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Google Maps Introduces 8-Bit Quest Maps

Posted by samzenpus on from the believe-it-or-not dept.

AbsoluteXyro writes "Today users of Google Maps will notice a new mapping option — 'Quest' — alongside the usual 'Map' and 'Satellite' views. Quest view renders the planet in a retro 8-bit fantasy video game style, including renders of famous landmarks such as the White House and the Eiffel Tower. Even Pegman gets in on the game, now taking on the appearance of a sword wielding 8-bit adventurer, allowing you to witness Street View through 8-bit eyes. Basically, imagine a fully functioning Google Maps on an NES."

80 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Google Maps 8-Bit Version Promotional Video by Digital+Mage · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is quite funny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rznYifPHxDg

    1. Re:Google Maps 8-Bit Version Promotional Video by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      For those who aren't NES RPG fans, the game they took the graphics and music from is Dragon Warrior.

    2. Re:Google Maps 8-Bit Version Promotional Video by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Dragon Quest.

    3. Re:Google Maps 8-Bit Version Promotional Video by gangien · · Score: 3, Informative

      not sure if you're trying to correct him or provide a link, but it was released as Dragon Warrior in the US.

    4. Re:Google Maps 8-Bit Version Promotional Video by sirroc · · Score: 3, Informative

      Coincidentally, There is an icon of a slime at the location of the Square-Enix HQ in Tokyo.

    5. Re:Google Maps 8-Bit Version Promotional Video by datavirtue · · Score: 3, Informative

      They used Dragon Warrior!! My favorite RPG of all time (well, besides WOW).

      --
      I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
    6. Re:Google Maps 8-Bit Version Promotional Video by Yvan256 · · Score: 2

      It was originally released as Dragon Warrior in both the USA and Canada.

    7. Re:Google Maps 8-Bit Version Promotional Video by tibman · · Score: 1

      Agreed! I was a big DW4 fan. I loved the moving cut-scene and sounds.

      --
      http://soylentnews.org/~tibman
    8. Re:Google Maps 8-Bit Version Promotional Video by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      Funny thing... I expected to see Rimuldar where Brazil is...

      How long before a C&D from Squeenix, I wonder?

    9. Re:Google Maps 8-Bit Version Promotional Video by mariasama16 · · Score: 1

      Actually, if you go to the 0,0 coords on the map (possibly other places but thats where I saw it), there's a copyright notice for Squeenix, dated this year.

  2. really beautiful but by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Funny

    I was hoping that Street View would be a top down RPG. Google knows where the signs are so you could walk up to signs and press a button to see them...

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:really beautiful but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      Come on! They did a really god job on the colors in street view and all you can do is complain about what it doesn't have?

    2. Re:really beautiful but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They revoke your nerd card if you don't complain with every breath you take.

  3. Nice by wisnoskij · · Score: 1

    Little on the sparse size, and street view looks more psychedelic then 8-bit, but how much time would you expect them to spend on a AF's joke.

    --
    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    1. Re:Nice by fbjon · · Score: 1

      The street view is actually using the CGA colour palette, rather than being NES-derived. Colours in PC games were pretty psychedelic in those days, though it was OK for the time.

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    2. Re:Nice by cheater512 · · Score: 1

      Some times they spend half the year working on these. They take their jokes extremely seriously.

    3. Re:Nice by mariasama16 · · Score: 1

      Then again, how much time do you think xkcd put into their AF's joke?

    4. Re:Nice by shentino · · Score: 1

      CGA was 4 colors.

      Please hand in your geek card.

  4. Ah, Dragon Quest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I loved that game. Brings back memories.

    When I use these new Google services, will I be interrupted with a message reading, "A COOKIE DRAWS NEAR....."?

  5. Interesting places to look at by pinkushun · · Score: 4, Interesting

    - Area 51 has a cow being abducted
    - Google Offices
    - Pyramids and Spinx
    - Desert and ice tiles
    - Many more to discover...

    1. Re:Interesting places to look at by Tacvek · · Score: 4, Informative

      So here is what I have found so far:

      Space needle,
      empire state building,
      statue of liberty,
      St Luis's Gateway Arch
      The white House,
      The Washington monument
      MLK Jr monument.

