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Majoring in Cartography
I've always had quite the fancy for maps and all things map related. I think it comes from all the days I spent in my youth drawing out maps for the various Computer and Paper Role-Playing Games that I played.
Back before the days of auto-mapping (I still remember when CRPGs like the original Might and Magic came with their own special pad of graph paper) every square inch of every single dungeon had to be drawn out by hand. I would spent countless hours adventuring, mapping and then remapping, sometimes creating giant maps for all the regions of a certain game, like the aforementioned Might and Magic and also notably in my mind the winding cities of Secret of the Silver Blades.
Today, my fascination with cartography has led me to create all kinds of crazy projects, like the full Manitoulin Island Map I drew by hand in Photoshop for one of my website clients.
My latest mapping project has been to create an interactive photo map that pinpoints worldwide locations where I have sold and continue to sell various chainmail pieces over the years with pictures, as well as the locations of the markets, shows and classes that I plan on attending in 2007. I am also considering adding loose details of locations where I plan on taking road trips and locations where I'd like to hunt for various interesting rocks for my lapidary work.
The map is created and maintained through a service called Zeemap (formally known as "Flappr"), it was pretty easy to set up and my only complaint so far is that I can't choose which points take layer priority, they just assume that the further north a point is, the further back in the point hierarchy it should be. It's also a service which is obviously gaining in popularity, as the service seems a little lagged at times.
Posted by Dylon on December 24, 2006 12:24 PM |
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You just reminded me of something. Way back when the world was young I used to lose all track of time playing Adventure, I think it was the 300 point version and used a concept that the younger generation probably won’t understand. It was another one of those great early computer games that were text only, no graphics. You had to use your imagination to see the world. Boggles the mind, doesn't it?
Anyway, I had a map made that covered most of one wall in our living room and would spend hours and hours keeping it up to date. It was just about a crying matter whenever I discovered that I needed to add on another area and just didn’t have room on my existing map. There went another night of sleep because everything had to be kept accurate!
Now that I stop and think about it I don’t think I ever finished the game and I remember being flat afraid to start the 1,000 point version which came out later on. Maybe I’ll go hunting today and see if I can find it again. If you don’t hear from me any more until spring you’ll know why!
What’s this? Games that were text-only? Surely such things only existed when dinosaurs roamed the earth!
Actually, I love text-adventures, to me, they have the same appeal as listening to stories on the radio; you get to build all the visuals in my head and I guess, for some reason or another, I have a very imaginative head.
I’m sure that I could still pretty much navigate the Great Underground Empire of Zork just from memory, at the very least I can still close my eyes and see all the best details of Lord Dimwit Flathead the Excessive, Flood Control Dam Number Three, The Little White House, etc… or all the great hidden gems, like if you type “Eat Me” into the interface, it would respond “Auto-cannibalism will not help you out of your current situation”, man, I must have used that classic as my email tagline for 2 or 3 years!
Such great memories!
April 2008