If you haven’t or maybe you’re just wondering what all the buzz is about, I’m hoping this little post will shed some light on what’s possibly the biggest indie success of all time.

Before I get started, I’ll cover just a little bit about what Minecraft is.

What is Minecraft?

Minecraft is an open sandbox game, which means you’re not directed on what to do or how to do it. There’s no princess to save or arch-villain to kill. The game world is wide open and waiting for you to explore and use your imagination.

You’re main interaction with the game involves mining, crafting, and constructing with different kinds of “blocks.” Can you imagine a towering stone castle in the distant horizon? You can build it. You can build pretty much anything you can imagine, but before you lay down the first block of stone, you’ll have to do a bit of mining. And if your imagination isn’t enough incentive to start digging, maybe the zombies will once the sun goes down.

Reasons to Download Minecraft

If my little introduction has whet your appetite, hopefully the following list will send you over the edge.

Play the Beta, Get the Full Game. Lots of people don’t realize that Minecraft is actually still in beta testing. By purchasing the game now at a discount, you get to play it now before it’s officially released later this year. Also, you’ll get the full version when it’s released (and all the updates in between). It’s quite a deal. Play a really fun and addictive game before its full release, get a discount, and get all the updates and the full version when it comes out.

There are Millions Minecraft Players. Don’t think for a single moment that you’re getting into an obscure game that nobody plays. As of this writing, sales for Minecraft are just shy of 3 million. Yes, that’s million. Nearly 10,000 people bought the game in the past 24 hours. You’re not alone, friend, which brings me to my next point.

Minecraft is Multiplayer. Minecraft is lots of fun in singleplayer, but if you spend any amount of time building something really neat, you’re going to want to show it off to someone. Minecraft has a component that can be installed on a public or private server, allowing many players to coexist in the same world. You can work together to plan and build a mega-structure, explore, or spend some time checking out the stuff other players have made. If you need some time to yourself, you can always pick a direction, start walking, and build your own little place on a distant mountain.

Minecraft is Infinite. Unlike pretty much any other game, the world of Minecraft doesn’t have an end. The game dynamically generates new terrain as you travel into previously unexplored parts of the world. You can walk in any direction infinitely, though, I’m betting you’ll get tired of just walking for hours and hours and want to settle down somewhere, mine for resources, and build use your imagination.

The great thing about the infinite maps is that you’ll always have a new place to explore, but you’ll also have a place to call home. Once a chunk of land has been generated, it will become static and always stay the same (unless you decide to get out a shovel and pickaxe and make some modifications yourself).

Markus Perrson, aka “Notch”. Minecraft is being developed by a group of individual developers, but the guy who started it all is affectionately known as Notch. He has a reputation for being one of the most friendly and likable developers on the planet. He tweets, posts, and shares on Google+ regularly. It’s a personal touch that you rarely find in other games.

One of the things I’ve really enjoyed about Minecraft is being part of the developing process. I haven’t contributed code or made game-changing suggestions, but I’ve played for a while now and witnessed the changes and additions Notch has blogged about over the past year. It’s really neat to read about an idea or new feature and then see it unfold in the next version.

Download Minecraft

Are you ready to give Minecraft a try? Great! I’m sure you’ll have a blast. If you need a little help or just want to learn more about the Minecraft world, check out the Minecraft Wiki.

Already a fan? Let us know in the comments.

Why a Used Xbox

So why all the talk about a used Xbox? I’m a frugal guy. If I’m in the market to buy something that’s morethan $50, I’m going to perform a somewhat obsessive research project on the item (one of the sure signs you’re a geek). Electronics, particularly ones that have been around for a while, tend to drop in price significantly compared to retail. The Xbox is no exception. With a little patience and the right resources you can save $50 – $100 if you buy a used Xbox. Depending on the model, that’s around 33% savings.

