Google Maps’ April Fools prank is a stunning 8 pixel world emulating the Nintendo Entertainment System with Dragon Warrior style maps. The Google Maps team joked “8-bit Quest Maps is our Beta Maps technology and has certain system requirements. Your system may not meet the minimum requirements for 8-bit computations”.
A screenshot gallery of some of the popular landmarks recreated in 8-bit glory is located below:
-
- Alcatraz Island in the United States
-
- Angel of the North in Gateshead, England
-
- Area 51 in Nevada, United States
-
- Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and Nelson’s Column in London, England
-
- Buenos Aires Cabildo in Buenos Aires, Argentina
-
- Burj Al Arab in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
-
- Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
-
- Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
-
- CN Tower in Toronto, Canada
-
- The colosseum in Rome, Italy
-
- Moai (statues) in Easter Island
-
- Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysees, Louvre in Paris, France
-
- Empire State Building in New York, United States
-
- Fernsehturm in Berlin, Germany
-
- Flinders Street Station and Eureka Tower in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
-
- Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, United States
-
- General Post Office in Dublin, Ireland
-
- Googleplex in California, United States
-
- Graceland in Tennessee, United States
-
- Great Sphinx of Giza in Giza, Egypt
-
- Great Wall of China segment in Beijing, China
-
- Habitat 67 and Montreal Biosphere in Montréal, Canada
-
- Hachiko Statue in Tokyo, Japan
-
- Hancock Place and Faneuil Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, United States
-
- Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
-
- Hollywood sign in California, United States
-
- Itsukushima Shrine in Itsukushima (Miyajima), Japan
-
- La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain
-
- Leaning Tower of Pisa in Pisa, Italy
-
- Loch Ness monster in Inverness, UK
-
- Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial in Washington, D.C.; United States
-
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Massachusetts, United States
-
- Monona Terrace in Wisconsin, United States
-
- Mount Everest in Nepal
-
- Mount Fuji in Honshu, Japan
-
- Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota, United States
-
- Nazca Lines in Peru
-
- Neuschwanstein Castle in Schwangau, Germany
-
- Obelisk of Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina
-
- Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai, China
-
- Osaka Castle in Osaka, Japan
-
- Parthenon in Athens, Greece
-
- Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
-
- San Francisco Ferry Building in California, United States
-
- Sky Needle in Seattle, United States
-
- Statue of Liberty in New York, United States
-
- Sydney Opera House in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
-
- Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan
-
- Taj Mahal in Agra, India
-
- Tate Modern and Tower Bridge in London, UK
-
- Temple of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, Japan
-
- The Kremlin and Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow, Russia
-
- The White House and the Washington Monument in Washington D.C
-
- Sensou-ji, Asahi Beer Hall and Tokyo Sky Tree in Tokyo, Japan (from left to right)
-
- Tokyo Tower and Grand Hyatt in Tokyo, Japan
-
- Cathedral of Learning and Walking to the Sky in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
-
- Uluru in Northern Territory, Australia
Tatsuo Nomura, Software Engineer at Google Maps, wrote on the Google Maps blog that “we realized that we may have left behind a large number of users who couldn’t access Google Maps on their classic hardware. Surprisingly, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was unsupported, despite its tremendous popularity with over 60 million units sold worldwide”. The Google Maps team worked with support from Nintendo and Square Enix to create the maps.
Here’s a fun video from the Google Japan team explaining the new feature:
You forgot the PIsa Tower
It’s there under Leaning Tower of Pisa!
it’s not kremil
Changed it to Saint Basil’s Cathedral (foreground) and the Kremlin (background), hope this is correct. Thanks!
Loch ness monster
La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona
Nice finds I’ll put those up too.
Great collection!
Here’s another one: Ayers Rock, Australia
Thanks Joakim, I’ve put it in under Uluru, Northern Territory.
Don’t forget the pyramids!
Never mind I see you have them under the Great Sphinx!
http://maps.google.com/?ll=45.507911,-73.537245&spn=0.038497,0.063171&t=8&z=14
Habitat 67 and Biosphere in Montreal
Thanks Nick, I’ll get that up.
Tower of Learning at University of Pittsburgh and the “Walk to the sky” at Carnegie-Mellon University next door.
Thanks for the suggestions Randolph, I’m putting them up now.
Entire group of buildings in Boston, Massachusetts including MIT, Copley square and faneuil hall.
Montreal, United States?!?
Whoops, mustn’t of been thinking! Thanks, I’ll fix that.
you missed the hachiko dog statue on the shibuya train station !
and the obelisk at buenos aires.
Thanks Bob, I’ll get them up on the gallery in a few minutes.
you forgot the best of all! 00.000000, 00.000000
There is an odd monster south-west of las vegas, near Sandy Valley. I don’t know what it is though.
The Google team left characters from the game “Dragon Quest” around the map. An image of the character is at this website: http://dragon-quest.org/wiki/Armored_knight if you’re interested in the other details.
The Angel of the North in the UK and also Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
And fyi, the Southwark Bridge in London is called “Tower Bridge”.
Still, excellent compilation of them here ;D
Thanks, Tower Bridge is a much more recognizable name, I also put up the Burj Al Arab (already had the Burj Khalifa) and the Angel of North. Thanks for visiting!