Herobrine is an infamous Minecraft creepypasta turned legend about a mysterious white-eyed "ghost player" that would haunt the worlds of unsuspecting players.

This page is my attempt to catalogue the development of the Herobrine legend alongside the game itself and other Minecraft-related mysteries/weirdness, in the form of a linear timeline of events. A lot of it may seem tangential or unrelated, but this context is interesting to me.

Quotes look like this:

Herobrine is the subject of a community-made creepypasta. Despite being absent from all versions of the game, he is widely regarded as one of the major community icons of Minecraft.

My annotations look like this:

This is an annotation!

CW: This timeline includes early 2010s forum posts, so expect a couple "gamer words".

i: early mc history

May 2009

2009/5/13

Minecraft version: rd-132328

Additions:

  • Mobs - Referred to in the code as "zombies", the first mob in the game. Their model was reused from one of Notch's scrapped earlier projects, Zombie Town.

2009/5/17

Minecraft release: 0.0.11a

The first publicly released version of Minecraft, posted to the TIGSource forums by Notch.

2009/5/31

Minecraft release: 0.0.15a (Multiplayer Test 1)

Additions:

  • Multiplayer - Other players are rendered using the mob model.

June 2009

2009/6/29

Minecraft release: 0.0.22a

Additions:

  • Sounds
  • Music - Three tracks by C418: calm1, calm2, and calm3.

September 2009

2009/9/1

Minecraft release: 0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST

Additions:

  • Pigs, creepers, zombies, and skeletons
  • Arrows - Shot by pressing Tab.
  • Dropped items
  • Signs - Spawned by pressing B. "This is a test of the signs. Each line can be 15 chars!"
  • Armour - Visual only, on zombies and skeletons.

Changes:

  • Mobs no longer spawn naturally or by pressing G.

October 2009

2009/10/27

Minecraft release: 0.28

Changes:

  • The default player skin (also the skin used by the mob) has been changed to remove the beard.

January 2010

2010/1/24

Minecraft release: Indev 0.31 20100124-2119

Additions:

  • Chests
  • Indev house - The first generated structure, a simple box of mossy cobblestone which the player spawns into upon loading a new world. Contains torches, and chests filled with stacks of most blocks and items in the game.

February 2010

2010/2/5

Minecraft release: Indev 0.31 20100205-1558

Additions:

  • Difficulty setting
  • Giants - An unused huge variant of zombies. Never able to naturally spawn due to impossible light level requirements. They remain in the game's code to this day.

2010/2/11

2010/2/27

Minecraft release: Infdev 20100227-1414

Additions:

  • Infinite world generation - To test this new feature, the height limit was reduced to 128 and many features were temporarily removed.
  • Brick pyramids - Enormous and solid, for testing generated structures.

March 2010

2010/3/16

Minecraft release: Infdev 20100316

Additions:

  • Entities have been reimplemented (including the mob, though it remains unused).
  • Monsters - An unused hostile mob that uses the default player model.

2010/3/27

Minecraft release: Infdev 20100327

Changes:

  • Updated level format & terrain generation.
  • Rather than having to reload a save after dying, players now drop their items and respawn.

Bugs:

  • The Far Lands now generate in their popularly recognizable form.
  • After dying and respawning, the player's body doesn't despawn.
  • Pressing the respawn button multiple times creates clones of the player.

June 2010

2010/6/18

Minecraft release: Infdev 20100618 (Seecret Friday 1)

Additions:

  • Minecarts & rails
  • Falling block entities (gravel & sand)

2010/6/25

Minecraft release: Infdev 20100625-1917 (Seecret Friday 2)

Additions:

  • Dungeons & monster spawners - The design of dungeons closely resembles that of the old Indev house, but underground and dark. The monster spawner is also placed in the middle, just like how the player would spawn into a new world inside the Indev house.
  • Saddles

July 2010

2010/7/2

Minecraft release: Alpha v1.0.1 (Seecret Friday 3)

Additions:

  • Redstone (ore, dust, & basic components)

2010/7/6

2010/7/7

Minecraft release: Alpha v1.0.3

Additions:

  • Unique sounds for hostile mobs
  • Ambient cave sounds

Changes:

  • Improved mob idling behaviour.

2010/7/9

Minecraft release: Alpha v1.0.4 (Seecret Friday 4)

Additions:

  • Winter mode, snow, & ice
  • Many new title screen splash messages, including "Haunted!"

2010/7/22

Minecraft release: Alpha v1.0.10

Additions:

  • Initial survival mode multiplayer support - The only server is Mojang's private invite-only server.

Bugs:

  • "Graphical glitch with mob in spawner block."

ii: white eyes

2010/7/30

Minecraft release: Alpha v1.0.14 (Seecret Friday 7)

Additions:

  • Chickens & eggs
  • Chest & furnace minecarts
  • Jukeboxes & music discs (cat and 13) - These discs can be obtained in two ways: they can be found in dungeon chests, and can drop when a creeper is killed by a skeleton's arrow.

2010/7/31

Youtube video uploaded by Curchack Curchack: Minecraft Music - cat.ogg (01:03:23 UTC)

Description:

This is the music that plays when you play a record dropped by creepers.

The audio is the content of the cat music disc.

