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National Geographic TOPO! Explorer

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Browse a seamless, nationwide set of topographic maps, aerial imagery, and a unique hybrid of the two with TOPO! Explorer from National Geographic.

Works with both PC and Mac for full compatibility across platforms, making it easier than ever to plan, print and play
Includes 25 credits for SuperQuad maps; download the exact maps you need to print, customize or connect to a GPS
Each map credit is good for 1 SuperQuad, a combination of the most detailed, authentic 1:24,000 and 1:100,000 scale USGS topographic maps
Covering a minimum of 49 sq. mi., each SuperQuad map features current roads and streets, aerial imagery and a topo/aerial hybrid view
Comes with online access to the National Recreation Database, filled with updated trails, photos, videos and user-generated recreation information
Download trails for your favorite national park and add Forest Service roads or wildlife habitat areas
Customize your map with routes, symbols, photos, note boxes, web links and text; share information with an online community of outdoor enthusiasts
Select the exact area you need and print a photo-quality custom map on any ink-jet or laser printer or plotter
Transfer your custom waypoint and route information directly to or from most handheld GPS units
Print waterproof trail maps on National Geographic Adventure Paper (sold separately) to take along on your trips

System requirements: Internet connection (DSL, Cable, or equivalent high speed access recommended for performance); Windows Vista, XP, 2000, ME, or 98; Internet Explorer 6 or higher; 1 GHZ CPU or better; 512 MB RAM + 64 MB video memory; DVD Drive.
For Mac: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher; 1 GHZ CPU or better; 512 MB RAM + 64 MB video memory; DVD Drive.

Made in USA.

Item 776036

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National Geographic TOPO! Explorer Customer Reviews

REVIEW SNAPSHOT®

by PowerReviews

National Geographic TOPO! Explorer

2.3

(based on 8 reviews)

38%

of respondents would recommend this to a friend.

Pros

Cons

Crashes or freezes (3)

Best Uses

- Reviewer Profile:
- Quality oriented (6)
- Primary use:
- Personal (6)

Reviewed by 8 customers

Sort by

Displaying reviews 1-8

Jun

2008

(2 of 3 customers found this review helpful)

1.0

Still in Beta

By Islandhigh

from Colorado Springs, CO

About Me Quality Oriented

See all my reviews

Pros

Has potential

Cons

Crashes or Freezes
Not all features work
Not Much Information

Best Uses

Not ready for prime time

Comments about National Geographic TOPO! Explorer:

Topo Explorer is a really great concept but it is very much in beta testing. Too bad this has become the model for software releases. Many of the features are not functional and the ones that are have many issues. Just take a look on the TOPO forum to see the list of issues. Nice toy but wait for the sequal.

Comment on this review

Jul

2008

(1 of 2 customers found this review helpful)

4.0

This product ROCKS!

By Spiritfox

from Houston, Texas

About Me Quality Oriented

See all my reviews

Pros

Adaptive and Versatile
Easy To Navigate
Engaging
Lots Of Information

Cons

Best Uses

Educational Purposes
Preparing Documents
Professional Presentations
Research

Comments about National Geographic TOPO! Explorer:

As a serious tech geek and owner of about 12 of the State series (7.5 min.) products, I find this package AWESOME! I had a question or two while doing the installation and made a call to N.G.'s 800 number and all questions were answered. Great people! I fear that any reviews to the contrary are a result of assumptions based on the fact that this is a web-based, hybrid interface with the desktop applications and departs a bit from a conceptual 'norm.'

Comment on this review

Feb

2012

2.0

Great When it Works (read: not that grew

By sfgfan10

from Eugene, OR

About Me Avid Adventurer

See all my reviews

Pros

Cheap
Customizable
Easy to use

Cons

Never Works

Best Uses

Backcountry Travel
Backpacking
Camping
Mountaineering

Comments about National Geographic TOPO! Explorer:

This is a great product. It is much easier to use than every other map product out there, and is better than buying maps and figuring out you don't want to go to the place they are for.

However, it seems like each time I use this software, it works less and less. Now, I can't even buy maps because it only asks for serial numbers, which I can't buy online, and won't let me use my credit card. These and other problems have conspired to make this software pretty much useless.

