Customer Reviews
Back Roads Explorer 
2006-02-25
I found this easy enough to use. The only drawback was that I was not able to use my GPS. I bought a new laptop and it didn't have a serial connection for the GPS. I did use the software to map the route the rally race would take and find the best places to watch. The only drawback is that it would have been fun to get a 3D flyby graphic. I know it wouldn't be extremely accurate but it might have helped visualize the grades of the elevation changes.
Quite possibly the worst software ever 
2005-11-06
I had this software working once on an older computer, but it functioned poorly, i.e. froze up and crashed intermittantly. I recently installed it on a newer computer (Dell Dimension 9100, Window XP Professional) and it won't open a map, even after several reinstalls of the latest download from their Web site. Save yourself the trouble and frustration. Use Google Earth to get a close view, and buy good maps from a reputable source. The creaters and sellers of this software should be ashamed of themselves.
Not a bad product once CD media loads 
2005-07-27
I bought this program so that I can plot road bike routes and generate elevation profiles of those routes. The Back Roads Explorer does that well if the route is entered by tracing on the map with the mouse. The profiles are generated well and there is a link from the profile back to the map; clicking on the profile will put a marker on the map route, which will tell you where to expect that big climb. Map and elevation profile can then be exported to an image (JPG, GIF, etc.) file or printed out or stored to a PDA. Beware, there is no way to automatically generate directions from the route.
One of the reasons for a three-star rating is that the CD media was somehow incompatible with my CD drive. It took several tries just to install the program. After that it would take a very long time to load data from map CDs. The program would sometimes freeze and had to be restarted. It would freeze 100% of the time if my route required data CDs to be switched. To fix this I had to copy National Geographic CDs to the hard drive (which took multiple attempts because of CD read errors) and burn it on CDR media.
Another reason for three stars is that the GPS route import is very rudimentary. It may work better when the GPS unit is connected directly to the computer (I haven't tried), but only text file format is supported by file import tool. The text file format is arbitrary and may not directly import into the Back Roads Explorer. In my case, it will not directly import the text file generated by Garmin eTrex.
Fun but not much use for route planning 2005-06-05
This product packages scans of the smaller scale, 1:500,000 and 1:100,000 USGS maps for all 48 contiguous states and 1:250,000 for Alaska and Hawaii on 17 CDs. It takes its user interface from the hiker oriented National Geographic state series. While probably fine for planning hiking trips on the state series 1:24,000 scale maps, the program offers little in the way of tools that would be useful to a back-roads explorer.
The main value it does offer is in providing reasonably detailed topographic maps for the entire 50 states at a very fair price. Though that has its quirks, the program makes it fairly easy to navigate the maps. One quirk is that to get to Alaska and Hawaii, you press the "Information and Help" toolbar button, select "Start with a new map", press "GO", then click on the state you want, you will then be prompted to load the CD.
The 17 CDs are only a minor inconvenience in most cases. Each CD contains 2 or more states, so the state you want you only really have to deal with one CD once you've installed the software. More conveniently, you can copy some or all of them to your hard drive assuming you have about 8G free. The program allows you to configure both where you install it and where it should look for maps.
Beyond the basic maps, the purpose I wanted it for was route planning when "exploring back roads" and here is falls down. Yes you can do it but you have to do it free hand and the input method makes this tedious at best. Once you have done all that work, the end result is not particularly useful. The basic problem is that the routing tool is not in anyway linked the road overlay. Consequently you cannot get a list of route instructions from it. Another problem is that while it shows lots of roads, the road data is very basic. Very disappointing overall.
So if you like maps and are looking for a relatively inexpensive way to obtain and store the 1:100,000 USGS topo maps for the entire 50 states this is probably a very good value. It's fun to poke around the maps just to see what's there.
If you are a hiker then you should go straight the NG State series and buy the state you need. The scale of the maps here are too small to be much use for hikers except for very general planning.
For backroad exploring, I think you are better off with an already printed map book like DeLorme or Benchmark assuming it is available for your state. It you want backroad route planning software, this is not it.
Should have check first 
2005-04-26
I went looking at Fry's for a mapping software and bought this before looking online at reviews. I'm now stuck with a bazillion (ok, just 17) CDs and a product that takes minutes to load once you initiallize the program. I still can't figure out how to access any info on Hawaii or Alaska and I'm waiting each time an average of four days before "tech support" haha will write me back.
