The Simpsons new intro in Minecraft style

Just when you thought Minecraft couldn't get any bigger, The Simpsons has gone and made a new intro sequence SIMCRAFT (parodies are easy!) in the style of the smash hit game.

The special title sequence was broadcast last night in North America for the episode titled "Luca$", featuring Zach Galifianakis.

Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie are seen in block form, as is the entire Simpsons world. Bartender Moe also makes an appearance as a Creeper.

Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson, however, seemed to find the homage a little awkward.

"The Simpsons did a Minecraft couch gag. I'm not sure how I feel about it," he Tweeted. "I STILL feel a bit like it's just this small game I made at home. It's so weird to have all these things happen."

You can watch the full episode over on Fox's website when it goes live.

Player Name Changes!

Minecraft 1.7.6 pre-release 1 brings the most requested feature since birth of Minecraft, Name changes!

• Unique ID system for identifying players instead of player names.
• No matter what a player is called they will remain banned/whitelisted/oped/etc on servers.
• Changing names won't effect their inventory, pets, statistics and everything they own on a server.
• No backward compatibility as usual.
• Two players can't have the same name. (not possible to steal someone's name)
• As of now there is no option to change name.
• No details or restrictions are set so far on how name changes will be performed.
• It will be easy and freely available.
• Won't be able to change name every 5 minutes.
• Server owners do not need to anything the server will update itself, however it may require your input if it finds an issue (example: non existant players).
• If you are scared and need a hug due to changes, Mojang gives a *hug* and comforts you.

This pre-release also comes with a lot more Minecraft Realms improvements, crash fixes, optimizations and general bug fixes.

Today is 4th April which means it is
Hug a Newsman Day
National Walk to Work Day
Walk Around Things Day
School Librarian Day
Tell a Lie Day

Children's Book Day

Minecraft Coloring Book: (Volume 1)

by Minecraft Books

This is a Minecraft theme colouring book for you and your friends! Get over 70 pages of Minecraft pictures to colour in today.

A Tale of Friends, Enemies and Minecraft

by Jake Mayer

Mike Craft is a ten year old with big ideas. Read how he uses his computer skills and his love of the game Minecraft to make a big name for himself and his friend, while overcoming the school bully. This book was written in 2012 in November as a school project for National Novel Writing Month. The author is an elementary school student who understands the game of Minecraft. It is written for the elementary school level and is a story about doing the right thing and friendship. It was featured on Youtube on Minecraft Monday with Bebop Vox episode #123. Enjoy!

Minecraft Kid's Stories: A Series of Minecraft Children's Books

by Minecraft Books

Minecraft Kid's Stories is filled with some of the best-selling books around. Kid's everywhere are going crazy over Minecraft and these adventurous tales about popular characters such as Steve and Herobrine. Inside you will meet Steve's twin, follow Herobrine through the fiery Nether, and see dinosaurs battle creepers!

April Fools Minecraft Villagers skins

This year's Minecraft April Fools as noted by Mojang website:

The long-nosed villagers introduced in Minecraft beta 1.9 have become sentient. They have taken over our skin servers and content delivery networks (CDN), so unfortunately you will not be able to change your skins until we fix the problem. We are desperately trying our best to pull the plugs, but we should prepare ourselves to serve under our new villager overlords. Singularity may be upon us.

Nothing to be alarmed about, This year Mojang's April Fools feature is automatically changing everyone's skins to random villagers along with village voice for everything. You will also hear them sing the Games of Thrones Theme Song.

If you wish to fix the sound problem use a texture pack and it will override the sounds.

It is also International Fun at Work Day along with International Tatting Day so have fun everyone.

Temple Run 2 in Minecraft!

Now you can play Temple Run 2 in Minecraft.

Download the map here

Redstone-powered randomized parkour

All done by using a million command blocks

15 Obstacles, 5 in each region

Also randomized turns which automatically calculate the required entrance way based on your position AKA redstone wizardry

A total of 20 challenges

Completing these gives you cash to buy more  \/

6 unique upgrades adapted from the original game

Each upgrade can be leveled 5 times, increasing the benefits at each level.

Here is a video showcasing the Map

Minecraft Books, Really? not just one

If you are interested in getting started in Minecraft, buy it and start chopping and digging. Get answers to your questions by asking your kids, and referring to YouTube and Minecraft wikis. If that's still not enough, here are a few recommended Minecraft books:

The Ultimate Player's Guide to Minecraft, by Stephen O'Brien. This thorough guide to surviving and thriving in the world of Minecraft was written by a guy who loves Minecraft and has explored it deeply. (The author is also the inventor of the Mypressi espresso machine.)

The Minecraft Guide for Parents, by Cori Dusmann. This is especially good for parents of younger kids who need help buying and installing Minecraft. It also has good tips on how to play Minecraft with your kids.

Minecraft: The Unlikely Tale of Markus "Notch" Persson and the Game that Changed Everything, by by Daniel Goldberg and Linus Larsson. A compelling short biography of the creator of Minecraft. It's intended audience is probably adults, but most 10-year-olds would have no problem reading it.   

Enchanted Book Chest Shop

Note: This only works if the Chest Shop plugin is installed on the server of course.

If you wish to find out the enchantment code for any tool, weapon, armor, potion or book do /iteminfo while holding the item.

The syntax remains the same to sell and purchase any enchanted item, just add #enchantment ID at the end.

<Blank or Player Name or Your Name or Admin Shop>
<Quantity of the tool to Buy and Sell>

B <Buy Rate> : S <Sell Rate>
<Enchanted Book ID> # <Enchantment ID/Code>

Example:

RobinR

1

B 25000:S 15000

403#1a

To learn how to set-up your Chest Shop click here. You can use DV (Damage Value) for any potion to sell or purchase the potion at the chest shop, checkout the potions Damage Values here.
Enchanted Tools Chest Shop Codes/IDs can be found here.
Enchanted Armor Chest Shop Codes/IDs can be found here.

Cool Links and Software

Click here to see all the previously posted Cool Links and Software

mineConics

http://www.mineconics.net/
http://blog.mineconics.net/

Online minecraft circle and ellipse generator. A web app for creating circles and ellipses in Minecraft.

Voxel Shape Generator

http://oranj.io/blog/VoxelSphereGenerator

Use this tool to make spheres for Minecraft and the like. Idea originally stolen from Neil Fraser, but more recently inspired by friendly competition with my friend Jesse, whose Circle Generator seems a little two dimensional.

Pixel Circle / Oval Generator

Playing Minecraft, I like making circular things. I used a chart while I was building, but wanted to be able to make variable size ovals which is something I couldn't find a decent chart of or generator capable of, so I created this!

MineDraft

MineDraft allows you to draft your MineCraft ideas.

Click here to see all the previously posted Cool Links and Software