The visual is the creeper's face texture, slowly zooming in on its eye over the course of the video.

Youtube video uploaded by Curchack Curchack: Minecraft "music" - 13.ogg (01:18:08 UTC)

Description:

This is the music that plays when you play a record found in dungeons.

The audio is the content of the 13 music disc.

The visual is an extremely dark screenshot of a cave, with two tiny white dots resembling eyes in the bottom left corner.

The bottom half of the image below is a brightened closeup of the dots.

This is the earliest attested (implicit) reference to the idea of a mysterious white-eyed entity in Minecraft.

August 2010

2010/8/1

iamahedgehog's Minecraft forum thread (2010/7/31)

Post #54 by Flaky (02:36:04 UTC)
(Note: Copied from /v/, I didn't write this and the poster was Anonymous)

I think i'm going crazy.. I abandoned my mine due to strange **** happening, like blocks coming out of nowhere and my torches going missing, it was really strange.

The stranger thing was that there wasnt a single monster or slime or anything down there. But there was a lot of minerals. Quite a lot of cave ambience that I've never heard before, must of been included in the friday update, I dunno.

But yeah, I abandoned it because it really creeped me out for some reason, the strange thing is though, I still hear the cave ambience quite far away from the mine.

But recently I've been hearing really strange things around the building I built around it, it feels like whispers, its strange really... I feel like going back down there, but I really dont want to because of the creepy **** that happens down there plus I'd need a lot more torches. It just seems that the cave is alive and angry at me.

I just decided to go down there one day, one last time to see if I could get any stuff that I could before really abandoning it, I couldnt find a single one of my torches that I left down there before I abandoned it, I dont know whats happening to them but ****, this just made me want to leave the cave even more. I spent about 2 minutes inside and I noticed that I couldnt hear anything, the ambience stopped.

At this point I was pretty creeped out and decided to leave before it went dark, I left and turned and looked at it then all of the sudden the hole went dark.. As if one of my torches was removed. I just ****ing ran without looking back, I heard another creepy ambience sound while I ran away. I had to stop it all, the next day I heard another ambience noise that I havent heard before, but it was like someone was whispering something, it was drawing me towards the cave, but I just went further away from it.

I remembered I had a few buckets of lava left in a chest in my base so I decided I would flood it, but not while it was this dark so I waited the next day. While it was night, I went to the top of my wooden shack kind of thing to look around, just out of curiosity. I looked towards the creepy-as-**** cave, I couldnt even look at it without getting creeped out, I thought I saw something in the window of the building over the cave, but it was probably just my eyes ****ing with me.. I hope.

I went back into my shack until the sun came up, I was ready to rid the world of that ****ing cave, I got my buckets of lava and a few water and started going towards the cave, I could already hear it talking to me, it knew what I was doing, I opened the cave opening and slowly walked in a little to the point where it was a drop, not too far into the cave and started to pour the lava down there, I cave it a minute before I poured water onto of it to seal it with obsidian, that should close it forever.

As I was doing this, I heard one final ambience, that suddenly stopped half way through.. As creepy as it sounded, I felt good because I knew it would be the last one I hear of that cave.

So its been a few days since I sealed that damn cave, everything was as it should be, not creepy ambience or anything like that, I farmed some bamboo and catus, everything was going great, I was able to play minecraft without it being creepy and terrifying.

I was running pretty low on cobblestone and iron, I knew that I'd have to start mining again and I was pretty scared of mining directly into that cursed cave, or whatever it was.

I decided I would make a bigger base further away from my current one, so I knew I wouldnt come in contact with the cave ever. I was forced to clear out some trees for wood before leaving so I could make it out of wood. About a day later I was finished and was ready to start mining, I decided it would be best to make the mine part of my home, so I knew that it was part of my home and I always feel safest at home. So I began mining with my slightly damaged diamond pickaxe, I got further and further down, making a stairway on the way down, until I mined one block below me and fell into a very dark long cave, my heart skipped a beat, it couldnt be the same cave, could it? I immeadiately put about 5 torches all around me so I could see properly, I looked left to right, I havent been here before because there was a few blocks of iron, and I dont usually miss any iron blocks.

I was glad because I knew that I'd be mining with iron pickaxes when my diamond one breaks, the fall into the cave did hurt though, but it was no major wound and I would be fine if I ran into any creatures down here, I quickly went down to my left into the dark abyss dropping the odd torch here and there to be safe until I hit a dead end. It was quite unusual because it was literally a dead end, a complete 3x3 square of rock, like it was put there as a seal.

It quickly stuck me that it was blocking off another cave network, the cursed cave, it couldn't be right? I mean I'm far away from that place, I decided I would head back to where I fell in and go the other way to see what was down there, It looked longer and bigger than the other way so I left to get more torches, it also stuck me that non of my torches were dissapearing which made me feel safe, even though there was still a lot of unexplored darkness down there. I depositied all my cobblestone and made a few iron pickaxes to be safe so I could be down there longer. By this time it was night and I could see a few creepers outside but I was safe in my new home.

I descented back into the cave and down the dark path, lighting my way with the torches I had until it reached a big black drop, it was pretty deep and I would have had to have some way down but I had no cobblestone, instead of heading back to get some cobblestone from the chest, I just mined the rock around me which would be easier, maybe not faster but easier indeed.

