{{Italic title}}
{{Infobox program
|image=Infiniminer_Title_screen.png
|imagesize=290px
|platform=PC
|programming language=C#
|author=
*Zach Barth
*Chris Gengler
|ratings=Unrated
|version=1.5
|date=April 29, 2009
|size=1.45 MB
|license=MIT
|source available=Yes ([https://github.com/craftworkgames/infiniminer  Source])
}}

'''''Infiniminer''''' is an open source multiplayer block-based sandbox building and digging game, inspired by the games ''Infinifrag'', ''Team Fortress 2'', and ''Motherload'',<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/my-chemical-romance-zach-barth-interview|title=My Chemical Romance: Zach Barth Interview|website=Rock Paper Shotgun|author=Quintin Smith|date=January 20, 2011}}</ref> in which the player plays as a miner searching for minerals by carving tunnels through procedurally generated block-based maps and building structures.<ref>{{link|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090511153519/http://www.zachtronicsindustries.com/pivot/entry.php?id=82|title=Infiniminer|website=Zachtronics Industries}}</ref><ref>{{link|url=https://code.google.com/archive/p/infiniminer/|title=Infiniminer|website=Google Code Archive}}</ref> ''Infiniminer'' is commonly associated with ''[[Minecraft]]'' for giving [[Markus Persson|Markus Persson (Notch)]] the idea for where to go with ''Minecraft'', and is often regarded as a direct forerunner.

==History==
[[File:Infiniminer.png|thumb|A screenshot of ''Infiniminer''.]]
''Infiniminer'' was inspired by ''[http://thesiteformerlyknownas.zachtronicsindustries.com/infinifrag-version-0-1/ Infinifrag]'', a multiplayer first-person shooter which also included the ability to place and break blocks. ''Infinifrag'' was first released in November 2006.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070124183910/http://zachtronics.emala.net/ Zachtronics Industries (Zach Barth)]. Archived from [http://zachtronics.emala.net/ the original] on 2007-01-24. Retrieved 2024-11-21.</ref>

''Infiniminer'' was developed by Zach Barth of [http://www.zachtronics.com/ Zachtronics Industries] with the help of his friend Chris Gengler in their spare time,<ref>{{citation|url=http://thesiteformerlyknownas.zachtronicsindustries.com/infiniminer/|title=Infiniminer|website=Zachtronics Industries|author=Zach Barth|date=April 29, 2009}}</ref> and released in steps of incremental updates during late April and early May of 2009. It quickly garnered a following on message boards around the internet, and inspired Notch to start working on ''Minecraft'' shortly after it was discontinued.

Like ''Minecraft'', ''Infiniminer'' is a [[block]]-based mining and construction game. Players can play on one of two teams, Red or Blue, as one of four classes: Miner, Prospector, Engineer, or Sapper. Each class has their own set of abilities, tools, and blocks they can build with, with each costing a certain amount of metal ore to place. Many building blocks are team-colored, and most exist to serve a specific function rather than being purely decorative. Players and tools are represented by flat sprites rather than three-dimensional objects. The sky is perpetually dark, and the landscape is made up entirely of bare [[dirt]], [[stone]], [[ore]]s, and [[lava]] blocks which flow similarly to liquids in [[Java Edition Classic]]. The maps are limited in size, and walking off the edge or digging through the bottom causes the player to fall into the [[void]] and die.

''Infiniminer'' was originally intended to be played as a team-based competitive game, where the goal is to locate and excavate precious materials such as [[gold]] and [[diamond]]s, and bring the findings to the surface to earn points for one's team, until the winning team reaches a certain amount of points. However, as the game gained popularity, many players decided it was much more fun to build things than to compete for points.

Zachtronics discontinued development of the game less than a month after its first release, after a major source leak was discovered due to the developers forgetting to obfuscate a new release, which allowed players to make unauthorized modifications to the game. Soon, there were players using modified clients to cheat on servers, and multiple communities arose each with different versions of the game, and it was hard for the developers to maintain ''Infiniminer'', resulting in further development ceasing and the game becoming open source. In 2015, the Google cloud server for the game was shut down, making the server browser nonfunctional,<ref>{{tweet|zachtronics|616389728716259332|Earlier today we shut down the Infiniminer server browser... truly the end of an era.|July 1, 2015}}</ref> but direct connection to servers is still possible. The game is still available for download, and the source code of ''Infiniminer'' is available under the MIT License. Building ''Infiniminer'' requires Visual Studio 2008 and XNA Game Studio 3.0.<ref>{{link|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101006034435/http://github.com/krispykrem/Infiniminer|title=Infiniminer|website=Github}}</ref> Infiniminer is also included in [https://www.zachtronics.com/zach-like/ Zach-Like], a Zachtronics book and game bundle.

