Released to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nintendo's original Pokemon game, Pokemon
Go has become an instant sensation.
More than 15 million people downloaded the free game in its first week, with more active
daily users than Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat.
Let's look behind what's already one of the most popular smartphone games around.
Google Earth Origins
Pokemon Go combines online gaming with GPS-linked map technology.
And both of those technologies were pioneered by the same man.
Back in 1996, 21-year-old John Hanke created Meridian 59, the first "massively multiplayer
online game," where gamers could connect globally over the Internet to explore the game's world
and compete against one another.
In 2000, Hanke developed Keyhole, a system linking roads and highways with aerial photography
to create the first-ever GPS-linked, 3D map of the world.
Hanke later sold Keyhole to Google, where it became Google Earth.
Hanke went on to spearhead Google Maps and Google Street View.
Inspired By A Joke
Each April Fools Day, Google pulls light-hearted pranks on its users.
In 2014, they announced the Google Maps Pokemon Challenge.
"We've prepared the most rigorous test known to man to find the world's best Pokemon Master."
Teaming up with The Pokemon Company and Nintendo, the program was a fake game that supposedly
allowed users to capture Pokemon creatures hidden in the real world, that they could
find with Google Maps.
So many people desperately wanted it to be real that the prank went viral, and just two
years later, that basic concept became Pokemon Go.
Ingress 2
With funding from Google, Hanke launched Niantic Labs in 2010 to add a gaming layer to Maps.
There, he created a game called Ingress, the first MMO that involved the use of gamers'
real-world locations.
It was basically Pokemon Go except without the Pokemon.
The most popular user-generated meeting points in Ingress later became the Pokestops and
Gyms in Pokemon Go.
Poke-Fakes
Pokemon Go became available for Android and iPhone users in North America, Australia,
and New Zealand on July 6, 2016.
It hit Europe and most of Asia on July 15.
That nine-day gap was too much for some, who downloaded the bootleg or knockoff versions
of Pokemon Go.
In fact, at least 43 separate fake versions of Pokemon Go have been spotted, many of which
are malicious apps that flood users' phones with ads and malware.
Worse, some of these bootlegs could take control of the user's phone without their knowledge,
mining their personal data.
The hunter has become the hunted.
(yells)
"Retreat!"
Banned In Saudi Arabia
Pokemon Go is gaining popularity in the Middle East, and clerics in Saudi Arabia are skeptical,
to say the least.
They've issued a fatwa, or "Islamic religious ban" on the game, which follows up a previous
fatwa against the original Pokemon games from 1996.
According to them, the game's trading-card aspect "encouraged blasphemy and gambling."
While Pokemon Go might not use cards, it does apparently contain "forbidden images," like
symbols that could be mistaken for Masonic symbolism.
In other words, Jigglypuff is the devil.
(Jiggly Puff singing)
Get Up And Move!
Or Don't.
While the game helps people get more exercise as they walk around searching for Pokemon,
some still prefer their video games to be less dangerous.
"Actually two people in San Diego fell off a cliff while playing the game."
Crafty entrepreneurs in cities like New York, San Francisco, and Portland have placed ads
on Craigslist, offering to drive players around while they Poke-hunt.
Some drivers even promise to provide the one thing coveted by players even more than a
Legendary Mew: phone chargers.
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