      The smithsonian has a Panda Icon.

      All Google offices have 2 little people.
      The Google headquarters has the Giant android statue, as well as the T-Rex skeleton.

      UK:
      Nelson's Monument
      Tower Bridge
      Tate Modern

      Other:
      The Louvre
      Eiffel tower
      Arc de Triomphe

      Pyramids of Giza.
      The sphynx.
      Taj Mahal

      --
      Stylish sheet to fix many problems in Slashdot's D3: https://gist.github.com/801524
    2. Re:Interesting places to look at by AxemRed · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure the reason, but there's a golem near Morristown, IN.

    3. Re:Interesting places to look at by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      loch ness monster just north of loch ness, uk

    4. Re:Interesting places to look at by Marcika · · Score: 1

      If you zoom in, there's more monuments in London: Big Ben Clocktower, Buckingham Palace, and the One Canada Square tower in Canary Wharf...

    5. Re:Interesting places to look at by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      A few I found:

      Ayers Rock (Australia)
      Sidney Opera House (Sidney, Australia)
      Cristo Redentor Statue (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
      La Sagrada Familia (Spain)
      Colliseum (Rome, Italy)
      Parthenon (Athens, Greece)
      Saint Basil's Cathedral (Moscow, Russia)
      Temple of Heaven (Beijing, China)

      And... near Mt Everest there is a small guy walking - maybe the yeti?

    6. Re:Interesting places to look at by sco08y · · Score: 1

      There are little soldiers in front of 10 Downing St.

      Found a monsters near La Plata, MD and Scottsburg, VA. You can't see them if you're zoomed in more than 7 times.

      Found Nessie!

    7. Re:Interesting places to look at by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      a few other ones:

      chichen itza
      petronas towers
      dragon (?) on mauna kea
      burj khalifa

    8. Re:Interesting places to look at by Qzukk · · Score: 1

      It says "find hidden monsters" so I assume that's one.

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
    9. Re:Interesting places to look at by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 2

      If you find the right spot in Iowa you can see a starship under construction.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    10. Re:Interesting places to look at by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Kremlin is also there in Moscow.

  6. check out area 51 in this map. by eljasbo · · Score: 2

    It shows a ufo beaming up a cow.

    1. Re:check out area 51 in this map. by gstrickler · · Score: 1

      So does Roswell, NM

      --
      make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
  7. LOLCat Says by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 1

    Moar bitz!

  8. Similar concepts done before by lulalala · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://8bitcity.com/map?New%20York by artist Brett Camper

  9. Someone is trying to defictionalize this by tepples · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Someone on the NESdev.com forum is making a real NES cartridge with 2 MB of RAM and an ARM Cortex microcontroller that appears to be comparable to the MMC900913 that this (fictional) product uses. Once that's ready, all we'd need to defictionalize this AFD story would be a port of an OpenStreetMap viewer, along with a USB cable to tether it to a PC or phone.

    1. Re:Someone is trying to defictionalize this by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Doesn't the NES have a big fat expansion bus on the bottom? Can't we just bring the data in and out there?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Someone is trying to defictionalize this by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

      Doesn't the NES have a big fat expansion bus on the bottom?

      There's a 48-pin connector (pinout) on the bottom of the NES-101. It was intended to combine the functions of the controller port on the front of the Famicom and the cable that comes out of the Famicom Disk System's system card. The connector was originally intended for the NES version of the FDS, but it never found use because Nintendo discovered that just as the FDS made it easier for Nintendo to make authentic copies of games to sell, it also made it easier for others to make infringing copies of games to sell. So there is no such port on the top-loading NES-101, nor on the Famicom. The configuration where a cable comes out of the side of the cartridge would probably be easier to manufacture in small quantities than a dongle that the NES sits on.

  10. Dragon Warrior by CheshireDragon · · Score: 2

    And they used the best game they could have ever used to make this mapping system. DRAGON WARRIOR, ahhh nostalgia. Of course, I am wondering why they used the name 'Quest' for the mapping name. Is it because the name of Dragon Warrior was Dragon Quest before it came to the states....or some other reason?

    I still play ver. 1-4 on an NES Emulator on my phone. Currently I am at the last tower on DW2. This cracks me up or it is just too early on a Sunday morning?

