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Obsessively Detailed Map Of Springfield

An anonymous reader writes "With all these stories going around about governments' abilities to pinpoint our location via various means, it's quite surprising that one group of people have avoided them for so long. That dastardly family, The Simpsons, have been hidden in Springfield for far too long. Which brings us to the following obsessively detailed map of Springfield. From Jerry Lerma and Terry Hogan: "The mapping of Springfield began in the Spring of 2001 when we realized that no adequate map of Springfield existed either online or in print.""

45 of 371 comments (clear)

  1. But in episode... by joeldixon66 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Before we get a swag of comments mentioning errors / omissions in the map - I read the following from the article:

    "Due to the many inconsistencies among episodes, the map will never be completely accurate. Although we'd like our map to be as accurate as a map to any imaginary place can be, our main intent is to preserve the comic spirit of Springfield, document its unique identity, and to have some fun at the same time."

    IMO they did a great job! (although wasn't the Simpson's house in eyeshot of ...)

    1. Re:But in episode... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      although wasn't the Simpson's house in eyeshot of ...

      The nuke plant.
      The Springfield brdige.
      Kwik-E-Mart ...
    2. Re:But in episode... by Ayaress · · Score: 4, Interesting

      (it must exist in a higher-dimensional space)

      Actually, I believe Springfield is a network of interconnecting plates which levitate. These plates reconfigure themselves into whatever layout is funniest at any given time, and the whole assembly moves to new locations, which is why Springfield is within an afternoon drive of every major traffic location in the US and Canada, including Hawaii. This does, however, raise questions as to why the Simpsons flew to Australia and Japan.

      Although the Simsons' live adjacent to the Nuke plant in one episode, they have a picket fence (not a chain-link and barbed wire fence) accross their back yard with another row of houses behind it in another. In one episode, there's an air view of the area in which the Simspons' discover that everybody in Springfield has a pool except them, but in other episodes, shots of the Flanders' back yard reveals no pool.

      In one episode, Moe's is less than a block from the Simpson's house, but at the end of the Flaming Moe's episode, there's a panning shot revealing several blocks of Flaming Moe ripoffs in both directions from Moe's. Sometime's, Moe's is on a corner, sometimes its next to the music store where Lisa got her saxaphone, and in the episode where they hit oil under the school, it was sandwitched between the nuke plant and the school, with nothing else around but a thin chemical haze from the drill site.

      All this can easily be explained by the levitating plate theory, since the superior intelligence controlling Springfield simply reconfigures the city into a more amusing and/or ironic layout. I can only assume that Shelbyville, and possibly Capitol City, are also on the plate construct, as they are the only cities at a fixed distance from Springf field, and probably experience the same phenomena.

      As for the episode where Homer becomes sanitation director and destroys the city, I believe that the plate design originally included some comparatively pristine wilderness area, which became Springfield Site B when they moved the city.

      Yes, I watch WAY too much Simpson's. Yes, I'm also the same person who went equally in-depth explaining plot inconsistencies in all five Star Trek series and Farscape. No, I don't have a girlfriend, if you have to ask.

    3. Re:But in episode... by Stephen+Samuel · · Score: 5, Funny
      Perhaps not a whole episode, but I can definitely see it as being a side-point to an episode: To whit:

      A visitor to springfield is going with Homer to the bar.


      Visitor: Where are we going?
      Homer: We're going to the bar.
      Visitor: Well didn't we just pass the Quick-E-Mart?
      Homer: Yeah.
      Visitor: Well, I thought that the bar was right next to the Quick-E-Mart.
      Homer: It was yesterday but today it's somewhere else.
      Visitor: So the bar moved last night.
      Homer: No. It didn't move. It's just .. not where it was yesterday.
      Visitor: How do you know that?
      Homer: I dunno.. I just ... know. But it doesn't matter, I mean, it all makes sense.
      Visitor: It makes sense to you
      Homer: Well of course it makes sense to me. If it didn't make sense to me, then who would it make sense to.
      (pause)
      Homer: OK: You see that Nuclear power plant over there?
      Visitor: Yeah...
      Homer: Well, I work there, and I used to live right next to it. but now I don't.
      Visitor: When did you move?
      Homer: That's the whole point! We didn't move. We just don't live next to it any more. -- and I'm glad, too I really didn't like the smell.
      Visitor: the nuclear power plant smells?
      Homer: well, the change room does. I keep leaving my dirty socks there. After a while the smell can get overpowering.
      Visitor: I see... SO how long does it take to get to the bar now?
      Homer: Long enough for us to have this conversation... And I guess we're almost done now,
      Visitor: and how do you know that?
      Homer: Two reasons: One is that I'm getting tired of it -- you ask more questions than my kids do. And the other is that .. Where here. Wohoo!
      Now shutup and let's go drink.
      --
      Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
  2. repeat by Bitsy+Boffin · · Score: 4, Informative

