Link to the Past in Minecraft - The Video Tour (Finally!)

I've finally done it! I managed to get video recorded of my Link to the Past Hyrule Minecraft project and here is part 1. If you've been following this blog for a while now, you've already seen most of this in screenshot form, but now you get to see what it's actually like in-game. Check it out. Comments and feedback are always welcome.

Minecraft: Hyrule Project Continues in the Dark World

Hey guys! In the last post, which was forever ago now, I mentioned a setback where my Hyrule save became corrupted and I lost a ton of work in my Link to the Past Project. Well, I've recovered from that setback and I have picked it up again and have gotten back to work on it! In fact, I found the old schematic file I created in mcedit to copy the Light World into the Dark World.With that gem located, I basically pasted it back over the corrupted Light World and within a few minutes, hours of work was recovered. I then did the same thing on the Dark World level and began the process of modifying light into dark.

I began working in the center of the map by removing Hyrule Castle and forming the footprint of the Pyramid. I next moved south and have completed everything from the edge of the Swamp east to the edge of the map including the frozen Lake Hylia. I've moved north from the corner and am currently working on the area around the first dungeon. I've been taking care of the small caves and buildings as I've gone, but haven't done anything with the actual dungeons yet.

Progress in the Dark World

I don't have a lot of screenshots for the work done so far as the screenshot above actually covers most of what has been completed. Plus, I've been experimenting with screen recording software and it is my hope to put some videos on YouTube later on and give you an actual tour of the world from start to finish.

That's all I've got for you this time. Catch you later!

~ Ebi

A Setback and a Sky Factory

I'm so bummed out. My hard drive crapped out on me a few days back and I lost quite a bit of information. The greatest loss was my Legend of Zelda Link to the Past Hyrule build. Luckily, I had made a backup at the beginning of February, so not all is lost. What I did end up losing was all the progress I made in the Dark World, as well as the last chunk of work in the Light World after the Lost Woods. Guess I need to make backups more frequently...

On the plus side, I've also discovered ATLauncher which gives you one click backups of your saves. I've loaded the backup I had there and updated the world to 1.9. Well, I've got some work to re-do. Glad I have the screenshots though. That should make reproducing it smoother.

Speaking of ATLauncher, I've fallen in love with Sky Factory 2. In my world, I've done so much and I'm producing a stupid amount of resources and it all started with a tree and a dirt block. So much fun figuring everything out. Challenge wise, I've completed the Wood, Stone, Farming, Exploration, and Machine Ages and am working on the Age of Power and Age of Dragons and looking towards the Age of Insanity. I actually have a 1k by 1k Ender Quarry running in the Deep Dark already. That took a while to place... Anyways, here's a peek into my world:

An overview of my base. Monster spawning area on lower right, house in the center, max size reactor framed out, tainted soil room on left. The only thing not shown is another building with 5 blaze spawners (it's behind me).

The "processing" level. Just finished this up last night. It takes End Stone and Cobble Stone and grinds it down to Crushed End Stone, Gravel, Sand and Dust. Those are sieved down to produce Crushed Ores which get auto-hammered to Pulverized Ores which get auto-hammered to Powdered Ores which then get smelted into ingots. Very efficient and produces a ton of stuff.

A peek into my base. Nothing special, but it's "home". LOVE the Ultimate Furnace from Magical Crops.

Minecraft - Link to the Past Lost Woods

This post will finally finish off the tour of the Light World in my Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past Hyrule Build.

This makes the 11th post in my series of this project spanning 3 years (with massive gaps in between). To help you get caught up, here is the history:

• Project Start (Hyrule Castle) - March 2013
• Eastern Palace - August 2013
• Sewers and Sanctuary - September 2013
• Death Mountain / Tower of Hera - December 2013
• Zora's Domain / Lake Hylia - April 2014
• Swamp / Misc Updates - November 2014
• Wooded Area (Flute Boy's Grotto) - November 2014
• Desert Palace - December 2014
• General Progress Update - February 2016
• Kakariko Village - February 2016
• Lost Woods / Finishing Touches (this post) - February 2016

Now that that's over with, lets wrap this thing up and officially call the project "half complete".

