Glitch dev turns World of Warcraft into Google Maps

A developer has turned World of Warcraft into a series of Google Maps.

Cal Henderson, who co-founded Glitch developer Tiny Speck, poked around the MMORPG's files and extracted textures to create World of MapCraft - the entire, gargantuan game world set out as Google Maps.

Included is Azeroth in its entirety, Outland, battlegrounds, dungeons and instanced areas as a full set of zoom-able "slippy maps". There are even "junk" areas that are not included in the game players know and love.

Usefully, World of MapCraft includes all of the changes made by the game's expansions: The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm. You can check out dungeons and raids from the "Classic" version of World of Warcraft, too, if you fancy a spot of nostalgia.

Also, Henderson discovered a number of random facts along the way. Ragefire Chasm, for example, is called Ogrimmar Lava Dungeon in the world files.

Henderson outlines the lengthy and complex process on his blog.