I mined away unti I hit cobblestone, mossy cobblestone. I was quite excited because this would have been my first dungeon, I was prepared too since I had some cooked pork and a iron sword, I mined the cobblestone away to see nothing but darkness, I put down a torch and to my suprise it was completely empty, no monsters, just a few chests and a strange block in the center of the room, I was quite puzzled because I havent seen any monsters in this cave as of yet.. Whatever, I mined my way in to have a closer look at the strange block in the center of the room, it was like a fireplace, except there was something spinning inside of it, I had no idea what it was, it was like the letter L but backwards, with a static like texture, it was really strange because I would have suspected more of a challenge to get some pretty good items, I checked the first chest, completely empty which was disappointing, I turned around to check the other chest and there was this unusual item I've never seen before. It was a black disk.

The strange description of the monster spawner could be related to the graphical bug in Alpha v1.0.10

I've never seen anything like this before, it had circle marks around it like a vinyl record, then all of the sudden I heard the single most creepiest cave ambience ever, it sent shivvers down my spine.

I knew I had to get out immeadiately, I look around to the exit, as I do I noticed a 1x2 hole in the wall which strangely wasnt there before.. What the **** is going on

I put down a torch so I could inspect the hole further, I knew I had to get out of there but.. I just couldnt strangely enough, I got closer to the hole and looked around, it was dark, empty, it was the cursed cave.

I blocked the hole with cobblestone and turn to make my way out, I exit the dungeon into the 3x3 corridor which was pitch black. The torches were gone.

I look back to the dungeon, the torch was gone, the only light was coming from the torch by my foot, then another loud cave ambience came from in front of me, it mocking me, laughing, I was terrified, I couldnt move but I knew I had to get out of here and go as far away as possible from this terrible place.

I start running, placing as many torches as possible on the walls to keep in the light, I could see the light of my stairway, I rushed up to my now-cursed home ran outside and kept running away, thats all I could do. I got far away, but my house was in seeing distance, I looked closer and the door was closed. The door which was open, closed.

I couldnt go further, I wanted to be able to see it, making sure it didnt change.. Or anything else.

I build a makeshift shack which faced my old home, I liked to look at it, I dont know why but I enjoyed viewing it. Then all the sudden I remembered that strange disk I found in the cave, it must be a vinyl and I had to play it, maybe it was something to do with the cave.

I thought about how I could craft something to play it, then I remembered that my stuff was back at my house, I didnt want to go back but I had to. I knew that if I had something like a chip of diamond it might be able to play the vinyl. I had a few chips of diamond back there which would work. I went outside, it was getting dark but I couldnt last another night with this mystery scarred onto my mind, I had to find out.

I just ran, I didnt look out for any monsters I just ran straight for my home. I just wanted to go in, get the things I need and leave and never go back.

I got to the door, still closed. The whole house was dark, the torches were gone. I opened the first chest near the door and I managed to get out a few pieces of wood and a few cobble stone, but no diamond. I must have put it on the mining room...

I slowly go towards the door which seperated my house from the mine and opened it, the sound of the door opened creeked and echoed throughout the mine, I felt like just running away but I had to get the diamond, I opened the chest and got the bits of diamond that I had, I couldnt resist just having a peek down into the mine. I slowly poke my head down, it was dark, nothing could be seen... Except for 2 white dots, next to each other like eyes.

This is the earliest attested explicit reference to the idea of a mysterious white-eyed entity in Minecraft.

Something was down there, looking into my eyes, I felt like I was looking at death itself. I went dizzy and fell backwards into a solid object, the door which was open just seconds ago. I bashed my way through it and through the other door outside, it was still night but I didnt care, I ran back to my shack with my heart pounding my chest like it wanted to escape life.

I got in and closed my door, destroyed my windows, the door, everything that could let me see the outside world and placed as many torches as possible. I didnt want to see any darkness again, I went into a corner and sat there terrified. Why me? Why didnt this happen to anybody else.

I didnt want to do anything else until the sun came up, I couldnt even tell if it was day yet, I just sat there in fear until I heard a sign that it was day, the baaah of a sheep, it was a welcoming sound. I used my diamond pickaxe to break away what used to be the door, as I did it broke into several piecs, it served me well.

The first thing I did when I got outside was look at that horrible place, it was closed.. I could see the darkness through the windows, I didnt want to look.. What if something was watching me from there?

I went back inside and started work on my device to play this disk, after a few minutes I made something stable that was able to play it. I got the disk and looked at it, it was dark and didnt reflect any light, I knew this thing was evil.

I put the disk inside the machine, it started to play...



It finished, the sound went static. I was lost, what did I just listen to? It was like someone took the sound of 1000 dying miners and solidified it into this disk...

The vinyl needs to be destroyed, maybe this is the source of all of this... This wierd stuff comes from this disk. I need to destroy it, it has to be destroyed

I need to throw it into a pit of lava, but the only lava I've ever found was in that cave.. I can't go back there, I don't have enough time to find another cave, it will just be a waste of time

I can't go back to that place, can I? I mean.. If I take enough torches to get to lava and destory it

What about those eyes? What if I see them again? What if I get close to them?