Minecraft - Link to the Past Kakariko Village

Since my last post a few days ago, I've completed the entire Light World! Everything is built and in place from every tree, bush, cave, and building. The only things that remain are aesthetic touches like what you are able to see from certain viewpoints. The prime example is being on top of Death Mountain and looking around the world, you can see past the "boundaries" of the map to the blank outside world. I'm working on creating natural looking structures (mountains, fields, etc) outside that to blend it out and/or hide it. I'm really putting a lot of effort into making the world feel "real".

But for now, I'm going to leave you with two more posts. The first one, this one, will give a tour of Kakariko Village. The next post to follow will cover the Lost Woods and remaining areas as well as a few of the finishing touches I've done on the Light World. So without further ado, I present my take on Kakariko Village.

The southern end of town.

We'll start at the south and make out way north. One of the biggest challenges with the entire world is the elevations. Taking a 2D game into 3D has been a huge challenge and I've done my best to make the elevation differences work. For this area, I wound up dropping the entire space down into a valley just so I could create the ramps back up into the main village. I believe it worked well enough.

A game of chance perhaps?

House of the quarreling brothers.

Race to the Heart Piece.

Some light reading in the library.

Moving up into the village, lets start at the Blacksmith's House. I had to be extra careful around this house to insulate it because of the lava in their furnace. I think it turned out great and I like using cobwebs as smoke coming from the chimney.

The Blacksmiths' House.

The Blacksmiths' House.

And of course, the caves under their house are there complete with the shrine to "curse" your magic.

Moving into the village itself, I spent a lot of time detailing it out as much as possible. In one of my earlier posts, I said I had to "stretch" the world to fit the full-size castle in place. For Kakariko, that greatly worked to my advantage. Where I normally did the world in as close to a 1:1 ratio as possible, the village itself is 2:1. This allowed all the houses to be decorated internally in a way that fits their size without making them feel cramped. I really like how this scale turned out. Looking inside the tavern (below) is a prime example of the amount of detail I was able to achieve.

The Tavern and surrounding space.

Inside the Tavern.

Grass filled yard.

The cave in the northwest.

Inside the northwest cave.

So there you have it, my rendition of Kakariko. I didn't post a screenshot inside every house, but you can get the idea from the ones I did post. Next time, we'll move on into the Lost Woods.

Minecraft - Hyrule from Link to the Past Update

It's been almost 3 years since I started my Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Hyrule Build in Minecraft. I pretty much stopped working on it for a very long time, but recently have picked it back up again to try and finish it. Quite a bit of the places around the Light World have been updated or modified slightly since I originally started as my methods and design ideas have changed over time. Plus, when 1.8 came out, I gained a whole new set of blocks to play with that made a lot of areas just look better.

The Light World as it currently stands.

My last status post was almost a year ago and I covered the Desert Palace. Since then, as you can see in the screenshot above, I have moved north from there and finished Kakariko Village and the Lost Woods. All that is left in the Light World is the strip from the wood cutter's hut down to the blacksmith's house and the Light World will be complete according to the original layout. I still have some aesthetic cleanup to do around Death Mountain and Zora's Domain to blend or create the background and try to make it appear more natural.

When I started doing this, I didn't have the most powerful computer and my render distances were low. On newer hardware with a high distance, the flaws around the edges show a lot more, so I have a little cleanup work do do now.

Once the Light World is complete, the plan is to put MCEdit to the test and see if I can copy/paste the entire map into the Dark World below. As I explained in my first post, I created a custom super flat map that consists of two "worlds" on top of each other. The Dark World is the first 150 blocks and the Light World is the second 150 blocks.

