New to Wherigo

[+Wolverine13]

I am kind of new to the idea of Wherigo caches, and am interested. To be honest, I don't know what Wherigo caches are. Can anybody help explain?

[matejcik]

Wherigo caches are caches where you need a Wherigo cartridge to find the physical cache.

i'm pretty sure that this is written somewhere on the geocaching site, though...

[Ranger Fox]

Here's a better answer:

Wherigo offers geocachers the opportunity to create interactive, location-sensitive caches. Wherigo itself is a small program that's installed on some GPS receivers, meaning you'll have to have a Wherigo-compliant device to play.

 

A Wherigo cache requires people to play through a "cartridge", which is nothing more than a file you download from the Wherigo.com site and copy to the GPSr.

 

With Wherigo, you can detect where the player is and send him/her to different places, ask questions, challenge a player to get somewhere on time, and have the player interact with characters or pick up items. Obviously, you don't have to do all these things.

 

So, what can you make with Wherigo? You could send cachers on an historic tour of a town or area, asking questions along the way. Your players could play the part of a detective in a murder mystery of your own concoction. If you feel like testing cachers' knowledge of an area or topics, you can ask questions or time how long it takes someone to get from here to there. You could get the player to "buy" an ice cream cone for little Suzie and have him/her deliver it to her before it melts (or the player will have to try it again). Perhaps you just want to send people out on a hike or, if you'd like to put a spin on things, up this mountain to slay--or barter with--a dragon. If you're programming-savvy, you could make an arcade-like game, such as real life Whack-A-Mole. Get creative.

 

Do you have any other questions you'd like to ask the community?

[+cantuland]

You can also visit the Wherigo.com website and look for Wherigo games/cartridges/files in your own area. Download one of those and put it in your GPS receiver and go try out a Wherigo adventure that someone else wrote just for people like you. Searching for Wherigo files can be done on the Wherigo.com website as well as the Geocaching.com website.

 

Check it out. Get one and play it. There are even tutorials to get you familiar with playing.

[+doxietrekkers4]

Here's a better answer:

Wherigo offers geocachers the opportunity to create interactive, location-sensitive caches. Wherigo itself is a small program that's installed on some GPS receivers, meaning you'll have to have a Wherigo-compliant device to play.

 

A Wherigo cache requires people to play through a "cartridge", which is nothing more than a file you download from the Wherigo.com site and copy to the GPSr.

 

With Wherigo, you can detect where the player is and send him/her to different places, ask questions, challenge a player to get somewhere on time, and have the player interact with characters or pick up items. Obviously, you don't have to do all these things.

 

So, what can you make with Wherigo? You could send cachers on an historic tour of a town or area, asking questions along the way. Your players could play the part of a detective in a murder mystery of your own concoction. If you feel like testing cachers' knowledge of an area or topics, you can ask questions or time how long it takes someone to get from here to there. You could get the player to "buy" an ice cream cone for little Suzie and have him/her deliver it to her before it melts (or the player will have to try it again). Perhaps you just want to send people out on a hike or, if you'd like to put a spin on things, up this mountain to slay--or barter with--a dragon. If you're programming-savvy, you could make an arcade-like game, such as real life Whack-A-Mole. Get creative.

 

Do you have any other questions you'd like to ask the community?

Thanks so much. This is way more understandable than the info on the Wherigo page. Pretty much a scavenger hunt/geocache rolled into one. Unfortunately I just bought my gpsr w/o the cartridge capability, but that also has to do with finances. I can see doing these down the line.

[+smstext]

a question i was going to ask too, many thanks to those who have answered its made it clearer to me too!!

[+Torgut]

Now... a related question is: do you know any other websites providing decent info about Wherigo? Somehow I feel GS fails in offering good info in their official website and I am eager to read and learn more about the game.

[+Zurfco]

a question i was going to ask too, many thanks to those who have answered its made it clearer to me too!!

 

I completely agree. If you don't already know what it is, the 'getting started' tutorials and such aren't much help and take a pretty large investment of time to dig through.

 

The explanation provided further up this thread is the best (and only, frankly) general explanation I have seen of the game despite hours logged on this web-site, Garmin's web-site, and the Wherigo web-site. Pretty much all of them already assume whoever is there already knows what the game is and how to play and merely address the frustrations, whether technical or otherwise, of those already involved.

 

I was ready to give up finding out what it's about - literally having told myself that this message was my last click and if I didn't find out I felt as if I had done a due level of diligence. Now that I know, I can file it away as something I may like to come back to and learn more about after getting more familiar with my GPS and more practiced in its use.

 

- Zurfco

[Ranger Fox]

In your situation, Zurfco, would you have benefited from seeing a thread pinned to the top of the "Getting Started with Wherigo" forum titled "What is Wherigo?" I'm asking it this way because I wonder how many others click through to the forum or if it's their last source of information.