I really can't do this, not by myself but I have to. What if I was just seeing things? What if it wasnt really there? Yeah, thats what it is, my mind was playing tricks thats all. I'm going there next sunrise and I'm going to make it out at sun set, I am destroying that disk.

I have to prepare, I open my nearly-empty chest, the only things in the chest are a few blocks of cobblestone, 2 iron pickaxes and some wood, I think I have enough torches to get me there and back. I think I'm ready, theres nothing else I need.

The sun is starting to come up, I have to make my move now so I dont waste any time so I can get out as early as possible, I grab the disk and start running towards the house I quickly open the door and close it, its dark and the only light is coming from the two windows next to the door

All of a sudden I hear a voice, its coming from the disk and it wants to go back to its chest, its trying to reason with me. I will not listen! I light up the room with a torch, I need to make sure I dont use too many. I enter the mining room and slowly decend to the cursed cave, I look back up to darkness, the torches are still disappearing

I get into the cave, begin slowly going towards the pit, making sure I use my torches efficiently, I hear a ghoulish laugh behind me, in the pitch black and two white eyes were there. Looking at me I freeze, I can't move I'm locked into a staring contest with the eyes, I hear whispers, from all around me telling me to go closer, I can't... I must resist

I turn and run, using torch after torch. Forgetting that I have a limited supply until I reach the pit, nearly falling in. I grab the wall as I nearly lose balance. I put a final torch down and take a quick look behind me, there was still a few torches up, not being broken. I couldnt see the eyes, which was a good thing I guess. I can see the dungeon from here, so very dark

What if.. I do put the disk back? What if it all stopped? What if we could make a deal.. Did I just say we? What is going on with me?! I need to destory this disk

I throw a few cobblestone blocks down until I can slowly step down, before I can put a torch down, I see the eyes again, in the pit looking up at me. The music begins to play again, in my head. I want it to stop!

I hear whispers in the music, cries for help. They want to be back in the chest where its peaceful. No they can't be free! I'm destroying that disk

I realize I'm in complete darkness, I put down a torch and look back into the pit, the eyes are closer, bigger...

I put down another torch, look back and they're gone. I'm seeing things, I know I am they cant be real. I get further down, I can see light, it has to be the lava! I'm so close! I can barely believe it.

I get to the bottom, I can see lava in the distance, I run towards it, disk in hand then suddenly, I stop. I cant go any further, the disk wont let me. What am I doing? I cant destroy this, I mean...

What am I doing? I cant destroy this... I need to put it back in the chest. Yes, back to resting for you little disk, just up these stairs and we'll have you back home...

I'm a good miner aren't I? We've been through alot, we don't want that to end do we? No we don't

Here, we're home. You're home back where you belong.

What did I just do? What have I done?! The dungeon's sealed! This can't be happening! This can't be how it ends! Its getting warm in here.. So warm.. Its burning, why is it so hot?

I just wanted to live...

13.ogg

Minecraft forum thread started by Endorphine: I cannot take it anymore.

Post #1 by Endorphine (OP) (10:53:43 UTC)

Jesus christ. I can't do it. I can't take it anymore. I can't go back home. I can't go into my mines. I can't do anything anymore but slowly try and build something under the frozen ocean. And it's all because of two little pixels.

TWO PIXELS.

TWO WHITE PIXELS.

I HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN THEM MYSELF EXCEPT IN SCREENSHOTS.

I know it's there though. Waiting in the mines. Watching me from my tower's balcony while I'm outside. I can't see it through the constant snowfall but I know it's there and I know it can see me.

The white eyes myth surrounding ambient noises.

It started a couple weeks ago, after a secret friday update. Some people started reporting seeing a pair of white pixels whenever an underground ambient noise was triggered. I figured it was just a bug or something, maybe some way he did it to trigger the sounds themselves. I didn't hear much more about it for a while, then all of a sudden recently I've been seeing reported sightings EVERYWHERE, and a supposed screenshot of them.



This is the picture. I can't even bear to let it load. I had to do a quick tab, copy, and close before I saw those eyes again. THOSE EYES. JESUS CHRIST.

Post #2 deleted

Post #3 by Endorphine (OP) (11:06:10 UTC)

Oh, They are there!

The bottom left!

Post #4 deleted

Post #5 deleted

Post #6 by Endorphine (OP) (11:09:47 UTC)

It's only a matter of time until the white eyes become reality.

Post #7 deleted

Post #8 by Endorphine (OP) (11:13:38 UTC)

Quote from blaster

Oh that. That's a rendering bug where the texture does not fully fit to the blocks edges (Its off by an infinitely small amount, but even that renders sometimes as a whole pixel).

No, You're wrong.

It's "White Eyes" as we named her.

(...)

Post #12 by lolwut0 (13:47:45 UTC)

OH ****!
Someone else saw them too?

OH GOD I THOUGHT IT WAS A BUG!

I was cave exploring, when suddenly i heard that creepy noise. I kinda got used to it but then HOLY **** WHAT THE **** IS THAT IN THE DARK

D:

Notch is trying to scare the **** out of us!!! Oh god! Notch, if you read this, PLEASE ADD A "KIDS MODE"! WITH NO SCARY ****!

(...)