I'm in the process of taking more screen shots, so look for detailed updates on Kakariko and the Lost Woods soon.

Download Link?
I've had several people ask for a download link. I do eventually plan on doing just that and releasing it to the wild, but for now, I want to keep it until it's finished. Since the Dark World mirrors the Light World in so many ways, creating it should not take nearly as long to complete as it will mostly be "done" as soon as I paste it in and switch the grass to Mycelium.

Minecraft - Link to the Past - Desert Palace

 

Work continues in my Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Hyrule build in Minecraft. I just finished work on the Desert Palace which brings my Light World up to about 75% complete. I'll move on to Kakariko next (which will go fast) and then the Lost Woods which might take a bit due to the sheer number of trees required.

Minecraft - Link to the Past Work Continues

Okay, so I've been back on a Link to the Past kick recently and have been working on it more than I should. Sue me... :-P

Anyways, I've completed the wooded section between Link's House and the lower section of Kakariko. I was dreading this because of the sheer number of trees in this section, but it turned out not to be bad at all. I laid out the basic foundation with just the stumps, then used MCEdit to copy/paste an already done tree on top of all the trunks. It actually didn't take long at all.

The wooded area.

Another update I made was to the woods surrounding Link's house. Before, they were in-game grown trees (instead of the hand-crafted "Hyrule Tree"). They got the job done, but never quite looked right. Now I think they look a whole lot better if I do say so myself.

A closeup view of a single "Hyrule Tree". 2x2 stump, 7 blocks high, with 4 Glowstone in the leaves making each tree give off a little bit of light.

Now where did he bury that ocarina flute?

Another section that I have completed the roughing in portion is the lower half of Kakariko. You can see part of it in the first screenshot in this post. In order to accommodate the levels and still stay in sync with the rest of Kakariko, I wound up digging that section down into a valley. It works and I don't think it's too disruptive to the world design.

Plugging away and the half-way point is approaching. I'm 2/3 done with the Light World now and then it's on to the Dark World! The Dark World will go a lot faster as I plan to copy the entire Light World using MCEdit and Paste it down below. A quick find/replace with Grass for Mycelium and voila, a rough Dark World. Little bit of hand editing to the over-world and build the dungeons and call it good.

Minecraft - Link to the Past Updates

It's been a long time since I stepped foot in my Link to the Past build in Minecraft, but I did just that and have made a good chunk of progress. I finished the light-world swamp area and the entrance to the desert. I've also laid out the ground work for Kakariko village and part of the Lost Woods. It's not much to look at yet, but it's progress nonetheless.

Now that 1.8 is out, we have many new blocks at our disposal and I really like what is now available. I need to go back through my world and see if any of the new blocks can benefit the rest of the map in terms of design. One place I know of off the top of my head is the Tower of Herra. Because of world height issues, I had to make each floor only 2 blocks high with a 2 block high floor so that the orange/blue "switches" wouldn't show from the floor below. Now that we have carpet, that's no longer an issue. I'll remove one layer of flooring to make each floor 3 high and replace the wool blocks with carpet tiles.

Below are some screens of the recent progress. I'll post more when I have more work done.

The Swamp Area is now complete.

Entrance to the Sewer area.

Flood Gate room.

The path to the desert area.

The very roughed in desert area.

Paths are in place for Kakariko. I've doubled the scale of the village to help it fit in the world since I have extra space. It will also make the houses much less cramped once constructed.

Taking advantage of the better render distances to show off an overview of most of the world. Here is Hyrule Castle and the Eastern Palace.

Overhead view of the lake and swamp.

Sanctuary and Death Mountain.

Minecraft - Link to the Past - Zora's Domain and Lake Hylia

Time to continue on with my Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past recreation in Minecraft. Today, we'll head into Zora's Domain and jump down to Lake Hylia.