[+Zurfco]

In your situation, Zurfco, would you have benefited from seeing a thread pinned to the top of the "Getting Started with Wherigo" forum titled "What is Wherigo?" I'm asking it this way because I wonder how many others click through to the forum or if it's their last source of information.

 

Absolutely it would have helped! I think a quick synopsis, very much like the one above in this thread, pinned at the top of this forum would have been tremendously helpful and would have saved me hours of digging. Good suggestion.

 

Thanks and regards,

Zurfco

[Ranger Fox]

I'll start on it and, when I'm done, I'll post here for everyone's critique. There's a lot to cover--and the order it is done is important.

[Ranger Fox]

I completed the Wherigo intro post. See it here. (I have a lot of free time at work a the moment because all projects are on hold. Reorganization is fun...)

 

I'll modify the Wherigo intro post based on the community's suggestions.

[+Zurfco]

That's a great introduction explanation Ranger Fox. If I may, there are three suggestions I'd like to make for your consideration.

 

1. "You have to stay within the cartridge." I'm not sure what this means. Does the cartridge establish certain physical boundaries? Does the GPSr identify when it has gone outside these boundaries? A little more explanation of what it means to "stay within the cartridge" would be good for we newbies.

 

2. "You may have to zero out for it to recognize you've arrived." Zero out is GPS or geocache lingo I suppose, but being new to all of this, I don't know the lingo. What does it mean to 'zero out?' I'm assuming it means to reset some particular setting, but which setting I'd have to reset is unclear.

 

3. Right after the 'zero out' sentence there's a note that says "Note: In the forum, these locations are called "zones." " Given that the preceding sentence was talking about zeroing out Garmin GPSr's and doesn't include a location, it's unclear what location is being referred to by "these locations" in the note.

 

The explanation is excellent. It's the most cogent and clear thing I've read about Wherigo and now I'm going to have to play because my eight year old is completely stoked with the concept. When I first got my GPSr and told her about geocaching, she immediately came up with this concept and said it's something we should do. Now that she knows it's a real thing that can actually be done, well I just don't have any options do I? That's a good thing! Spending time with the family outdoors is exactly why I bought the GPSr in the first place. Thanks a million.

 

- Zurfco

[Ranger Fox]

I updated the intro post this morning.

 

1. "You have to stay within the cartridge." I'm not sure what this means. Does the cartridge establish certain physical boundaries? Does the GPSr identify when it has gone outside these boundaries? A little more explanation of what it means to "stay within the cartridge" would be good for we newbies.

I changed this to "a map is not available within the Wherigo Player, and will not be displayed on the GPS receiver's map were you to exit both the cartridge and Player."

 

2. "You may have to zero out for it to recognize you've arrived." Zero out is GPS or geocache lingo I suppose, but being new to all of this, I don't know the lingo. What does it mean to 'zero out?' I'm assuming it means to reset some particular setting, but which setting I'd have to reset is unclear.

Good idea to explain it. I added clarification: "get it so the GPS receivers reports you're zero feet or meters away".

 

3. Right after the 'zero out' sentence there's a note that says "Note: In the forum, these locations are called "zones." " Given that the preceding sentence was talking about zeroing out Garmin GPSr's and doesn't include a location, it's unclear what location is being referred to by "these locations" in the note.

I clarified by moving it close to the top of the paragraph and restating it: Another term for locations, used both when you're building cartridges and in the forums, is "zones".

 

well I just don't have any options do I?

Since I began geocaching, I haven't had any options. It is the only way to sate my immense wanderlust and competitive nature. Unfortunately, I end up competing against myself, which isn't a good thing. I did, however, win against myself last year, which was surprising, rare, and classified as overkill.

Edited February 5, 2010 by Ranger Fox

[+Zurfco]

That last sentence had me laughing out loud.

 

Thank you for the explanation. I hope it helps others as much as it has helped me.

 

- Zurfco

[+TeamRoadrunner]

We are just getting started with Wherigo and until today have been frustrated in trying to use it. After discovering Ranger Fox's post on getting started with Wherigo we have actually run the first cartridge, Play Anywhere, the tutorial cartridge, and are now feeling much better about being able to complete a geoart that requires Wherigo. Thank you so much for your excellent post as it helped us immensely getting a first cartridge to play and seeing what a cartridge is all about. Much relieved!!

[Ranger Fox]

We ... are now feeling much better about being able to complete a geoart that requires Wherigo.

The Thunderbird series, I take it. I did that a month ago as part of a week-long run through the area, mostly to do the insane amount of hiking necessary for the locomotive. Make sure you do that particular cartridge on something that isn't a Garmin. One of these days, I need to provide the cartridge author with a cartridge that will work even on Garmins.