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[hoverboarder]

I'm a filmmaker now with a degree to back it up, but in the 90's it was all about stop motion claymation shorts and The Simpsons Cartoon Studio for PC which I played on a 1996 Sony Vaio. I ordered the game from my school's Scholastic Bookorders Program. Ordering books and PC games by mail from a catalog in school with checks was never so fun.

I spent a few years in the mid 90's making elaborate and crazy scenes in this fairly complex computer game. You could save your scenes, but unfortunately I never did. Below is a sample one I found on YouTube (not half as good as my own.) Did anyone else play this game? Did you get it from Scholastic Book Orders? Did you by chance back up your scenes and want to share them?

Sample Creation on YouTube

 

[Skyzard]

Wow I had this game, made me really want that other 3D game that was big at the time but way too expensive. LOVED THIS! But sorry I don't think I ever made anything good enough to record, nice to see it inspired you in a way though!

Think it was bought from regular store shelves here in the UK, might have the box somewhere in the garage! Totally forgotten about it till now. Good times.

I don't even remember getting to that e-mart stage. Wasn't good at navigating those menus. Great sound effects though, awesome classic simpsons drawings. Just watched an episode for the first time in ages as well, before reading this thread so bit hyped for them. Plus I've been thinking for a while we need more simpsons games, but anyway forget that, I'd love to see some more examples, might go checking on youtube later.

 

[Grayman]

I don't know if I specifically got it from scholastic but I had this. I probably still have the cd somewhere too. I think the things I did had a bit more story than the youtube in the OP! The game had a lot of scenes props and animations if I remember right and I spent a good amount of time playing with it.

 

[AzureSkies]

Still have the CD for this, I spent way too many hours of my childhood making crazy episodes. I remember being really proud of some of the things that I had created, for the 90s it was truly something.

 

[Xyber]

I had the demo for this, played it so much on our garbage PC we had back then.

 

[demolitio]

I used to love that game and I could remember just playing the demo for ages before I finally got the full game. If that qualifies me to be your partner in film-making...

I wish I still had something like it because it's infinitely better than most modern Simpsons episodes.

 

[AlphaSnake]

Wow. Yeah, I spent an incredible amount of tme on it. I was very good too, I used to save a lot of mine and my older brother and cousins loved them. What a throwback.

 

[andreyin]

Hah, I actually remember playing this a LOT, but it was a demo that came in a weird US magazine (together with the demos for some Power Ranger game, the first Tomb Raider and a Pink Panther adventure game).

I also played a lot with 3D Movie Maker. I think people still make videos with it, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGJKeESLBpQ

 

[Clawww]

I used to play something similar to this based on Batman TAS.

 

[Jim Sterling]

I smiled at the title of this thread. I wasted so many damn hours with this. Nothing I did with it made the remotest bit of sense, but it amused me regardless.

I miss the days when things like this were happening on PC. I remember the Dilbert one as well, just a nonsense collection of half-games and desktop-mutating silliness that served very little purpose. None of it was especially great, but the potential to waste hours and hours doing nothing was pretty damn scary.

 

[hoverboarder]

it's infinitely better than most modern Simpsons episodes.

So true. Haven't really had consistent laughter in almost a decade from any one episode.

I also played a lot with 3D Movie Maker. I think people still make videos with it, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGJKeESLBpQ

A) I loved the shit out of the 3D Movie Maker software that came installed on the Sony Vaio PC I had. I possibly played it more than the Simpsons game in my OP.

B) The video you posted in the quote above had me crying from laughter and nostalgia. Nice work!

 

[Rich!]

fuck me I remember this

It came free with the daily mail or something back in the day. It was amazing.

 

[RoadHazard]

I'm pretty sure I played the demo of this. You couldn't do much beyond making Bart skate on the sidewalk like in the opening of the show, I think. At least that's what I remember doing.

 

[Whimsical Phil]

Aw, yeah. Don't have anything backed up, sadly.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

I had one like this for Spiderman that came free with the state-of-the-art Pentium Packard Bell my parents bought. It was pretty entertaining.

 

[EdReedFan20]

Man that flyer brings back memories (not that particular flyer) in Elementary School. I remember circling the books I wanted and then the book fair coming to school. It was fun to get out of class and be able browse the collection.

 

[Syrinx]

Only Simpsons PC game I remember having growing up was Virtual Springfield.

 

[andreyin]

B) The video you posted in the quote above had me crying from laughter and nostalgia. Nice work!

I didn't make that though. Check out the other videos from that user, they're all amazing!

 

[hoverboarder]

Aw, yeah. Don't have anything backed up, sadly.

Honored to be photo quoted with the real thing. Yep, that's the disc allright! And Virtual Springfield was amazing. I probably spent combined days in it.

 

[Noi]

I had one like this for Spiderman that came free with the state-of-the-art Pentium Packard Bell my parents bought. It was pretty entertaining.

The music playing while you made the characters move was the best.

 

[EdReedFan20]

I had one like this for Spiderman that came free with the state-of-the-art Pentium Packard Bell my parents bought. It was pretty entertaining.

I still have that!

 

[AlphaSnake]

Always wondered....why did Bart have a blue shirt?

 

[hoverboarder]

Always wondered....why did Bart have a blue shirt?

According to many of my early 90's Simpsons toys, that was the original shirt color wasn't it? I know why the Simpsons are yellow, but I do not know why Bart's shirt changed color.

