Minecraft: The best incomplete 16-bit game ever

As I’ve mentioned before, I grew up a naive PC gamer. I was partial to the LucasArts games, Day o f the Tentacle, X-wing, and the like. There’s  nothing like a machine with more input buttons than letters in the alphabet. Not to mention the PC was high-definition with full anti-aliasing before it was cool. So what’s one of the best games on the PC today? I have to say it's a very simple block building game in beta testing called Minecraft. The game entered beta testing on Dec. 20 and before that it was available to customers in a constantly buggy form. A rather unique development method in the gaming world, granted but creator Notch built a large portion of the game himself and after selling a million or so accounts at what he has said will be half of the retail price he could afford to hire a few employees.

The game is surprisingly addicting given its simplicity. All you really do before a story line is installed is run around gathering resources and building things with them. There are also monsters like to destroy you and your creations. The game has sparked creativity in a large number of players and even I jumped on the bandwagon by creating a model of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater and a number of other historic or fantastic buildings. One ambitious gamer has even built a full size replica of the U.S.S. Enterprise, though the game's 1 meter by 1 meter blocks make interiors a bit difficult.