Lantern (disambiguation)

Lanterns were crafted blocks originally planned to be added in the Halloween Update. However, they were delayed due to lack of time and were going to be implemented in a future update. They were repeatedly postponed, until Notch announced on November 18th 2011, at the Mojang Panel at MineCon 2011, that lanterns would not be added to Minecraft due to large negative community response. Instead, other types of lighting would be added, such as redstone lamps and glowstone.

Original plans
With the addition of the lantern, torches would flicker out and need to be re-lit with flint and steel. The lantern would serve as a permanent source of light. According to Notch, when the update would occur, all torches placed on the map, in the inventory, and in chests prior to the update would be converted to lanterns. To do this, the lanterns would use the (former) block ID of torches along with a re-skin.

Glowstone introduced in the Halloween Update was a potential item requirement to craft lanterns, as it has the greatest luminance as a raw material. This would also make lanterns relatively inaccessible and a risky item to get, as has been hinted at by Notch. A second potential item that might have been required to create lanterns was Netherrack, it being a block that never burns out whilst lit. These items both can be obtained by going to the Nether.

On November 11th, 2010, on his Twitter account, Notch claimed (likely as a joke) that "lamps" had actually stood for "Light A-givin' Material Portal Side... the yellow stone thing", probably referring to glowstone. However, on January 13th, 2011 Notch claimed that lanterns were "postponed", and added on January 20th that he was "not sure" when they would be implemented.

Lanterns were to produce light as they are being carried, making it a useful thing to have when cave exploring, but Notch stated on Twitter that he would not add torches as a mobile light source because he didn't like how it looked. Notch might have allowed it to be hung from ceilings but he was not sure.

Trivia

 * In Notch's Ludum Dare 22 contest entry, Minicraft, lanterns can be made in the crafting table.