Red Ring of Death, Cannot Read Disc

This one has been covered several times before, so I’ll not go into too much detail here. If you’re new to the Xbox scene, there are two problems you may experience with your Xbox. The worse of the two is the Red Ring of Death (RRoD). The RRoD got its name from the green circle you normally see on the front of your Xbox when it’s on. The green light turns into a menacing red when a problem has occurred. RRod is usually caused by a thermal event due to bad contact between the processor and the heatsink. The only way to fix it is the tear apart (void your warranty) the xbox and re-seat the heatsink or buy another Xbox.

Another problem is with reading discs. For some reason, the DVD drives in some Xbox’s malfunction, severely limiting what you can do with your gaming machine… that depends on playing disc-based games. My particular problem was caused by the magnet coming loose, which meant the drive could not hold the disc in place while it was attempting to be read. This accounted for the terrible noise I heard when trying to play games or watch movies.

Roommates

Those of you with siblings can probably relate to this the most. My brother and I had different tastes when I comes to video games. We would fight over what to play, who got to play first, etc. The same can be true if you’re living in a dorm or apartment with several other guys who also like to play games.

It’s somewhat unreasonable to expect your parents to buy two of everything simply because you and your brother or sister can’t agree on something like video games. You’re on your own now, though, so there’s nothing outside your budget that should keep you from having your own Xbox.

Multiplayer

If you’ve played a video game in the last five years, chances are you played them online. One of the best things about modern gaming is that you’re not confined to your room, void of all contact with other humans. When you hop on your Xbox, you’re joining a community of other players who like similar games and genres.

While online multiplayer is fun, some of the best gaming moments I’ve ever had were during LAN (local) games with my friends. We would all meet up a the designated home, hook up three or more Xbox’s and play way into the early morning hours. If you’re living with several other gamers, it really makes sense to pick up an extra used xbox or two for epic multiplayer moments.

Keep the TV Screen All to Yourself

My first split-screen experience was nearly two decades ago with Goldeneye and Mario Kart on the N64. Chopping the screen into four sections left us squinting and sitting too close to the television, but we really didn’t care at the time.

In these days of large, fancy displays, you’re probably not keen on the idea of splitting it up with your best buddy, even if he did totally buy you lunch that one time. Encourage your friend to pick up a used xbox so you both can play in full-screen, high definition bliss.

For more information on buying used items, check out BuyUsedGear.com.

I know we all love to hate Microsoft, but there really are many different ways to enjoy your Xbox 360. Of course, the most obvious way is to play those wonderful, $60 discs of gaming joy. But there’s so much more you can do, even with a busted DVD drive.

First, I’ll cover some of the things you can do that involve using your Xbox. After that, I’ll show you some of the other creative ways you can get some use out of the Xbox 360, but possibly not in the ways you’d imagine.

Play Xbox Live Arcade Games

Just because your DVD drive is busted, it doesn’t mean that you can’t play games! There are tons of great games that you can just download and run from your hard drive. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy this feature. Also, the more recent games that have been coming down the pipe feature full multi-player modes, achievement points, you name it.

Play Original Xbox Games

Nostagia is great. Not getting up from the couch is even greater. There are scores of original Xbox games that you can purchase and download to your Xbox 360′s hard drive. It kinda hurts if you’ve bought the games before, but it’s a huge bonus if it’s new to you. And hey, if you bought a game a few years ago for the original Xbox, just consider it a “lazy tax.” Once you purchase and download, you jump straight into a game without moving.

Stream Movies from a Media Center

Got an PC in the house with Media Center installed? You’ve got a whole new toy, my friend. If you’ve never used your Media Center with your 360, you’re really missing something. I can’t tell you how many movies and episodes of Dexter and 24 I’ve streamed through my Xbox.

What made this extra special to me was that my media machine was upstairs, and my nice HDTV and Xbox were downstairs. Can’t find anything on? Fire up the Xbox and watch a few episodes of your favorite series. Bonus points if you decide to watch Battlestar Galactica. So say we all!

Stream Movies and TV from Netflix!

Guys, I’ll be honest. This is really what helped me through my gaming dry-spells. Seriously, if I couldn’t use my Netflix, bad things would happen.