According to [[Notch]], ''Infiniminer'' was "the game I wanted to do". Notch enjoyed the game, but found it flawed, noting that while building was fun, there wasn’t enough variation, and he thought that the big red and blue team-colored blocks were "pretty horrible". He believed that a fantasy game in that style "would work really really well", so he created a simple first-person engine in the ''Infimininer'' style, reusing some art and code from multiple earlier projects, to create the [[cave game tech test]], which would eventually go on to become ''[[Minecraft]]''.

==Controls==
[[File:Infiniminer Help.png|thumb|The help menu.]]
* {{Key|W}}, {{Key|A}}, {{Key|S}}, and {{Key|D}} keys to move
* {{Key|Spacebar}} to jump
* {{Key|E}} to switch tools
* {{Key|Left click}} to use a tool
* {{Key|R}} or {{Key|scroll}} to switch block type
* {{Key|Q}} to ping teammates on the radar
* {{Key|Y}} to send a chat message to all players
* {{Key|U}} to send a chat message to all teammates
* {{Key|N}} to change teams
* {{Key|M}} to change class
* {{Key|1}} to deposit ore from a bank block
* {{Key|2}} to withdraw ore from a bank block
* {{Key|esc}} + {{Key|Y}} to quit
* {{Key|esc}} + {{Key|N}} to reset the player
* {{Key|F1}} to open the help menu

==Classes==
[[File:Infiniminer Red.png|thumb|The red team classes.]]
[[File:Infiniminer Blue.png|thumb|The blue team classes.]]
*'''Miner'''
**Can build: solid, team force field, ladder
**Can carry extra loot and can dig twice as fast
*'''Prospector'''
**Can build: solid, team force field, ladder, beacon
**Can use the prospectron tool to detect gold and diamonds and place "dig here!" signs on dirt
*'''Engineer'''
**Can build: solid, both team force fields, road, ladder, jump, shock, bank, beacon
**Can carry extra ore and can use the deconstructor tool to instantly break any block they can place
*'''Sapper'''
**Can build: solid, team force field, ladder, explosive
**Can use the detonator tool to activate their placed explosives

==Blocks==

===Natural===
*[[File:Dirt Infiniminer.png|32px]][[File:Dirt sign Infiniminer.png|32px]] '''Dirt''' - Makes up the bulk of the map, can have "dig here!" signs placed on it
*[[File:Rock Infiniminer.png|32px]] '''Rock''' - Can only be removed with explosives
*[[File:Lava Infiniminer.png|32px]] '''Lava''' - Kills players on contact, flows downward and outward infinitely, can only be removed with explosives
*[[File:Ore Infiniminer.png|32px]] '''Ore''' - Generates in large veins, gives 20 ore points when mined
*[[File:Gold Infiniminer.png|32px]] '''Gold''' - Generates in small veins, gives 100 loot points when deposited
*[[File:Diamond Infiniminer.png|32px]] '''Diamond''' - Generates alone, gives 1000 loot points when deposited

===Artificial===
*[[File:Red solid block Infiniminer.png|32px]][[File:Blue solid block Infiniminer.png|32px]] '''Solid block''' - Comes in red and blue, a basic building material, costs 10 ore
*[[File:Red force field block Infiniminer.png|32px]][[File:Blue force field block Infiniminer.png|32px]] '''Force field block''' - Comes in red and blue, players on the matching team pass through it while players on the opposite team collide with it, costs 25 ore
*[[File:Road block Infiniminer.png|32px]] '''Road block''' - Players move twice as fast while walking on it, costs 10 ore
*[[File:Ladder block Infiniminer.png|32px]] '''Ladder block''' - Allows players to climb up and down, costs 25 ore
*[[File:Jump block Infiniminer.png|32px]] '''Jump block''' - Launches players upward, costs 25 ore
*[[File:Shock block Infiniminer.png|32px]] '''Shock block''' - Kills players that touch its shock surface (the bottom), costs 50 ore
*[[File:Red bank block Infiniminer.png|32px]][[File:Red bank block Infiniminer2.png|32px]][[File:Blue bank block Infiniminer.png|32px]][[File:Blue bank block Infiniminer2.png|32px]] '''Bank block''' - Comes in red and blue, allows players on the matching team to deposit or withdraw ore, costs 50 ore
*[[File:Red beacon block Infiniminer.png|32px]][[File:Blue beacon block Infiniminer.png|32px]] '''Beacon block''' - Comes in red and blue, creates a radar waypoint that players on the matching team can see, costs 50 ore
*[[File:Explosive block Infiniminer.png|32px]] '''Explosive block''' - Destroys all players and blocks besides banks, beacons, gold, and diamonds within a 5×5×5 area when detonated, costs 100 ore

