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.