Minecraft Beta 1.6! (And Beyond!)

Okay, looks like we're pretty late.

Minecraft Beta 1.6, 1.6.1, 1.6.2, 1.6.3, 1.6.4 were ALL released on the same day, which was the 26th of May, 2011! (2 days ago) Looks like Notch and his team had a busy day!

What's new in Beta 1.6?

Tall Grass and Dead Shrubs!
  Firstly, Tall Grass and Dead Shrubs have been added into the game! (Not really exciting.) But what really changes is that you cannot obtain wheat seeds by tilling grass blocks with hoes anymore. However, the advantage to this is that you can obtain seeds by just giving tall grass a whack with your fist! (or any other tool, for that matter.) And Dead Shrubs are completely useless! (big whoop.) They spawn in desert biomes, on sand blocks. They look just like saplings without the leaves.

Dead Shrubs.

Tall Grass.

Speedier Booster Tracks!

  Booster Tracks! Before this update, many of us noticed that the booster tracks were not as fast (or efficient) as the player-designed double minecart boosters before. Well, now Notch has increased the boosting speed of the booster tracks! (Speed limits. Notch, you're setting a bad example.)

Mushroom Spores!

  Mushrooms now spread slowly! (Minecraft Wiki: On average, once every two hours) When I first saw this update, the first thing that came to my mind was to set up a mushroom farm to make a healthier alternative (more protein!) to Bread. The problem is, the mushrooms spread really slowly, like I mentioned above. So if you are keen on starting a mushroom farm, you're going to need a lot of time.

Maps!
  In a previous post about the upcoming addition to Minecraft 1.6, Notch has mentioned adding maps. Maps really are useful, in case you lose your way back home. Here's how to craft a map:

  When you use a map, a new map GUI does NOT open, but instead, the map is held in your hands. To view the map, all you have to do is to look downwards at the map while holding it. When walking and holding the map, the map does block a wee bit of your view. Maps are filled out as you explore the area around the place where you first crafted the map. 

A complete map.

A freshly crafted map.

A word of caution, though, don't use maps when there's an angry creeper around you.

Trapdoors!

  Basically doors, but only one block large and they are doors which cover holes in the ground. 'Nuff said.

A trapdoor.

Interesting Bugs in Minecraft 1.6!

EXPLODING BEDS!

  A cheap alternative to TNT in the Nether! Occurs when you try to sleep in a bed in the Nether.

SHIPWRECKS!

  Submerged boats no longer float to the surface!

Wait! Minecraft 1.6.5 has just been released?

 Yes, it was updated just a couple hours ago! Nothing new has been added, only bug fixes from the previous versions.

Visit the Minecraft Version History page here!

Happy Mining!

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.