In March 2010, web developer and product manager Brett Camper designed a fully functional, zoomable 8-bit map of New York City. Pleased with his creation, he decided to raise crowdsourced funding on Kickstarter and create maps for 15 new cities. Now, half of that goal is finished, and eight new 8-bit city maps have been created: San Francisco, Washington D.C., London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Austin, and Detroit. Brett has also created a map of his home town, Seattle, sponsored by JetCityOrange and Azalea Software.

The maps themselves are amazing. They’re just like Google Maps, only in the eighties video game style – if you’ve ever played the original Legend of Zelda, you’ll recognize the style instantly. Navigating the maps can be tricky, but there’s a fully functional search engine for each city if you need to find something fast.

Brett plans to create 8-bit maps for several other cities; currently planned are Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, Portland OR, Oakland CA, Boulder, Oklahoma City in the U.S., Rome, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Nijmegen in Europe, and Kyoto, Shanghai, Singapore in Asia.

[via Engadget]