A Determined Hacker Has Brought Google Maps to the NES

Almost a decade earlier than the world lastly realized how tedious April Fool’s Day pranks are, Google revealed a farcical 8-bit port of Google Maps for the long-lasting Nintendo Entertainment System. The prank was rapidly forgotten, however not by one maker, who, 9 years later, has made the NES version of Google Maps a actuality.

Although Google did present a web-based demo on the time, a promised absolutely practical NES cartridge model of the mapping service was by no means meant to be (nor was the Game Boy model that Google additionally teased) nevertheless it seems the concept was very a lot technically possible. YouTuber ‘ciciplusplus’ used two different intelligent hacks as a place to begin for his or her 8-bit model of Google Maps: a guide for creating your own custom NES cartridge by YouTuber ‘TheRasteri’, and this work by Alastair Aitchison that turns Bing Maps aerial imagery into what seems like The Legend of Zelda world map.

If the world seen by means of ciciplusplus’ Google Maps 8-bit conversion seems very acquainted, it’s as a result of the imagery generated by Google’s mapping service is transformed to a 16×16 grid, with the colours in each grid averaged and changed with an identical pixelated picture primarily based on the graphical tiles used within the authentic NES model of The Legend of Zelda.

The {hardware} that powers what may be the NES’ most boring recreation ever is pretty easy and features a Raspberry Pi, an FX2LP microcontroller, and the center of an official NES cart that sacrificed its life for the trigger. Eventually, all of the {hardware} might be squeezed contained in the cartridge’s authentic housing in order that it may be loaded by means of the console’s recreation slot, however that’s an improve that seems to be on ciciplusplus’ to-do listing, together with options like trying to find particular locations. For now, the enjoyable hack works, and with a stunning quantity of interactivity utilizing an NES gamepad to scroll the map and zoom out and in, full with place names which can be auto-generated utilizing the NES’ immediately recognizable font. The subsequent time you’re advised the princess is in one other fortress, you’ll lastly be capable to get instructions.