===Removed===
*[[File:Teleporter block Infiniminer.png|32px]] '''Teleporter block''' - Teleports players to random locations on the map, costs 200 ore
*[[File:Red home block Infiniminer.png|32px]][[File:Blue home block Infiniminer.png|32px]] '''Home block''' - Comes in red and blue, allows players on the matching team to deposit loot, cannot be built or destroyed

==Historical images==
<gallery widths=64px heights=64px>
Shock block Infiniminer Old.png|The old texture for the shock block.
Red_bank_block_Infiniminer_Old.png|The old texture for the red bank block.
Blue_bank_block_Infiniminer_Old.png|The old texture for the blue bank block.
</gallery>

==Gallery==
<gallery widths=128px heights=128px>
Infiniminer Bridge.png|A bridge across a cave.
Infiniminer Diamond.png|A block of diamond ore.
Infiniminer Sky.png|Clouds in the dark sky.
Infiniminer Finished.gif|Promotional image for the full release of ''Infiniminer''.
Infiniminer Splash screen.png|Splash screen.
Infiniminer Team screen.png|Team select screen.
The World of Minecraft Inspiration and Release.jpg|Infiniminer as seen in [[the world of minecraft]].
</gallery>

==Trivia==
*The default port of 25565 used for ''Minecraft'' servers is directly copied from the port used for ''Infiniminer'' servers, 5565. c0.0.15a-05311904 actually uses the port 5565 but it was changed to 25565 in an unknown later version.
*''Infiniminer'' has several [[death messages]]:
**'''''<player>'' was killed by a misadventure!''' (appears when the player falls into the void)
**'''''<player>'' was killed by gravity!''' (appears when the player falls from a high height)
**'''''<player>'' was killed by an explosion!'''
**'''''<player>'' was incinerated by lava!'''
**'''''<player>'' was electrocuted!''' (appears when the player is killed by touching the bottom surface of a shock block)

==See also==
*''[[Wikipedia:Dwarf Fortress|Dwarf Fortress]]'', another game preceding ''Minecraft''.
*''[[RubyDung]]'', another game preceding ''Minecraft''.
*''[[Zombie Town]]'', another game preceding ''Minecraft''.
*''[[Legend of the Chambered]]'', another game preceding ''Minecraft''.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20210813064921/https://notch.tumblr.com/post/227922045/the-origins-of-minecraft The origins of Minecraft] <small>(archived)</small> - The Word of Notch.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20210813083615/https://notch.tumblr.com/post/113252305/credits-due Credits due] <small>(archived)</small> - The Word of Notch.
*[http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/01/20/proto-minecraft-abandoned-due-to-epic-error/ Zach Barth stating why Infiniminer failed].
*[[wikipedia:Zachary Barth#Infiniminer|Infiniminer on the English Wikipedia]].
*[http://www.zachtronics.com/infiniminer/ Infiniminer Official Website]
*[https://infiniminer.fandom.com/wiki/Infiniminer_Wiki Infiniminer Wiki]
*''[https://web.archive.org/web/20060424151658/http://www.mojang.com/notch/j4k2k6/miners4k/ Miners4k]'', a game about mining made by [[Markus Persson|Notch]] in 2006.

==Navigation==
{{Navbox Minecraft (franchise)|games}}

[[Category:Community]]
[[Category:Games]]
[[Category:Discontinued]]
[[Category:History]]

[[cs:Infiniminer]]
[[de:Infiniminer]]
[[es:Infiniminer]]
[[fr:Infiniminer]]
[[hu:Infiniminer]]
[[it:Infiniminer]]
[[ja:Infiniminer]]
[[ko:Infiniminer]]
[[nl:Infiniminer]]
[[pl:Infiniminer]]
[[pt:Infiniminer]]
[[ru:Infiniminer]]
[[th:Infiniminer]]
[[uk:Infiniminer]]
[[zh:Infiniminer]]