    One quick search could have prevented the repeat goodness...

    http://slashdot.org/search.pl?tid=&query=springf ie ld&author=&sort=1&op=stories

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    NZ Electronics Enthusiasts: Check out my Trade Me Listings
    1. Re:repeat by jerde · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just uncheck the "duplicate stories" box on your preferences page. Worked for me...

      --
      INsigNIFICANT
  3. Just tell me... by FooGoo · · Score: 4, Funny

    how to get to Moe's

    --
    People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them
    1. Re:Just tell me... by evilviper · · Score: 5, Funny
      Just tell me... how to get to Moe's

      Why? Are you looking for Amanda Hugankiss?
      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  4. Are the same people... by thegoogler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Doing a map of new new york from futurama?

    1. Re:Are the same people... by hype7 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      maybe that will make /. too.

      this place is slowly shifting from "news for nerds" to "news for dorks" ;)

      there is a distinction!

      -- james

    2. Re:Are the same people... by NoData · · Score: 4, Funny

      this place is slowly shifting from "news for nerds" to "news for dorks" ;)

      there is a distinction!


      You're such a geek for pointing that out.

  5. Wow... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    this is even better than the last time it was posted and I looked at it and read the replies and posted my own reply.

  6. simpsons hit n run by shird · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why not just have a game of simpsons hit and run? Gives you a pretty detailed 3d look of springfield. And its from the makers, so more reliable.

    --
    I.O.U One Sig.
  7. Re:old! by MoeBot · · Score: 5, Informative

    They beat Slashdot by about three months. That is, for the first time around...

  8. Can you actually create one? by gordgekko · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't think there is any consistency to the locations in the series. The Simpsons' house alone has been located in a residential neighbourhood, beside Moe's Tavern and beside the nuclear power plant. How do you create a map where the locations are so fluid?

    --
    You want to know who isn't running Firefox 2.x? They spell it "definately" and "rediculous".
    1. Re:Can you actually create one? by surprise_audit · · Score: 4, Funny

      If the location isn't static, why should the map be?? Just toss in a randomiser that returns the locations of certain things...

    2. Re:Can you actually create one? by rokzy · · Score: 4, Informative

      well remember the town was moved when it got full of garbage so that can account for SOME of it.

    3. Re:Can you actually create one? by Scrameustache · · Score: 4, Insightful

      the town was moved when it got full of garbage so that can account for SOME of it.

      Even before that, across the street from their place are sometimes normal houses llike theirs, sometimes the mansion former presidents Bush and Ford lived in, sometimes an empty field leading to the highway, etc.

      Hell, even Flander's house isn't stable, in the Stonecutters ep it was the nuclear plant's parking lot.
      The Kwicky Mart moves around a lot too.

      Like Homer said: "Cartoons don't have to make sense".

      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

  9. Re:old! by Zugok · · Score: 5, Funny

    reruns of Simpsons on TV, and now reruns of Slasdot articles. Who'd have thought!!!

    --
    "I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
  10. Why bother when... by lxt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...the writers themselves have said on the DVD commentaries that although in the first few seasons a concious effort was made to keep geography accurate, after that they found it easier (and funnier) just to mess about with it, meaning the Simpsons' house is in many places (next to moes, next to the power plant, etc.).

  11. This ROCKS. by DrStrangeLug · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Seriously, I love it. Yes, I understand that you can never have an accurate map of Springfield (there are contradictions across episodes) but this is about as good as you can get. BTW, wasn't the Michael Jackson Expressway (formerly the Dali Lama expressway) renamed to the Matlock Expressway ?

  12. Even if it's not entirely accurate... by CosmeticLobotamy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can we give these guys some sort of award? Slashdot Medal of Honor or something? That's an impressive amount of nerdness, right there.

  13. Get me two tickets to the state Springfield is in! by IntelliTubbie · · Score: 5, Funny

    The map was originally going to indicate what state Springfield is in. Unfortunately, the margins were too small to contain it.

