Pretty Scary Update

This article is about the 2012 Halloween update. For the 2010 Halloween update, see Halloween Update.
Pretty Scary Update
Pretty Scary Update announcement.png: Infobox image for Pretty Scary Update the theme in Minecraft
Release date

October 25, 2012

Version(s)

Java Edition 1.4.2 

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Pretty Scary Update logo.
There is a guide for this update!
 
See Java Edition guides/Pretty Scary Update for a guide to all of the new features introduced in Pretty Scary Update.

The Pretty Scary Update is the name for Java Edition 1.4.2, a major update officially released on October 25, 2012.[1] Among the main changes were a number of new mobs and variants (witches, bats, zombie villagers, wither skeletons), wearable and placeable heads, a new boss (the wither), the command block, the anvil, the beacon, new food (potatoes, carrots and pumpkin pies), carrots on sticks for controlling pigs, the Nether star, and new decoration items (such as item frames, flower pots and cobblestone walls).

The official name of the update was revealed at PAX Prime 2012 during the Minecraft panel, then later with snapshot 12w36a.[2] Dinnerbone first revealed the 1.4 release date with snapshot 12w40a, where he stated that he was fully into the "Prepare for release" mode.[3]

Development on the Pretty Scary Update began the week after 1.3.1, which was released on August 1, 2012. 15 development snapshots for 1.4 from 12w32a to 12w42b were released. During the development period, 1.3.2 was released. The 1.4 Pre-release was unveiled on October 19, 2012, so that modders could start preparing their mods before the launch on October 24, 2012.[4]

Mojang found a mob suffocation bug after this was released, and was forced to delay the launch by a day. The 1.4.1 Prerelease was unveiled on October 23, 2012,[5] and the release was pushed back a day.

Mojang then found yet another bug, and fixed "a severe memory leak in the server". This, as well as correct rendering of fences and cobblestone stairs, came in the 1.4.2 Prerelease, released on October 24, 2012.[6] 1.4.2 was the first official release of 1.4, available through the launcher on October 25, 2012.

A bug was introduced whereby a player could not achieve the The End? achievement.

The Pretty Scary Update was originally intended to include the Modding API, however it was pushed to a later version.[7]

Lighting bugs present in 1.3.2 were partially fixed. Dinnerbone first introduced changes in snapshots 12w39a/b. Dinnerbone tweeted to revert and push this to 1.5.[8][9]
Other changes postponed to 1.5 include redstone changes[10] and a rendering overhaul.[11][12]

Notable features

Main article: Java Edition 1.4.2
New blocks
New items
New painting
Picture Name Size Artist
Wither 2x2 Mojang (Jens Bergensten)
New mobs
  • Bat
    • Ambient mob that spawns in low light levels.
    • Hangs on the ceiling and flies off when close to the player.
  • Witch
  • Wither
    • A new boss mob summoned by playing four soul sand in a T-shape, and three wither skeleton skulls on top of it.
    • Upon summoning, the wither slowly charges up and is invincible. After a few seconds, the area around the wither explodes and it starts attacking players and non-undead mobs.
    • Its heads can fire wither skulls that explode upon impact.
    • It can also break any nearby blocks.
    • Any kills made by the wither regenerates its health.
    • At half-health, the wither will put up a shield to reflect any projectiles, meaning close combat is required to finish it off.
    • Drops a nether star when killed.
  • Wither Skeleton
  • Zombie Villager
    • A zombified version of a villager.
    • Spawns when a zombie kills a villager, with a 50% chance on Normal difficulty, and a 100% chance on Hard difficulty.
    • Can be cured by using a splash potion of Weakness and a golden apple.
  • Baby Zombie and their villager variant
    • A smaller, more miniature version of the zombie that runs faster compared to regular zombies.
New non-mob entities
New structures
New gameplay
  • New effect:
    • Wither
      • Damage is inflicted to players and mobs.
      • Unlike Poison, Wither can kill a player or mob.
Other additions
Notable changes

Further revisions

Trailer

A trailer by Hat Films documenting some of the Pretty Scary Update's major features was released on Mojang's official YouTube channel on October 26, 2012.

Trivia

  • This version was released exactly 11 years before 23w43a, which coincidentally changed the model, animations and textures of bats.

Gallery

  • Pretty Scary Update logo
    Pretty Scary Update logo
  • Promotional image (released alongside the update)[13]
    Promotional image (released alongside the update)[13]

References

  1. ↑ "We found the animal suffocation bug!!!11oneone Unfortunately that means a 1.4.1, and aim for Thursday morning instead of Wednesday afternoon" – @jeb_ (Jens Bergensten) on X (formerly Twitter), October 23, 2012
  2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/0/http://www.mojang.com/2012/09/minecraft-snapshot-12w36a/
  3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/0/http://www.mojang.com/2012/10/minecraft-snapshot-12w40a/
  4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/0/http://www.mojang.com/2012/10/minecraft-snapshot-12w42b-preprerelease/
  5. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/0/http://www.mojang.com/2012/10/minecraft-1-4-1-pre-release/
  6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/0/http://www.mojang.com/2012/10/minecraft-1-4-2-pre-release/
  7. ↑ "Yes, eventually" – @jeb_ (Jens Bergensten) on X (formerly Twitter), September 13, 2012
  8. ↑ "I think I'm going to revert the new lighting stuff and come back to it for 1.5. I'd rather get other (actually working) bugfixes in 1.4." – @Dinnerbone (Nathan Adams) on X (formerly Twitter), September 28, 2012
  9. ↑ "Lighting is really annoying me now. Reverting everything I've done to it, will come back to it in 1.5 : (" – @Dinnerbone (Nathan Adams) on X (formerly Twitter), October 4, 2012
  10. ↑ "The redstone changes we did yesterday will not be in 1.4. We fixed incorrect behaviours, but those behaviours are used in many contraptions" – @jeb_ (Jens Bergensten) on X (formerly Twitter), October 4, 2012
  11. ↑ "Looks like we can keep the lighting code; Managed to selectively revert the worldgen portion. Nether is good, but blackspots are back." – @Dinnerbone (Nathan Adams) on X (formerly Twitter), October 1, 2012
  12. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/0/http://www.mojang.com/2012/08/weekly-chunk-paxmineconsnapshot/
  13. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/0/http://mojang.com/2012/10/minecraft-pretty-scary-update

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