I’m amazed that more people don’t take advantage of Netflix. Not only is Netflix an awesome service, but you can use it in so many ways. You’ve got your movie rentals, no late fees, streaming to your computer, and now you can stream through the Xbox 360! Who would turn down such a service? Especially if you still rent movies the “old fashioned way.” I honestly believe that if everyone knew how great Netflix really is, none of those brick and mortar stores would still be open. Netflix is my favorite way to watch streaming movies at home.

Ok, so you’re totally excited about signing up with Netflix, right? Well, I have a link for you. Check out WatchStreamingMovies.com. These guys have put together a site that lists everything you’ll need.

I want to play my expensive games!

I hear you, friend. There comes a point when nothing but tearing down the streets in GTA will satisfy. So what’s a gamer to do? Well, the choices are obvious, but the way you go about them are many.

Fix your Broken Xbox

First, there’s the option of fixing your Xbox 360. Yeah, I know, I know… how obvious! But, maybe your Xbox is no longer under warranty. Maybe you don’t have the money on hand to get it fixed. Don’t worry!

Of course, if your Xbox is still under warranty, I don’t know why you’re reading this. You should call Microsoft and set up a repair as soon as possible (1-800-4MY-XBOX). However, if the warranty has run out and you’re strapped for cash, you have a couple of options.

Sell your busted Xbox on eBay

Yes, believe it or not, there are lots of people out there who would like to buy your broken Xbox. Depending on what exactly is broken, you can probably get a good amount of money for it. The people who buy broken Xbox’s are usually good at repairs. They buy your Xbox, disassemble it for parts, and then either sell those parts to other people or use the parts to make their own repairs. That’s why you can still get a fair amount for something that’s broken. Often times you can get enough to buy a used Xbox on Craigs List or other listing on eBay.

Strip your Xbox for Parts

Let’s do a little math. Let’s say your strip down your XBox 360 into 30 separate parts (I’ve seen people bidding on the eject button!). Now, you take those parts and sell them for $8 – $10 each on eBay or Craigs List. Suddenly, your broken Xbox has gone from worthless to a value somewhere around $300. Now you can buy a new Xbox 360 and have a new warranty. It’s a little work and you’ve got to know what you’re doing, but it can be totally worth it. Just search around eBay and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Got any other bright ideas?

That’s all I can pull out of my head at the moment. Do you guys have any other big ideas? If so, leave a comment below. Your fellow gamers will love you for it!

Also read: When to buy a used Xbox

There are tons of really good tutorials and videos on the web that explain how to disassemble your Xbox, so I’m not going to break things down to that level. It’s my hope that approaching the problem from a broad overview will remove some of the fear and uncertainty that surrounds cracking your Xbox 360 open. If you’re not yet ready to repair your DVD drive, check out the different ways you can use your broken Xbox 360.

Please note: If your Xbox 360 is still under warranty, I recommend sending it to Microsoft for repair. Warranty repairs are free and you should get an extension on your warranty, which is a nice bonus. I can only suggest that you attempt the repairs yourself if the warranty has run out and you’re comfortable with handling computer components. Also, even though your warranty may have expired, you can still pay to have it fixed. However, if you open up your Xbox, I’m not sure you’re still eligible for repairs. So, consider that before you begin.

If you’ve ever made a computer repair that involved replacing hardware, repairing your Xbox should be pretty simple. If the thought of opening your computer and replacing a DVD drive frightens you, please stop here and read something else. I’m working on another article that covers all the things you can do with an Xbox even though your DVD drive is broken. Sit tight!

