Wherigo Caches
In late 2001 after running Geocaching.com for over a year, Jeremy Irish and Elias Alvord came up with an interesting challenge: How could they bring their favorite adventure games outdoors with GPS technology? After several years of experimentation and hard work they arrived at a solution. What if you could take video games outdoors? Wherigo is a platform that allows you to build location based GPS experiences on your computer and play them in the real world. Imagine playing Zork, Secret of Monkey Island or Myst, but in the park around the corner, or on the beach during your family vacation. Rather than clicking the mouse and selecting a location to move your character, you physically move from one location to the next to advance the story. Rather than searching for puzzle clues on a screen, you look for them in the real world. Using Wherigo, you can create interactive tours, adventure games and puzzles... the possibilities are endless. To find out more click HERE.
Use Wherigo to find a geocache
The first step is to find and download a wherigo cartridge associated with the cache. Most cache setters will put a link within their cache page on geocaching.com. The file can also be found through the Wherigo.com site assuming it has been set as visible. You can search for the cartridge in a number of ways, including location, author and keywords.
Different devices have different upload methods. I use two different devices as the cartridges are handled differently; Oregon 450t and iPhone. The GPS requires the cartridge to be uploaded only when connected to the PC or transfered to a SD card. The iPhone is downladed from the web through the app. Some devices have the Wherigo Player Tutorial preloaded but is available for download too. This cartridge allows you to play and learn the device. Creating a Wherigo Cartridge
The best guide I've seen was a presentation at the Weston-super-Mega in 2009. It is a great walk through to make a simple multi cache into a Wherigo cartridge and publish to Wherigo.com. The site does have it's own page on building a cartridge with a tuturial allowing you to follow and action building their story.
My presentations
I've presented a couple of times on building wherigo cartridges. I'm no expert but am willing to offer my assistance. Both my presentations are below.
(P.S. not the most flattering photo - taken in the old court at Oxford Town Hall.)
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Hidden By Me
Hidden on 18 Jun 2011, this cache replaced a 9 stage multi that follows a trail created by the Marlow Town Society.
Hidden on 13 Apr 2012, this is one cartridge leading the cacher on two circular routes to find two caches.
Developed for the Geolympix and to allow cachers a chance if attempting the 11 icons in 11 hours challenge.
Hidden on 18 May 2012, three different cartridges to choose from; brainteasers, test yourself againt primary school with smarter than a 10 year old and legacy questions from the build up to the geolympix. Kindly maintained by local cachers. Not mine, I developed the cartridge so that it could be finished off by the audience during a talk on building Wherigo cartridges at the Geolympix.
The cache was hidden succesfully on the day of the Mega event and I walked it with one of the Groundspeak founders and a lackey amongst others. The lackey apperently enjoyed his experience during the two mega events in two days writing a blog for Groundspeak and mentioning me (again amongst others) by name. I'm rather pleased that Bryan, a founding member of this hobby, awarded this cache a favourite point. The slides from the presentation can be found | ||||||
