Google jumped the gun a bit with this prank, perhaps figuring that with April 1 falling on a Sunday this year that fewer Web surfers would stumble across its pranks.

In a , Google software engineer Tatsuo Nomura wrote:

“In our pursuit of new digital frontiers, we realized that we may have left behind a large number of users who couldn't access Google Maps on their classic hardware. Surprisingly, the was unsupported, despite its tremendous popularity with over 60 million units sold worldwide. Our engineering team in Japan understood the importance of maps on retro game systems. With the power of Google’s immense data centers, and support from and , we were able to overcome the technical and design hurdles of developing 8-bit maps. Today, we’re excited to announce the result: a version of Google Maps for NES, with beautiful low-res graphics, simple and intuitive controls, and a timeless soundtrack.”