BlockMiner

BlockMiner.

A game supposedly created a year after Minecraft a little less than two years after it was released in 2009. It published on the website BlockMiner.org which has now been deleted, never to be accessed by anyone again.

But I've seen it. Somewhere around the end of February 2012, when I just turned 13, I was searching for games similar to Minecraft. I was going deep into Google search. God knows how deep. At one point I passed the last results even remotely connected to Minecraft. Or so I thought.

I have never told this story to a single living soul.

The very last page. The last result to appear contained no description and the page title was simply "Welcome to BlockMiner.org" or something like that. I first thought that this wasn't anything about Minecraft and simply a dead website or whatever.

So naturally, out of curiosity I clicked. It led me to a website, white background with black text.

You know that gut feeling when you can tell something is about to go terribly wrong? That nauseating atmosphere that lingers in the air that makes you feel vulnerable and scared? That feeling struck me ''hard. ''Believe me when I say this. I took a screenshot just in case something went wrong. Here's the photo:

http://prntscr.com/ntaaww

I don't know why I felt it. The website does not look very menacing at all, but for some strange reason I was very nervous, almost scared. Still, curiosity got the best of me and, hesitantly, I clicked on the download button.

To this day, I still don't know why I did it. I could've just let the website rot. Maybe if I didn't do it the website would've stayed online. Maybe I did it for good? Maybe, just maybe, if I didn't click on that fucking button someone else would've had to suffer what happened to me.

When I clicked on the button, nothing happened. I was quite confused. First I thought it was just not working at all, and I started to feel slightly relieved. Still, I didn't know what could happen. Maybe that button sent my address to the people that bought the domain? What if I click it again?

Again, I was a curious kid. I didn't know much else. So I clicked it again. And again. And again.

--

Nothing was happening, so I left the website. Nothing seemed to happen after a while, so I thought that was just it. The website was broken, nothing happened and I wouldn't get the chance to play BlockMiner. Bummer, but at least I didn't get a virus or whatever.

A few days later, I was downloading an mp3 of a song I liked so I could listen to it on an upcoming road trip I had. When I checked my downloads, a familiar name appeared along with the mp3.

BlockMiner.

There it was. The installer for BlockMiner. As far as I know, there wasn't a single trace of it when I first clicked on the download button.

Alongside BlockMiner.exe was also BlockMiner (2).exe, BlockMiner (3).exe and BlockMiner (4).exe, since I clicked on the download button four times. Quickly, I deleted the three other installers, and as my mouse cursor hovered over BlockMiner.exe, I got that feeling again.

The gut feeling. The feeling of impending doom. The feeling that I cannot forget. The chills that will stay with me to this day.

But the curiosity was back too. I needed to go further. To find out more. So, hesitantly I clicked on the installer.

It was just the Minecraft installer. What? Everything on the website led me to believe that this was going to be a really bad bootleg of Minecraft that I could laugh at and then tell the funny anecdote to my friends, but literally Minecraft?

"Uhh, well, maybe they just ripped the Minecraft installer for their own game", I told myself. "Either that or I just got a copy of Minecraft for free".

Still, hoping for something that could at least make for an interesting story, I clicked install and waited a bit. However, that small bit turned into an excruciating two hours of just waiting. Was the game really that big?!

The game's directory was placed directly into the "Windows" folder, which, in case you didn't know, is a folder in which important files for the computer to be able to work are stored. Most game installers ask where the game should be stored, but the BlockMiner aka the rip of the Minecraft installer skipped over that completely. I guessed that was just where it stores by default.

I clicked on the properties of the BlockMiner folder, and what the hell?! 24GB?! I couldn't believe it. I didn't have a single game on my PC at the time that was over 3GB and it surprised me quite a lot when I saw that a Minecraft ripoff could have such a large size.

I probably should've assumed that it was a virus or something, and while that did sort of linger in the back of my mind, I was sort of excited to play it. There was something urging me to click on it.

So I did.

That one click leading to the horrible things I would witness.

The horrible, horrible things.

To be completely honest, I wasn't expecting much when the first thing that appeared was quite literally just the Minecraft title screen. Even the Minecraft logo wasn't changed and the logo I saw on the website was nowhere to be found. I was almost completely sure that this was just going to be some sort of cracked version of Minecraft.

The first thing I did was just click on the options button and surprise surprise, it was literally just the options screen exactly like it is in Minecraft.

"Boooriiing!", I thought to myself. It was just Minecraft! I was a little relieved though, at least it wasn't anything bad. I already had Minecraft, I bought the game legally, so I immediately just decided to delete it.

But I didn't delete it.

No.

Again, something was urging me to start playing. The feeling was starting to get overwhelming.

So I trusted it and pressed play.

The screen went red. It illuminated the previously dark room I was in, even exceeding the brightness settings I had on my PC. Usually, I lower the brightness to less than half to prevent eye strain, but now the screen was even brighter than at day!

Then, nothing.

I pressed a few keys on my keyboard, but nothing. Just red. Bright red.

My eyes started hurting a little, so I moved my hand to grab my computer mouse. However, as if the game was watching me, black text was displayed on the screen saying "I LOVE YOU".

"Shit, shit, shit. This must be a virus", I thought to myself, panicked and quite scared. "I'll just turn off the computer and tell my dad about this, he's really tech savvy". Again, right as I started to press the power off button on my PC, the screen changed, distracting and startling me.

This time, it was just a heart. I froze at this point, just looking at the screen. The heart slowly started pulsating with a beeping sound getting louder.

At first I just thought my ears were ringing, but the sound became louder and louder and soon I realised it was coming from my speakers.

The beeping started getting much louder, hurting my ears a bit.

I was alone at home and nobody was there to hear the beeping. The painful beeping sound.

Beep.

Beep.

The beeping became too loud. Louder than max volume. I started to get dizzy. Right as I was about to scream as the beeping sound filled my head, it stopped.

Silence.

I could still slightly hear the beeping in my head. At first I was sure my eardrums popped and that I went completely deaf, but soon I retrieved my sanity and was able to hear my exasperated heavy breathing. I looked back at the screen.

I'm sorry.

As I saw the text, I immediately felt it again. The feeling in my gut. I went to the bathroom. The feeling was so hard. I was going to vomit. The pain was filling my stomach. Eventually, I was able to force myself to let it all out.

I got out of the bathroom, feeling slightly better and, for some ungodly reason I looked back at the screen.

A few seconds passed for my mind to be able to even recognize what was happening on the screen. I can only describe what I seen as this: You know the three dimensions? Left right, up down, and forward backward? Well, I think I saw another dimension. The "fourth dimension". I also think I saw new colours.

I don't know how it was possible. How my computer was able to produce it. What it was. Nothing made sense.

Was this reality?

I went outside to calm myself. Keep in mind that it was still quite cold, as it was February.

I stayed outside, staring at the night sky. I must've been out there for at least three hours. I couldn't imagine what I saw again. I just remember seeing something I shouldn't have been able to see. Something nobody should see. It's incomprehensible and yet my brain comprehended it as something incomprehensible. I didn't know what was happening. I still don't know. My head hurts thinking about it.

I got back in.

The loud fans of my computer stopped while I was outside. The thing was fried completely, never to be recovered. I was lucky the entire PC didn't just explode.

And it all started with curiosity.