    --
    "That's right...I said it."
    1. Re:Dragon Warrior by jpapon · · Score: 1

      I assumed it was because of Mapquest.

      --
      -- Let us endeavor so to live that when we pass even the undertaker shall be sorry. -- M. Twain
    2. Re:Dragon Warrior by Indras · · Score: 2

      Watch the promo video, they even use sound effects and music from the original NES Dragon Warrior: http://youtu.be/rznYifPHxDg

      --
      The speed of time is one second per second.
    3. Re:Dragon Warrior by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The Japanese name for the game translated to Dragon Quest, but due to someone already having a trademark under that name in the United States, the name had to be changed to Dragon Warrior. I believe that since that time, either the existing owner of the mark either stopped using it, went out of business, or had it purchased by the company that makes the games, so the newer titles in the series have been called Dragon Quest. So Dragon Quest was always the appropriate name, but for legal reasons it couldn't be used in the U.S.

  11. Kids with beanies? by beaverdownunder · · Score: 1

    There's a representation of the Sydney Harbour Bridge but stranger, off to the south-west you'll find a couple of kids wearing propeller beanies. Are there other beanie-wearers in the 8-bit Google Maps?

    1. Re:Kids with beanies? by fastest+fascist · · Score: 1

      East (or was it NE?) of the White House, for one.

    2. Re:Kids with beanies? by CheshireDragon · · Score: 1

      OK, I thought they were OWS! hahah I thought that at first then realized that Google, as a corporation, wouldn't support them let alone give them airtime in their web app.

      --
      "That's right...I said it."
  12. Leaked early by HelioWalton · · Score: 1

    Hmm, I guess this was leaked. I saw it yesterday, following a link from Reddit...

  13. Cheat Sheet by Esteanil · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Looks like http://www.bengarvey.com/2012/03/31/list-of-interesting-places-in-8-bit-google-maps/has a pretty good list of interesting places

    --
    I'm a dreamer, the world is my playpen. But hey, I'm a serious person, I can't dream all the time.
    1. Re:Cheat Sheet by Ka+D'Argo · · Score: 1

      Link for the cheat sheet appears to 404. The video was great though, "Blow on cartridge to fix bugs" indeed.

      --
      Aw Frell this
    2. Re:Cheat Sheet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      remove the /has at the end and it works fine. derp.

    3. Re:Cheat Sheet by Esteanil · · Score: 3, Informative

      Link broken. Sorry about that, http://www.bengarvey.com/2012/03/31/list-of-interesting-places-in-8-bit-google-maps should work

      --
      I'm a dreamer, the world is my playpen. But hey, I'm a serious person, I can't dream all the time.
  14. Googlers by vgerclover · · Score: 1

    Those are Googlers.

  15. Most Importantly! by Cramit · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do the directions travel times for different routes include estimates for delays due to random encounters?

  16. Pefect for a true slashdotter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Finally a map I can understand!

  17. Re:A Dragon? by CheshireDragon · · Score: 1

    Yes. A Red Dragon to be specific. Rather rare in DW1.

    --
    "That's right...I said it."
  18. 8-bit World Topology by Guppy · · Score: 2

    You know what would be awesome? If you could view this on Google Earth, and when you zoom-out all the way (complete with Beep-boop sound effects) the planet would be a Torus.

    1. Re:8-bit World Topology by martas · · Score: 1

      Better yet, since the world isn't flat, I'd like to see a Minecraft port, complete with variable block resolution.

      --
      weinersmith
  19. Google Maps 8-bit World Tour by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's like exploring the world map in Dragon Quest...lots of landmarks and buildings have been 8-bittified and there are plenty more to discover. They've also cleverly hidden Dragon Quest enemies around the world
    People are trying to look for the places. Found some sites with screenshots:

    Some of the major world sites in 8-bit sprite format: http://www.bulsuk.com/2012/04/google-maps-8-bit-tour-of-world.html
    The enemy characters, including the dragon King in the middle of the world, literally: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/keir.clarke/web/dragon.htm
    And the guys at Reedit busy exploring. Unfortunately not all the links point to the right place: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/rmfr1/browse_google_maps_in_8bit/c470937

    Does anyone know how many monuments are actually included in the map?

