Minecraft Plus!

This article documents an April Fools' joke.

This feature was exclusively part of a joke version and is not currently planned for addition to regular Minecraft.
It is documented here on the wiki due to being officially-released content by Mojang Studios, even if not present in a final version.

Minecraft Plus! is a screensaver application developed by Mojang Studios for April Fools Day 2021. It features many different Minecraft-themed screensavers, using block and item textures from the game, inspired by screensavers from old computers. The application is available to download for free and runs on 64-bit Windows 7+ PCs. Alternatively, the application can also be used in a modern browser window.^[1]^[2]

Screensavers

Unofficial name	Description	Notes
Thrown items	Spinning 3D blocks and items being thrown from the center of the screen onto a rotating platform.	Up to 10 items can be visible at a time. Plants appear gray, and all spawn eggs use the default texture.
Colored footsteps	Four tile-like footstep particles, colored red, yellow, green and blue, moving independently from each other.
Liquid tiles	A tile grid of either water or lava.	Evokes tiled wallpaper designs from Windows 3.x to Windows 98. When loaded the blocks are initially displayed in either flat colors of blue or red before water or lava textures respectively fade in.
Creeper faces	Creeper faces flying towards the screen.	A reference to Windows 3.x's Flying Windows.
Bouncing item	Spinning 3D blocks and item bouncing from right to left, leaving a trail.	Similar to the winning animation in pre-Windows 7 Solitaire as well as After Dark's "Gravity".
Rotating block	A block with random textures on each face rotating randomly.	Similar to the loading animation in Minecraft Dungeons.
Glow squids	Glow squids swimming to the bottom left of the screen. Regular squids may start appearing after some time.	A reference to After Dark's "Flying Toasters".
Menu panorama	The title screen panorama from 1.13, 1.14, 1.15, or 1.16.
Floating texture	A texture floats across the screen, bouncing and changing its texture when it hits the screen border.	A reference to the bouncing DVD animation during idle modes on many DVD players, as well as bearing similarities to Flying Objects screensaves from Windows 95 to Windows XP.
Lagging floating textures	Like above, but the texture leaves a trail behind it.
All textures	An overview of a grid with every in-game texture on it, with the camera flying and rotating over it.	The texture map features a two-color version of the creeper's face.
Grass spread	Grass slowly spreading rightwards over dirt blocks, as the screen gradually scrolls to the right.	The spreading grass progressively changes biome color.

Trivia

The box art is styled after the box of Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP, a package for the Windows XP operating system, which included features such as desktop themes and screensavers.
- Since "Microsoft Plus!" and "Minecraft" are Microsoft branded IPs, Mojang Studios was able to use both the name and the style.
While the MinecraftPlus.scr file can be run on UNIX based operating systems with wine^[3], the bulk of the application does not work, as wine's functionality as a compatibility layer does not allow it to change the OS screen saver.
The icon for Minecraft Plus! is a Glow Squid, which also appears as an animation before starting the browser version and in one of the screensavers. Since the screensaver featuring Glow Squids parodies "Flying Toasters", this may be a reference to how the Flying Toaster was After Dark's mascot.
The download for windows contains a zip file with a .scr file inside. If the .scr file refuses to run, its extension can be changed from .scr to .exe and it will work.^[4]
Renaming the .scr file to .exe then running the application will open in windowed mode rather than fullscreen mode.
The .scr contains a version.txt with the line VALUE "FileDescription", "Minecraft Minus Players!"
The screensaver contains models and textures for many blocks and items in the game up to Java Edition 21w13a, as well as original and two-color creeper face textures.
The web page supports two query-strings^[5]:
- autorun, which will run automatically the screensaver if the window value is specified. If another value is specified then it will just skip to the "run in fullscreen or windowed" page.
- module
In the HTML code of plus.minecraft.net, there are three comments that read "I definitely wasn’t hired for my webdev skills haha", "What is this? Where are all the libraries? This is never going to work in IE" and "Is that written by hand? Puzzling!".
- Text "This is never going to work in IE" means that screensaver in browser do not work in Internet Explorer.
- In addition, a random splash text is written to the browser console once the screensaver has finished loading:

