By Adam Smith on September 22nd, 2011 at 4:58 pm.
Minecraft 1.9 is upon us! Well, a pre-release version, at least, so the main client is updating just yet. It seems like only yesterday that the long-awaited 1.8 hit so this is a pleasant surprise, so what does 1.9 do? It bloody well sticks in NPCs is what it does. According to early reports, they don’t actually do very much yet, but we should congratulate them just for existing. Notch has also been tweeting about craftable snowmen, who will actually come to life and hang around with you! There’s a horrible and possibly true rumour that they melt if you take them to warmer climes as well. It’ll be just like when I saw a live stage version of Raymond Briggs’ story and cried for hours at the end. Confirm if this is true so I’ll know never to bond with them. Go download it now!
22/09/2011 at 17:04 Bull0 says:
In so much as that’s what he said happens to them on his twitter, yes, I’d say many a heart will be broken.
This is the kind of pace we like to see, good job Mojang!
22/09/2011 at 20:16 Tams80 says:
Always want everything now.
I do not understand this generation.
22/09/2011 at 20:20 yiqifeifei says:
China-made from high quality low price, to protect the credibility of the online mall, I believe you will not miss it!
http://bit.ly/mKuTNF
22/09/2011 at 20:55 mondomau says:
How oddly apropos.
22/09/2011 at 21:28 Bull0 says:
@Tams80 They’ve been really slow to update the game that they sold on the basis of beta access. I’m glad they’re finally getting some proper momentum going. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. I work in software; that may be why my perspective on the game’s progress differs so radically from yours. Your willingness to dismiss me on the basis of my age is pretty low. I’m not impressed with you at all either, mate.
22/09/2011 at 23:20 skinlo says:
@Bull0
Bit of an overreaction? He has no clue how old you are, and is attacking everyone one else in your generation.
23/09/2011 at 02:52 FataMorganaPseudonym says:
@skinlo
No more an overreaction than “Always want everything now. I do not understand this generation.” was to “This is the kind of pace we like to see, good job Mojang!”
23/09/2011 at 08:56 Bull0 says:
Mine was more a “reaction” than an “overreaction” I feel
22/09/2011 at 17:04 Pointless Puppies says:
Certainly nice to know they’re upping the rate of updates. Though I’m still quite certain they won’t come out of beta before the end of the year if they want to present something remotely polished.
22/09/2011 at 18:08 carn1x says:
For me Minecraft has for a long time been very polished. There was a couple weeks where I was crashing in Windows every 20 minutes, but this was fixed by getting a 64bit JRM.
Other than that, the game is actually LESS complete now than it has been, since they’ve so far half baked the Adventure Update.
It could go ‘gold’ and they could give up dev on it next week, and I’m sure the mod community would keep people happy for many years, and it’d still continue to sell by the bucket load.
22/09/2011 at 19:01 TillEulenspiegel says:
Yeah. I would argue that it was at its most complete and “polished” about a year ago. Well, except for multiplayer.
Starting with the Nether update, they’ve been adding more and more stuff that feels a bit half-finished, then moving quickly on to the next thing. Biomes have only really been done right starting with 1.8. That doesn’t really bother me, but it does mean they have a much bigger job if they want to make all parts of the game really shine
22/09/2011 at 22:11 Hoaxfish says:
As far as I understand it 1.9 is more like 1.8 part 2 than say the jump between 1.6 and 1.7 etc. I.e. most of it would have been in 1.8 but wasn’t quite finished at the time.
23/09/2011 at 09:16 Bull0 says:
It took you a COUPLE of WEEKS to figure out the 64bit java thing? Good god, man, just google it next time
22/09/2011 at 17:06 Njordsk says:
Just when I was wondering what the hell i was going to play while waiting for BF3 beta.
A good ‘ol minecraft.
SOLD !
22/09/2011 at 17:12 Joshua says:
Rock, Pickaxe, Shovel!
22/09/2011 at 17:14 corbain says:
Does Minecraft have always-on internet check DRM?
22/09/2011 at 17:17 Zanchito says:
No
22/09/2011 at 17:30 Mollusc Infestation says:
You have to connect on start up if you want to join any servers, but you can play without the initial connect if you’re just doing single player.
Edit: My sarcasm sense is tingling!
22/09/2011 at 17:39 Mattressi says:
I desperately wish Mojang would put always-online DRM in Minecraft. After hearing Blizzard’s reasons for including always-on DRM (erm…their customer’s are too stupid to comprehend an SP only character?), I’m sold and think that everything should have one. There’s just so many non-profit-based reasons for everything to have it. I’m currently trying to work out how to give my toaster always-online DRM.