  20. I'm holding out for the Sega Genesis version by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    it's got the blood code, plus parallax scrolling.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  21. Map Quest? by dittbub · · Score: 2

    its funny because google maps killed map quest

  22. Google is OK by kurt555gs · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There is a difference between Google, M$, and Apple. Google still condones having fun.

    --
    * Carthago Delenda Est *
    1. Re:Google is OK by datavirtue · · Score: 1

      Yet to see an ad douchebag.

      --
      I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
    2. Re:Google is OK by humanrev · · Score: 1

      You're still doing the $ thing with MS? Really?

      Apparently the joke is still "funny" and that we should "lighten up". At least that's what I've been told. Maybe I lack humor?

      --
      Most people on Slashdot are fucking idiots.
    3. Re:Google is OK by sco08y · · Score: 1

      You're still doing the $ thing with MS? Really?

      Apparently the joke is still "funny" and that we should "lighten up". At least that's what I've been told. Maybe I lack humor?

      An analogy: they sound like the old man who still wears corduroys. Buddy, you want to wear them, no problem, it's your ass and they're your pants. But the stores don't sell them, and I don't buy that they're fashionable.

  23. Battle monsters? by Lord+Satri · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Anyone found out how to battle monsters? Is this just part of the joke or is there a way to actually do it? :-)

    The official Google Lat Long blog: "Get detailed directions to avoid dangerous paths, and battle your way through a world of powerful monsters and mystic treasures."

    --
    Animoog.org
  24. eeewww! by Tastecicles · · Score: 1

    it's horrible! Kill it! Kill it! KILLIT!

    --
    Operation Guillotine is in effect.
  25. Re:A Dragon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If you go to "0,0" and zoom in, you'll find the boss.

  26. Other Google Pranks by Yvan256 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    www.gmail.com/tap
    www.google.com/fiber

    1. Re:Other Google Pranks by _0xd0ad · · Score: 1

      You both forgot this one:

      http://www.google.com/jobs/lunar_job.html

    2. Re:Other Google Pranks by RobEnduro · · Score: 1

      How about Google Weather Control?

    3. Re:Other Google Pranks by _0xd0ad · · Score: 1

      Details, details...

  27. You should... by Ihmhi · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...be able to go to Redmond or Cupertino and have to fight enemies in an RPG-style battle.

    "TURTLENECK SLIME attacks with HIPSTER BEAM!"

    --
    Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
  28. Re:re... by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

    Ask her to buy you a new keyboard, your space key seems to be broken.

  29. What about slashdot by peppepz · · Score: 1

    By the way, how come slashdot didn't post any April 1 stories of his own this year? This place is getting sad.

  30. Nice and fast on low bandwidth! by Ken_g6 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I realize this is mainly intended as an april fool's joke, but I notice the quest maps load much faster than normal maps. It would be nice if Google kept around some kind of low-bandwidth version of their maps like this, for people on slow connections and throttled cell phones.

    --
    (T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
  31. east of scranton? by Sebastopol · · Score: 1

    Who's the dude with the sword to the east of Scranton? Looks like Jason from Ft13th?

    --
    https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
  32. Walkthrough by sixtyeight · · Score: 4, Funny

    If anyone has a walkthrough for Iowa, please post a link to it here.

    --
    The Wolfpack Project: BitCoin + Crowdfunding = Political Accountability
  33. COOL! by javascriptjunkie · · Score: 1

    This will come in handy when I need to slay a dragon in Seattle.

  34. Geocaching...? by angribork · · Score: 1

    I wonder if the monsters you can find on the map are in fact geocaching locations. That'd be very cool!

  35. Ghost by Saithe · · Score: 1

    I found a ghost @ 51.727088,0.175694, wonder what that's about.

  36. all foolishness aside by sixsixtysix · · Score: 1

    i hope they keep this up and running

    --
    ...
  37. I don't think this will make it by mysidia · · Score: 1

    Upon release they are bound to be sued by Enix for patent infringement.

    Operation looks too similar to Dragon Warrior for the NES. Heck, some of the graphics look like they could have been lifted verbatim :)