 

[TheGoddamn]

Thank you for bringing back the fond memories I had messing around with this game! I feel quite bad now that I have nothing backed up, but I made an entire series of Bartman shorts that began with an enemy, regular Bart being alerted to the danger, transforming, and eventually saving the day. Bartman fought Mr. Burns, the aliens, and other random enemies that the game included.

I abused the hell out of its frame-by-frame manipulation, onionskin, and transition effects. I miss the 90s!

I smiled at the title of this thread. I wasted so many damn hours with this.

Jim puts it best. Now to dig up my old CD, which insists that I run the game in 256-color mode.

 

[Toad.T]

The mom and pop video store near my house always had this for rent (That alone seems like an anachronism, doesn't it? Hell, even my Library did that) and it always tantalized me when I saw it.

Unfortunately, my folks were immensely skeptical of PC games (It was an early age, they probably heard that viruses can be forced onto retail CD's or something) and since I was under their roof at the time, I couldn't play it.

Sucks.

 

[Gloam]

I used to play this a lot during free classes at school. Fun game, we had the Nickelodeon 3D Movie Maker at home, that was a great game too. Preferred the Nick Toons characters to the generic 3D Movie Maker guys at the time but after watching that video posted earlier, I think the generic dudes win out when it comes to hilarity!

 

[clockpunk]

I was just about to post that the Nickelodeon 3D Movie Make was my poison of choice (along with The Simpsons one, of course - still have that in a jewel case up here - no idea where the big cardboard box went, though - used to lve those). ^_^ Only had the demo to play with for months, before my grandprents somehow managed to find a copy for me, one Christmas. Good memories.

I always wanted the Spiderman one, but couldn't find it all over here - and had no idea there was a Batman version! This shall require further research.

 

[AzureSkies]

Always wondered....why did Bart have a blue shirt?

I never understood why in merchandise and advertisements, Bart sometimes had a blue shirt but that was never the case with the show.

 

[Cannon Goose]

Got this out of a box of old PC stuff my cousins gave me back in the day. It was real easy to make something dumb as hell, and that's great!

 

[Tenki]

I remember making movies with this game when I was a child in school. I loved it

 

[magnetic]

The music playing while you made the characters move was the best.

That's exactly the type of stuff I'd end up making. I don't even know why this is so funny to me.

 

[Raytow]

I never understood why in merchandise and advertisements, Bart sometimes had a blue shirt but that was never the case with the show.

I remember hearing that they changed the red because it was a satanic color, so dumb it might be real.

 

[onken]

Never had it but must have seen the trailer a hundred times on one those Simpsons compilation VHS tapes. In hindsight it looks pretty terrible.

 

[NowCutThatOut]

Original 3D Movie Maker with the annoying Scottish guy was ah-mazing (the Nickoloden version sucked tho), but I never got into the Simpsons one. So much of the Simpsons is about the voice-acting and we could never recreate it well enough, except my brilliant Mr Burns impersonation.

Virtual Springfield > all other Simpsons CD-Rom games.

 

[Dishwalla]

Always wondered....why did Bart have a blue shirt?

It's been said that Bart was given a blue shirt in merchandise to make it easier to identify bootleg products. Nearly all merchandise from the early-mid 90s(though I do have a Bart key chain bought at a San Jose, California Walgreens in 1991 with him in an orange shirt) has him wearing a blue shirt, or in some cases green, like on the cover of Bart's Nightmare and Virtual Bart.

 

[Nocturnowl]

All of my nostalgia, I messed around with this so much back in the day.
I wish I could recall more of what I actually did with it, probably Sideshow Bob chasing Bart ending like a Roadrunner cartoon.

 

[RaikuHebi]

I remember it being advertised on this:

Incidentally the first episode on it is my favourite Simpsons episode.

 

[Omega_Tom_Hanks]

The closest we will come to getting good new Simpsons episodes.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

I had one like this for Spiderman that came free with the state-of-the-art Pentium Packard Bell my parents bought. It was pretty entertaining.

Exactly the same. Loved that program.

I still remember in all the stores of a 486dx and a pentium doing the same task with the pentium being hugely faster.

the future was here.

 

[ichtyander]

The music playing while you made the characters move was the best.

Hahah, I had this as a kid, hilarious stuff. Does anybody know where the guitar theme of Peter Parker running is from? I'm wondering if it's a sample from the Spider Man: Animated Series from the 90's, some other source or just recorded for the program? That theme's stuck with me to this day.

 

[Carl]

Talk about a blast from the past. This game was amazing, haha.

 

[Pikawil]

Spidey Cartoon Maker is the ultimate in dada art.

Also, Simpsons Cartoon Studio used correctly is funnier than Modern Simpsons.

 

[GorillaJu]

I had a similar PC game called Hollywood High. Wasted so many hours with my two sisters on that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4UEH2_VyXA

 

[BGBW]

I had the demo for this and played with it a lot. I think I may have ended up with the full release at a later date from a jumble sale or something but it would have been years after I played with the demo so I don't think it was ever installed.

Maybe I'll hunt for it and have a quick laugh.

 

[Jacobbles]

I spent an unhealthy amount of time in both Cartoon Studio and Virtual Springfield as a kid... but somehow I'd forgotten they existed until this thread. Thanks OP... time to go dig up those discs.

 

[BladeoftheImmortal]

i had no idea how to play it.

 

[Alex Anderson]

"Oh, my itty bitty Barty." - Marge

Always thought that one sounded creepy.