Maps are cool!

Game of Maps

August 10, 2012 Uncategorized No comments

My new obsession has been games using maps as a platform. Generally they are not the most engrossing games and are mere distractions but I am totally fascinated by them. Combining two of my passions, maps and video games, it’s kind of hard to go wrong. Here are a collection of a few of my favorites.

A little while ago Google came out with a map game called Cube for chrome. It’s a simple little game that has you rolling a ball through cities with 3D imagery. In later levels you must obey traffic rules and travel around bridges. I hope that this is just the beginning for more exciting games using Google Maps.

Cube: A game about Google Maps

I’ve been meaning to do a post for a while on maps as games, luckily I procrastinated long enough for Google Earth Blog to add a post with detailed instructions for Google Earth’s built in flight simulator. This flight simulator has been available since 2007 but I feel that these instructions help explain the options available really well.

Flying through downtown Portland in Google Earth
http://www.google.com/earth/index.html

If you would prefer to see your plane you might want to give GEFs Flight Simulator a try, plus it runs in Chrome using the Google Earth plugin. There are multiple vehicles to fly; including a hot air baloon?!

Flying a glider over the Portland Airport
http://www.gefs-online.com/

Scared of heights? Maybe the 2D Driving Simulator is more up your alley. This is a top down “driving simulator” using Google Maps. While not totally realistic (you can drive over buildings and water) it does include turn signals and hazard lights for the safety of other virtual drivers.

Google Maps Geoquake 2D Driving Simulator

Driving through NW Portland
http://geoquake.jp/en/webgame/DrivingSimulatorGM/

If you are more interested in a 3D persepective the same developer, Katsuomi Kobayashi from Japan, has you covered. He has modified the 2D version to work with a 3D car. You can change the viewing angle and distance from the vehicle. Sadly Google discontinued the use of Flash maps support so this will go away in 2014.

Google Earth Geoquake 3d driving simulator

Driving across the Burnside Bridge in downtown Portland
http://geoquake.jp/en/webgame/DrivingSimulatorPerspective/

Driving around the city is fun and all but what if I want to race? Well Tom Scott has you covered with this neat little game called Real World Racer. Basically you create a route via Google Maps then race from checkpoint to checkpoint along that route against other cars. He suggests making your course no longer than 2 miles so, of course, I made my route from Portland to Mexico City. That landed me with 9694 checkpoints which would probably take me 4 hours to complete. Again this game doesn’t restrict you to just the roads but the addition of checkpoints causes you to stay mostly to your route.