geekosystem

Notch has not disappointed: As promised, he has released Minecraft Beta 1.6 unto the world, and it has a whole slew of new changes and bug fixes. As we mentioned earlier this week, the biggest additions are functional Nether in multiplayer and the addition of craftable maps and hatches, but a few of the changes and bug fixes, like the nerfing of fire, will change the experience of playing the game. Also, be prepared: Doors making sounds for other players in multiplayer is potentially kind of annoying. To download 1.6, simply launch your current version of Minecraft, have a working Internet connection, and weep silently as your night-spawning animal/corner-spark butchering farm ceases to work. Below, recipes for the trapdoor and the map:

Minecraft creator and glorious and revered leader to us all Notch has revealed the list of changes to Minecraft's latest update, Beta 1.6, which will become available sometime later this week. This is a much meatier update that Beta 1.4 or Beta 1.5, and while the biggest single change in play is the addition of Nether support to multiplayer (!!!), 1.6 also brings with it craftable maps and hatches, tall grass in some biomes, and a cornucopia of bug fixes. (N.B.: This will probably cause just about every bug- or exploit-based farming method in use right now to break.) If Notch was able to do this much in the month since 1.5 came out, who knows where the game will be on all-too-distant November 11th, when it goes out of beta? Full change list below: