That's right, the 1.2.5 snapshot is ready for testing! Players can take a look at the fixes and changes coming to the official 1.2.5 update (coming soon), but the snapshot has a particular focus on modders; with an early look at the future update, mods can be ready as soon as it officially goes live! Additionally, the extra time between the snapshot and update will be used to ensure that Bukkit is up-to-date and ready to go when 1.2.5 becomes official.

Downloads:

Minecraft 1.2.5 Client: Download here
Minecraft 1.2.5 Server .jar: Download here
Minecraft 1.2.5 Server .exe: Download here

Changes in 1.2.5:

Added shift clicking support in furnaces
Added method to easily acquire blocks you have selected in the world in Creative mode using the ‘pick block’ key
Made the Direct Connect dialog remember the last IP for the current session
Fixed issues detected certain links in chat
Fixed wild ocelots behaving like tamed cats
Fixed various chat crashes
Made cats less eager to sit on things
Made cats less patient
Fixed world generation failing under certain circumstances
Fixed issues turning off sound under certain circumstances
Removed all ghost entities under the command of Lord Herobrine
Fixed crash when pasting certain characters in chat
Fixed slash ‘/’ key not behaving correctly in certain environments
Fixed command matching being too greedy (for example: typing ‘/stophammertime’ no longer stops your server)
Fixed not being able to click coloured links
Fixed potential issue with village door detection (which could cause too many villagers)
Made using a stack of bowls on Mooshrooms not consume the whole stack of bowls
Made punching a TNT block with flint and steel in hand destroy and drop a TNT block (right-clicking will activate the TNT)

1.2.5 Full release:

Quote

via: http://www.mojang.co...2-5-prerelease/

Jeb and Jon have released this week's snapshot, 12w08a. This week's changes are as follows:

• Added a defense mob to villages
  
• Added up-side-down stairs
  
• Many changes to the world and lighting system

Client: download here
Server: download here

Need help using a snapshot? Badprenup has you covered!

1. Download the new snapshot minecraft.jar
2. Navigate to your .minecraft folder (On windows, you can find it by searching for %appdata%)
3. Put the new jar file in the bin folder (OPTIONAL: Back up your old jar file).
4. Open Minecraft via the launcher, how you normally would.

Let us know what you find! Here's a screenshot Jon provided of the new mob, the Iron Golem:

This week's early-release Snapshot is out! The following changes are confirmed:

• Added new world file format called 'Anvil' (256 max height and 4096 block IDs*)
  
• Multi-player light calculations do no longer cause affected blocks to be transmitted to the clients, instead the clients will recalculate the light on their own
  
• Villagers will repopulate villages based on how many houses there are available
  
• Some nights in villages will be worse than others...
  
• Added a redstone-controlled light source
  
• Decreased chance for the rare mob drops
  
• All animals use the new AI system now

*The game can't use the full range of IDs yet because there are still some assumptions that IDs above 256 are items.

NOTE: It is absolutely imperative that players back up their maps before testing the new format, just in case!

Jeb also had the following to say about the new save format:

Jeb said:

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UPDATE: The client/server files are now 12w07b! If you downloaded the files earlier today, and want the most up-to-date version, download the updated files from the links below:

Get the updated client here!

Get the updated server here!

Updates:

• Crash bug corrupting levels when spawning mobs above the 255th block
  
• Sheep animation is correct in SMP

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Are you a gamer of broad & diverse tastes? If so, we've got something you'll love - a weekly newsletter which covers news not just from Minecraft, but every game on our network! If you're interested, follow the link below and subscribe to the newsletter today! It's free - no catch! - and we'll keep you appraised of the latest news on all things gaming. In addition, anyone who subscribes to the newsletter before the February edition rolls out (on 02/21) has a chance to win a free month of Curse Premium - check it out!

Minecraft version 1.1 is now officially out! Including the updates mentioned above, 1.1 has added the following features:

• Bow Enchantments
  
• Golden Apple recipe
  
• New language translations.
  
• Slightly smoothed color transitions between biomes
  
• Reduced brewing time to 20 seconds
  
• Added spawn eggs to creative (the colors of the eggs even look like the mobs)
  
• Added world type options (currently only super-flat and default)
  
• Removed collision box from ladders
  
• Sheep eat grass and regain their wool

Also included is a ton of various bugfixes and minor tweaks to the game engine, many of which were included in previous snapshot releases. To update, just run your Minecraft client normally, and you're good to go!

The Game

<a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ld48/ld22/index.html"><div class="right" style="margin-left:10px;"><img src="http://media.minecraftforum.net/content/images/2011/12/mini2.png" /></div></a>During the weekend, Notch was hard at work producing "Minicraft" for the Ludum Dare contest, and the end-result is a fascinating one, to say the least. Pulling elements (yet not the entirety) from Minecraft, this top-down Zelda-esque game contains a lot of familiar themes: mine materials, craft new and better items, slay monsters. It is, in this respect, where the two games diverge a bit, thematically. Building homes isn't an option, in the conventional sense; while you could push together a number of workbenches to achieve that affect, it serves little purpose to do so. No, the goal of the game is simultaneously much simpler than that, and much harder to accomplish: Kill the only other sentient person in existence, so you can be alone, forever.

Once the game starts, you begin with a bare handful of equipment (not including the classic pick), and must gather materials to create workbenches, anvils, tools and more, all the while exploring a large, diverse environment. As your equipment improves and you explore more of the world, it all culminates into your sole objective (kill the Air Wizard) - at which point, you are victorious, if not endangered.

