[Ric]

Ace!

Official site: http://www.minecraft.net/

Not been on this section of the forum for ages, so no idea if this little gem has been mentioned but it's brilliantly simple and addictive. Like lego mixed with Beyond the Forbidden Forest (bet you are all too young to remember that!) where you control the landscape around you while also needing to fight off the zombies and monsters that appear at night.

The basic premise falls into two categories, survival and creative - and these can either be in single player or multiplayer which is not quite a MMORPG at present but will certainly evolve into one.

Survival is pretty simple. At night and in caves where there is no light, bad things lurk. They will attack you and kill you. You either build yourself a shelter and cower until the night is over or go out and kick some zombie ass. The problem with the latter is that you don't start with anything other than your bare hands. Which leads onto creating stuff.

This is the beauty of Minecraft. It's a simple pyramid of complexity (not unlike that you would find for things like Civalization). As I said you only have your bare hands to begin with, which allows you to dig earth, gravel, sand and wood. Wood is the most important to begin with, as you need to make wooden pick axes in order to break stone and find minerals (coal, ore, diamonds and gold). This is where the hierarchy comes in, in order to make a wooden pick axe you need to do this...

1 wooden block -> 4 planks -> 8 sticks. In order to make an axe from that you need two sticks for the handle and 3 planks for the blade. Once you get that axe you can start mining away stone which you can use in place of the wood for the blade as each weapon or tool you use has a limited usage. The stronger the material used the longer it lasts. Follow this link and you'll see how varied the crafting can get.

Oh, btw, did I tell you that the whole thing looks like it's in a 3D Mario Brothers platform game with everything in square blocks. It looks wonderfully retro which might put you off to start with but actually go on to add huge amounts of character to the game.

Here is a simple video of how to survive your first night on minecraft, I would have done it a different way but that's the beauty of the game; you have so much flexibility.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=0VWnQHS-ffs"]http://www.youtube. c...h?v=0VWnQHS- ffs[/url]

[Ric]

40 views and no comments? Shame as it's a really addictive wee game.

[Ric]

Damnit! I'm determined to get at least one person interested in this...

The video above shows what they claim to be a 1:1 ratio of the Starship Enterprise made out of stone blocks mined in Minecraft. It's an extreme case but shows you how much control you have over your environment. That world would have started out like a normal one with water, grass, trees, etc and has been carved away to create this.

[Gaz]

I want to get interested in it, but I've heard it's as addictive as crack - just what I don't need right now unfortunately!

[Ric]

Right, I'll have to pull out the big guns...



This is genuinely an ALU created in minecraft. Seriously. Taken up in scale and run through "redstone" (a mineral you can mine for which acts like a gunpowder trail) to simulate the electricity. With registers and a 16 bit (16 bit ffs!) wide bus.

[superandy_07]

Minecraft is the dugs baws.

A handy guide

This post has been edited by superandy_07: 29 September 2010 - 00:23

[Ric]

It is indeed the mutt's nuts. Some of the creations made are both really clever but hellishly time consuming. I've been playing the game a total of about 20 hours now and got nothing much more than a rudimentary house and a f**k off sized cave. To build things large things must take an age in single player.

[NotSainteeSean]

been playing the normal one and now wana play the alpha, dont mind the tenner. however its all in finnish and i also dont have a paypal account? any help? even if its "just download it illegally"

[Fife Saint]

I'm strangely intrigued. Is this sicky material?

[Ric]

NotSainteeSean, on 29 September 2010 - 22:14, said:

been playing the normal one and now wana play the alpha, dont mind the tenner. however its all in finnish and i also dont have a paypal account? any help? even if its "just download it illegally"

You can download the alpha from the website [direct link], when logging on (edit:when downloaded and run), just cancel and select to play offline. The Single Player version of that has both creative and survival modes rolled into one.

The server was down the other weekend so they opened up online to everyone and I went on, but I don't think it had the zombies at night. I didn't play it for long to be honest as the offline/single player is fun enough.

Fife Saint, on 29 September 2010 - 22:22, said:

I'm strangely intrigued. Is this sicky material?

It's like Marmite. You either love it or hate it. Addictive bugger though.

This post has been edited by Ric: 30 September 2010 - 01:09

[Gaz]

I downloaded this this morning after a mate of mine recommended it to be last night.

It's brilliant. I've built myself a wee cave with three rooms, it's like a wee hoose

[Lichtieforlife]

I've got this! I built a huge bridge and it tunnels through mountains and stuff, took me about a month and takes about ten minutes to run through all of it. Also got a tree house which was fun to build, out of ideas now though

[Lichtieforlife]

Anyone got any mods for this? I've got one that means it's always daytime and one that gives you an axe that can cut through anything in one cut.

[Widge]

I was going to buy this and me and a friend were going to go all architectural, but I decided if I got it, my uni work would suffer dramatically.

[Mr Hahn]

This game is unbelievable. For something so simple and basic, it's so much fun.
The Swedish guy that made it is a genius aswell.
Had it for a few months now and it's still so much fun but very time consuming.

[Mackie The Staggie]

This is what internet is for....simple gameplay, simple fun. Bloody addicitive though.

[Lichtieforlife]

What's everyone made? I'm needing ideas...

[MattBairn]

It looks AWESOME!! Need roll -100

[Turbo_dee]

Might give this game a bash tomorrow. Does Ric still post?

[Mr Hahn]

Lichtieforlife, on 07 March 2011 - 17:48, said:

What's everyone made? I'm needing ideas...

I found a massive as f**k cave and knocked out the roof and replaced it with glass. Looks fucking awesome. Also make a massive railway that covers most of the areas I've explored so far.

[xbl]

I've made absurd ornamental gardens, with moats, trees, rivers, waterfalls, and that kind of nonsense. Its basically computer crack.

Currently building an undersea glass railway tunnel, planning to connect my two houses (which are currently 2 full days boat ride apart) by a powered minecart ride that sits on the seabed.

This post has been edited by xbl: 08 March 2011 - 01:07

[MattBairn]

Turbo_dee, on 07 March 2011 - 21:48, said:

Might give this game a bash tomorrow. Does Ric still post?

Not as often as he used to but he still frequents the board.

[Mr Hahn]

f**k.

Was kicking about my awesome cave before and opening appeared which I went through to find literally disneyland. I mined about 20 units of diamond, gold, infinite amounts of coal and iron ore. So having collected all of this, I find a thread of coal in the floor and go to mine it. Fall through the floor into this bit mother fucker waterfall which washes me into a huge lava pit. I lose all my items and respawn to f**k knows where. Some of a bitch.

[MattBairn]

Jesus this game is addictive!!!

So simple in concept but so complex! I havent seen daylight for DAYS!!

[MattBairn]

superandy_07, on 29 September 2010 - 00:22, said:

Minecraft is the dugs baws.

A handy guide

LoLz

Im such a fucking amature! The stuff in that makes my wee house look laughable!