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The picture accompanying this article shows Costa Rica rendered in Google Maps’ new Quest view. Google Maps Quest was released on April 1st, 2012 as a cartridge for the 8-bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). According to a software engineer at Google:
“Our engineering team in Japan understood the importance of maps on retro game systems. With the power of Google’s immense data centers, and support from Nintendo and Square Enix, we were able to overcome the technical and design hurdles of developing 8-bit maps. Today, we’re excited to announce the result: a version of Google Maps for NES, with beautiful low-res graphics, simple and intuitive controls, and a timeless soundtrack.”
The announcement above came from Google’s Lat-Long blog, the official outlet for all news related to Google Maps and Earth products.
If you don’t have an ancient SNES, or can’t wait until the Google Maps Quest cartridge is available in stores, you can still test drive the application in all its 8-bit glory on your browser. Just go to maps.google.com and select Quest view from the square on the top right hand corner of the map.
The 8-bit rendering is pretty accurate, as you can see our major forest areas and our Central Mountain Range clearly indicated, but if you navigate north to our border with Nicaragua you’ll find out that the San Juan River has been erased from the map. Zooming in and out in the area where the San Juan River should be yields no results. Other major bodies of water in the region are clearly there; as the Lake Arenal and the great Lake of Nicaragua can be easily explored.
With the omission of the San Juan River, Google has effectively settled the pesky border conflict between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. You may remember that Google Maps played a crucial role during a tense period of time in 2010, when a Nicaraguan Army unit invaded lead by former revolutionary commander Eden Pastora crossed over into Tico territory and planted their country’s flag on our land.
Pastora later confessed to La Nacion that he was following Google Maps when he issued an order to his troops to maneuver right into our territory. It turned out that Google Maps was wrong, and Google promptly acknowledged and corrected its mistake. That invasion prompted an interesting debate among online cartographers who determined that the Nicaraguan army would have been better off using Bing Maps.
Besides settling our border conflict, Google Maps Quest also recreates several world features in 8-bit form. Some of the highlights are the Chichen-Itza Mayan ruins in Mexico, the Statue of Liberty in the New York Harbor, the Great Wall of China, Nessie the Loch Ness Monster, and more. You may also run into dragons, knights, elves, and other characters that are part of the lore of old Dungeons and Dragons and fantasy games from the SNES era.
Google Maps Quest is, of course, an April Fool’s Day joke -a nostalgic look at the computer graphic and mapping technology of yesteryear, and a jab at having taken away market share from Mapquest in the online mapping industry.
April Fool’s Day in Costa Rica
Playing a practical joke on a Tico today may not be a good idea, as the point would more than likely be missed. Costa Rica is a Roman Catholic country, and thus clever lighthearted jokes are reserved for December 28th, the feast of the Holy Innocents.
Notable Day of the Innocents jokes in Costa Rica in the past include the announcement of a vacancy for a Twitter regional manager for Latin America in San Jose and the pregnancy of Estefani Quesada, AKA “La Peke.” Ms. Quesada is a sultry and petite Tica who was a favorite contestant on Repretel’s wildly popular reality game show “Combate.”
On December 28th of last year, Ms. Quesada announced her pregnancy on the show and its Facebook page -which is currently followed by more than 227,000 fans. Most people thought it was a joke due to the date.
In the end, Ms. Quesada’s announcement turned out not to be a joke. She is currently on maternity leave from the show.
