This made walking/jogging way more enjoyable for me...

For those not familiar, there is a genre of smartphone games (called "augmented reality" "virtual geocaching" or GPS "scavenger hunt" type game) that can't be played just sitting on your butt all day. These apps have been praised for giving the good old fashioned foot exercise a new fantastic flavor.

A lot of people locally have been foaming at the mouth over this Pokemon Go smartphone game. My wife started playing it, and like a good husband, I've drove her around town so she can get items that are farther away than on foot from the house. LOL I've even seen high school kids around town playing this or other types of these games.

Since I'm slowly regaining my health and strength back from fighting cancer and my wife occasionally reminds me that I need to be here for 50 more years, walking and/or jogging is one element that will help me in multiple ways. Pokemon Go doesn't work on my Samsung Galaxy S4, and I didn't want just any run of the mill fitness app, but I found something else that does and its a little bit more up my alley.





This game I've been playing, (the above pictures I took this morning) you catch virtual ghosts! The game (SpecTrek) generates ghosts and hidden items automatically on my phone's GPS maps, and I walk around to find them, level up to get skill points to increase catching abilities. This particular app is already 4 years old (!) and even though the ghost design is pretty crude, its fun as all-get-out to play.

Walking alone with music or a passive game, I'm usually done after a mile.

This morning, I didn't even realize I was on foot for 2 hours, covering almost 2 and a half miles because I got 8 ghosts, two hidden items and my character level to 4. Two ghosts were in a cornfield at the edge of town, one was too far away to get, but I got the other one. (my mom and brother thought that was funny - so did I!)

Anyone else have a FUN app that helps with exercise or physical well being?

I've just started walking again (for much needed exercise) and this looks like a great idea.  Gonna have to try one of them.

Armed robbers used Pokemon Go to find 9 victims http://gizmo.do/aXapBUG

Whoa... that's CRAZY...

For those not familiar, there is a genre of smartphone games (called "augmented reality" "virtual geocaching" or GPS "scavenger hunt" type game) that can't be played just sitting on your butt all day.

I can't understand why someone would want to do "virtual geocaching".  If you are going to go out into the real world to play, wouldn't real geocaching be better?  As a geocacher, I would think so!

If you think that geocaching sounds interesting but don't like getting off in the woods or other remote places, you can try Munzees.  You hunt for hidden bar codes.

The appeal with virtual geocaching is your location spots are randomly generated... opposed to just knowing where the spot is and then you know it and that's it, it's just there now.

I've also seen apps that correlate with physical geocache locations. Then you can just pull it up on your GPS and walk a straight line to the nearest one...and then you know where that spot is and that's it. (But I'd consider that cheating)

I saw Munzee and also got really confused by Ingress, but I'll just stick to catching ghosts. 3.4 miles today chasing those things on my phone. Silly as it may be, it's pretty darn fun.

The appeal with virtual geocaching is your location spots are randomly generated... opposed to just knowing where the spot is and then you know it and that's it, it's just there now.

I've also seen apps that correlate with physical geocache locations. Then you can just pull it up on your GPS and walk a straight line to the nearest one...and then you know where that spot is and that's it. (But I'd consider that cheating)

Ummmm.....walking or hiking or driving or whatever to an actual geocache is just part of the game.  There is something hidden at that spot.  Sometimes it is easy to find and others not so much.  Sometimes there are puzzles to solve.  Sometimes there are series where you have to find other caches to get the coordinates to a final cache. 

I've had to climb trees, rock climb, spend a day on a lake island hopping, been down in storm drains, caves, and had my legs shredded by saw briars.  With actual geocaching, the technology just gets you to where you need to START looking.  After that, the real fun is figuring it out and trying not to look suspicious to muggles (non-geocaching folks).

Hey if you like that, that's awesome.
...but it sounds a little too much for someone just trying to get motivated to run/walk for health reasons.

I would be careful with either the Pokemon or ghost hunting.  The characters you have to catch can be located on people's private property who may not be too excited about having people on their land or facility.  Be careful.

KaramKaram wrote:Armed robbers used Pokemon Go to find 9 victims http://gizmo.do/aXapBUG

Leveraging technology FTW!

alldatndensum wrote:I would be careful with either the Pokemon or ghost hunting.  The characters you have to catch can be located on people's private property who may not be too excited about having people on their land or facility.  Be careful.

