AwesomeCast 791: Xbox Games on Mac & Linux? Freddy Fazbear Goes IRL & Video Stores Return
Technology keeps moving forward, but this week's AwesomeCast has a surprising recurring theme: sometimes we miss the way things used to work.
Sorg and Dave Podnar kick things off with something thoroughly modern — finding a trusted weather forecast on Reddit.
A Better Way to Talk About Pittsburgh Weather
Dave's Awesome Thing of the Week is Stormfreak, a Pittsburgh-area weather enthusiast whose posts in the Pittsburgh subreddit have developed a following by doing something surprisingly refreshing: explaining the weather without treating every storm like the end of civilization.
His forecasts combine useful information, humor, and a local perspective.
That leads Sorg and Dave into a larger discussion about where people now turn for specialized information. The Weather Channel was once the obvious destination for weather. Other cable networks similarly promised dedicated channels for learning, food, science, and discovery.
Today, some of the most immediately useful information may instead come from an independent creator on Reddit, Substack, YouTube, or another online community.
Binge Buster Turns Streaming Into a Video Store
Streaming solved the problem of driving to a video store.
Unfortunately, it created another problem: figuring out what to watch across a pile of streaming services.
Binge Buster tries to make that process fun again.
Visit https://bingebuster.net/, select the streaming services you subscribe to, and the site gives you a video-store-inspired interface for browsing what's available. Movie artwork appears like boxes on a shelf, complete with information, genres, trailers, recommendations, and staff picks.
It doesn't reinvent streaming. It reinvents browsing.
And sometimes that's enough.
Remembering Lewis Latimer
For Dave's Awesome Person of the Week, the show looks back at Lewis Latimer.
Born in 1848, Latimer became a highly skilled draftsman and inventor despite having no formal engineering education. His work included drawings used in Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent application as well as improvements to carbon filaments used in electric lighting.
Latimer later worked with Thomas Edison's company as a patent expert and expert witness.
His story also gives Dave a chance to appreciate the almost artistic skill involved in hand-drafted technical drawings before computer-aided design became standard.
A Very Busy Week in Video Games
Chachi's Video Game Minute brings several major gaming business stories.
EA has completed its massive Saudi-backed deal to go private. Netflix is preparing an extended look at Grand Theft Auto VI on August 27. Meanwhile, Atari has reported its strongest annual revenue in roughly a decade.
Atari is especially interesting because the name has survived multiple eras, owners, corporate structures, hardware experiments, and collections of intellectual property.
Somehow, Atari is still here.
And Sorg is still waiting for Pong: The Movie.
Could Your Xbox Library Work on Linux and Mac?
One of the most intriguing projects discussed this week is XODUS, an open-source effort that could potentially make compatible Xbox and PC titles accessible on Linux and Mac.
For Sorg, this fits into a much bigger transformation in gaming.
The machine sitting underneath the television matters less every year.
Xbox Game Pass already makes a large collection available across multiple devices. Cloud streaming takes that idea even further.
Sorg has been spending more time with NVIDIA GeForce NOW, including Doom: The Dark Ages and Forza Horizon. On demanding games where quick movement and visual detail can expose the weaknesses of game streaming, GeForce NOW has been particularly impressive.
That creates a strange purchasing decision.
Do you spend thousands of dollars building a powerful gaming PC, or pay for access to somebody else's constantly upgraded gaming hardware in the cloud?
The answer largely comes down to whether the games you want are supported.
Quake Refuses to Die
There is also something wonderfully strange about getting new Quake content roughly 30 years after the original game.
New levels and updated effects give modern players another excuse to jump back into one of the games that helped establish the first-person shooter.
It's another example of old technology and new technology coexisting throughout this episode.
Diablo at Cedar Point — Because Why Not?
The world of video games and amusement parks is getting even closer.
Diablo is becoming part of Halloween attractions at Cedar Point and Six Flags.
The news leads Sorg and Dave into a conversation about the history of amusement parks, industry consolidation, and the loss of older local parks as suburban development expanded.
Then the episode finds something even stranger.
Freddy Fazbear's Pizza Is Becoming Real
A permanent Freddy Fazbear's Pizza experience is planned for American Dream in New Jersey in 2027 — complete with animatronic entertainment.
Anybody familiar with Five Nights at Freddy's immediately understands why opening a real Freddy Fazbear's Pizza sounds like the beginning of a movie rather than a sensible business proposal.
Sorg's reaction?
He wants to go.
American Dream may actually be the perfect location. The enormous destination mall already combines shopping with an indoor amusement park, water park, skiing, restaurants, skating, and other entertainment experiences.
The mall isn't just a place to shop anymore. It's an attraction.
Adobe Project Indigo and the Question of What Counts as a Photo
Dave has also been putting Adobe Project Indigo through its paces.
The app's computational photography can help in difficult situations, including low light and shooting directly into a sunset.
But its AI features raise a more interesting question.
Dave asks the software to improve one of his sunset photographs. The result doesn't simply recover detail. AI introduces clouds and alters elements of the scene.
It's visually impressive.
But is it still the photograph Dave took?
That's an increasingly important distinction as generative tools become integrated directly into ordinary editing software.
At the same time, Dave sees real value in AI-powered photo critiques. Asking software for feedback on composition or possible improvements could be especially useful for photographers developing their skills.
AI doesn't necessarily have to make the picture. Sometimes it can just help you think about the picture differently.
VHS Rentals Are Back in Lawrenceville
Then we go from AI photography straight back to Betamax.
Lost Lizard in Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville neighborhood is bringing back physical video rentals, offering VHS, DVDs, Betamax, and even some retro video games.
Rentals reportedly run around $5 for a week.
It sounds like a niche nostalgia project until the next topic comes up.
What Does It Mean to “Own” a Digital Movie?
Sorg and Dave discuss reports of previously purchased digital movies disappearing from customer libraries because of licensing changes.
And that's the fundamental weakness of digital ownership.
You may have clicked the button marked “Buy,” but what you actually purchased may still depend on agreements between technology companies, distributors, and studios.
Services such as Movies Anywhere can reduce the risk by synchronizing eligible purchases across platforms, but the underlying question remains.
If someone else can remove it, do you really own it?
Suddenly that shelf full of DVDs doesn't seem so outdated.
Nature Calls — Literally
The final app discussed this week may also be the most immediately useful.
Nature Calls Run is an upcoming crowdsourced app designed to identify public restrooms, water sources, and other resources for runners, cyclists, travelers, parents, and anyone else who needs to find a bathroom quickly.
Learn more at https://naturecallsapp.com/.
The project also plans to provide information about restroom-access laws for people with medical conditions including Crohn's disease and IBS.
It's an excellent example of technology addressing an extremely basic human need instead of inventing another problem for technology to solve.
And that might be the thread connecting much of AwesomeCast 791.
The best technology isn't always about creating something completely new.
Sometimes it's about making weather easier to understand, streaming easier to browse, games easier to access, photography easier to learn, movies easier to keep — or simply helping you find a bathroom before it's too late.
