Find some fun with your GPS

December 30, 2009 - 1:04 pm

Are you searching for new games to play with your GPS? With an abundance of Sat Navs and phones with in-built GPS, people are coming up with weird and wonderful things to do with their GPS-enabled gadgets.

Cache in on some fun

Geocaching is a new craze based around a good old fashioned treasure hunt. No parrot or wooden leg required, all you need is your GPS and the great outdoors. The aim of the game is to track down hidden containers called geocaches, then share your experience online.

With over 950,000 active geocaches around the world, beginners can get started by entering their postcode or address to find caches near them at geocaching.com. After choosing a geocache to chase, you simply enter the coordinates into your GPS device and get hunting it down! Once you find the target you can sign the logbook to mark your achievement and importantly return the geocache to its original location so no-one misses out on the fun.

With many people embracing their inner Indiana Jones and finding treasure at the weekend, geocaching societies and chat rooms have sprung up on the web, enabling fans to share their stories and photos. There is even an iPhone application so you are never far from adventure no matter where in the world you are travelling.

More advanced forms of geocaching also involve multi-step puzzles and riddles as well as trackable travelling objects known as geocoins and travel bugs so there are plenty of challenges to keep you interested.

Geocaching has caught on with tech-savvy kids hankering after hide and seek but unknowingly absorbing geography and map reading lessons. Many caches are closely tied to regional history or geological features too and some are hidden by children for other children.

Mapping out competition

Turn your routine workout into a race using the Softrace application. Designed to boost motivation and enhance inspiration to go out and get fit, the Andriod application allows runners, cyclists and skiers to compete with themselves or challenge others using their GPS-enabled smart phone.

Competitors can track their opponents in real time as well as create custom race tracks and invite others to the race as well as scope out what’s going on locally using Google Maps. On your marks, get set…

If you like the idea of a selection of tried and tested tracks and routes but not sweating it out in a contest with a stranger, GPSies might be right up your street. An outdoor track community, the website boasts over 300,000 trekking, running, walking, cycling and skating tracks so you’ll never run out of options home or away.

If none of these games suit your requirements, JOYity lets you construct your own games using GPS and Google Maps. Set riddles for friends whenever they enter an areas or alter them to hidden items using fun cryptic photo trails. With real potential to be a pranksters dream, this application promises an unlimited amount of fun.

Virtually reality

Many GPS games embrace the surreal with augmented reality games. The hugely popular Parallel Kingdom is a strategy role-playing game that uses GPS to place the virtual world on top of the real one enabling you to slay dragons and battle boars on your commute to work.

With an intricate rulebook and plethora of possibilities, virtual yous can attack, travel, earn gold and communicate with other players in the fully immersible world. Wield weapons, hunt down creatures, collect and craft mystical items, establish cities and even invade your neighbours and wage wars. When you move about and let your GPS know, your player can move with you to face new scenarios and control your neighbourhood.

Previously only available in the US, The Parallel World creators are busy rolling the game out internationally and it even comes as a free download for selected smart phones. Check out the trailer.

Zombie Run is a simpler android alternative…find zombie…RUN! The Zombie finder is billed as a survival tool for people living in zombie-infested areas and displays the location of the nearby living dead, helping you escape. While a blue dot denotes your current location on the GPS, green wandering zombies are marked as well as scary red zombies which are drawn to your location to feat on your brain.

SpekTrek is another supernaturally superb application to hunt spooks…I ain’t afraid of no ghosts. Run around using GPS and your phone’s camera to find and catch virtual ghosts. The game also offers stats, records and plenty of fun, so go on, get ghostbusting!

Walk or run around using GPS and your phone’s camera to find and catch virtual ghosts. The game offers statistics, awards, titles, records, and most of all a whole lot of fun!

A couple of walking enthusiasts, concerned about rocketing levels of childhood obesity have created an augmented reality game for kids. Their Fruit Farmer game lets players run round a real environment with a GPS device collecting virtual oranges which appear on the player’s screen while they avoid mercifully imaginary killer wasps. Extreme-farmers can play on their own or with friends plus create their own levels. Other games are also available at the family-friendly Locomatrix site.

If GPS games aren’t enough you can even morph your beloved Sat Nav into your favourite star. Nav voices are available for a variety of Sat Nav makes. Let Spongebob Squarepants guide you round the north circular, Yoda yell directions or Arnie announce road works.

Pimp your ride with the holler of rap star Snoop Dogg on your Tom Tom. Helpful instructions include: “keep left ahead and you’ll be bona fide” plus a list of Dogg’s favourite LA haunts.

Bob Dylan is also tipped to be the more relaxing voice of a GPS…don’t think twice babe, turn right? It may be rather infuriating when lost at a cross roads to be told the answer is blowing in the wind.

Whatever you musical tastes, there is a way of personalising and using your Sat Nav in a creative way. From practical present staple to fun new gizmo, let the fun continue.c