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 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 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.

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!"

Dinnerbone's fun day
Dinnerbone was slain in the first episode of Mindcrack UHC Season 11 by the user Docm77. In response to this, Dinnerbone hinted at the defeat in Minecraft by adding a new splash text, "What's up, Doc?", in the 13w23a snapshot. In the blogpost for the snapshot, he also placed a fake fixed bug inbetween other legitimate bug fixes: "[BUG MC-84211 ] – Remove ‘docm77′ mob as it is not working as intended" Instead of linking to the issue tracker, the bug linked to Docm77's "reenacted" scene on YouTube. The cover photo of the blogpost shows Docm77's head and Dinnerbone's head in a scene similar to the one where Dinnerbone was killed.

Upside-down mobs
As of 1.6, naming any mob "Dinnerbone" or "Grumm" using a Name Tag or a renamed spawn egg will cause it to turn upside-down.