Post #39 by Flaky (22:11:07 UTC)

So is White Eyes/13.ogg like the Tails Doll of Minecraft now, then?

(...)

Post #42 deleted

Post #43 by Flaky (22:30:24 UTC)

Quote from North Nitro

Quote from Flaky

So is White Eyes/13.ogg like the Tails Doll of Minecraft now, then?

13.ogg will be known as the next Grifter. Only this one is real.

C418 has created a monster in more ways than one.

I'm gonna make a White Eyes creepypasta now. Sorry Zuriki.
Imagine is SMP when we'll actually be able to make a "White Eyes" movie with the cool 3rd Person camera shots. Arg it's my Tails Doll Fascination Phase all over again |(

2010/8/2

Endorphine's Minecraft forum thread (2010/8/1)

Post #57 by Flaky (00:40:04 UTC)

(missing image from deviantart: The_Curse_of_White_Eyes_by_Lurvid.png)

My fanart for White Eyes. I was kinda lazy with making it but whatever. I'll try to actually draw something next. In fact I'll do that now, not much else to do for me.

(...)

Post #62 by Flaky (02:02:23 UTC)

This is my concept art of White Eyes. It has it's rib cage exposed because it's part skeleton.

(missing image from deviantart: White_Eyes_Concept_1_by_Lurvid.png)

Meh, feels like I've seen it before. Though I do draw a lot of things with scythes for legs.

(...)

Post #64 by Flaky (02:15:56 UTC)

Quote from Peri

Wow. That's not very Minecraft-like, but it's pretty damn cool. Did you draw that just for this thread?

Didn't I make it blocky enough? Sure if it was made into an actual model there would be come compromising but still.

And yes I did :3

(...)

Post #66 by PillowTalk (02:26:22 UTC)

creepy mechanical skeleton spiders D:

Actually, it's kinda like a Doom monster...

Post #67 by Flaky (03:13:35 UTC)

Here's another one. I would've uploaded it to my dA but it won't work for some reason. I failed on the torch since it's black. This was mainly just a scribble since I apparently can't draw right now.

(missing image from tinypic: 2ltlclk.png)

disc 11 tangent

2010/8/3

Minecraft forum thread started by TurtleeyMC: OH MY GAAAWWWDDDD.

Post #1 by TurtleeyMC (OP) (20:30:24 UTC)

http://www.minecraft.net/resources/
(at the time, this link would have taken you to the "resources" folder used by the browser version of the game)

Enough said.









The things like "where are we now" "melhauoni" are interesting.

Also...
"breath.ogg" is in there. o_o

Post #2 by Stoup (20:31:12 UTC)

Holy balls.

Wait a minute...he only added a few music pieces ;.;

(...)

Post #4 by TurtleeyMC (OP) (20:47:10 UTC)

This is an epiclist of all sounds that are supposed to play in the game.
._.

(...)

Post #6 by csd (21:38:24 UTC)

I tried opening the .mus files in Audacity and only got errors and fast squeaks. :|

(...)

Post #9 by Archanos (22:00:07 UTC)

Cat and 13 are the original record drop files. Interesting though, I see a small number of new music types. I wonder why he switched to .mus.

2010/8/4

TurtleeyMC's Minecraft forum thread (2010/8/3)

Post #22 by goosemonger (08:38:42 UTC)

Isn't this old news? Everyone has these files in their .minecraft resource folder.

Still, there are some curious file names in there.

(...)

Post #24 by TurtleeyMC (OP) (18:05:29 UTC)

What about chirp.ogg?


Mellohi?

Anyone have any ideas?

2010/8/5

TurtleeyMC's Minecraft forum thread (2010/8/3)

Post #26 by Fire7548 (04:21:11)

Preview of meholli is here;

http://www.youtube.com/user/C418#p/a/u/1/3Sthf0u94Cs
(according to the minecraft wiki, this video posted in April 2010 by C418 included previews of many tracks that were later added as music discs, but the video is no longer available)

2010/8/12

Minecraft release: Alpha v1.0.16

Changes:

  • Support for more records

Minecraft forum thread started by RavenRage: Patch 1.0.16 patch notes?

Post #1 by RavenRage (OP) (16:38:19 UTC)

Any idea what this update brings us?

Minecraft forum thread started by lolwut0: So, about this new "More records support" thingy

Post #1 by lolwut0 (OP) (20:04:00 UTC)

Someone knows what it does? Or how it works? Is just a few new records or support for user-chosen music?

Post #2 by CharlesMan (20:43:00 UTC)

A bunch of new records, but they're all in a new filetype and can't be externally played.

2010/8/13

RavenRage's Minecraft forum thread (2010/8/12)

Post #18 by Drenks (00:57:59 UTC)

Quote from NightmareX91

Quote from DairyProduct

doesn't it also say we get new records? (goes out to hunt creepers)

I want new records too! I wonder if one of them has rickroll on...

There are several new files in the record folder, which used to just have 13.ogg and cat.ogg. Now it has 11.mus, 13.mus, blocks.mus, chirp.mus, far.mus, etc. Unfortunately even VLC Media Player won't open a .mus.


