Easter eggs

An Easter egg is an intentional hidden message, inside joke, or feature in a work such as a computer program, web page, video game, television program, movie, book, or crossword. Minecraft features several easter eggs hidden within the game.

April Fools 2011


The Locked chest was a naturally generated block used as the premise of Notch's 2011 April Fool's Day joke. Upon attempting to open the chest, a message would appear stating that a Steve Co. Supply Crate Key is needed, and that one could be purchased at the Minecraft store.

This concept is a reference to the Team Fortress 2 item drop system, where you can receive an item randomly while playing. One of the receivable items is called Mann Co. Supply Crate, which required a key purchased from the Mann Co. Store, a microtransaction system integrated into the Steam client.

Within the Minecraft store, there were many easter eggs: //Determine Entrance if(options.enterOn == 'timer') { setTimeout(init, options.delayTime); } else if(options.enterOn == 'click') { _this.bind('click', function(e) {					e.preventDefault;					if(!locked) {						init;					}				}) } else if(options.enterOn == 'konami-code'){ var kkeys = [], konami = "38,38,40,40,37,39,37,39,66,65"; $(window).bind("keydown.raptorz", function(e){			       kkeys.push( e.keyCode );			        if ( kkeys.toString.indexOf( konami ) >= 0 ) {			        	init;			        	$(window).unbind('keydown.raptorz');			        }			    }, true);
 * Clicking on the proceed to checkout button triggers a screamer in which a Velociraptor from the movie Jurassic Park will growl loudly and fly across the screen.
 * Entering items totaling over $10,000 into the cart causes a window pop-up asking if you are prone to seizures. Entering OK makes the screen start flashing.
 * The script that causes the Velociraptor to appear has a reference to the Konami Code in it.

Halloween
On October 31st, Zombies, Skeletons, and other mobs will sometimes wear Pumpkins or Jack 'o' Lanterns on their heads. They will occasionally drop these blocks if killed. This was added in version 1.4.2 for Halloween 2012.

Christmas
From December 24th-26th, Chests and their larger counterpart have their textures changed to Xmas Chests. This was added in version 1.4.6 for Christmas 2012. A texture known in the game files as "skis.png", was also added in the Christmas/New Year update in the same folder as the Xmas Chests. Its textures were added by Dinnerbone as a red herring.

Zombie Pigman
In an unused area for the Zombie Pigman's texture, the words "THX XAPHOBIA" can be seen. This was written by Notch to give credit to the texture's original creator, XaPhobia.

MissingNo.
If one were to delete the file splash.txt without deleting the META-INF folder, the splash text on the title screen would appear to be missingno. This is a reference to the infamous glitch Pokémon, MissingNo.

Unused splash text
In the file "splashes.txt", there is a line that reads, "This message will never appear on the splash screen, isn't that weird?". The only version that shows this line is the Xbox 360 edition.

Déjà vu!
In the file "splash.txt." the line "Déjà vu!" appears twice, one under the other. This is a reference to the phenomenon of having the strong sensation that an event or experience currently being experienced had been experienced in the past.

Minceraft
There used to be a one in 10,000 chance that the title screen will display "Minceraft" instead of "Minecraft". At that time, the end of any crash log would have the phrase "You should try our sister game, Minceraft!"