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
https://www.computerworld.com/article/4059383/openai-admits-ai-hallucinations-are-mathematically-inevitable-not-just-engineering-flaws.html
— 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
Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own.
Michael Martine