3/29/2026
at
1:55:35 PM
Show HN: Payphone Tag is territory game using Australia's 15,000 payphones
https://payphonetag.com
by gangerang
3/29/2026
at
1:55:35 PM
Walk to a payphone, call my number, enter your PIN, capture it and score points. Other players can steal it and you lose points. Form triangles to hold territory. No app or no account. Covers the whole of Australia. I built it because a friend told me you could buy phone numbers for $2 and I wanted to put mine to use. I had collected the payphone dataset from a previous project (where you call into the payphone) so this was a good fit. Since covid, it's actually free to call out from payphones, so the game is completely free to play
by gangerang
3/30/2026
at
3:37:51 AM
Keen to hear where you bought a number for $2. I'm looking at getting some for Signal bridges for OpenClaw.
by wan0net
3/30/2026
at
5:18:08 AM
Check out CrazyTel in Australia. They're landline numbers though, more expensive for 04x mobiles
by gangerang
3/30/2026
at
11:53:31 PM
This is incredible! Now I have something real-ish to do at lunch time. And I get to play spy! Thanks!
by ktoo_
3/31/2026
at
4:11:47 AM
Be careful, it's slightly addictive!
by gangerang
3/29/2026
at
8:20:29 PM
Cool idea! Get people out and walking! Yeah you can drive but if 2 or more are close walking wins.
by mememememememo
3/29/2026
at
10:52:55 PM
Yeah, that the plan. I'm just surprised people are out there running around the city at midnight on a Friday dialling into payphones for fun
by gangerang
3/29/2026
at
11:56:06 PM
Oh it isn't just your mates? Is there new people doing it? Cool if so.
by mememememememo
3/30/2026
at
1:31:03 AM
Yep! Was just mates but now it's spread to be more people I don't know than I do
by gangerang
3/30/2026
at
6:13:26 AM
[dead]
by Andrew_McCarron