Hasta La Gadget!

American history is among the richest in the world. I’m not just talking about what went down in the real world, but also everything that transpired in the realm of science fiction, horror, and fantasy.

In an attempt to map the most notable of these fictional events, Chop Shop has launched a Kickstarter project called the “Altered States of America.”

It’s essentially a print project, where backers can make pledges to receive buttons and posters featuring the parts of the map or the completed map itself.

Putting the map together will require a lot of work. In fact, the Chop Shop team is already on it, but they’re inviting anyone who wants to contribute to send in their suggestions of which events to include on various parts of the map – especially those states with a shortage of otherworldly occurrences.

A minimum pledge of $5(USD) will get you two one-inch buttons featuring the state (and its corresponding artwork) of your choice.  Contributions between $30 to $40 will score you an individual state print, while $70 will get you the full 36″ x 24″ silkscreened print.

The project wraps funding on September 23, so you’ll want to head over to Kickstarter now if you want to get in on the action.

[via io9]

This subway map was created by Crispian Jago and it will take you on a journey through time and space as if you were traveling with the Doctor yourself. It’s all kinds of awesome with bits of amazing and fantastic thrown in too.

The colored transit lines each represent a different Doctor. All 11 of ‘em. Those stops along the way are the characters and aliens that that Doctor has met. Obviously, the Daleks show up quite a bit. This map is interactive so you can hover over the Doctors and learn about their specific timelines. You can also click on any of the species they’ve encountered in their travels to learn more about them. I have spent far too much time playing with this map today and it is super fun – even though it only takes us through the 2011 series.

Check out the full interactive map here. Set some time aside, it’s too much fun to walk away from.

[via io9 via Geek Art Gallery]

You probably turn to Yelp to look for single, stand-out restaurants and businesses. But there’s a lot of data inside all those reviews, which can make for fascinating analysis—letting you spot trends across geographic locations.

Read more…

The UK town of Ipswich has an odd name, but that’s not what concerns us here. The town hosts an annual music and arts festival known as Switch Fringe, and this year there is a special addition to the program book. An 8-bit map of the town – from Zelda!

Sound crazy? It is. The Decibel Kid designed it. He turned the entire town of Ipswich into a Zelda level. Pretty novel idea for this years event. But there is more than just this image. If you want, you can view a digital version of the map and zoom around to see all the fun details. If you look closely, you’ll even find Link wandering around the festival.

Too bad the level isn’t playable.

Cities are awesome when they look like games. Ipswich is my new favorite UK town.

[via Slashdot via Kotaku via Nerd Approved]

Some of us are such video game addicts that we sometimes imagine the world as a sort of video game, IRL. That’s exactly what it looks like the artist behind this poster was thinking when he created this Tetris world map.

In this world map by artist Stephen Gowland of KIACO, continents and islands have been replaced with precisely interlocked Tetris bricks. What I love about this design is that they really are the proper shapes and colors from an actual game of Tetris.

I wonder how much work it took to figure out exactly which shapes to use for each part of the geography. I can’t imagine it was an easy task.

The A3-size (~16″ x 12″) print of the Tetris world map sells for £10 (~$15 USD), while the A2-size (~23″ x 16″) version sells for £14 (~$22 USD). The artist says he can also print it in A1-size (~33″ x 24″), but you’ll want to check with him for pricing.

Only one problem I can see with this design… Shouldn’t the countries start vanishing as complete lines of bricks are stacked up to form them?