One thing quickly becomes apparent; what sounds like a childishly simple task reveals a startling level of depth and complexity, especially for a game developed in approximately two days.

Aside from the eerie theme, the game could be said to draw from Minecraft, rather than be a 2D port of it. While certain aspects of the game are shared between the two (mining, crafting items), the driving goals of the game are wildly divergent. Stacking up against 700 other competitors, time will tell how Minicraft fares - you can play it right here.

________

Have you heard about Reckoning? We got an exclusive release video on this very game - check it out!

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=ARtOCjVTVwM

<div class="right" style="margin-left:10px;"><img src="http://media.minecraftforum.net/content/images/2011/12/sheepy.png" /></div>Week 49 Snapshot Now Live

The Week 49 Snapshot was recently released for testing! As with prior weekly "snapshots", this must be installed over an existing minecraft.jar file in order to be tested out. What's new in this test version?

• Sheep eat grass and regain their wool
  
• Farmland is no longer destroyed by items and particles
  
• Added multiple languages
  
• Corrected a setTileEntity multiplayer bug
  
• Corrected a powered rail bug
  
• Corrected a redstone update bug

Eager to test out these new features? You can grab the snapshot client right here; SMP server hosts can test these out in multiplayer as well; get the server jar right here! To use these, you need to replace the jar file in the application folder and then start the game normally. Find a bug? Report them here!

Pertaining to language support, Jeb had the following to add:

Jeb said:

I would like to give a huge THANKS to all of you who helped out translating the game, and to the Minecraft Coder Pack team for helping out with the administration of the language files. Also a big thanks to Ryan ‘Scaevolus’ Hitchman for help with the Unicode rendering.

The language files are still work in progress, so translation errors and mistakes may still exist. As stated earlier, the snapshots are in development versions of the game.

________

Download this week's "snapshot" files below:

• Game client: Download here!
  
• Server client: Download here!

Minecraft 1.7 is now released! With several changes - and one of the most highly anticipated additions since beta - this update is sure to change the way we play Minecraft.

Initially, 1.7 was supposed to be dubbed the “Adventure Update”; however, as the communities’ thirst for pistons overwhelmed Mojang, they’ve decided to release pistons in their very own update, with a few additonal goodies thrown in.

As a quick sidenote, we're giving away 100 copies of Minecraft to those who "like" us on Facebook! Head on over to our newly created Facebook page, and hit the "like" button, and you'll automatically be entered into to win! The contest will run from now until August 1st, 2011, and everyone is able to participate.

Take a look at the exciting new additions in 1.7 Minecraft:

Pistons
The largest update to Minecraft in 1.7 is the addition of pistons. Pistons - the brainchild of Minecraft community member Hippoplatimus - rapidly surged in popularity over the past few months, and were then announced by Mojang that they would be added to the official game. Pistons are poised to change the way people build in Minecraft - we’ve already seen some amazing mechanisms come from the community, their creativity seemingly knowing no bounds.

Pistons allow the user to move blocks using redstone circuitry to control their action. There are two types of pistons: regular and sticky. Regular pistons will push a block when powered, and then retract when not powered.

Sticky pistons work in much the same way, but with one caveat: they’re sticky! These pistons will push a block away when powered, but pull the block back when retracted.

TNT Changes
TNT can no longer be triggered by clicking on it, which for most, should be a good thing! Instead, you must now use either redstone circuitry, or a good old fashioned flame to ignite the destructive block.

Shears
Shears allow you to cut the leaves off of trees in one quick swipe, as well as trim wool of sheep without killing them. Killing sheep will no longer give you wool however, just the death of a cute, blocky sheep on your conscious.

Stackable Fences
Fences have a welcome improvement for architects - they can now be stacked on top of one-another when placed in the world. This removes the need for complex block-place-remove routines, which until now, were the only way to stack fence posts vertically. Additionally, players may now place torches on top of fences.

1.7 is out now so it may be time to start building all the amazing contraptions you’ll build with pistons. If you come up with a really good one, don’t forget to add it to our video's section, and it could be used in a Digital Diamond!

The latest Minecraft patch is now available for download. This patch is primarily focused on fixing issues that have cropped up since the release of 1.6, but Notch has made a few gameplay changes as well.

• Added a new use for bonemeal
• Changed the material of glowstone from “glass” to “stone”. This means you need a pickaxe to get resources from it
• Made glowstone drop more loot
• Made the recipe sizes for creating cloth blocks and glowstone blocks smaller (2x2 instead of 3x3)
• Re-introduced unlimited FPS, renamed the option again
• Fixed beds not working very well at all in SMP
• Fixed destroying a boat spawning the player too low, causing them to sometimes fall through the ground
• Boats float up to the surface quicker
• Boats falling down into water lose their vertical momentum very fast
• Removed Herobrine

Heads up, Minecrafters! The next big update to Minecraft beta will be patch 1.7, according to Notch. While he says it will be a while before it goes live, there was also a hint given at what's coming. It's going to be the "Adventure Update" or something similar to that, says Notch.

What's up with Minecraft before 1.7? Well, next week we're going to be seeing 1.6.6 release, which will be an update to address issues with the recently released patch 1.6. The following week Notch will be headed to the United States -- and Los Angeles in particular -- to spend some time at E3. We'll be there too, so hopefully we can pick his brain about 1.7.

Finally, a buzz kill for folks who enjoy rumors. Minecraft: Source is a false one.

You've seen the patch notes for Minecraft 1.6, now check out a trailer for the update coming this week. The trailer was put together by HAT Films and primarily focuses on the new map system, though it does show the tall grass being added as well.