I recently have caught the Minecraft bug after watching Ben’s video (below). I watched that video and went right to Minecraft.net to buy the game. I did get distracted by the Minecraft IOS game which is great, but it lacked the depth of the full PC title. I had Minecraft up and running in minutes. Immediately I gather wood and coal in order to make fires for the night. As soon as it gets dark I begin to build a dirt house to keep out the zombies. Then I start to mine below the house. One major difference between the IOS and the PC version is that you discover caves while mining. There is lava and water below the surface. And there is a ton of different bad guys.
I discover soon that all the good stuff is made with iron so I focus my efforts on mining iron. Unfortunately iron seems to be a lot harder to find. Instead of digging up the whole world I decide to find caves and explore them to find iron. I hear a wacking sound behind me and smash my keyboard in fear. I didn’t realize it but while I was figuring out how to get iron and what to do with it a skeleton archer had creeped around a cavern corner. In fact an entire army was on its way.
I die about three times before I figure out how to make a sword and armor. Once I make the sword and armor I start to wreck all the bad guys except the creeper which seems to like to explode.
All this mining and exploring make me realize that I yearn for home. The place where my Minecraft adventure began. Unfortunately I am about four hours in and I never gave a thought to marking my path. Trying to retrace my steps through the tunnels is way to confusing. I was chasing iron deposits and fighting bad guys. This left wandering tunnels that cut in and out of misc caves.
Finally I reach a cave that is near the surface. I start to dig my way up figuring that I can look for torches I left on the surface. At night you can see torches a long way off. Those torches are my best bet to find my way home. Unfortunately the water sounds above my head are getting louder and I begin to fear that I may be digging under a lake. If I break the surface under a lake I will drown but I am tired of not being able to get home.
Finally I break free to the surface and realize that the water sounds are coming from the rain. I emerged from the mess I had made in the caves into a downpour of rain. I was near the ocean and after some walking I could see a useless boat that I had made earlier in my adventures. The boat didn’t want to take me with it. I tried to board it and it merely slide out to sea empty. At least it served some purpose. I knew when I saw the boat that I was close to home.
I climbed to the top of the trees and low and behold way off in the distance was my house. The first zombie survival location and my long awaited destination. I return rich with iron and some exotic rock that I found from mining. Once inside the house I realized: this house sucks! I can make it so much better with all the new materials and things I can make now. And those zombies? I have something for them now too.
