Problem flights are marked with flashing orange lines, and controllers have to take action to resolve conflicts before the lines go red 30 minutes before separation standards would be violated.

WSJ: How New Air-Traffic Control Systems Operate Over Oceans

As for the party in question, it's one that is being held concurrently with the 2013 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, which is where we saw the controllers and the game in action.

ENGADGET

ChronoBlade (FREE) - Developed by nWay, a single-player demo of the upcoming action-RPG will be playable only with Atlas controllers.

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Furloughs affecting some 15, 000 Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers began this week with the agency saying it had no flexibility to avert them without action by Congress.

CNN: Senate approves plan to end FAA furloughs