    Cheers,
    IT

    --

    Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.

  14. hey.... by Spatula+Sam · · Score: 5, Interesting

    there's no Flanders' house! What gives?

  15. Re:I'm sorry. So what? by Kokuyo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Even though you have a troll rating at the moment I write this I'd like to answer this question because I think it isn't trolling what you're doing... just a bit of missing the point ;).

    The Simpsons are funny if you are the kind of person to understand and like the jokes. You don't have to like them. But others do for the humor, for the political and social critics na dfor many more reasons. Sure, it's fictional. But what is not ficitonal in one or another way today? The Simpsons bring fans together and make them DO something together.
    So you can define this work as a way to waste your time or you can see it as a way to honor a piece of work that has brought and continues to bring people together.

    That is the reason why I think this project is plain cool.

  16. oh look, Google! by martin-boundary · · Score: 4, Funny

    Even Google has headquarters in Springfield! (look on the big map, next to the Springfield mall)

  17. new Slashdot game by Chmarr · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here's a new slasdot game for everyone...

    Pick a day of the year. Perhaps your birthday. On that day of the year, you submit the aformentioned Simpson's site to Slashdot, and lets see how long the editor's memory lasts before they consider this 'news' and include it in Slashdot.

  18. Re:I'm sorry. So what? by DCowern · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Simpsons suck! That dude who created Futurama is so much cooler!

    *wink*

  19. As a service to our readers by edsterino · · Score: 5, Funny

    it'll always be new to someone

    True. Even the type that Slashdot attracts can't read everything posted here. As a community service, here's some more news, should a reader have missed it the first 10**6 times around ( :) ):
    - holy cr*p. A meteor's going to smash into the Earth
    - Bill Gates and anyone who looks like him is evil, evil, evil
    - in Soviet Russia, the tin foil hat wears you
    - there's a floating point bug in the Pentium processor
    - Google's issuing an IPO
    - Perl is illegible line-noise
    - Python is for weenies

    Hope I didn't miss anything.

    If this doesn't get me some karma. I don't know what will.

    1. Re:As a service to our readers by darkmeridian · · Score: 4, Informative

      What kind of slashdotter are you? You should know that "Funny" mods don't increase your karma. Try begging to be modded "Informative" instead. (Hint, hint, mods.)

      Anyway, here are some more:
      - Natalie Portman is really hot.
      - Don't click on goatse.cx. Just don't.
      - Emacs kicks vi's ass.
      - Gentoo kicks ass.
      - Natalie Portman is really hot.
      - Slashdot is getting lame.
      - Macs kick the crap out of PCs.
      - BeOS kicks ass.
      - Everything you can do with your computer I can do with my Commodore 64.
      - Linux isn't hard; you're just stupid.
      - Natalie Portman is really hot.
      - KDE sucks.
      - GNOME sucks.
      - GNAAA: they're trolls.
      - Maria Sharapova is really hto.

      --
      A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
  20. missing address by commodoresloat · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't see "123 Fake St." on the map.

    1. Re:missing address by nounderscores · · Score: 5, Informative

      123 fake street is on the waterfront between Bart's Demolished Factory and Fake Vomit Inc, off Industrial Way.

  21. The "beep bop" stops... by Gordonjcp · · Score: 4, Interesting
    ... and it's a very, very eerie moment. If you're kind of zoned in on something, it's surprisingly easy to ignore even quite loud alarms. If an alarm is as loud as, say, a fire alarm, it can be hard to shout over the top of it if you need to communicate instructions to people. So - make it all go quiet.


    As an aside, a theatre show that my sister worked on (she's a sound and lighting engineer) called for a very deep silence, just as you come into the last act. How do you come up with a silence sound effect? Well, from a minute or two before doors, right the way through, she had some white noise playing through the PA, very quietly but noticeably. Because it was there when you walked into the auditorium, you don't notice it. Then, when you drop it out...

  22. Dear Slashdot editors: It's really fucking simple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    A google search of Slashdot springfield map brings up the previous story as the first hit.

    So, if I may be so bold as to suggest the following before posting slashdot stories from now on...

    1. Find two or three of the most relevent keywords, you know, the kinds of words likely to repeat themselves in multiple submissions.

    2. Go to google. You can find google at www.google.com. Here is a hyperlink to www.google.com. Here is a definition of the word "hyperlink".