Still here? Great! So let’s talk about some of the things that can go wrong with your DVD drive. There are several common problems out in the wild:

• A magnet has come unglued. This is the problem I had. After searching the web for a couple of days, it looks like this is a very common problem. Symptoms include the Unreadable Disc error, funny noises, a scratched game disc or DVD, and random Stone Temple Pilot references.
• The motor that spins the disc is not working properly. To verify this is the problem, you’ll have to open your Xbox 360 and take a peek inside the DVD drive. Though, if your drive is really, really quiet and you haven’t installed your games to the hard drive, you’ve got a reason to suspect the disc motor. You can either just replace the motor assembly, which involves opening up your DVD drive, or you can just replace the whole drive. Replacing the motor requires finding the same motor for the original model of DVD drive installed in your Xbox 360. Replacing the entire drive opens another can of worms, as it means you’ve got to either swap the boards or flash the new drive with the old drive’s key (I know! It’s confusing!)
• The motor that moves the laser assembly is not working properly. This problem is often associated with odd noises coming from the DVD drive, especially when you first insert a disc. The easiest way to verify this is to open up your Xbox 360 and take a look inside your DVD drive. Spinning a disc up is kinda cool with all the DVD drive’s guts exposed. Just don’t look at the laser.

Before you sit down to disassemble your Xbox 360, you need to gather a few tools. Links to Amazon.com are provided in case you need to make a purchase.

• A set of Torx Drivers (Sizes T10 and T8 will be used, but you might as well pick up a good set).
• A Philips-head screwdriver.
• A really, really small flat-head screwdriver. A precision set will do nicely, and you’ll be able to fix your glasses later if they break.
• A flashlight or headlamp. I found myself using a headlamp so I could see the little plastic tabs that hold the Xbox’s outer plastic shell in place. When you’re done, you can use it to read late into the night.
• A flat surface with some sort of protective layer between the Xbox and the table/floor/whatever. Once you’ve removed the plastic shell, the metal chassis can scratch your work surface. Don’t fix your Xbox on your mom’s dining room table
• Some patience and TLC. <3

As I said before, I’m not going to go into the step-by-step process of taking your Xbox 360 apart. There are tons of tutorials and videos on YouTube you can refer to. To summarize, the Xbox 360 hardware is encased by a plastic shell that is comprised of 5 major pieces. Most of these pieces are held together using a series of plastic clips (one of the large panels is held in place by several screws that require the Torx drivers to remove). Here’s a quick and dirty break-down:

• Remove the hard drive.
• Remove the front bezel (the piece where the power button is).
• Remove the skinny side panels (these use the plastic clips).
• Remove the large bottom panel.
• Remove the large screws that run through the chassis.
• Remove the large top panel.

With this accomplished, you’re ready to take a look at that pesky DVD drive. Note that there are four screws running through the bottom of the chassis that holds the DVD drive in place. Just remove these screws and the DVD drive will come out. On the back of the drive you’ll find two cables that run to the mother board. Disconnect these two cables from the drive.

Remove the drive from the Xbox and flip it over, you’ll see four to six screws holding the DVD case together. Remove these screws and the two pieces of the DVD case will come apart. Now we’re getting somewhere!

You should now be able to see the inside of the drive. Take a look at the top piece of the drive case. Do you see a little magnet stuck to the top? If so, you just need to re-glue it back into the spindle that sets below the center of your game discs. Don’t use too much glue and take care to allow plenty of time for the glue to dry.

Be sure to re-assemble your Xbox before you return to normal use. There’s not much harm in just testing it out before you put it all back together. Just be sure to use extreme caution to never touch anything inside the Xbox. Yes, this means your finger, your little sister’s Cool-aid, etc., needs to stay away from the Xbox! Once you’re sure everything is working properly, put the Xbox back together. Doing otherwise is putting your money, hard work, and safety at risk.

If you believe your trouble is the result of something other than a loose magnet, you’ll likely need to replace a component within the DVD drive or the entire drive itself. I’ve seen numerous videos on YouTube (some better than others) that show how to do this.

If after you fooled around with your DVD drive and you begin to notice odd sounds, check to make sure the magnet didn’t come back out. If the magnet is still where it belongs, adjust the laser assembly. Do not touch the lens, but check to see if the laser assembly slides back and forth rather easily. Set the laser about an inch away from the spindle and try again. Of course, don’t do any of this while the Xbox is on, silly.