Comment on this review

May

2010

1.0

letcy

By letcy

from San Francisco, CA

About Me Avid Adventurer

See all my reviews

Pros

Cons

Difficult to use
EXPIRES

Best Uses

Comments about National Geographic TOPO! Explorer:

MAP CREDITS EXPIRE AFTER 2 YEARS. If you frequent a park or only have 2 weeks vacation, this is not the product for you. I downloaded all I would need for Yosemite, Big Sur, Mt Shasta, Pt Reyes and Mt Hood: 5 trips in 2 years. I still have 7 credits left and they are just going to expire I guess?

Comment on this review

Sep

2009

4.0

Useful program, but poor map quality

By Shadycakes

from Virginia

About Me Quality Oriented

See all my reviews

Pros

Lots Of Information

Cons

Hard To Navigate
Poor Map Quality

Best Uses

Trip Preparation

Comments about National Geographic TOPO! Explorer:

It's a great map software for the price.
The quality of the maps at 1:24000 is quite underwhelming. Some of the small print is incredibly hard to read (including elevation.) The trail lines are hard to distinguish from rivers and streams, and since they are USGS maps, they don't have all of the smaller trails. However, the USGS maps are much more detailed than most trail maps (e.g. PATC section maps) in terms of contour lines.
Where this software really shines is downloading trails from the internet. If you find a reliable source that provides .tpo or .gps files, you can import them straight to your maps, where the trail will be superimposed on the topo.
Map printing is complicated, but once you get the hang of it, it works well (except for that whole low-res map problem.) When you print a map, the map scale shows up at the bottom, along with true *and* magnetic north. I found this feature to be very useful as it calculates the magnetic declination from the center of the map you print.
You can also print an elevation profile for your route that shows up beneath the map.

All in all, a very useful program for planning trips, especially long ones. It allows you to print only the section of the map you need at the scale you want, without folding your full size PATC section map every which way. It does score low on the quality of the map scans, however.

Comment on this review

May

2009

1.0

Don't bother

By letcy

from San Francisco, CA

About Me Quality Oriented

See all my reviews

Pros

Cons

Crashes or Freezes
Lacks features

Best Uses

Frustration

Comments about National Geographic TOPO! Explorer:

The program has serious issues.
-features listed on the box are not available yet
-it requires a PhD to connect it to a Garmin
-1/2 the time you try to go to the map store it has "connectivity" issues and blames my internet
-everytime you try to find a map, it redirects you to a "superquad" or to the mapstore....you can't just explore a route without it being a hassle
-lacks simple feature like 'draw a box to expand', 'mark a trail head'
-it highlight one quad no matter what, making viewing annoying
-tiny topo screen: i have a 21" monitor and am squinting at a 4" topo!!

Comment on this review

Aug

2008

1.0

Don't Waste Your Time

By Buckeye96

from Arlington, VA

About Me Quality Oriented

See all my reviews

Pros

Great maps

Cons

"Super" Quads are tiny
Can't Load routes trails
Can't load waypoints
Crashes or Freezes
Hard To Install or Upgrade
Hard To Navigate

Best Uses

Comments about National Geographic TOPO! Explorer:

Don't waste your time with this program or Explorer deluxe. With deluxe you get 25 super quad credits. It wasn't enough to get topo's over GW National Forest and the Shenandoah Nat'l park. The program wouldn't allow me to load my trails, routes, tracks or waypoints.........it gave me an error message and said it was a "feature coming soon". I purchased this product because the Garmin Map source that came with my Colorado 400t didn't have the topo's. What a waste of money. It does no have the features that are promised on the box.

Comment on this review

Jul

2008

(0 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

4.0

Free Updates Make This a Great Value

By TBrown

from California

About Me Quality Oriented

See all my reviews

Pros

Adaptive and Versatile
Easy To Navigate
Engaging

Cons

Not Much Information

Best Uses

Educational Purposes
Preparing Documents
Research

Comments about National Geographic TOPO! Explorer:

Bought TOPO Explorer a few weeks ago. When I first fired it up I was a little bummed that it didn't have all the features as my other NG topo products. But, the guys at NG keep posting free upgrades and now it's working like a champ! I bought it to add some maps to my state collections, great value at a buck a piece. Works with my Garmin Colorado too. If you need maps I suggest giving this a shot at [$].