Uploaded June 2011 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago

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So, with the release of Minecraft 1.6 the classic cart boosters are finally gone. That means *everything* on my server had to be brought up to spec. The tour has been mostly re-done with powered rail and the half dozen or so minecart stations have mostly been rebuilt to use 1.6 friendly dispenser methods.

Previously I would use a stone pressure plate to detect when the rider got into their cart, and have that trigger a booster cart to get you started. Now, once you land on that pressure plate there's no way to get moving again so I had to re-think the launcher. While the other stations on the server use powered rail and a button, I wanted to keep my station entirely buttonless. The only way I could think to do that was with a timer.

Then there was the issue of catching and recycling empty carts that would end up on the track because the timer doesn't care whether or not the cart has a rider. So I used a hill to determine this (An empty cart has less momentum and cannot make it up the same size hills as a full cart can). In an effort to make everything look nice I dropped the hill down and put a trapdoor on the timer instead, so you hop in the cart and get dropped onto powered rail, and then climb the hill back up to ground level.

All in all this cleans up the station quite a bit, but it could be so much better if we only had two different detector rails; One that detects any cart (like we have now) and another that only detects carts with riders. Oh well.

Also, there will be a Tour V5 to follow, as soon as we finish fitting it with the new boosters and expand it to visit new areas.

Music, in order:

1. Antoine Dufour - Hide and Seek (Imogen Heap cover)
- youtube.com/watch?v=gNPCI8y9avc
2. Marty Friedman - Rock Box
- youtube.com/watch?v=Zx134wxEWQ0
3. FamilyJules7X - Want You Gone (Jonathan Coulton cover)
- youtube.com/watch?v=tgabSyAePyM