HAHA!  I had to stop my wife from going into someone's yard while they were having a pool party because a Pokemon was there.  These types of games are more fun with a friend, but its also good for decision making.  I can't speak for Go since its not compatible with my phone, but my ghost catching app has a feature (you can actually see the button on the original map picture I posted) that is a "ghost horn", intended to "scare" ghosts away from inaccessible areas.  ...like private property.

Its less points, but you can also capture ghosts from a distance.  At my current level, I can capture from about 130 feet away - that's a good amount of space to even catch a ghost in someone's yard from the street.

I like playing in town or the park the best, because I can actually set an 850 foot circumference where the ghosts appear...  that way they're not just showing up in people's yards or deep in cornfields.  The game seems best setup for town, as most ghosts appear in street corners or alleys.

Alldat, you mentioned "not looking suspicious to muggles", I imagine I looked pretty weird last night to these two vehicles I met as I was running down the road away from the park and then back to the park, at dusk, with my phone up scanning the area, my chemo pump around my shoulder, HAHA!!!

ThomasEversole wrote:Whoa... that's CRAZY...

This video mentions the robbery that KaramKaram did.  Apparently a teenage girl also found a dead body while trying to catch a pokemon.  Those are pretty controversial things to happen to an app, especially one that's only been out a week or so.

Also, there's the privacy / Big Brother aspect of the game.  The game has access to personal information on your phone, and the fine print states that they (can) provide this information to the government.

Did 3 miles on foot tonight. It felt great and I caught a bunch of ghosts!

Way scarier than the ghosts though was the unchained pitbull at 5th and Nelson that growled at me... Glad that didn't turn ugly.

There was a teen in N. Carolina, I believe, that got shot by a woman as he tried to enter her house to catch a Pokemon.  How ignorant does someone have to be to think that illegally entering a house they don't belong in just to play a silly game?  That's ludicrous.

wow, that sounds stupid man

Insane people still have access to the technologies as everyone else.  Because of that, we get to see that crazyness when we normally wouldn't.

When I was working as a manager at my current job (call center), I heard a lot of way out there calls.  I remember monitoring this one recording where an older lady wanted to let us know that the Regan and Cheney families were shocking people with lasers through their computers, and watching people in their kitchens.

There's nothing in place to stop people like that from having a phone or downloading an app.

I stopped to do a geocache today before it started to rain.  The rain prevented me from doing more.

Anyway, I was at Centennial Park in Nashville.  This geocache needed info from the site (earth cache).  So, I get out and two guys from a nearby hospital see me.  They are headed out for lunch guessing by the time.  One of them looks at me and says, "Those stupid Pokemon people are always out no matter the time of day or night!"  I had to laugh as I was not chasing Pokemon.  I was playing the original high tech hide and seek game:  GEOCACHING.

ThomasEversole wrote:
I saw Munzee and also got really confused by Ingress, but I'll just stick to catching ghosts. 3.4 miles today chasing those things on my phone. Silly as it may be, it's pretty darn fun.

From what I understand Pokémon Go was made by the same company who made Ingress and basically Pokémon Go is the same exact game as Ingress but with Pokémon added in.

What I do know though is that Pokémon Go pulls location data for points of interest directly out of their Ingress database. I haven't been playing Pokémon Go, but the majority of my co-workers have been playing it. I applaud the concept, I just don't care much for Pokémon.

Tonight when I took the family to the park, everyone there had their phones out and were walking around. Usually they are just walking and enjoying each other's company.

We saw people walking around inside Walmart catching them last night.  We also saw a city cop sitting in his cruiser catching one at Target.  I am sure he was assigned to patrol that shopping center being a Friday night and all as there usually is one around there.  I am not complaining--I thought it was funny.

I haven't seen anyone out playing this that is my age yet, though.  I guess maybe it has to do with the fact that Pokemon came out well after my childhood years and the characters mean nothing to me.

Blake wrote:
I applaud the concept, I just don't care much for Pokémon.

alldatndensum wrote:
I haven't seen anyone out playing this that is my age yet, though.  I guess maybe it has to do with the fact that Pokemon came out well after my childhood years and the characters mean nothing to me.

Never cared for Pokémon much either. ...that's why I catch ghosts.

Ingress made no sense whatsoever, even with the tutorial. That rarely happens with me and games. Tried figuring this out for over an hour, deleted in total frustration, then vented a 1 star review on the play store.