22/09/2011 at 17:47 jonfitt says:
What about when people start duping cloaks? Then Mojang will have to include always-on DRM to protect the cloak market.
22/09/2011 at 18:45 corbain says:
No sarcasm intended.
Haven’t played minecraft for months, and the Diablo article on RPS set me DRM-senses tingling after i logged into Minecraft. I just wondered if, after the log-in to play SP, there are any background persistent internet checks
Seems there aren’t
22/09/2011 at 19:14 Mollusc Infestation says:
Fair enough. At least we got to answer your question and make amusing observations about the state of the industry at the same time.
22/09/2011 at 19:36 psyk says:
“their customer’s are too stupid to comprehend an SP only character?”
Are you saying diablo 2 was a cheat/exploit free game online?
22/09/2011 at 20:38 DrGonzo says:
If you couldn’t tell. What is the problem?
22/09/2011 at 20:38 vivlo says:
tehre IS annoying always-logged-on drm in Minecraft : sometimes if you don’t connect you get a
“Non licensed copy ! :( (or registered from another location)”
which takes some place on your screen, in the upper right corner.
22/09/2011 at 17:31 iainl says:
With the Mojang boys playing with the world generation so much recently, it’s actually putting me off a bit; don’t want to jettison all the work I’ve put into my current world, don’t want to miss out on new features.
22/09/2011 at 17:34 Mollusc Infestation says:
This is precisely what killed my enthusiasm for 1.8.
22/09/2011 at 17:39 angurvaki says:
Well, you can always just travel further into a new direction. The updates don’t mess with older areas, just the newly generated ones.
22/09/2011 at 17:42 menderslan says:
I have highly developed worlds, but I still immensely enjoyed starting up a new world with the new 1.8 update. It doesn’t get rid of/mess up your old worlds, so you can still go to those.
22/09/2011 at 17:52 Richard Moss says:
1.9 seems to use different code for generation to 1.8 which causes fugly joins… urg
22/09/2011 at 18:10 Mollusc Infestation says:
I have been enjoying exploring 1.8, it just feels more like going on holiday than moving house at the moment.
22/09/2011 at 19:38 psyk says:
Which is why you use a beta for what it’s for not to play.
22/09/2011 at 20:38 Snakejuice says:
“Which is why you use a beta for what it’s for not to play.”
Actually beta means feature complete with just bug fixes left to deal with, “Minecraft Beta” is really misleading as it’s really still in alpha stage because they are still adding features (which introduces new bugs).
22/09/2011 at 20:55 Mollusc Infestation says:
Whatever state it’s in, i’ve gotten hundreds of hours of fun out of it and i intend to continue doing so.
23/09/2011 at 05:49 moondog548 says:
Turns out it’s beta.
22/09/2011 at 17:34 mdslin says:
Collection of game tools, to make the game easier to play，welcome to http://url7.me/kVh4
22/09/2011 at 17:56 tstapp1026 says:
sub (hatespam)
docmd.rage
I hope your children are born syphillitic and your mother develops vaginal meteorites.
Spamming cork snugger!
end sub
22/09/2011 at 18:20 Heliocentric says:
If minecraft never leaves beta I’ll be perfectly happy with a rolling development ala dwarf fortress.
22/09/2011 at 18:40 Dana says:
Have they fixed memory leaks ?
22/09/2011 at 19:22 Chaz says:
If you’re getting the out of memory error, like I was constantly, then try the second solution in this video. Has worked like a charm for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GwedxiId1A&feature=player_embedded#!
22/09/2011 at 19:39 Dana says:
Allocating more memory for java wont help, since it can fill 2GB in 5 minutes because of the leak.
22/09/2011 at 20:12 Casimir's Blake says:
I can assure you that, for systems that have lesser CPUs but still have a good amount of RAM (e.g. my MacBookPro only has a 2.4GHz C2D but does have 4GB RAM), upping the allocation to a gig or two helps with stuttering and loading-lag. So it’s not a useless tweak.
22/09/2011 at 20:40 DrGonzo says:
MacBooks do run Minecraft very poorly. I presume it’s something to do with Mac OS but I’m not sure. My flatmate has a similar specced MacBook to yourself. He recently picked up an AMD netbook with a dual core running at 1ghz and so far it’s been stomping the MacBook in game performance.
22/09/2011 at 20:58 Mistabashi says:
It’s not a memory leak, it’s just how Java’s automatic garbage collection works – if there’s available unallocated space it will use that, rather than using-up CPU cycles clearing un-needed data. This means that however much memory you allocate to Minecraft, it’s usage will continually rise until garbage collection is invoked.
If you’re getting “out of memory” crashes on 32-bit Windows it may actually be because you’ve got too much memory allocated to Minecraft. If you’re on a 64-bit OS, make sure you’ve got 64-bit Java installed and the game is actually using it. Java 7 may also help with these kinds of issues.