This is the earliest reference to disc 11 that I have been able to find.

iii: herobrine

2010/8/19

Tweet by @TacticsNNiblics (15:46 UTC)

@xnotch Hey, someone made a story about your brother Herobrine! You remember him, right? *tap tap* You should TOTALLY add him to minecraft!

This is the earliest attested reference to the name "Herobrine", as well as the "brother of Notch" aspect of the story.

2010/8/22

Post from Inunah's blog, Creepy + Pasta (22:47 UTC)

The purpose of the blog seems to be collating creepypastas from other sources.

Minecraft

I had recently spawned a new world in single-player Minecraft. Everything was normal at first as I began chopping down trees and crafting a workbench. At one point, I noticed something move amongst the dense fog (I have a very slow computer so I have to play with a tiny render distance). I thought it was a cow, so I pursued it, hoping to grab some hides for armor.

It wasn't a cow, though. Looking back at me was another character with the default skin, but his eyes were empty. I saw no name pop up, and I double-checked to see that I wasn't in multi-player mode. He didn't stay long; he looked at me and quickly ran into the fog. I pursued out of curiosity, but he was gone.

I continued on with the game, not sure what to think. As I expanded the world, I saw things that seemed out of place for the random map generator to make: 2x2 tunnels in the rocks, small, perfect pyramids made of sand in the ocean, and groves of trees with all of their leaves cut off. I would constantly think I saw the other "player" in the deep fog, but I never got a good look at him. I tried increasing my render distance to far whenever I thought I saw him, but to no avail.

I saved the map and went on the forums to see if anyone else had found the pseudo-player. There were none. I created my own topic telling of the man and asking if anyone had a similar experience. The post was deleted within five minutes. I tried again and the topic was deleted even faster. I received a PM from user name 'Herobrine' that contained one word: "Stop." When I went to look at Herobrine's profile, the page 404'd.

I received an email from another forum user. He claimed the mods can read the forum user messages, so we were safer using email. The emailer claimed that he had seen the mystery player, too, and had a small 'directory' of other users who had seen him as well. Their worlds were littered with obviously man-made features as well, and described their mystery player to have no pupils.

About a month passed until I heard from my informant again. Some of the people who had encountered the mystery man had looked into the name Herobrine and found that name to be frequently used by a Swedish gamer. After some further information gathering, it was revealed to be the brother of Notch, the game's developer. I personally emailed Notch, and asked him if he had a brother. It took him a while, but he emailed me back a very short message.

"I did, but he is no longer with us."

I haven't seen the mystery man since our first encounter, and I haven't noticed any changes to the world other than my own. I was able to press 'print screen' when I first saw him. Here's the only evidence I have of his existence.


Apparently, this image is not the only proof.

(Click here if you can't see the guy.)

This is the earliest attested copy of the version of the story that would go on to popularize the legend. It adds many details, but the most important additions are the name Herobrine, and the entity's player-like appearance and behaviour.

There are a few inconsistencies in the story:
  • The screenshot indicates it was taken in version Alpha v1.0.16_02, which dates it to August 13th at the earliest. By the time the story made it to this blog, the screenshot was at most 9 days old. "About a month passed until I heard from my informant again."
  • There is no evidence of the name "Herobrine" predating this creepypasta.
  • Notch has never had a brother.

2010/8/24

Minecraft forum thread started by Goatie: Horror in minecraft

User Goatie shares their story of getting progressively creeped out playing Minecraft, until they encounter an entity with the default player skin but with white eyes.

Post #9 by lolwut0 (13:40:24 UTC)

Quote from Mod.X

Are you sure with the whitened out eyes?... If they weren't...

Notch lied.

The default skin is in the jar. It wasn't there before the recent update. Notch maybe just did the most secret update.

The default skin always was there.

Also i really liked the story :smile.gif: Very awesome. But obviously fake

(...)

Post #11 by Goatie (OP) (21:44:52 UTC)

Well, up until the white-eyed player character, that story is 100% true. If you must know the truth, it was just a skeleton that shot the arrow, not some ghost thing. That was mostly written as it was happening; I'd play the game for a few minutes, then write about it. And yes... that staircase really freaked me out =\

2010/8/25

Goatie's Minecraft forum thread (2010/8/24)

Post #20 by Eylk (09:58:30 UTC)

Oh god...I srsly hope I don't start seeing **** while I play MC, what with two stories of white-eyed player models.
Damn you, paranoia.

2010/8/30

Copeland, a streamer for Brocraft, is inspired by seeing the Herobrine creepypasta on 4chan's /v/ board, and decides to pull a live prank. Read his recounting of events here, and an interview with him here.

Minecraft forum thread started by Copeland: Video Proof of "him"

See this later archive for timestamps and post numbers.

Post #1 by Copeland (OP) (15:55:16 UTC)

http://www.livestream.com/minecrafterry ... 527e2fd85e

Skip to the last 2 minutes.


He's real.

Post #2 by Calasmeer (15:55:58 UTC)

Wow. What the fuck?

Post #3 by jonnopon3000 (16:02:38 UTC)

This is that strange story that cropped up ages ago, that the AI player thing is rumoured Notch's dead brother or something.

Odd, hacks?

(...)