If you were already planning on fixing your Xbox yourself, I hope you found this article encouraging. In my case, a few minutes of my time and a squirt of glue saved me $100. I hope you have the same great results! Until you decide to fix your DVD drive yourself, head over to my post on how to use your broken Xbox.

If you’re ready to give up and just get another Xbox 360, check out eBay. There are lots of deals to be found by just looking around a bit. Here’s a great list you can use to find a good used xbox (updated automagically).

Also read: When to buy a used Xbox

Since November is here and the Child’s Play site is being updated with information and a new toy drive, I’d like to help by trying to get the word out.



Here’s some information about the charity taken from the Child’s Play site:

Since 2003, we’ve set up and organized Child’s Play, a game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children with toys and games in our network of over 40 hospitals worldwide. In four short years, you as a community have answered the call and come together to raise millions of dollars.

That was awesome. You guys have proven over and over again that you are an overwhelming force, and you really came through and made a real difference to the millions of kids that children’s hospitals care for each year. So we’re doing it again this year, only this time we’ve expanded Child’s Play to more hospitals around US and the globe so you can send toys to a hospital a little closer to home.

Child’s Play works the same as last year. With the help of hospital staff, we’ve set up gift wish lists full of video games, toys, and movies. You can go to each hospital’s list and buy a toy, and that toy will be sent to the hospital. Some of these kids are in pretty bad shape. Imagine being stuck alone in a hospital over the holidays, getting something from a fellow gamer would really raise their spirits. Some of the stuff the hospital will give away for kids to keep, while other gifts (like consoles) will be kept by the hospital for patients to use throughout the year.

We are arguably the largest community of gamers on the internet. The important word there being community. We are not a faceless corporation and you are not just a number tracked by a database and then relayed to hungry advertisers. You guys have proven yourselves to be a powerful force when stirred into action. Here is your opportunity to use that power to do some real good.

If you’d like to make a donation, go to the Child’s Play site, select a hospital, and choose a toy to purchase for them. If you’d like to make a donation via PayPal, send the money to:
childsplaycharity@penny-arcade.com.

And yes, you can donate even if you don’t have a PayPal account.

I think it’s great how the generous folks behind Penny Arcade are using their popularity and the power of the gaming industry to help so many people around the world. Keep up the great work, guys!

I’ll admit that I wrote a somewhat angry email to Nintendo. But, Nintendo responded to my complaint in a timely manner. I suspect that their response was somewhat canned, but that only makes it worse. If this is a canned answer, this is how Nintendo really feels about people hacking their games and ruining other people’s online experience.

Here’s the response I got from Nintendo:

Hello,


Sadly, cheating in games (even board or card games) is an unfortunate fact of life. We do respect the fact that you, and many others, do their best to enjoy gaming without cheating. At Nintendo, we do our best to make sure that our fans are able to have a fun gaming experience.


One way we have been able to accomplish this is through the Friend Code feature. We introduced the Friend Code feature as a way of allowing gamers to build their own personal online gaming community by choosing to play only with those they know and trust. This way, players are able to create an arena where they can enjoy a fair gaming experience.


Rest assured that your comments about this very important issue have been shared with the appropriate departments within Nintendo for review.


Sincerely,


Alex Loren
Nintendo of America Inc.

First of all, I wasn’t asking for a life lesson. I’m completely aware that there are cheaters out there… it’s pretty obvious just from playing one Nintendo game online. The point I was trying to make in my email was that other companies take visibly deliberate measures to keep all cheating – especially cheating that is the direct result of altering a game – to an absolute minimum. Take Xbox owners for example. If you’re caught with a Xbox that has been altered, that Xbox will never play online again. Players that are caught with an altered version of a game can expect to have their Live subscription revoked.

The second paragraph in Nintendo’s response is what frustrated me the most. It seems that Nintendo would rather leave the task of eliminating cheating and hacking to its customers. We’re not supposed to play other gamers with the same interests. We’re not supposed to depend on a gigantic, multi-cultural, international company that has been in business for decades to protect its customers. We’re supposed to use an awkward and inconvenient “friend” system to only play with people we already know.

