Who Knows the History of Minetest?

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poikilos
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Who Knows the History of Minetest?

by poikilos » Sun Mar 05, 2017 15:56

Hello,

To write a history of Minetest, we could start by people who know the history of Minetest posting a reply to this post.

There may be a need for some history of Minetest, before all of it is forgotten or lost. For example, I didn't know what mese was or why it was named that. I looked and could not find out. About a whole year later, I randomly noticed that VanessaE mentioned "Although we all know about the instant messenger joke, Mese is now considered to be a crystal of alien origin" on this page: viewtopic.php?id=4154
I looked up that info and couldn't find any record of that particular instant messenger discussion. Today I tried again, finding this IRC discussion: http://irc.minetest.ru/minetest/2014-07-26 which mentioned c55's game blog, leading me to instead searching using a google site search on celeron55's blog and found this: http://c55.me/minetest2/wiki/doku.php?id=mese

Of course, this is only one piece of Minetest history that is only known to insiders. Perhaps adding a "History" section to http://wiki.minetest.net/Main_Page would be helpful, including named anchors such as "Unique Gameplay Elements" which could include a 3rd-tier subsection named "Mese" and contain the info above and when it became part of minetest game (around Dec 20, 2012 according to the forum post above) and perhaps any more info about mese's origins and who contributed ideas about it if anyone knows.

I like the idea of Minetest mods and even api having unique features that make it better or even just unique, and most core developers and established mod developers seem to share this type of viewpoint. Having a section like this on the wiki could encourage other people to contribute history before it is lost. Knowing Minetest's history may even provide a subtle continuity to Minetest development, since knowing history behind subtle memes like "mese" and why nyan blocks were added would help introduce newcomers to Minetest culture. Knowing minetest culture may help new contributors enjoy Minetest for what it is instead of just wondering why minetest isn't more like other sandbox games and continually trying to push development of mods toward being like other sandbox games. Though minetest is still in heavy development and minetest_game doesn't have much variety, that doesn't necessarily mean that the solution is to add features that are completely copied from other sandbox games. Perhaps the new features could be more unique and connected to Minetest culture even if vaguely, providing some continuity.

If you know any history of Minetest (such as details about its relationship to minetest-c55, and the story behind Nyan blocks), please reply to this post with your stories (please provide sources if possible).
 

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Re: Who Knows the History of Minetest?

by Sergey » Sun Mar 05, 2017 21:19

poikilos wrote:There may be a need for some history of Minetest, before all of it is forgotten or lost.

Well, everything began with Big Bang.
 

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Re: Who Knows the History of Minetest?

by Wuzzy » Mon Mar 06, 2017 20:18

Today is your lucky day! In a huge coincidence, I updated the information in the wiki page about the mapgen evolution today:

http://wiki.minetest.net/Map_Generator_Evolution

But only for the development since 0.3.0, anything before that is beyond my motivation.

To learn more about the very early history about Minetest, I think you need to talk to celeron55 directly.
You can also just wade through the commit log of Minetest. Its all there in the public to analyze. That's the beauty of free software! :-)
But I guess it won't be easy …
I'm creating MineClone 2, a Minecraft clone for Minetest.
I made the Help modpack, adding in-game help to Minetest.
 

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Re: Who Knows the History of Minetest?

by cx384 » Mon Mar 13, 2017 16:00

This is the oldest file I know where you could find the nyancat.
I want to know for what this texture was used, but I have never seen anything with this texture.
Last edited by cx384 on Mon Mar 13, 2017 18:21, edited 1 time in total.
Can your read this?
 

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Re: Who Knows the History of Minetest?

by Wuzzy » Mon Mar 13, 2017 16:15

cx384: In the dark ages (0.3 and before), Minetest (then called “Minetest-c55”) had actual mobs, and the firefly was one of them. I think this is what this texture was used for. The firefly was a little yellow dot which randomly flies around and you could collect and release it, but it had no actual use.

In Voxelands (which is a fork of the latest version of Minetest-c55 0.3), fireflies still exist, they spawn in jungles and are basically the same as in Minetest-c55 0.3. But they can be used to craft glowing glass.
I'm creating MineClone 2, a Minecraft clone for Minetest.
I made the Help modpack, adding in-game help to Minetest.
 

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Re: Who Knows the History of Minetest?

by cx384 » Mon Mar 13, 2017 18:46

Oh ok thank you of the information, but I am playing minetest since about 4 or 5 years (the time with papyrus and cactus that cant grow, endless lava sources, steel blocks that cant be crafted back into steel ingots, no slabs/stairs and the old green skin) and so I don't know the firefly.
Can your read this?
 

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Re: Who Knows the History of Minetest?

by poikilos » Mon Nov 19, 2018 16:20

Wuzzy wrote:Today is your lucky day! In a huge coincidence, I updated the information in the wiki page about the mapgen evolution today:

http://wiki.minetest.net/Map_Generator_Evolution

But only for the development since 0.3.0, anything before that is beyond my motivation.

To learn more about the very early history about Minetest, I think you need to talk to celeron55 directly.
You can also just wade through the commit log of Minetest. Its all there in the public to analyze. That's the beauty of free software! :-)
But I guess it won't be easy …


I appreciate the information provided on the wiki article.
As for the commit log, since my purpose is to help developers get involved, I would be more interested in:
"Core developers A, B, C, and Celeron55 agreed in January that change x was needed to y in the core because z"
than
"March 1: change x made to y in core"
The former provides more clarity and transparency. The latter would be upsetting and confusing to a non-core contributor who just spent hours or days on something involving y.
I'll paste the description of mese from the page to which I linked in the original post, for an example and for preservation:

MESE is a strange yellow substance found rarely underground. It can be used to craft powerful pickaxes. MESE can be found at any height, however there is much more MESE deep underground (500 blocks below sea level is a good start to mine MESE).

The origin of the block is just plain random. In the early days of the game I [celeron55] needed to add something to be mined from the ground, and ended up with this humorous nonsense block, and haven't removed it from the game from since.

Mese actually means “msn messenger” in Finland and is used as a silly word (it sounds silly) in the ohjelmointiputka programming community. Additionally it is thought that the glasses of the emoticons 8) and 8D are “mese glasses”.

This type of background information can add richness to the game. For example, given this new information, we could consider improving the texture for mese blocks so they have 8D written on them instead of MESE, so that it could be considered as may be an "alien" material (left as remains of technology, or sent, perhaps as a "message"), with the subtle indication of a face would be using more universal symbolism than latin characters. Such a change would add more mystique and humor that isn't just an inside joke. perhaps the "8" could even be an infinity symbol.

So, does anyone else have any responses to the original post, or information regarding technical changes to the core (not just mods) over the years?
 


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