Reminder

Another reminder~ We have added 2 more page to our chest site. Be sure to browse through it ^_^

New Seeds Page!

Hey! Just a quick reminder. We have a new page called "seeds". We find interesting seeds on the net and we post them here. A link can be found here.

Minecraft Updates: 29th April 2011 - Beta 1.5 and 1.5_0.1

Hello!

What's up in the latest Minecraft news? Well, Notch has released Beta 1.5_0.1 (I know that this post is very late.) on April 20th 2011, Wednesday. What's new in this version?

Back in Beta 1.5 :

New update 1: Powered Rails and Detector rails

• Powered Rails! Before this, the minecart system required a whole complicated mass of boosters, powered minecarts and all sorts of ramps and gizmos and whatchamacallit. And this finally adds a use for gold!

• Previously, gold was only used for tools, which mined faster than diamond but lasted as long as a wooden tool. Gold was also used for making watches, which in my opinion, were pretty much useless. Now, gold is used in the making of a powered rail!

• This powered rail pushes a cart forward by 64 blocks when a mob is in it (yes, including YOU) and is powered by a redstone current. Pretty neat, huh? A bit of trivia: powered minecarts act as brakes when they are not powered by a redstone current.

• Detector Rails! The name says it all. (Well, not quite) It is basically a pressure plate on a minecart rail. When a minecart runs over it, and ONLY a minecart, it produces a redstone current, just like a normal pressure plate.

New update 2: Saplings

• Saplings! Remember the times when you get saplings from birch trees, and you were wondering, "Why don't birch saplings grow into birch trees?" Well, now they do! The new birch and pine saplings have different colours now. Birch saplings have a white bark and pine saplings have a dark-coloured bark. And did I mention that saplings can now be used as fuel in the furnace?

Comparison between a birch sapling and a normal one.

New update 3: Weather

• Weather! Notch has added some extra realism to the game! In the snow biomes, it snows. In the forest and jungle biomes, it rains. When it rains, there is lightning. When there is lightning, well, there are casualties. These casualties include:

• Creepers. When they get struck by lightning, they get electrified and deal two times as much damage to you and to the terrain.

An electrified creeper.

• Pigs. Yes, you heard that right. When innocent little pigs get struck by lightning, they turn into - you guessed it - ZOMBIE PIGMEN. So don't think it's a glitch when you see Zombie Pigmen outside your house and you think, "What? I've never been to the Nether." They still do drop cooked pork chops upon death. And did you know that if a pig dies by fire, it will drop 0-2 cooked pork chops as well?

• Snow and rain. When either of these happens, the light level will drop by two levels, and either rain or snowflakes will fall from the sky. Rain will occasionally fill up holes in the ground with water, and snow will cover the top of blocks with snow. Before the 1.5_0.1 update, the snow update was annoying, as you had to remove the snow before placing a block on top of the snowed block. And that brings us to the next update, 1.5_0.1.

There's nothing much in the Beta 1.5_0.1 update, only a couple of bug fixes, and like I mentioned above, blocks can be placed on snow.

And that brings us to a conclusion of tonight's episode of Minecraft Updates!

Visit the Version History for Minecraft page here.

How to open a save file on a Mac

Here's how to open a downloaded save file on a Mac!

Instructions:

• Download The Unarchiver. The default archive utility cannot open the downloaded zip file properly, and only this alternate utility can open it properly. (Let me know if you find another one!)

• Make sure you have the zipped save file you want to open with you on your Mac.

• Right-click the file instead of double-clicking it. Unzip the file with The Unarchiver.

• Now, once you have your save folder, navigate to: User/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves.

• Drag in the downloaded save folder into the Application Support saves.

How to install the Flat Land map on a Mac

Hey guys!

I have received lots of messages requesting for a tutorial on getting the "flat grass 1024x1024" map. So, here is the link to the download.

Click here for the flat land save.

This save file is opened in a different way from what kiwiman has mentioned before. This one can be unzipped normally without The Unarchiver.

Instructions.

1. Download the zip file.
2. Locate the downloaded file and unzip it normally.
3. Open a new Finder window.
4. Navigate to User/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves
5. Drag the file into the "saves" folder
6. Open the Minecraft Client and select the Flatland save.

Note: The Minecraft client will ask you to convert this save file. This is normal. Just click on the map and play the map, and it will convert automatically.

Here's a link to a site with some nice saves for downloading! Minecraft World Share

Leave your comments if you have any questions!

The Survival Challenge!

My first challenge! Good luck!

The Survival Challenge

Objective: Survive!

Rules

• Set your difficulty to Hard mode

• Set your render distance to tiny/set your fog to the maximum

• No iron tools even if you found iron ore. Stone and wooden tools are allowed.

• No digging downwards and camping underground.
  

• Every Minecraft night, you may make a temporary shelter.

• Every Minecraft day, you must travel to another biome (Camping is not allowed. You can stay in a savanna biome on the first day, but you must move to another biome, e.g. desert biome, in order to continue with the challenge.)

• Move North only (Follow the clouds movement)

• Once you are dead, the challenge is over.
  

Any hacks or mods are prohibited in this challenge!

Leave your comment in this post if you have any questions

Tell us how many Minecraft days you have survived in the comments too!

An Introduction

Welcome to The Chest! It's a blog about all things Minecraft. We, kiwiman and Madness, created this site to write all about the popular game Minecraft.

Occasionally, Madness will have a Minecraft Challenge for you. He should be posting one soon. We will write about Minecraft and bring you news about updates, great texture packs and mods, sightings and seeds.

We will remain anonymous until such a time when we feel that we feel that we do not have to remain anonymous anymore. (Madness: Huh?)


Mine on, miners!