MalaysiaGIS.com

There's a new techno-craze that's luring gamers away from their computer screens, 3D graphics and animated worlds of make-believe.

The new game - geocaching - takes players out into the real world from cities to mountain tops, deserts to forests, on treasure hunts for a cache, relying only on satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS) devices.

"It's a good way to get geeks out hiking," Jeremy Irish, who runs the official geocaching website (www.geocaching.org), told Reuters. "The motivation is just being able to use the technology and that may override any kind of thought that you're actually going out and exercising."

Geocaching is also growing in popularity among mainstream sports and technology enthusiasts, men, women and children, for whom the game provides real, not virtual, fun.

Instead of relying on the treasure-hunter's tools of the past like cryptic maps, geocaching players - called "cachers" or "stashers" - use the navigation devices to help them find carefully hidden containers full of trinkets. The prizes are secreted everywhere from forests to deep within cities. One was wedged into a lava flow near Mount St Helens.

"A lot of kids like to do Easter egg hunts when they're kids, and it's an adult way of going out and doing the same kind of thing all year long," said Irish.

What's the cache ?
Caches typically contain a log book, pen and mock "treasures" such as batteries, flashlights, CDs, and other relatively inexpensive trinkets.

In the irreverent spirit of the game, caches have also been known to include toilet paper and T-shirts as well as higher-value items like a GPS unit and cash. Though food is not recommended, some cachers report finding candy.

Players may take an item from the cache, but they must also leave an item and enter their names into a log book. Cachers who want to hunt for such goodies can look up GPS coordinates for caches on the geocaching website.

They can then find caches by entering the coordinates into a GPS unit and basically following the arrow.

A GPS unit is a high-tech version of a compass commonly used by sailors and soldiers.

The devices are typically pocket sized, rectangular and lightweight, with a small navigation screen. Those interested in hiding a cache do so by putting such items in a weather-resistant container such as a plastic bucket.

They then register the coordinates of the cache location on the website, so others can find it.

Irish estimates that there are currently about 1,500 cachers around the world, and the number of players will grow as GPS functionality is embedded into more cellular phones.

Caches can be found in the nooks and crannies of 36 states and 13 countries including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Belgium, Chile and Kenya.

There are currently about 150 caches in all.

How it all started
Geocaching was first started in the United States in May when the Clinton Administration removed government restrictions on refined GPS technology, which used encryption to degrade the signal for most users in order to give the military an advantage.

GPS units had been available to the public for years, but it was the first time that consumers were able to track locations to within several feet.

Oregon resident Dave Balmer unintentionally set the wheels in motion for geocaching when he celebrated President Clinton's annoucement by hiding a cache two days later in Portland.

He posted a note about it on a satellite navigation newsgroup and two people visited the cache site within four days.

"It was just a random thing and it kind of evolved into a game," Irish said adding that GPS units, which are available for as little as US$100 (RM380), are relatively affordable considering its many uses.

Hiking with a goal
Irish said geocaching is attractive to players because it gives hiking a purpose even though the treasure may only be a trinket.

"When you go hiking out in the woods, sometimes you feel like you're not accomplishing anything. With geocaching, you do," he said.

Carl Maness, a cacher in Phoenix, agreed.

Maness visited two caches recently, one of them was placed by a local Boy Scouts troop.

"This kind of gives it a goal. The Boy Scout one was a good example.

Where they buried that, we would not have gone," he said.

"It was so far off the beaten path ... and it really turned out to be a really neat hike."