Don't buy this.
Great Software Great Price 
2007-10-04
This is great software. Ive used it my car with laptop and GPS on a variety of road trips MN, TX, LA, UT, MO, AR and gotten myself into and out of many situations without a hitch, except for being towed out of a bayou in Louisiana twice but that was my bad not the softwares. This software will allow you to get to places that others wouldnt be able to find.
Ive also used this software to map the entire Salt Lake City Utah region from Ogden all the way to Payson for a telecom company that was using the info for a Wi-Fi positioing service and this NG product was dead on. This job required driving every residential and commercial street in the the Utah metropolitan area and it was flawless, and only off where new developments were being constructed. The onle thing I would add is to install the maps for the region youll be visitng instead of swapping cds in and out so the transition will blend seamlessly.
For $49 its tough to beat.
Gone are the days of free gas station maps 2007-09-30
When I was a lad, I used to walk into the office of any service station and grab a stack of free road maps. There were maps of the city I was in, nearby states, and even the USA. Gas was allot cheaper in those days too! Those were the days..... Now here's a product that almost fills the empty feeling left by the demise of free gas station maps and service with a smile. When I saw the price of this package I thought, "Well, can't be much more than overview state maps showing major highways." I was delightfully wrong! With these maps I can zoom out to an overview or zoom in to the city street level of any street in the country. The fact that the states include Hawaii and Alaska was a pleasant surprize as well. If you have a laptop in your Rv or are an armchair traveler at home with a computer, I highly recommend this beautiful and complete set of maps. Now if National Geographic would oly offer to clean the windshield and check the oil!
Lots of Bugs! Topic Entertain publishes this CD 2006-09-13
The company Topic does a lousy job at customer service. As for the developer, maybe some third rate company. The scans of the maps are not high enough for area blow ups. Everything is fuzzy at best. The interface is clumsy ... sluggish ... backwards! This is the 21st Cen! If you have a Garmin, stick with their apps for now. Or just buy an old fashion topo map.
*Avoid this product!!!!
Works much better than the alternatives 2006-07-12
I've used versions of topo mapping software from Topo!, Garmin, DeLorme and National Geographic.
I use maps for hiking and the quality in the 17-CD set is very good. Garmin MapSource has the same territory in 3-CDs and the detail in much more minimal.
Back Roads with version 4.2.3 of Topo! from Nat Geo's website is one of the better products out there. You can adjust the shading factor, get 3D view, and send co-ordinates to your GPS.
I did have to contact support to realize there was a new version, but they got back to me in 24 hours. I had a tech support question on Garmin MapSource and got no response from their tech support.
The only downside of Back Roads for me was that it can only upload waypoints and not maps to my Garmin GPS. Otherwise I would use it exclusively.
Back Roads allows you to enter your co-ordinates in UTM, unlike MapSource. The drawing and route tools are better. The elevation profile is another feature that is not there in MapSource.
I read the complaint about elevation lines not meeting up, but you get the same problem with paper USGS maps.
Back Roads also prints nice maps that you can slide into a plastic sheet for hiking. Nat Geo also makes a paper that prints sturdy topo maps.
You can get topos and aerial photos from the web. The USGS site [http://nationalmap.gov/gio/viewonline.html] has links to 7 map servers. Microsoft Terra Server is a free one that can be a good tool. The print capabilities of Back Roads/Topo! are still better though.
Back Roads/Topo! isn't perfect but it's the best tool of the 4 mapping softwares I've purchased. If it sent maps to my Garmin GPS I would give it a 5.
Major Problems with this software. 2006-06-16
Wish I could give this one less than one star. Don't waste your money with this one. If the software actually worked, it reports to do many of the things that I was looking for.
First problem -- the software claims to be compatable with Magellan's Explorists series. Tech Support (at least that's what they call themselves), says it is not.
Second problem -- the software is apparently not XP compatable. I can load the software and basically get it to work but it locks up when I attempt to save a file or change to a different sub-directory. What good is a software that will not save your work??
Multiple emails to Tech Support resulted in multiple suggestions by Tech Support to "reload' the software. Gee!!! I have to call Tech Support for that suggestion??? Apparently they have nothing to offer beyond the suggestion of reloading the software (which doesn't help).
After multiple attempts to get this software to work and multiple emails to Tech Support, I'm writing this one off as a $50 reminder to never buy a National Geographic product again.
