Minecraft 1.7 Update: Mojang Debuts Snapshot 13w43a

Minecraft fans have reason to rejoice on Monday, as Mojang has released another preview of the Minecraft 1.7 Update, inaugurating this week with a totally unexpected debut -- Minecraft snapshot 13w43a -- not long after Minecraft snapshot 13w42b went live on Thursday afternoon. Even as much of the initial excitement of Minecraft 1.7 previews that came in a hefty succession early in September wanes, Mojang has still been quite prolific with the number of updates it has churned out for the Java version of Minecraft. Nathan "Dinnerbone" Adams revealed 13w43a on Monday, three days before Minecraft fans expected to see it brought out -- enough of a surprise to get some people talking about the possibility that the Minecraft 1.7 Update could be ready for release quite sooner than expected.

According to iDigitalTimes, Minecraft snapshot 13w43a consists mostly of new bug fixes for the sandbox title of Mojang, although the developers did manage to slip in a new texture for the pufferfish that fans first saw in Minecraft snapshot 13w36a as well as a pair of new saplings for those eager to check out new plant life in Minecraft. Monday's preview also fixed a considerably large bug with the Minecraft help command along with another error that saw players unable to steer boats using the left or right arrow keys on their keyboards.

What about OS X users? Well, they might be pleased to discover that the Minecraft developers managed to patch up a bug that had left some players unable to correct their mistakes in the chat window of the game. You can check out a full list of game changes from the latest Minecraft snapshot here, together with directions on how you can access snapshot 13w43a, if you're not already an expert on how it goes down.

Major changes have been worked out by the team for the Java version in recent weeks, with the world generation systems for snapshot 13w36a being completely made over. And for the first time since March 2012, previews of the Minecraft 1.7 Update have seen the team go back and rewrite code completely for a few of the crucial game systems, as well as adding a few new blocks to go with it. The week before last, snapshot 13w41a introduced Stained Glass, a block that has long been the apple of the eye of a large segment of the Minecraft community, but many figured wouldn't manage to make the cut after Mojang included it on the list of features for a prank carried out earlier this year.