Post #25 by TheCameraWorks (16:27:35 UTC)

I think this thing happened first during when you could spawn mobs, people saw a mob standing there looking at you.... I thought that story was bogus..... Until now.... And no this isn't a prank we saw all the live encounters in doorways and on tops of hills.....
EDIT: Took 28 Tries just to post this.....This was going to be like the 8th post.... >_>

(...)

Post #34 by Gummyish (16:56:05 UTC)

What is 'he' ?

Post #35 by TheCameraWorks (16:57:39 UTC)

Gummy you are late for everything...they say he is notches dead brother....a ghost that doesn't exist in the game....

(...)

Post #43 by Kamilo (17:04:46 UTC)

Who got an e-mail adress or other contact to Notch?

PS: *X-Files music theme here* I'm calling Mulder, he will solve it!

EDIT:

Quote from BeerSeeker

I lol'd so hard at the two kids that said they will not play the game till this will be fixed.
What are you all 12yo?
Do you really think there is a ghost? In a VIDEOGAME?
Wow. Just wow.


Anyway, I bet it's a prank made by notch after he heard about that old creepypasta.

Can someone post this creepypasta?

(...)

Post #47 by TheCameraWorks (17:09:27 UTC)

Quote from onarum

I don't get it...

so what? it's just a polygonal character walking around, what's scary about that?

How about he's in the game BUT doesn't exist in any of the code, At all.... /rant

This is the earliest attested copy of the image version of the Herobrine story, including the highest-res version of the screenshot.

Endorphine's Minecraft forum thread (2010/8/1)

Following 27 days of inactivity:

Post #100 by Conundrumer (18:21:51 UTC)

Bump, because
This is the real "white eyes"
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=29828 (link to Copeland's forum thread)
And it's pretty darn creepy.

Post #101 by Ninjarooster (19:00:54 UTC)

What the christ.

Post #102 by darksoul_moo (19:52:12 UTC)

i knew this had connection with that.

Later that day, another Brocraft streamer, Patimuss, pulls his own Herobrine prank.

Minecraft forum thread created by bobsbees: The "White Eyes", "Him", "Dead notch" explained.

Post #1 by bobsbees (OP) (22:45:19 UTC)

After a little bit of digging in past infomation this is the "ghostly" glitch going around.


Humans
Humans are non-playable characters (NPCs) which take the form of clones of the default skin. They used to be be created by pressing 'G' while playing in Creative mode, but this function was later removed. It has never been possible to spawn humans in Survival mode. If the player has a custom skin, any humans created will still use default skin and will not assume the look of the player. Humans could not create or delete blocks, they would just move around the map aimlessly. They were affected by blocks and fluids the same way the player is. Humans currently do not appear in any form of Minecraft. The human model was originally going to be used for a top-down game called "Zombie Town" by Notch.

Here was one of the MOST common found.

(the image in the post is broken, but I'm pretty sure this is what it's supposed to be)

Hes looked similar to the others eh?

(...)

Post #5 by iamahedgehog (22:59:53 UTC)

wow you are completely wrong, what a surprise

Brocraft made it all up.

http://brocraft.net/him.html
(this link would redirect to this site, created by Copeland and linked in his stream chat as part of his prank. The site features a creepy gif and a jumbled mess of text, which can be reduced into a slightly edited version of the creepypasta "Wake up", linked below)

They pasted another creepypasta and embedded it on their website. It's too bad they exposed themselves, they should have just left it as it was and let people discuss it, but no, they had to go and make it worse on themselves, and therefore, easier to uncover as the lie it was.

Here's the same creepypasta they posted on the link above:

http://www.creepypasta.com/wake-up/

The real "him" was from an edited painting texture made by one of the Brocraft streamers. They planned it, including the lead-up of talking about the original creepypasta also made by them. There's no glitch, there's no ghost, there's no dead brother. It was all a completely retarded hoax.
Copeland and Patimuss did not coordinate, and planned their pranks independently. Copeland said that he was inspired by reading the Herobrine creepypasta on 4chan's /v/ board, not that he wrote it.

iv: post-brocraft

October 2010

2010/10/30

Minecraft release: Alpha v1.2.0 (Halloween Update)

Additions:

  • The Nether
  • Biomes

December 2010

2010/12/10

hMod forums user tkelly releases the first known Herobrine mod, a server plugin called iLoveYou. This plugin introduces several aspects to the legend, including Herobrine's summoning altar and redstone torch placing behaviour.

January 2011

2011/1/30

Youtube video uploaded by Peter Rabbit: Minecraft 11.mus video (06:40:22 UTC)

Description:

A video that I found hanging around in my minecraft folder.

This song existed back in Alpha 1.0.16
This video was made during Beta 1.2_01
Endermen were only added in Beta 1.8
Get your facts straight people.
This is no enderman we're dealing with here.

Here's something interesting I unearthed:
Notch added the extra music in Alpha 1.0.16, although he didn't add the corresponding music discs at the time.
The original picture of Herobrine was taken in Alpha 1.0.16_02
Notice how on the wiki there is no version 1.0.16_02, only a 1.0.16_01 and then 1.0.17.
Considering how close together these events are, there must be some connection.

The description must have been edited or added later, given the references to later versions and endermen.

The audio is the content of the at the time unused music file 11.mus.

The visual is a player reenacting their interpretation of the events portrayed in the audio, in first person.

