Apropos of absolutely nothing, and impossible to prove, but I've long suspected I might be the youngest person in the U.S. to have won tickets from radio stations both from a rotary phone (at home, ~1989) and from a payphone (while I was delivering pizzas ~1990).
Unfortunately I've never really taken advantage of my absurd luck to do something more useful, like retire early.
analyte123 2 hours ago [-]
Please consider extending the game at least by a couple weeks! I’m very curious what percent of all California payphones could be captured with an extended game. I know the game’s phone number isn’t free but I’m sure it could be largely covered by donations.
Without even going and playing the game yet, it’s already let me understand more of the local geography. Lots of small nursing homes, behavioral institutions, and halfway houses have a payphone. Places that thankfully I haven’t had to think about and didn’t even know were there. I doubt most of these will be captured.
Many have lamented the demise of the payphone but it really bears repeating. If someone loses or is robbed of their phone, they have to rely on the trust of strangers (when they may be looking pretty rough themselves) or scrape up $20-40 for a prepaid phone at a store that’s open, rather than calling at a payphone that’s open 24/7 for 25 or 50 cents or even for free with a collect call.
tadfisher 38 minutes ago [-]
Landline phone calls should just be free at this point. Put like 0.0001% of mobile profit into a fund and surely you can maintain the existing POTS payphone base. POTS-quality voice is like a rounding error in bandwidth, but we're saddled with POTS-era costs for connections.
p4bl0 5 hours ago [-]
This is amazing. I would love to have this game in France! We have a geocaching scene (https://www.geocaching.com/, https://france-geocaching.fr/), but I really like the idea with payphones and this system of calling to claim findings.
The "love letter to a disappearing piece of infrastructure" bit makes me think of the payphone pictures that are published in each of 2600 magazine issues: https://www.2600.com/payphones
MarkusWandel 2 hours ago [-]
Another cool "just get out there" thing is the Degree Confluence Project. Just checked, and even the web site is still old school. https://confluence.org/
Anyway would love to play this payphone game, if only as an excuse for bike outings, but it's only for California and I don't live there.
bittercynic 5 hours ago [-]
I'm absolutely going hunting for some nearby payphones this weekend!
In the recording on this one [1] the caller states that the payphone is on the caltrain station platform, but on the map it's about 1000 feet from there. Searching the address on google maps correctly shows it at the station, though.
Been following this guy's work for a bit now, and I feel like it's more in the spirit of what art is supposed to be than what you see in 99% of galleries these days.
acrophiliac 3 hours ago [-]
I know of a working payphone that is not on the Payphone Go map. Photo: https://i.postimg.cc/Dw4sCDpJ/payphone.jpg
The fact that I know of one makes me wonder, are there are others? Is the list the author obtained from PUC incomplete? Is this phone operating unlicensed? Has the phone died since I last visited a year ago?
summermusic 3 hours ago [-]
Real world exploration games like this and Jet Lagged: The Game Hide and Seek are just so cool.
I’d play it if payphones from my state were included! I don’t know if they are licensed/registered here though.
reg_dunlop 3 hours ago [-]
Ya know, I just spun up a version of a user-driven exploration game, as an homage to the sf0.org from back in the aughts. https://irl2-production.up.railway.app/
Google auth still not hooked up, but otherwise good enough for now. And it's open source.
dlev_pika 2 hours ago [-]
Ohhh interesting - thanks
acrophiliac 2 hours ago [-]
This is a fun idea. It occurs to me that I would enjoy seeing unvisited phones on the map in a different color. [Edit: Oh, now I see green dots for visited phones. Was this always there and I just hadn't noticed?]
xp84 4 hours ago [-]
Nice, by playing this you’re also supporting the continued existence of the phones (in a small way) since the toll-free number pays them.
I think every modern state should have some emergency phones. Not everyone has a smartphone, available at all times.
marpstar 2 hours ago [-]
In many cities there are "Emergency Call Boxes" throughout the streets that are distinct from payphones but operate similarly in that they allow you to get in contact with emergency services.
IncreasePosts 58 minutes ago [-]
I'm sure most strangers or businesses would call 911 for you if you asked and appeared to need it
tantalor 5 hours ago [-]
Would benefit from seasons i.e. wipe the leaderboard every once in a while
rickcarlino 5 hours ago [-]
Please expand this to other states. This is such a fun and creative idea.