Splash texts

Full of stars!
Native performance!
Start me up!^{[note 1]}
Pinball not included!^{[note 2]}
Machine code!
Smart pointers!
Quite finite!
Sending candy via mail!
Forgettable!
Very shy!
Fast loading!
Exits to desktop!
Stateless!
No configuration required!
Batteries included!
Self-contained!
Waste of time!
Procedural generation!
Idle game!
Works with any controller!
Minecraft, but screensaver
Saving the World one screen at a time!
Warning: may cause burn-in!^{[note 3]}
Web-enabled!
Minecraft, but written in Rust!
Single-threaded!
panic!()
Lots of cargo!
Is an App!
Native!
Hours of fun!
Hypnotic!
Contains traces of seafood!
As seen on TV!
Awesome!
100% pure!
More polygons!
Moderately attractive!
Really limited edition!
It's here!
Best in class!
Dragon free!
Excitement!
One of a kind!
It's NOT a game!
Made in Sweden!
Minecraft!
Yaaay!
Zeroplayer!
Keyboard compatible!
l33t!
Exclusive!
Closed source!
Wow!
Not on steam!
Oh man!
Pixels!
90% bug free!
Pretty!
Fat free!
Free dental!
Ask your doctor!
Legal in Finland (not checked with actual lawyer)!
Technically good!
Euclidian!
Now in 3D!
Inspirational!
Now on OpenGL 3.2 core profile!
Thousands of colors!
Try it!
Sensational!
Guaranteed!
Random splash!
Call your mother!
Ultimate edition!
Water proof!
Uninflammable!
Whoa, dude!
All inclusive!
Tell your friends!
Scientific!
Nice to meet you!
150% hyperbole!
Cogito ergo sum!
The sum of its parts!
Finger-licking!
Thematic!
Pneumatic!
Sublime!
Octagonal!
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Hotter than the sun!
Autonomous!
Very fun!
12345 is a bad password!
This text is not hard to read since this is in console!
So fresh, so clean!
Parrot sketch not included!
Information wants to be free!
Jeb has amazing hair!
Casual gaming!
Leveraging synergy!
This message will never appear on the splash screen, isn't that weird? (think about this)
Fnord!
Don't bother with the clones!
Endless!
Garbage-free!
Woah.
You probably will read this line on wiki!
Now with additional stuff!
Extra things!
GNU Terry Pratchett
Tested in Windows XP (didn't work!)
Plant a tree!
Go to the dentist!
Home-officed!
Wash your hands!
Soap and water!
Support local businesses!
Stay home and play games!
Stay safe!
Stay strong!
Cough or sneeze into your elbow!
Don’t touch your face!
Support elderly relatives and friends!
Prepare, but don’t hoard!
Gamers unite – separately in your own homes!
Save the world – stay inside!
Shop for your elders!
Hang out with your friends online!
Completely silent!
Fabulous graphics!
Also try Minecraft!
Vanilla!
Black lives matter!
Be anti-racist!
Learn about allyship!
Speak OUT against injustice and UP for equality!
Amplify and listen to BIPOC voices!
Educate your friends on anti-racism!
Support the BIPOC community and creators!
Stand up for equality in your community!
Splashes not included

↑ Refers to the Windows 95 commercial that uses the titular song by the Rolling Stones.
↑ References how Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 included 3D Pinball, which then became a staple of the system until Windows Vista.
↑ Is a joke about how screensavers are meant to prevent burn-in.

Config messages

Attempting to configure the screensaver application produces one of the following messages, followed by closing the application after clicking on OK:

Window title	Window text
Tired config window	Ugh, why does everything need to be configurable
Busy config window	Sorry, I don't have time to handle this right now
Optimistic config window	Nothing here, but I'm sure something will eventually show up
Deep config window	Ask yourself why do you need to change anything?
Motivational config window	Important things in life can't be configured by just clicking
Fortune cookie config window	Your lucky number is fish
Banana config window	Banana
Minecraft config window	Removed dirt
Enlightened config window	Everything is already perfectly configured
??? config window	Help, I'm trapped in a config window factory
Goat config window	Toggled Goat
Config window	3D Maze: disabled
Stubborn config window	...!
Mentor config window	The real config was inside you all along
Config window	Listen, you have so many config windows to choose from, why did you pick me?
Printer config window	Low cyan!
Operation successful	Reversed config window
Error config window	No error!
Three config window	Three is now set to seven
Tpyo confg windiw	Mispelings, actiivated?
Treacherous config window	This is not a config window
Assertive config window	NO!
Educational config window	Config windows may contain useful settings!
Assistant config window	It looks like you are trying to config screensaver!^{[note 1]}
Important config window	The thing is done!
Lonely config windowSeems I'm the only one here

Note: There is a programming error within the executable where the strings for config windows are stored for this text: "Lonely config windowSeems I'm the only one here" All other strings are correct and are seperated by | to differentiate between the title and the window text. This specific config window will never appear.

↑ Is a reference to an infamous quote by Microsoft Office assistant Clippy, who would say "It looks like you're writing a letter. Would you like help?" if the user started a document with "Dear".

Included entity sprites

Included blocks/states

List of blocks in Minecraft Plus!

Included items

List of items in Minecraft Plus!

Gallery

The Glow Squid animation.
The normal squid animation that appears sometimes.
The squids animation spritesheet.
The blocks image.
The footprints sprite.

Video

The video From the Minecraft YouTube channel.

References

↑ https://plus.minecraft.net/
↑ "Introducing Minecraft Plus!" – Minecraft.net, April 1, 2021
↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRXtVo5rccs
↑ Wikipedia:Screensaver
↑ Wikipedia:Query_string

[6] Refers to the Windows 95 commercial that uses the titular song by the Rolling Stones.

[7] References how Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 included 3D Pinball, which then became a staple of the system until Windows Vista.

[8] Is a joke about how screensavers are meant to prevent burn-in.

[9] Is a reference to an infamous quote by Microsoft Office assistant Clippy, who would say "It looks like you're writing a letter. Would you like help?" if the user started a document with "Dear".

[1] ttps://plus.minecraft.net/

[2] "Introducing Minecraft Plus!" – Minecraft.net, April 1, 2021

[3] ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRXtVo5rccs

[4] Wikipedia:Screensaver

[5] Wikipedia:Query_string

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