Someone Brute Forced Google Maps onto an Ancient Gaming Console

Tired of getting lost in yet another Hyrualian forest? Can’t seem to find the right castle to rescue a princess from? We got you, fam … err, rather, this clever guy does. YouTuber ciciplusplus just put Google Maps onto the NES for adventurers who have lost their way.

Ciciplusplus was actually inspired by one of Google’s old April Fool’s Day jokes from 2012, in which the company said it was bringing Maps to the NES (of course, they didn’t). Now, nine years later, this guy figured out how to make Google’s once-almost-real vision happen.

The clever YouTuber was inspired by another person who translated aerial imagery from Bing Maps into 8-bit tiles that resemble those from the NES’ The Legend of Zelda game. Similarly, Ciciplusplus converted Google Maps images into 8-bit tiles from the Dragon Warrior NES game (that’s Dragon Quest for you U.S. kids).

The end result? A compressed and stylish replica of Earth, complete with squared continents, trees, rocks, and rippling ocean waves. Different continents and regions are rendered in unique colors, and it actually looks like a playable game. And while it isn’t, unfortunately, you can still navigate around the map with an NES controller (and no, it isn’t an officially sanctioned version of Google Maps—you won’t be able to use it in the car or anything).

via Engadget

Suzanne Humphries


Suzanne Humphries is the Commerce Editor for Review Geek. She has over six years of experience across multiple publications researching and testing products, as well as writing and editing news, reviews, and how-to articles covering software, hardware, entertainment, networking, electronics, gaming, apps, security, finance, and small business.
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