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 pick up an item 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 film Jurassic Park will growl loudly and fly across the screen. Once clicked, the Proceed button also changes its display name to 'Fiddlesticks!'.
 * 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 2012
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 2012
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 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.

Never displayed splash
Within the "Titles" folder, there will be a document labeled "splashes." The document contains all the splashes you see on the title screen. One of them is "this will never be shown on the splash screen, isn't that weird?" And, true enough, it will never show up on the splash screen.

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.

"Minceraft"
There is a one in 10,000 chance that the title screen will display "Minceraft" instead of "Minecraft". Also, the beginning of any crash log has a chance to have the phrase "You should try our sister game, Minceraft!"

Upside-down mobs
Naming any mob "Dinnerbone" or "Grumm" using a name tag or a renamed spawn egg will cause it to turn upside-down.

Achievements
The Lie

If you bake a cake in Minecraft for the first time you will get an achievement, "The Lie". This is a reference to the well known game Portal, where the villain, gladOS, promises you a cake only to throw you into an incinerator. The achievement itself most likely comes from the meme that born from the described scene, "The cake is a lie".