Redstone Update

The Redstone Update was a major update released on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, as version 1.5. Among the main changes are a number of new redstone-related blocks, including the comparator, hopper, dropper, daylight sensor, trapped chest, weighted pressure plates and block of redstone. A new decorative block - block of quartz, crafted from nether quartz, was also added. Also included is a scoreboard system, a new texture pack format and a lighting engine optimization.

The Redstone Update was announced at the Future Updates with the Minecraft PC Team and The Future of Mod API talks at MineCon 2012.

Development began shortly after the announcement. Sixteen development snapshots were released, from to, with a few snapshots being quickly re-released straight after to fix bugs without changing the client version number. Nearer the end of the snapshot cycle for the 1.5 update, Mojang focused primarily on fixing bugs, rather than adding new features.

Mojang originally planned to release a pre-release version of The Redstone Update on February 28, 2013, and the official update in the first week of March. However, the pre-release was delayed as Mojang was trying to fix more bugs before a stable release, and was subsequently released on March 7.

Promotional videos
The following videos are fan trailers created by the community and shown on the official Mojang blog. The captions below are direct quotes from Mojang. First, the Minecraft 1.5 Song by YourMCAdmin If that’s a bit too short for you, this one by nativisions is a little bit more in depth (5:38) And if you want an even longer, here’s one by icecreamstatus (15:05)

Notable Features
Some major changes this update saw were Redstone blocks and other redstone components, hence the name redstone update. Also added were hoppers, TNT carts, and Nether quartz.