Nzen 3 hours ago [-]
It looks like Mark Thomas maintained a phone number database up until 2007 or 2023 for many areas in the USA. I guess that could be a basis for starting 'my own' instance of payphone-go, maybe with twilio (or equivalent) to receive the calls.
This works because California requires licensing for payphones and Riley was able to FOIA state payphone database. I'm not sure if other states require licenses for payphones.
plusplusungood 3 hours ago [-]
Probably could just ask the phone companies. Free advertising to visit their dying phones?
nthdesign 4 hours ago [-]
I second this! I'd love to have this for PA or NJ.
cameronjpr 5 hours ago [-]
I love this, it's so creative. The audio recordings were a great idea
FugeDaws 6 hours ago [-]
Damn this needs building for the UK payphones there are a dying breed too and they used to be everywhere
pjmlp 5 hours ago [-]
In Germany some of the booths were converted into public libraries, those that people use to freely exchange books.
They are rare, but I have already spot some in the wild.
FugeDaws 5 hours ago [-]
yeh UK went from 100,000+ now i think theres 20,000 left half of those i bet dont work
dlev_pika 2 hours ago [-]
Love this kind of stuff
bknis53423 4 hours ago [-]
As a GIS programmer and a payphone nerd. I love love love this.
gclawes 2 hours ago [-]
Can you hear me?
jasonjayr 6 hours ago [-]
How is it verifying the calling line? Via ANI, or CID?
libria 5 hours ago [-]
Trying to win this from your couch, I see...
jasonjayr 4 hours ago [-]
It's in good fun, physically visiting them is way more fun than handing a SIP trunk to a short script + CSV file.
The nerd in me is just always curious about the backend :)
replwoacause 4 hours ago [-]
What a cool idea. Love it!
xd1936 6 hours ago [-]
Incredible idea. I love this so much.
pstuart 3 hours ago [-]
This is brilliant and makes me wish even more that I still lived in California -- hopefully this could extend the the entire Left Coast if there's enough payphones to warrant it.
hersko 5 hours ago [-]
This is amazing
brd529 6 hours ago [-]
This is amazing
brodouevencode 5 hours ago [-]
more Silicon Valley/California xenophilia? </sarcasm>
Rendered at 18:58:23 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
Unfortunately I've never really taken advantage of my absurd luck to do something more useful, like retire early.
Without even going and playing the game yet, it’s already let me understand more of the local geography. Lots of small nursing homes, behavioral institutions, and halfway houses have a payphone. Places that thankfully I haven’t had to think about and didn’t even know were there. I doubt most of these will be captured.
Many have lamented the demise of the payphone but it really bears repeating. If someone loses or is robbed of their phone, they have to rely on the trust of strangers (when they may be looking pretty rough themselves) or scrape up $20-40 for a prepaid phone at a store that’s open, rather than calling at a payphone that’s open 24/7 for 25 or 50 cents or even for free with a collect call.
The "love letter to a disappearing piece of infrastructure" bit makes me think of the payphone pictures that are published in each of 2600 magazine issues: https://www.2600.com/payphones
My personal contribution: https://confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=3402
In the recording on this one [1] the caller states that the payphone is on the caltrain station platform, but on the map it's about 1000 feet from there. Searching the address on google maps correctly shows it at the station, though.
eta: found it on street view! [2]
[1] https://walzr.com/payphone-go/?phone=398
[2] https://maps.app.goo.gl/4pzjemwUqHYgnLHs8
I don't know why but I find this person very cute with how excited they sound about the local library.
Will try to find some payphones myself.
My new favorite fishing story.
I’d play it if payphones from my state were included! I don’t know if they are licensed/registered here though.
Google auth still not hooked up, but otherwise good enough for now. And it's open source.
wonder what the benefits could be of the game. one is that we now know which phones are tested ok.
also it can be like a local public radio where anyone could come in and voice something...
enjoyed playing with this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt9Vs4k80m8 (2022)
[0] https://www.payphone-project.com/numbers/usa/ going through the state map feature only shows a subset compared to navigating through the links on this page.
They are rare, but I have already spot some in the wild.
The nerd in me is just always curious about the backend :)