Still Alive

Four months. That's how long it's been since I've blogged about anything on here. No, I'm not dead, I am in fact still very much alive. I've been busy between church, work, and my newest son and haven't had much time to do a lot of gaming let alone write about it. Of course that doesn't mean I haven't been gaming at all! I just don't get to as often as I would like to.

Minecraft

I still continue to play Minecraft (PC) and have been working on my own world quite a bit. I finally discovered my first Stronghold and defeated the Enderdragon which was exciting. The Stronghold itself is an amazing structure. It's smashed together with an abandoned mineshaft and a ravine. Very cool. I'm in the process of "cleaning" the structure up by replacing all the cracked and mossy stone brick with regular stone bricks. I also have gotten in the habit of widening the mineshaft tunnels by 1 block on each side so I'm doing that as well. Really opens things up and makes the place look cool.

In my Hyrule map, I've finished Zora's Domain and Lake Hylia. With that, the entire eastern side of the Light World is complete. I've moved along the southern side into the swamp area and it's about half complete.

I guess the Xbox Edition has received a nice update recently. I find it hard to go back to that version after spending so much time on the PC. It's a shame too. I finally completed my underground pyramid and don't even feel up to doing anything with it to enjoy it.

Going Back In Time

Here recently, I've taken a step back a few console generations and have been playing PS2 games. What makes it special is the fact that I'm playing them on my laptop thanks to the pcsx2 emulator. I'm also able to use my ps3 controller to play them thanks to MotionJoy. Right now I'm working through Kingdom Hearts II. Been a long time since I have played the game and I had forgotten just how much fun it is. I don't know if I'll play any other PS2 games after I complete KH2. It's just fun to do for the time being and it's nice to be able to put a show/movie on for the kids and still play something without watching My Little Pony or Magic Schoolbus for the millionth time...

Borderlands 2

On the Xbox 360, the last time I even turned it on was several weeks ago. I got online and ran around Borderlands 2 for a while finally completing my first Headhunter Pack. That game is still a ton of fun. I need to finish up True Vault Hunter Mode, especially since I discovered the "Loot The World" app on Android. I've sent some sweet equipment to my game and need to get back on and collect them.

Fable 3

Since my last blog, I've finished up a few Xbox games. I finally made it all the way through Fable 3. Truly a fun game to play. I played a good character (and have the angel wings to prove it). I think I'll try an evil character if I ever start a new game and see how much of a difference that makes. I've been tempted to pick up a copy of the Anniversary Edition of the original Fable, but that will have to wait.

Bioshock: Infinite

I also finished up Bioshock Infinite. All of the Bioshock games have been absolutely amazing and Infinite is no exception. It took me a while to fully grasp the ending (I had to go through it again) but once I did, it was a true "Bioshock Moment". Not quite the same impact of the twist in the first, but good nonetheless.

SOCOM

Switching over to the PlayStation 3, we said goodbye a few months ago to the game that was the original reason for me getting the system: SOCOM: Confrontation. Now that the PS4 is out, Sony is slowly shutting down servers for PS3 games and this was one of the ones that got the axe. What's even more unfortunate is that the game is online only so now I basically have a nice coaster. Once the major launch issues were worked out, this game was a lot of fun and we make sure to play it as much as possible in the final weeks to properly say goodbye.

Gran Turismo

Also on PS3, I put Gran Turismo 5 back in and have been doing a lot of racing. I'm about 80% through the A-Spec races, but I'm to the point where each race is either a 30+ minute race or a championship that takes well over 90 minutes to complete. Beyond that are the Endurance races that start at 4 hours and go up to 24 hours of racing. And yes, that is literally 24 real world hours of racing! I hate to say this, but I think I'm done with it. I might move on to GT6 in the future, but I don't plan on it as of now.

Friday Night Gamimg - Killzone

For our Friday Night Game Night on PS3, we're currently playing multiplayer on Killzone 2. Quite a few of us picked up the Trilogy a while back and this has been the game of choice after SOCOM went kaput. We're basically learning the levels and trying to play without bots as much as possible to help us rank up and get better weapons. Last Friday, I finally unlocked the shotgun. The other guys didn't like that...

