[HN Gopher] Payphone Go
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Payphone Go
Author : walz
Score : 275 points
Date : 2026-03-02 16:45 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (walzr.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (walzr.com)
| jasonjayr wrote:
| How is it verifying the calling line? Via ANI, or CID?
| libria wrote:
| Trying to win this from your couch, I see...
| jasonjayr wrote:
| 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 :)
| xd1936 wrote:
| Incredible idea. I love this so much.
| FugeDaws wrote:
| Damn this needs building for the UK payphones there are a dying
| breed too and they used to be everywhere
| pjmlp wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| yeh UK went from 100,000+ now i think theres 20,000 left half
| of those i bet dont work
| brd529 wrote:
| This is amazing
| p4bl0 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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/
|
| My personal contribution:
| https://confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=3402
| MarkusWandel wrote:
| 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.
| cameronjpr wrote:
| I love this, it's so creative. The audio recordings were a great
| idea
| brodouevencode wrote:
| more Silicon Valley/California xenophilia? </sarcasm>
| bittercynic wrote:
| 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.
|
| eta: found it on street view! [2]
|
| [1] https://walzr.com/payphone-go/?phone=398
|
| [2] https://maps.app.goo.gl/4pzjemwUqHYgnLHs8
| rickcarlino wrote:
| Please expand this to other states. This is such a fun and
| creative idea.
| nthdesign wrote:
| I second this! I'd love to have this for PA or NJ.
| thaack wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Probably could just ask the phone companies. Free advertising
| to visit their dying phones?
| Nzen wrote:
| 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.
|
| [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.
| tantalor wrote:
| Would benefit from seasons i.e. wipe the leaderboard every once
| in a while
| puppykito wrote:
| Honorable mention: https://walzr.com/payphone-go/?phone=1599
|
| 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.
| captn3m0 wrote:
| https://walzr.com/payphone-go/?phone=592
|
| My new favorite fishing story.
| OJFord wrote:
| https://walzr.com/payphone-go/?phone=1451
|
| > Shout out to [...], I love you guys. Platonically.
| hersko wrote:
| This is amazing
| bknis53423 wrote:
| As a GIS programmer and a payphone nerd. I love love love this.
| xp84 wrote:
| 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.
| replwoacause wrote:
| What a cool idea. Love it!
| summermusic wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Ohhh interesting - thanks
| pstuart wrote:
| 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.
| qingcharles wrote:
| I wonder if Chicago's last payphone still exists?
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt9Vs4k80m8 (2022)
| acrophiliac wrote:
| 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?
| acrophiliac wrote:
| 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?]
| analyte123 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.
| cyberax wrote:
| It's not the traffic but the CO equipment and copper line
| maintenance.
| K2h wrote:
| I agree, I need more time to score! extend the game!
| shevy-java wrote:
| I think every modern state should have some emergency phones. Not
| everyone has a smartphone, available at all times.
| marpstar wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| I'm sure most strangers or businesses would call 911 for you if
| you asked and appeared to need it
| dlev_pika wrote:
| Love this kind of stuff
| teddyh wrote:
| If you just want to find a payphone: <https://overpass-
| turbo.eu/s/2lHO>
| acrophiliac wrote:
| Cool, thanks for this. It seems this data comes from
| OpenStreeMap and has some phones not listed in Payphone-Go.
| Curious about the discrepancy.
| gclawes wrote:
| Can you hear me?
| zontyp wrote:
| quite cool man.
|
| 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.
| thebigship wrote:
| 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.
| macintux wrote:
| 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.
| drkrab wrote:
| In Denmark there are no payphones. Like none. The copper network
| is being decommissioned.
| flyinghamster wrote:
| That's happening piecemeal in the US as well. Any "landline"
| phone service at this point will be coming from a box hooked up
| to your internet service, quite the flip from the old days of
| dialup internet.
| golem14 wrote:
| The dismantling is usually faster in other countries, as
| Telcoms owning this equipment either are or were state owned
| monopolies. In the US, the payphones were probly owned and
| swapped and back and forth between myriad providers.
|
| Kudos for pulling all these into one database
| JimmaDaRustla wrote:
| The recording for the one at the golden gate bridge made me
| laugh.
| citizenpaul wrote:
| The recording left on this one is super weird and creepy like its
| from some ARG game which I guess is appropriate.
|
| The next night we ate whale, the next night we ate whale.
|
| https://walzr.com/payphone-go/?phone=592
|
| Runner Up this one playing "Im at a payphone" song
|
| https://walzr.com/payphone-go/?phone=576
| mx60s wrote:
| the whale thing is from a really great poem by Tao Lin. You can
| watch him perform the whole thing on youtube
| anthk wrote:
| With Asterisk and some voip client (even some modern phones) and
| some ZMachine modules you could play from Zork to tons of
| adventure games for the ZMachine at IFDB, from Anchorhead to
| Tristam Island.
|
| Which is kinda the reverse of this, reusing phones to play a text
| adventure.
| lapetitejort wrote:
| I just visited the closest one to me during lunch. There was just
| a single dot in the middle of a huge county building. I had to
| walk through security to get there. I asked if there was a
| payphone around and the guard said no. Luckily someone else knew.
| One out of two phones didn't work. The other did, so now my best
| clean original joke can be heard by anyone.
|
| There are three other phones in my city, two in a hospital, one
| in potentially a corrections facility? I'll stop by on my way
| hope.
| kmoser wrote:
| > Every payphone has a unique phone number. When you call (888)
| 683-6697, I see the number you're calling from and match it in my
| database.
|
| Has anybody tried to win by spoofing the caller ID? For science,
| of course.
| apparent wrote:
| I think it's harder to spoof toll free numbers. For example,
| you can't block caller ID in the same way. I'm sure it's still
| possible to spoof, but just might be a little harder.
| nevedomski wrote:
| The Ebervector guy is hilarious! Love them Blok's, Mandelstam's
| and Pushkin's lyrics, thank you for bringing up such beautiful
| poetry
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(page generated 2026-03-06 23:00 UTC)