Sam opened Episode 32 (February 21, 2026) with Cell Defense Arena, a retro arcade game he built for our guest's company, Converge Bio, to use at life-science conferences. You defend a blue core from attacking "bad cells" and try to keep your energy from running out. This page is short on purpose: the demo lasted about a minute and a half, and Sam didn't say what he built it with or how long it took.
Converge Bio is a frontier AI lab training foundation models on DNA, RNA, proteins and small molecules, to help biotech and pharma companies discover and design drugs. That's serious work. Sam wanted something light to open the conversation, and something Converge could put in front of people at a conference.
This is called the cell defense arena, and it may give you a little nostalgia of some of the games we all used to play back in the late eighties, early nineties.
— Sam Nadler, Episode 32
Not covered on the show. We won't list tools Sam didn't name. If you want to see how we build similar browser games, our Edgevanta Tycoon and highway paving mini-game pages cover other guest-themed games.
We can only describe the game design that Sam showed, not the build process:
On air, Sam lasted 46 seconds, so no new record. Converge Bio's Dov Gertz was a fan:
First of I have to say it's like a blast from the past, this game. I'm loving it very much. We definitely have to have it in our conferences.
— Dov Gertz, Episode 32
He asked us to share it, since Converge tries to do fun things at conferences. Sam called it "just something fun to kick off the conversation" before getting into the real topic: data and architecture bottlenecks in biology models, which diseases may benefit first, and why clinical trials will stay long.
The takeaway for anyone copying this: a short, themed arcade game with one clear rule (protect the core) and one or two power-ups is enough for a booth. Sam's rounds lasted under a minute. For more on the industry side, see AI in healthcare and our clinical trial site selection dashboard. Jordan co-hosted the episode.
A retro arcade game Sam built for Converge Bio. Bad cells try to eat a blue core in the center of the screen, and you fight them off with targeting and energy power-ups. The game ends when your energy runs out.
Converge Bio's Dov Gertz said they like to do fun things at conferences and asked us to share Cell Defense Arena so they could use it there. It's quick: Sam's games lasted under a minute.
The episode didn't cover the tools or build time. Sam only demoed the finished game, so we can't give a step-by-step for the code.
