Video Game Coverage

We present you...the kingdom of Galekin, arguably one of the most impressive kingdoms to surface from the creative depths of Minecraft to date. The mastermind behind this creation, Linard, incorporates a sprawling series of settlements, with multiple cities.

You've gotta love how instead of building a kingdom inspired off a show or book or something, he actually came up with the names and designs all on his own.

The device is named, Mini-Famicon an dcomes out November 10th, and here's the games that'll be available for it at this point:

Donkey Kong
Mario Bros.
Pac-Man
Excitebike
Balloon Fight
Ice Climber
Galaga
Yie Ar Kung-Fu
Super Mario Bros.
The Legend of Zelda
Atlantis no Nazo
Gradius
Ghosts ‘n Goblins
Solomon’s Key
Metroid
Castlevania
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Tsuppari Ozumo
Super Mario Bros. 3
Ninja Gaiden
Mega Man 2
River City Ransom
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Super Contra
Final Fantasy III
Dr. Mario
Downtown Nekketsu Koushinkyoku: Soreyuke daiundoukai
Mario Open Golf
Super Mario USA (the US version of Super Mario Bros. 2)
Kirby’s Adventure

A team comprised of well known speedrunners including Tyler Kehne, MKDasher, sonicpacker, Snark, SilentSlayers, Gaehne D, Eru, and To managed to pull off what's being called the 'Holy Grail' of Mario 64 sequence breaks.

It's being called the 'Moat Door Skip' and it was previously presumed impossible....until now. Here's a mere segment from the lengthy post, which describes what this team had to go through to achieve their goal:

“Many years ago, the SM64 community demonstrated with hacks that the moat door was fully functional underwater, and that there was a 1 frame window where Mario could run underwater and open it. Still, the uncooperative geometry of the Castle Grounds map seemed to indicate that the Moat Door Skip would always be a plumber’s pipe dream. However, in 2015 Tyler Kehne identified the parallel universe (PU) glitch, and he immediately realized that it could potentially be used to solve the problem. After overcoming several seemingly fatal issues with applying the glitch, he theorized a method for Moat Door Skip that takes a detour through Vanish Cap Under the Moat. Tyler and sonicpacker then collaborated to demonstrate this method, which required the collection of 10 stars.”

“But in order to make Moat Door Skip useful for a speedrun, the team had to find a way to quickly get into VCUtM with only 0 stars. The only known way to do this involves jumping with a very high negative speed, which results in a proportionally large vertical displacement that can traverse the depth of the water in 1 frame. In order to make the trick work, the team had to design a far more potent BLJ than anything ever seen before on Castle Grounds. SilentSlayers and sonicpacker set to work on surveying for potential BLJs, and eventually they found one on the far side of the lake that allowed several thousand speed to be accumulated. Tyler then figured out how to route the speed to an appropriate jump location, and the vision of the Moat Door Skip was fully realized!”

It's storytime folks, and before we carry on, go ahead and brace yourself for some seriously twisted sh*t...cause we're diving deep down the rabbit's hole. People, reasonable and crazy people, are at war right now guys, and it all centers on one of Minecraft's oldest servers, 2b2t.



It might be more accurate to say that 2b2t is just one of those servers that's managed to go the longest without a 'reset.' 2b2t is all at once a bleak wasteland and a homage to a time long since passed. It's a strangely pleasant sight to behold.



2b2t's claim to fame though, is how 'horrible' it is--inappropriate, crude, etc. According to 2b2t legend Sato, all the history, lore, epic builds, and what have you are “just a bonus for the people to find out if they played long enough.”

Not only is 2b2t devoid of moderators altogether, but we're looking at land ungoverned by law; and the moderator Hausmaster takes the total hands-off approach. So, uh, yeah. 



Etiquette goes so far as if you can build the thing, it's yours, and if you come across someone, you can kill 'em. The builds are a trip too, and include things like swastikas, burning crosses...and there's even a village called Hitlerville (see below).



The chat within 2b2t itself contains a strange mixture of edgelordiness, brutal banter, and occasionally not entirely savage conversation. Though take note, the locals in 2b2t relish the opportunity to prey upon 'rushers' (visitors/tourists) by sending them out to secluded locations where they'll starve to death...or worse.



The server kicked along swimmingly until a YouTuber - TheCampingRusher - gained knowledge of the 'monstrosity' and uploaded his experience navigating the ins and outs of the server:



The video racked up over 2 million views in an alarmingly rapid period of time, and 2b2t struggled under the newfound rush of visitors -- the server seemed poised to give out. The locals were livid. They started setting death traps for the newcomers:



Eventually after much struggle a queue was set up to put some sort of constraint on the constant flood of visitors. The queue gave priority admission to the 'veterans/locals' and the newcomers could cough over a $20/monthly fee for the same treatment.

The locals continue to fight the dawn of a new era though, and they have implemented tactics like placing genitalia and loli paintings, around spawn points to get the videos from rushers exposing the server taken down from YouTube.



Sure, 2b2t is in the throes of a war right now, but when things settle they might yet find they've reignited a love for Minecraft...right?

An era has come to a close folks, as we part ways with 'Battle.net' a name that's been around for the platform since 1996. The full memo from Blizzard reads:

We’re going to be transitioning away from using the Battle.net name for our gaming service and the functionality connected to it. Battle.net technology will continue to serve as the central nervous system for Blizzard games—nothing is changing in that regard. We’ll just be referring to it as Blizzard tech instead. You’ve already seen this recently with things like “Blizzard Streaming” and “Blizzard Voice,” and more changes are on the way.

When we created Battle.net, the idea of including a tailored online-gaming service together with your game was more of a novel concept, so we put a lot of focus on explaining what the service was and how it worked, including giving it a distinct name. Over time, though, we’ve seen that there’s been occasional confusion and inefficiencies related to having two separate identities under which everything falls—Blizzard and Battle.net. Given that built-in multiplayer support is a well-understood concept and more of a normal expectation these days, there isn’t as much of a need to maintain a separate identity for what is essentially our networking technology.

We just wanted to make sure everyone was aware as we moved forward with this change over the next several months; we’ll provide any relevant updates as the transition progresses.