I've been peripherally involved in an early stages effort to build something similar for the entire nation (https://reportapayphone.com/), and became aware of this just recently. It's a really great example to aspire to, in terms of the level of polish. I do find the time limiting odd; our goal is to identify as many payphones as possible this way.

Unfortunately the state of payphone-related records is extremely poor, with many ostensibly-active PSPs having quietly gone out of business, other PSPs reorganized without reregistering, and states themselves keeping PSP records very poorly. Throw in small-scale COCOT operations and the result is that there really isn't any authoritative database of possible payphones, so this website's map is going to be missing some. It will also include many that are nonfunctional, as today's PSPs seem to do close to zero maintenance and out of service phones stay that way for years.

Some of the nation's largest PSPs have become ghosts, with the phones still operating and able to accept payment, but the PSP completely unresponsive to efforts to contact them. It's a very strange afterlife.

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.

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

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

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?

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.

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.

The Ebervector guy is hilarious! Love them Blok's, Mandelstam's and Pushkin's lyrics, thank you for bringing up such beautiful poetry

Quick telephony question: how can calls from payphones to (888) 683-6697 be toll-free for the caller? I’m Japanese, so I may be missing something, but I don’t understand the mechanism that makes this free (or low-cost enough) to run as a free service.

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.

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.

Would benefit from seasons i.e. wipe the leaderboard every once in a while

> 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.

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.

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.

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?]

If you just want to find a payphone: <https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/2lHO>

In Denmark there are no payphones. Like none. The copper network is being decommissioned.

Please expand this to other states. This is such a fun and creative idea.

I wonder if Chicago's last payphone still exists?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt9Vs4k80m8 (2022)

I love this, it's so creative. The audio recordings were a great idea

I think every modern state should have some emergency phones. Not everyone has a smartphone, available at all times.

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.

Damn this needs building for the UK payphones there are a dying breed too and they used to be everywhere

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

As a GIS programmer and a payphone nerd. I love love love this.

How is it verifying the calling line? Via ANI, or CID?

Love this kind of stuff

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.

Incredible idea. I love this so much.

What a cool idea. Love it!

The recording for the one at the golden gate bridge made me laugh.

Can you hear me?

This is amazing

This is amazing

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.

more Silicon Valley/California xenophilia? </sarcasm>