This week's Dark Room takes a look at the Von Doom Craft texture pack, by Emperor Doom! It's a delightfully dark pack with a rich palette, surprising attention to detail and a pervasive undercurrent of "horror" - check it out!
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MinecraftUniverse brings us a new Let's Play series, with a particular focus on a brutally unforgiving adventure map. It is one of the very few adventure maps I've seen that didn't come with explicit rules about block-breaking, path finding or any other major stipulations - the trade-off is how incredibly difficult it is. This map will definitely test your skills as a Minecrafter; dare you try it? Check out their play through above!
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Are you a fan of the Hunger Games? Ever wanted to participate in them inside Minecraft? If so, you're in luck - there is an ongoing event hand-tailored for you! Hungercraft is hosting a livestreamed Hunger Games event, and you can take part! They have 32 players in an arena, who battle to the death for fabulous prizes. The last man standing receives a free month with a 5 person Minecraft server hosted by Treepuncher! What features does it boast? Check it out:
A new custom map made for each game every week
Added survival constraints, Thirst and Suffocation
Each game will last around 30 minutes to an hour
and no rules once you enter arena!
All mods custom build by us!
Did I mention prizes?
Players are unable to leave the arena
That's great, but how do you participate? All you have to do to sign up is comment on the post in their subreddit with your Minecraft in-game name, and you could be chosen to play and win! Even if you aren't chosen to show of your skills, you can still see the event live! Didn't make the cut for the event, but still want to prove yourself? No problem; they host the event every Saturday at 7 pm (Eastern Standard Time, GMT -5), so you can still sign up for the next event!
This week on Minecraft News, David & Toby cover the 1.2.5 update - as well as the 12w17a snapshot - touch briefly on 0x10c, and cover the very real Quake match between Mojang and Team aVo - check it out!
Additionally, we have a special treat this week for any Let's Play fans. Many of you have likely already heard of him, and with good reason - Direwolf20 doesn't just do Let's Play videos, he also produces tutorial videos of many mods that he uses in the series as well! There are other goodies in store with his series, so give it a look.
Animated screens have been a staple of Minecraft almost as long as redstone has been in the game. With the inclusion of redstone lamps, the art of screen-making has only gotten bigger and better! CodeCrafted brings us an awesome example of a screen that doesn't just show off basic animation, but is fully programmable from within the game itself! Even better, this fully interactive screen takes advantage of the game's real-time updating map, giving you a way to create custom messages and images for maps, without having to install a mod for the purpose. Check it out!
An update for Minecraft - Pocket Edition is now available! What sort of awesome enhancements does it have in store? Let's take a look:
Crafting added
New mobs: Cows and Chickens!
New sounds
New inventory
All items need to be gathered, except Shears, Bricks & Glass.
New blocks and items: Crafting Table, Brick Slabs, Brick Stairs, Cobblestone Slab, Snow, Stick, Wooden Slab, Dandelion Yellow, Wooden Axe, Shovel, Pickaxe, Sword, Bowl, Sugar, Book & Paper
Added bookshelves to Survival Mode (you need to craft)
Quite a grab bag of goodies, indeed! Each update brings us a little closer to the PC edition, and while the two have never been planned to be identical, Pocket Edition is definitely making welcome advances. With these new enhancements to the game, how will you change your portable world?
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Mollstam has been tweaking the login system behind-the-scenes, to address what appears to have been an especially laggy login time for players. Additionally, he has worked on the system (and is continuing to do so) to improve login security. Brute force attempts in particular are getting special attention.
MCX360 - Split-screen SMP
As the day for XBLA Minecraft approaches, we at the office find ourselves considering the myriad ways one can enjoy Minecraft while being within punching distance of one-another. There are quite a few ways this can be accomplished - we are considering a number - but we would rather hear about what you would want to do or see in MCX360 4-player split-screen. Normally, this would mean a poll, but there are TONS of ways to enjoy SMP, so we bring the question to you directly:
If you and three friends could play MCX360 split-screen right this second, what would you want to do with it more than anything else? Let us know!
Digital Diamond - Wireless Redstone - Without Mods
Minecrafter 777static777 shows off wireless redstone. "Pretty cool mod, but it's been done before", you might be thinking - however, this isn't a mod. This is wireless redstone functionality, in 100% pure vanilla Minecraft - check it out!
This week, we take a look at SpaceToad's "Buildcraft" Mod, a fairly complex, yet highly satisfying advanced structure and mechanism mod. Create everything from a simple mining operation to automated factories and self-assembling cities, and more - check it out!
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"You Are Minecraft" Grows!
Some time ago, we talked about the "You Are Minecraft" project, where players can join a server populated by thousands of to-scale avatar statues, and build one of their own. Recently, YAM has cleared 50 thousand users, and nearly as many fully-completed player statues!
Still haven't built a statue of your own avatar yet? Now might be a good time - check out this link for details!
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Check out this week's Minecraft News, where David talks about this weeks' various juicy bits; the exciting single-player features of yesterday's Snapshot, an in-depth look at Mojang's AMA sessions, and more - take a look!
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We have talked a bit about Notch's new upcoming space game, "0x10c" - a game where you wake up millions of years in the future, because of a misplaced digit! What separates the game from most other space-themed fare is the approach; the main draw of the title is undoubtedly the built-in CPU, which runs inside the game - not a facsimile of one, but an actual, functioning computer. The computer does literally whatever it is programmed to do, whether that be managing power aboard your new ship, running a game while you wait for a mining operation to finish, or anything else you can throw at it.
Yes, the player can program the computer themselves, if so inclined! What goes perfectly with an incredibly complex computer system? A wiki to cover every inch of it, that's what! Do you think you've got the technical know-how to program a CPU in Notch's latest game? If so, be sure to check out the wiki and make your expertise known! The sooner, the better - your entries may become the industry standard for players everywhere, if you're good enough. Take a look! Also, be sure to check out our 0x10c site, where we will be covering the game in detail - see you there!
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Digital Diamond - Minecraft Mods - For Slackers
From "The Gamer's Cave's" Brandon comes a gem about mods, for the everyday slacker! He covers a number of different mods in a nice, compact cheese-cracker-friendly demonstration - check it out!
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Community Spotlight - PureBDCraft, Unbelievable Shaders
Today, we take a look at two outstanding gems - PureBDCraft - a multi-resolution texture pack by Sphax84 - and the incredible Unbelievable Shaders mod, by Sonic Ether! Both have a wide range of features - PureBDCraft comes in resolutions from 16x all the way to 512x, and Shaders can be fine-tuned to work best on your system, regardless of how powerful your computer might be. Check it out!
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Interested in More Indie Games?
In addition to Minecraft, 0x10c, Cobalt and Scrolls, we have begun a journey into the wide world of indie games! In this video, we have a chat with indie development team "Haunted Temple Studios" about their RTS title, "Skulls of the Shogun".
This channel will be used to publish indie game news from across the network, so if you're into all things "indie", be sure to check in on the channel frequently.
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