Minecraft - I Gave In

I finally gave in. Last night, I acquired a copy of Minecraft on the PC. It was actually a gift from a friend who owed me a birthday present, but I still have it now. I didn't really create anything in my initial time with the game. I didn't even make a shelter or mine anything out. Instead, I spent my time in Creative mode flying around the world exploring, and quickly realizing my computer sucks.

The machine is about 8 years old, and the video card isn't very good anymore (64MB AGP NVidia card). I bought more memory and a newer video card for it, but the power supply wasn't beefy enough to run the newer video card. Worst part is, it's a proprietary power supply, so there is no upgrading it without modifying the case. Annoying...

Don't get me wrong, the game is still very much playable. I just have to turn down the render distance, turn off clouds and set the particle effects to "reduced". Then it plays fairly well. I also can't play it maximized.

Like I said, I didn't really do much. I spawned in a jungle biome and my jaw dropped. It was amazing to finally see one in person. The trees in the jungle were probably taller than the Xbox 360 Edition's world height! I explored around some more and found a ravine. Massive and beautiful. A little more exploring and I stumbled upon an abandoned mine. I was giddy by this point and can't wait to start actually playing.

There is one more thing I had to do in my first world. I dug a hole from the surface to bedrock, then filled that hole with TNT, ignited it and watched. Creative mode is so much fun! :) If I have time tonight, I'll probably delete this world and create a new one to actually start playing in. I'm thinking I'd really rather not have to start again from square one, so I may start in creative mode and build a small shelter and supplies. Then I'll switch to survival and start really playing.

I'm worried that having creative mode at my fingertips might actually ruin it for me. I love to create structures and places like in my Xbox world, but it was really fun because everything was legit. Every resource was mined by hand and I take pride in that. (Yes, I took advantage of a duplication "feature" to get a ton of diamond, but everything else is legit). I don't know if I'll be able to take that same pride knowing I just did it with creative mode. We'll see as time passes.

Minecraft - I Think I Can... I Think I Can...

Double Post Sunday! Okay, so I actually had this post already drafted up, but had to wait to get screenshots of the Throne Room to add to the other post first. Gotta keep everything as close to in order as possible.

Anyways, I had previously experimented a bit with rail tracks and had created a short track from under my old base to my new house basically going from one basement to the other. I had also created a second track that went from under my house around the big shaft from top to bottom. I decided to add a third one to go to the bottom of my Hyrule Castle, but I didn't want it to be the same old thing. I wanted to create something different and better. After spending some time on minecraftwiki.net, I found a tutorial on creating an automated train station. It sounded like fun, so off I went creating it on the second level of the shaft under my house.

Minecraft - Fit for a King

The building of my Link to the Past Castle was moving along very nicely. I had completed most of the first floor and had a roof over everything. Next it was time to move onto the Throne Room and Dungeon levels, each of which posed their own unique challenges from heights to dealing with the natural cave.

Minecraft - Hyrule Castle Photo Tour

Last night, I took some time and got a ton of photos of my castle. If I had the PC Adapter to record video on my computer, I would do a video walk-through since even the photos don't do it justice. Unfortunately, I don't have one at the moment, so these will have to suffice. Even in still photos, it is impressive if I do say so myself. ;)

Minecraft - You Wanna Build What?

According to Raptr, I was about 40 or 50 hours into the game by this point in time. I only recently finished this project I was about to start, and now Raptr is telling me I'm at over 200 hours of game play. That should give you an indication of the size and scope of the project I tackled. Without further ado, my big project is...

Minecraft - Hole in One

Let's run this down. House? Check. Lots of chests? Check. Diamond Tools? Check. Nether Portal? Check. Lots of material? Nope. So, what's a nice easy way to get a lot of materials that is both useful and cool? You dig a huge hole in the ground!

Minecraft - Through the Portal

Several days after I had finished my house in Minecraft, I was showing it off to my brother-in-law who was quite impressed with my creation. I believe he said he was having a deja-vu moment since he had just helped us move in not that long before. We were messing around in my world a little, so I grabbed some Obsidian and a Flint-and-Steel, and together we ventured off into the Nether for the first time.