Everything We Know About Notch's 0x10c Except How to Pronounce It (With Screenshots!)

I mean do I pronounce it "zero ex ten cee",  "zero ex ten superscript cee," or what? Well, no matter because the game sounds way cool. It's set in an alternate future where the space race never ended, which alone is an awesome concept.  Here's the background Notch posted on the game's new site:

In a parallel universe where the space race never ended, space travel was gaining popularity amongst corporations and rich individuals.

In 1988, a brand new deep sleep cell was released, compatible with all popular 16 bit computers. Unfortunately, it used big endian, whereas the DCPU-16 specifications called for little endian. This led to a severe bug in the included drivers, causing a requested sleep of 0x0000 0000 0000 0001 years to last for 0x0001 0000 0000 0000 years.

It's now the year 281 474 976 712 644 AD, and the first lost people are starting to wake up to a universe on the brink of extinction, with all remote galaxies forever lost to red shift, star formation long since ended, and massive black holes dominating the galaxy.

So it sounds pretty dang unique, right? Here's the feature list as well:

• Hard science fiction.


• Lots of engineering.


• Fully working computer system.


• Space battles against the AI or other players.


• Abandoned ships full of loot.


• Duct tape!


• Seamlessly landing on planets.


• Advanced economy system.


• Random encounters.


• Mining, trading, and looting.


• Single and multi player connected via the multiverse.

Those are some cool features, seamless planet landing being something that sounds particularly neat.  Other than this list, Notch has also noted that the game will require a monthly fee for multiplayer-- which is gathering quite a few complaints from the more entitled and whiny gamers out there.  I mean they have a good reason, the game's server is supposedly going to be running your ship's physics and computer even while you aren't playing.  It'll also be playable during development much like Minecraft was, which is cool, because it's always interesting to watch a game move through development.  This last blurb from the game's official site is the one that bothers me, though:

The computer in the game is a fully functioning emulated 16 bit CPU that can be used to control your entire ship, or just to play games on while waiting for a large mining operation to finish.

Full specifications of the CPU will be released shortly, so the more programatically advanced of you can get a head start.

So am I going have to know how to code to be able to play this game to the fullest?  Should I be picking up books on C at the library or something to be able to work my in-game ship computer?  With such a crazy requirement like that, it will really limit the game's player base to the most hardcore of gamers and computer programmers.  I guess we won't really know until Notch releases more info.  Check out the 2 screenshots I've managed to dig up in the gallery below, and for more info I suggest this unofficial FAQ.

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