Am I way off base here? Surely I’m not the only guy who thinks it’s not my responsibility to put a leash on the hacking of Nintendo’s hardware and games. I’d love to read any comments you might have.

Oh, and by the way, this is all certainly something to consider when you’re picking out your GameFly list:

I played for most of the night of my purchase. The next day, a friend came over and we ended up playing for a solid two hours. It wasn’t until we gave the online play a go that we started to see something funny going on with the game.

The first thing I noticed was that some racers where able to use items before anyone could have possibly gotten an item to use. Straight from the starting line, one racers was tossing fake item boxes left and right.

I also noticed that some racers where absolutely untouchable. The icing on the cake was the most recent Tournament I participated in. In an event that would take a good gamer 90 seconds to complete, the “Top 10″ scores where under 30 seconds. Upon seeing this, I decided some web searches were in order.

After some quick research, I discovered that Mario Kart Wii was all too commonly subject to being hacked. The most common hack being unlimited items which quickly end races and spawn unrealistic time trial times.

Am I surprised that people are hacking a video game to cheat others out of a win? Certainly not. Am I surprised that Nintendo allows this to continue to happen? Yes! Nintendo needs to show that they care about maintaining the integrity of their products and, most of all, show that they care about their customers. Doing anything else shows a weakness that I find disgusting.

I can’t speak for PS3 games, but anyone with a Xbox Live subscription would never see such obvious cheating and hacking persist for very long. Honest gamers, who each paid hundreds of dollars for a console and games, aren’t able to enjoy their games as they were intended. Not only are gamers getting cheated out of a satisfying gaming experience, they are getting cheated out of their hard-earned money.

Nintendo needs to take action against the cheaters and hackers who play online (Ban Hammer, anyone?). If hackers want to monkey around with their games at home, fine, but keep it local and let those who just want to have a good time do just that.

So, I guess I’ll start to get more Xbox games from Gamefly, which you should check out ( ).

Cursing under my breath, I got up from the couch to give the Xbox and game a close look. Of course, the disc was fine. I put in another game just to be sure, and got the “unreadable disc” error once again. I inserted a movie we had watched over the weekend. No dice.

What comes next is what really frustrates me. My Xbox 360 is just over a year old so I consider it to be pretty new. Also, it’s the “Elite” version, a version I had hoped Microsoft had released with confidence. Besides all that, I have never heard of DVD drives just going out like that and, if they do, it’s because they are obviously defective. In my six years of working at Dell, you want to know how many computers I had to repair because of a bad CD or DVD drive? That’s right, none.

I called 1-800-4MY-XBOX the next evening to see what my options were, even though deep down I knew that I was going to have to pay to have it repaired. After speaking my way through the automated options (which I’ve never understood why it’s better than just “pressing 1″) I got in touch with a support guy rather quickly. He walked me through some really basic troubleshooting in his best “I’m hip and young too, bro” voice and soon agreed that my Hitachi DVD drive was toast. Then he informed me that, since my Xbox was out of warranty, I could have it fixed and my warranty extended for $99.

I’ll admit, I thought about just trying to fix it myself. I mean, it’s just a DVD drive, right? Well, I did a little research and found that I’d have to buy a particular brand/model and somehow flash it with the Xbox’s key. Looked like that was going to cost me around $60 + my time, so the $99 repair fee began to sound better and better.

I plan on making another call tonight to go through with the repair. I also plan on updating this post with all of my experiences with the repair process as they happen so that other people may know what to expect. I also hope that other people who are having this same kind of problem will leave a comment for the record. Who knows, maybe this will turn out to be the same sort of thing as the Three Red Lights.

EDIT: I recently fixed my Xbox with just a touch of glue. To find out how I did it, read this article: Fix the Unreadable Disc Error. If you’re not ready to send your Xbox in for repair or attempt to fix it yourself, read about the different ways you can use your broken xbox.

If you’re ready to just get another Xbox 360, you might want to consider getting on that’s used. There’s a great list you can use to find a good used xbox at BuyUsedGear.com

Also read: When to buy a used Xbox