22/09/2011 at 22:34 Dana says:
I have 4 gigs of ram. I never had such problems pre 1.8, only after patch. After a while terrain stops loading and out of memory error pops out.
23/09/2011 at 07:00 Chaz says:
Well the solution in that video actually limits the amount of ram to 256mb, a lot less than the 700mb or so it was eating up before, and it works. Well it did for me anyway.
22/09/2011 at 18:56 rustybroomhandle says:
Snowmen are not pets/companions – once crafted they do their own thing, like throwing snowballs at monsters. The article also does not mention the new mobs and structures added to the nether.
22/09/2011 at 19:19 Shih Tzu says:
Still, it does satisfy my requirement for modern games: cubes to which I become emotionally attached.
22/09/2011 at 19:25 The Tupper says:
Having been away from it for a while I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the global 1.8 changes in my own wee pre-existing world (lighting engine, new items/mobs etc) without travelling too far afield to find the new content – and now more to look forward to! I’m as giddy as a schoolgirl.
I love the new health/food system (finally a proper reason to do a bit of farming) and particularly archery. Although (of course) the feathers to make the arrows are a lot harder to find now. Unless…anybody know if you can hatch an egg in a furnace? Will try my own microwave and report back.
23/09/2011 at 01:54 Sheng-ji says:
Just chuck eggs at the ground, there is a small chance they will hatch – I’m not kidding!
23/09/2011 at 12:29 The Tupper says:
Oh man – now I’m gonna mess up my kitchen floor. Just as the smoke from the microwave was dying down too.
22/09/2011 at 19:44 Jharakn says:
The new ruins that you can find in the nether are really cool looking, complete with strange imp like mobs that fire ghast fireballs in rapid fire. Oh you can bat ghast fireballs back at them, I spend a good 15min killing ghasts whilst listening to the zelda OOT battle music (http://fwd4.me/0C68).
22/09/2011 at 19:45 MegaAndy says:
Apparently one of the new features is the xp bar being powered by jumping!
22/09/2011 at 19:55 LostViking says:
Good. I don’t play any game where jumping or running doesn’t increase your agility! ;)
23/09/2011 at 03:11 Davie says:
And there you have it. Notch is actually trying to confuse Minecraft with Elder Scrolls!
22/09/2011 at 19:56 The Tupper says:
In over thirty years of gaming, Minecraft is the single most enjoyable thing I’ve ever played, and it keeps getting better. If all development ended now and I never played it again (unlikely) I would have nothing but praise for it.
22/09/2011 at 20:42 DrGonzo says:
I do love a bit of Minecraft. But really?
22/09/2011 at 21:47 Strand says:
33 years of gaming here.
And, yes. Really.
22/09/2011 at 21:55 The Tupper says:
No kidding. Nothing I’ve ever played has had the longevity and sheer, simple gaming joy of Minecraft. I’m not even much of a multiplayer – my fun comes from exploring new areas by myself and seeing (with each update) the game develop beneath my feet, as it were.
There’s a distinct possibility that once it’s ‘completed’ I’ll lose interest, but it continues to be a hell of a ride, one that (at my advanced age) keeps my faith in gaming alive.
22/09/2011 at 20:47 Arkendi says:
Is that title actually a reference to “Joe Snow?” Am I truly not the only person who knows that game, or am I being thick?
22/09/2011 at 21:03 DrGonzo says:
Maybe, but it is definetly a reference to Joe Bloggs, who used to make clothes. Or more commonly, the English equivalent of John Doe.
23/09/2011 at 06:16 AgamemnonV2 says:
Joey Bloggs is a good guy, though. He’s got a job opening that’ll provide for me and my wife.
23/09/2011 at 03:58 jrodman says:
Still waiting for the interface to make any sense.
23/09/2011 at 09:07 Stupoider says:
Are you serious
23/09/2011 at 06:29 MythArcana says:
I will simply shock everyone this time and just diplomatically say that releasing the pre-releases lately has been a good move for everyone.
23/09/2011 at 08:30 JackShandy says:
I’m just trying this again after a long hiatus. Gosh it’s great. The massive biomes make it feel so much better.
23/09/2011 at 14:55 quirkusmaximus says:
@Bull0: I agree with you. So far, the modding community around the game has been faster and more innovative than the developers themselves.
28/09/2011 at 20:47 psyk says:
“Update to 1.8.1 is underway (1.9 is still not officially available).
Fix for Lag Spike of Death is updated to 1.8.1.
OptiFine 99.95%, Release candidate 2: Download 1, Download 2
Known problems: all fixed!”
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE