & More Multi-Legged Things

hackster.io article: A Spider-Inspired Robot Built to Save Drowning Victims

Arxiv paper: Design and Control of the “QuadBoat”: A Quadruped Surface Vehicle for Drowning Rescue (warning – spider photo in this paper!)

No link to fishing spiders.  You’re welcome.

Duke Sanford School of Public Policy article: Wilson Lecture: Kate Darling brings joy, humor, and urgency to a conversation about humans and robots

Identity Management (or not)

The New World article: 2026 – the year fakes finally broke social media

Meta post: Introducing Facebook Verified

e563 — Space Nerds in Space

Taped up sunglasses on top of a LEGO Tardis
Photo by Michael Martine, Chapel Hill, NC Aug 2026

Published 3 August 2026

e563 with Michael, Michael and Andy – Games at Work Game, and a cornucopia of other games: Haex, Pathbind Quest, a physical cockpit for Halcyon Dawn, Chris Pirillo’s UFO game from his Arcade and a whole lot more!

Michael, Michael and Andy start off this episode with a discussion about what a Games at Work game might look like.  In addition to the idea that there could be three avatars scanning the internet for stories, Michael M reminds the team of a “choose your own adventure” Games at Work game coded back in e35 Pirates of Pizzazz in 2013.  You can still play that game from the link in the show notes! 

Then, the team turns to a cornucopia of games.  First up is Haex, an immersive world builder game.  Other games discussed include Baldur’s Gate 3, which has a 3rd person over the shoulder mod that had Michael R intrigued.  In Crowd Supply, there is a small piece of hardware that has a virtual world encoded in it called Pathbind Quest.  After checking out an extensively built physical spaceship cockpit to go along with Halcyon Dawn, the co hosts wind up on Chris Pirillo’s Vibe Arcade and play the UFO Game.

Do you have a favorite from Chris’ Arcade?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (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

Hypothetical and real Games at Work Games

Games at Work e35: Pirates of Pizzazz (for the Games at Work choose your own adventure game)

Games at Work Podcast Game

ChooseYourStory.com 

Adafruit article: How To Homebrew Game Boy Games

Games

The Guardian article: Haex – a wilder, weirder open-world adventure

Screenrant article: Baldur’s Gate 3 Over-The-Shoulder Camera Mode Adds New Level Of Immersion

Nexus Mods: True Third-Person Camera (for Baldur’s Gate 3)

Crowd Supply post: Pathbind Quest

Hackaday article: Behold the Most Beautifully Ambitious Starship Simulator Yet

Chris Pirillo’s UFO game

Chris Pirillo’s Vibe Arcade

e562 — Field Notes

Field at Shadow Springs Vineyard, Hamptonville, NC
Photo by Michael Martine, Hamptonville, North Carolina, Oct 2018

Published 27 July 2026

e562 with Andy and Michael M – EMFCamp recap, whole lot of LEGO love, the game of life, a Playdate mini MMO, AR assisted murals and a whole lot more!

Andy and Michael M start off with a recap of Andy’s experiences at EMF Camp while Michael R is away for this episode.  Andy shares his experiences, describes the “Monumental GameBoy”, how visitors to his campsite enjoyed playing his LEGO pinball machine and his updates to the EMF badge (such as Pigs in Space!).  Check out the show notes below for a few visual links, including the Joust game for the Tildagon badge and more.  Michael M went to an event at a local arcade in Chapel Hill and only noticed as he was leaving that they too had a Joust cabinet game.

Andrzej Marczewski wrote an article in gamified.uk about the game of life – not the one by Hasbro or Conway – rather the game of life itself with resources to manage and protect.   Andy and Michael enjoyed Andrzej’s take, especially how he treated progress and score.  Going from the macro to the micro, the team also took a look at the Playdate miniMMO PointlessQuest.  Andy may give this a shot on his Playdate soon! 

Next, it’s on to LEGO, and there are so many new cool drops from Billund.  Andy already mentioned his pinball table during the EMF recap.  After checking out the playable Donkey Kong game, the pair then takes a look at the new Star Trek Enterprise 1701 bridge.  With 8 minifigs from the original series, and features such as the rocking command chair, transporter room actions and troubling Tribbles, there’s something for every Star Trek fan. And the team just loved just how many LEGO bricks it took to make the Enterprise bridge set.

Then, Andy and Michael take a look at how an artist created a mural using sketchar.io augmented reality – just like using transparencies and an overhead projector from days of yore.  If that doesn’t ring a bell, have a look at the YouTube from the Computer History Museum below.    Many thanks to @lxs for sharing this mural designing video with us!  

Who is your favorite original Star Trek character?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (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

It’s Electric!

Electromagnetic Field Festival 2026

Wikipedia article: Chaos Communication Camp

Makertube post: Snapper – a mechanical arcade machine based on Paku Paku. New at EMF Camp 2026

Tildagon Badge Documentation

Joustagon – Johann Sebastian Joust on the Tildagon

Club-Mate

Games at Work e560: Sweating the Small Stuff (for EMFCamp prep)

Massive & Tiny Games

Life Has Stats: What Games Teach Us About Progress
gamified.uk/2026/07/18/life-ha

— Andrzej Marczewski (@daverage)2026-07-18T07:31:22.054Z

Gamified UK article: Life Has Stats: What Games Teach Us About Progress

404 Media article: We Are Living in a ‘ChatGPT Flyer Pandemic’

Wikipedia article: Conway’s Game of Life

Wikipedia article: The Game of Life

The Verge article: The tiniest MMO

PointlessQuest by Gareth Williams

LEGO

LEGO Icons Arcade Pinball Machine #11374

The Verge article: Lego’s Donkey Kong arcade machine lets Mario jump endless barrels — Miyamoto is reportedly happy

LEGO Icons Star Trek: U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701™ Bridge #11385

AR Painting by Numbers

@gamesatwork_biz
Augmenting the outdoor artistic efforts… via tech

{Met a few artists who achieve even larger scale projects with manual place-markers & mind-craft}

instagram.com/reel/DZsltTzhunw/

— 𝓛𝔁𝓼 / 𝔸𝕝𝕖𝕩𝕚𝕤 🏵🇪🇺💫 (@lxs)2026-07-16T07:38:39.224Z

Instagram post by faridisartwork

sketchar

As seen on TV

New, exclusive, by me: LG to Ban Residential Proxy Providers from Smart TV Apps

The home appliance giant LG Electronics USA said this week it plans to suspend any apps built for its smart TVs that turn one’s television into an always-on residential proxy node. The move comes less than a month after researchers found that more than 42 percent of games and other apps available for download on LG’s webOS store allow unknown third-parties to route their Internet traffic through a user’s TV.

krebsonsecurity.com/2026/07/lg

— BrianKrebs (@briankrebs)2026-07-22T01:12:48.388Z

Krebs on Security article: LG to Ban Residential Proxies from Smart TV Apps

Techdirt article: Sony Deletes A Bunch More Movies From The Accounts Of People Who ‘Bought’ Them