One of my many failed attempts at animation in my younger days involved the Simpsons Cartoon Studio. I was just thinking about it the other day and had to look it up on YouTube. It was a collection of backgrounds, animated sprites, music, sound effects, and props that let you create your own Simpsons “episodes.”

I never did much with it, but I was much more into creating horrible stop-motion animation with toys. Maybe someday I’ll dig some of it up just to further prove that I’m a dork.

There were lots of games like this in the 90s, did you have any? Mario Paint perchance?

Further Reading:

The Simpsons Cartoon Studio on Wikipedia

I don’t know how much it comes through here on Saturday Morning Central, but I’m a huge Apple fan. Since way before it was even announced, I’ve been looking forward to getting an Apple iPad, and since it’s release is just days away, a lot of videos are starting to come in from app developers. I’m pretty sure that apps will make this more popular than the iPhone, but only time will tell.

In addition to the fact that Apple’s official iPad case looks like a Trapper Keeper sprayed black (please Mead, make some TK iPad cases!), there are a few retro apps on the horizon that warrant me posting this here. Enjoy!

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If you grew up with the Nintendo Entertainment System like I did, I’m sure you wasted countless hours blowing into your games trying to get a few more levels of gameplay out of them when they were on the fritz. Usually that didn’t accomplish anything besides making you look like a dork, but now you can relive your old NES memories while playing the harmonica.

Some genius on Etsy has jammed some harmonicas into old NES cartridges, and should be rewarded for his amazing idea, so head over to his shop and buy one or two.

I think I speak for us all in saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Found via Chris Coyier

Retro Thing is a great blog about all things retro, with a slant towards gadgetry and gaming. Now they are getting into the hardware business with the Retro Thing USB Controller.

They had this designed and manufactured here in the United States, it lights up blue when plugged in via USB, and they even took some extra steps to make it extra hackable for the DIY crowd. It’ll work on Atari, Amiga, and Commodore emulators, or as a controller for your very own MAME cabinet (which is something I’ve been meaning to do). For $30, it’s a steal.

Check out the full story at Retro Thing or jump straight to the order page and support the geek cause.

Oh great. Not only am I putting up with the fact that I’m slowing getting pulled into the Harry Potter world AND I’m addicted to the LEGO video games, but now there is a LEGO Harry Potter game. Good thing it doesn’t come out until 2010, because I would probably stop working, sleeping, and showering until I was done if it came out sooner.

The game will cover the first four books and movies, which I think will work out a lot better than the LEGO Indiana Jones games, which was three films in one game, followed by a new film plus the three last ones again. Yeah, 1-4 sounds a lot less confusing.

You can check out the official site to see a cool behind the scenes video of some broom-flying action, as well as download wallpapers and such.