I played part of the campaign for the first Killzone, but it's too much of a "PS2 shooter" that I had a hard time getting into it. Instead, I went to YouTube and watched all the cut-scenes for the basic story so I could move on. I haven't played any of the campaigns yet for 2 or 3, so those are on the ever growing to-do list.

Ratchet & Clank

One last thing I completed on PS3 was the complete Ratchet & Clank HD Trilogy as well as Deadlocked. That was 3 easy platinum trophies (I'm missing the one for the first R&C game because I don't want to spend that many hours grinding bolts for the RYNO...) Aside from Final Fantasy, this has got to be one of my favorite gaming series. I'm thinking of getting Into The Nexus once the price comes down a bit. It will be a sad day when Insomniac announces the next R&C game is PS4 exclusive.

Moving to Next Gen?

One thing my friends keep asking me is if I'll make the switch to next gen and if so, which one. My honest answer is not yet and I don't know. PlayStation 4 was my first choice a long time ago and I'm still leaning that direction. We don't have cable or satellite (we barely watch broadcast TV even), so the One doesn't appeal to me on that front. Either way, that's a ton of money to save up for something I wouldn't be able to use and enjoy nearly as much as I would like to.

For right now, I'm saving my money for 2 things: Diablo 3 (Xbox 360) and a Homebrew Kit so I can make my own beer. ;-)


Until next time!

Minecraft - Link to the Past - Death Mountain

Time to scale up to the heights of Death Mountain in Part 4 of my Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Minecraft Project.

Minecraft - Link to the Past Hyrule - Sewers & Sanctuary

This is Part 3 of my Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Hyrule recreation in Minecraft. [Part 1 Here | Part 2 Here] This time, we head back into the Castle's Throne Room and begin our jaunt through the sewers to the Sanctuary and surrounding area

Minecraft - Link to the Past Hyrule - Eastern Palace

And I'm back! After a lot of work, I'm ready to reveal the next set of screenshots from my Legend of Zelda: a Link to the Past Hyrule Build in Minecraft. The first post took us through the basics and Hyrule Castle, so now it's time to head east towards the Eastern Palace.

Minecraft - New Survival World Castle

I bet you were hoping my next update would be a continuation of my own Hurule project. Well, work on that has slowed down a bit, but I am still plugging away at it. I've finished most of Death Mountain now except for the Eastern caverns. Figuring how to make all those work has been a pain! (There are a few quick photos at the end of this post)

What I want to share today is a new world I started that I've become rather fond of. As usual, I started on pure Survival without cheats, but with the Bonus Chest. Right off the bat, I found an extreme hills biome with a great mountain that had a huge opening through it. Naturally, I had to climb to its peak and claim it as my own. From a simple dirt base in the side of the mountain, my castle began to take shape. This is where it stands currently.

Minecraft - Big Project (PC) - Hyrule from Link to the Past

Hello everyone. No, I haven't disappeared. I've simply been busy with life and haven't had much time to play games recently. Most of my time has been spent playing Borderlands 2 on the Xbox 360 and playing some in my Survival Map on Minecraft PC. I've also still been blasting away at what I'm now considering a stupid project in Minecraft: Xbox Edition; my bedrock to surface pyramid. (I'm getting close to completion though!)

But there is one project that I have been working on when I get a chance on Minecraft for the PC that I'd like to go ahead and share with everyone. Now, when you see it, you're probably going to say "But you already did that on the Xbox" which is partially true. But, with the power of the PC's version, as well as the extra block types and items, I've been able to do it so much better. Plus, being able to use external tools such as mcedit has made a huge difference. Add to that the customizable "Super Flat" levels, and I now have the foundation for my epic project.

I'm recreating the entire world of Hyrule from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.