    3. Assuming you haven't forgotten the important keywords from step 1, proceed to step 4. Otherwise, return to step 1. If this is the third or fourth time reaching step 3, you might want to consider finding a paper and pencil. If you already had a paper and pencil, then you might want to consider using them to write down the keywords.

    4. Now, with those words you've remembered (or written down) from step 1, go into the text box in the middle of that www.google.com webpage. Type in the following:
    Slashdot Keyword1 Keyword2 Keyword3

    5. If these are your search results, hit back on your web browser, and then type in the following:
    Slashdot Keyword1 Keyword2 Keyword3
    ONLY THIS TIME, replace the three keywords with the words that you remembered, or copied down, from step 1.

    6. Finally, have a look at some of the results to see if a slashdot story has already been posted on the submission you've just gotten. If there is a story, do not post the submitted story unless there is some information in the new submission that makes it somehow more relevent.

    Good luck, God speed, and don't forget to vote Republican.

  23. Re:Just tell me...where's Moe's by pdjohe · · Score: 4, Informative

    I just spent a half an hour trying to find Moe's...

    For those interested, it's in between 'Springfild Town Hall' and 'Springfild Junior High School'. :)

  24. Re:make yourself a GPS by RedLaggedTeut · · Score: 4, Funny
    Why not just make yourself a GPS hat out of an old coathanger? The signal degradation isn't too bad nowadays.
    Ah, that would have made a great McGyver Episode.
    --
    I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
  25. Re:State? YES by wertarbyte · · Score: 5, Informative
    They don't only "almost" say it - in episode 248 they do say it. It's Kentucky.

    No, they don't. They tell you where the actors playing "The Simpsons" live, but not where the show takes place. Let's see what SNPP has to say about it:

    In the first airing of [BABF19], "Behind The Laughter", the narrator gave Springfield's location as Northern Kentucky. For the second and later airings, this changed to Southern Missouri. Neither of these are admissible locations for Springfield, for the many reasons listed later in this document.

    What's the explanation? This episode is not canon. It portrays the show not as a cartoon created by Matt Groening, but as a live-action sitcom originally written by Homer and starring his own family. None of what happens is part of the main Simpsons continuity... just like any Halloween Special.

    --
    Life is just nature's way of keeping meat fresh.
  26. From the article: by darien · · Score: 5, Funny

    we realized that no adequate map of Springfield existed either online or in print

    Now those are some geeks. Adequate for what??

  27. Wikipedia by rudy_wayne · · Score: 5, Funny

    This belongs under the definiton of "WAY WAY WAY too much free time on your hands" and "REALLY REALLY need to get a life".

  28. MMORPG? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Am I the only one that thinks that now that a full map of Springfield is out there its only a matter of time before someone capitalizes and makes a Simpsons MMORPG. All of Springfield could be rendered 100% accurately now. Woo-wee!

    1. Re:MMORPG? by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 5, Interesting

      At the very least, someone could take an engine like CrystalSpace and make a Virtual Springfield, like the non-3D game that came out several years ago. The game was cool, but was too limited, and as a non-3D environment, it used animations to render travelling from point to point rather than doing it on the fly. Using a 3D engine would be far better, like the Simpsons Hit and Run levels on steroids.

      Perhaps a collaborative project where people can submit locations on the map which are compiled together in a single environment. I'd do it, but I'm just a grandiose idea guy. ;-)

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    2. Re:MMORPG? by Dr.+Mojura · · Score: 4, Informative

      There is a great Simpsons map for Wolfenstein ET. It's not as complete or as detailed as the map here, but it's still pretty cool to be running around through the Simpson house, armed to the teeth!

      --
      "Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion." - Democritus
  29. Re:old! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    which always makes me wonder.

    Why has taco not touched slashcode to make real improvements for almost 5 years?

    a simple modification to make the editor's side of the system to require a pull up query of all stories based on keywords in the headline would kill 90% of the dupes.

    I know that slashdot is and never has claimed to be a journalism site, but the amount of dupes is getting way out of hand.

    how about no ONE editor can publish a story but requires a second editor to approve the first approval?

  30. Patriot Act by dpilot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now we just have to hope that this map doesn't get put to terrorist uses. Maybe Homer should moonlight for DHS, next season.

    --
    The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
  31. REPOST by gabec · · Score: 5, Informative

    Anyone remember the last time we posted this link? :P http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/27/121423 1