May 2011

2011/5/31

Minecraft release: Beta 1.6.6

This is the first update to include "Removed Herobrine" in the official patch notes. Apparently, this was Notch jokingly referring to removing part of the code for the unused Monster entity.

July 2011

2011/7/26

Google+ post by Notch

The new mob I've been working on is a bit creepy..

2011/7/29

Tumblr post by Notch

Notch explains how and why he designed endermen to be the way they are:

The psychology of the reticle and the feeling of control
This blog post contains extensive spoilers about a new mob in the adventure update. Don’t click “read more” unless you want spoilers!

Fear is one of the easiest emotions to evoke, but doing so in a way that doesn’t frustrate or fatigue the player is more difficult. I find this fascinating. What parts of fear are fun, and what parts aren’t fun?

One of the biggest game design decisions in Minecraft is that all (well, most) negative things that affect the world or the player should happen near the player, and be clear to the player. That’s why creepers only explode near players, and that’s why fires stopped spreading indefinitely. This is somewhat related to my dislike of mazes in game design, where the player has no way of knowing or figuring out before hand what decision is the correct decision. Don’t penalize the player for things they can’t control.

Last weekend, I started working on a new mob because I was frustrated with the slow progress on some town code I was writing, and for some reason I decided to make yet another creepy one. It’s dark, it has long and narrow limbs, moves very slowly, and will pick up blocks and move them around. I wanted this to be a mob you only saw in the distance and a mob you’d be afraid of, but when I playtested it, it mostly felt like a regular zombie. There’s was a distinct mismatch between looking creepy and not actually playing creepy. When I made it move faster towards the player when attacking, and deal more damage, it got more difficult and I started respecting it, but it never felt creepy or scary.

So I thought some about what “creepy” actually is, and it’s more about trying to avoid something from happening than it is about actually having that thing happen. If you know something bad can happen if you do the wrong thing, you will start thinking about your actions, and that might make things more scary.

So I made it passive until you looked straight at it. And that was scary. Suddenly you could walk up to these looking beasts (they’re three meters tall) and watch them as they moved their blocks around, but as soon as you happened to look straight at them, they’d attack. And by “straight at them”, I mean putting the reticle on top of them. You can keep them visible on screen and actually look straight at them in real life, but as soon as your in game character looks straight at them, boom.

Still, that was more scary than creepy. It’s like a jump scare in a movie. You know it might happen at any time, and when it happens you freak out a bit. I wanted something a bit more psychological. So to really drive home the point of looking at them being bad, I made the Endermen freeze and turn towards you when you look at them. As long as you look straight at them, they stand perfectly still and look straight at you. As soon as you look away, they will run (very fast) towards you.

And they teleport. If they’re too far away to reach you in a short period of time, they will teleport about once per second. They try to make sure they always teleport to somewhere you can see, as I don’t want to confuse the player as to what is happening.

When they attack, you know it’s your fault. When you happen to look at one, you can keep looking at it to figure out how to deal with it, but you know it WILL reach you very fast once you stop looking at it.

And that, my friends, is creepy. Possibly too creepy.

September 2011

2011/9/9

Minecraft release: Beta 1.8 Pre-release

Additions:

  • Endermen
  • Abandoned mineshafts
  • Villages (uninhabited)
  • Strongholds
  • Hunger
  • Sprinting
  • Experience
  • Status effects
  • Creative mode (in its modern form)
  • Ravines
  • Void fog - Below Y=26 and in the absence of sunlight, an opaque black fog appears, closing in on the player as they descend until visibility is reduced to just a few blocks at bedrock level.

2011/9/29

Minecraft release: Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2

Additions:

  • Potions & unfinished prototype brewing system using cauldrons
  • Unfinished animal breeding system
  • 9 new music discs, each corresponding to a music file that has sat unused in the game files for over a year. Unlike cat and 13, they are unobtainable in survival mode.
    • 11
    • blocks
    • chirp
    • far
    • mall
    • mellohi
    • stal
    • strad
    • ward

December 2011

2011/12/15

Minecraft release: 11w50a

Changes:

  • 8 of the new music discs (all except disc 11) can now drop from creepers killed by a skeleton's arrow, making them obtainable in survival mode.

November 2012

2012/11/1

Minecraft release: 1.4.3

Additions:

  • The music disc "wait" - its music file had existed in the game files unused under the name "where are we now" since August 2010.

Changes:

  • Music disc 11 is now obtainable in survival mode like the rest.

August 2014

2014/8/19

Minecraft release: 14w34c

Removals:

  • Void fog

March 2016

2016/3/29

r/Minecraft post by u/DirtPiper: Finally solving the disc 11 mystery.

DirtPiper shares their comprehensive hypothesis regarding disc 11, notably agreeing that its music file was added in Alpha v1.0.16.

January 2021

2021/1/16

The Minecraft@HOME team finds the world seed of the original Herobrine screenshot.

July 2024

2024/7/15

After nearly 14 years of being considered lost media, Copeland and Patimuss' streams are located. A long-running project by Enderboss25 to find them succeeded when they contacted Youtube user brutallillfjomp, who had downloaded the streams and was unaware they were lost. Both were uploaded: Copeland, Patimuss