MineThings archive · Record 01
History
The story of MineThings: first listed on 16 October 2009, closed in March 2020, and reopened as MineThings 2 in August 2026.
Dated public record
: a world under the ash
MineThings appeared in a browser-game directory on 16 October 2009. Its premise skipped two thousand years beyond the Yellowstone eruption: humanity had returned to a buried Earth and made an economy from whatever its miners could recover. It was free to play, persistent, deliberately slow and more interested in ownership and trade than in a conventional quest line.
Dated community artefacts and player record
–: players rebuilt the interface around themselves
On 11 June 2010, the first Lazy Newb Pack bundled community graphics, utilities and configuration for Dwarf Fortress. Together with Dwarf Therapist's tabular labour interface, it provides a useful parallel: these community projects did not replace the simulation; players built a more usable interface around it.
On 7 October 2010, a MineThings player published a Python screen scraper that collected a census of miners, professions and home cities together with asking prices, bids and sales. It is unusually direct evidence that MineThings was already being treated as both a persistent world and an economic simulation. Its players were beginning to build their own interface around a smaller browser canvas.
An Ars Technica discussion begun on 20 October 2010 records starter mines, rarity tiers, melding, mine purchase and rental, discovering towns, moving goods, pirates and highwaymen. Players also argued about the slow opening pace, paid acceleration and controls that were not always obvious. The same dated thread records separate Aso and Bromo servers with different economies: veterans could make Aso easier through cheap equipment and loans, while Bromo offered a more even race to discover things.
Dated contemporary public record
–: experiments in value and Bitcoin
MineThings was documented as accepting Bitcoin by March 2011. A 24 May AnandTech recommendation shows the game travelling by ordinary word of mouth. On 1 July, a BitcoinTalk promotion offered an in-game starter pack and credited MineThings with introducing its author to Bitcoin; the apparent operator account, nextnonce, joined the discussion.
On 29 August 2011, that account announced that MineThings had removed PayPal and moved exclusively to Bitcoin, claiming approximately 1,500 active players. The number is historically useful but remains an operator-supplied population claim, not an independently audited count. Replies welcomed the experiment while warning that obtaining Bitcoin was difficult and that the public explanation of payments and premium content was thin.
Dated friend testimony and independent review
–: the patient loop in public
On 8 July 2012, a MartialTalk recommendation from a friend identified Japhet Stevens as the creator and described MineThings as a once-a-day game. It is useful first-hand social testimony, not independent reporting about authorship.
An independent review on 4 January 2013 described the same rhythm—checking once or twice a day—along with hundreds of common things, still-undiscovered Orange things, Melds that unlocked professions, player-set prices and risky travel. Together these accounts show that scarcity, cooperation, advantage and inconvenience were the game, not incidental friction.
Dated player guide and surviving code
–: a game made from distance
On 25 April 2014, the long-running f13 guide described the Oil Field as a resource-management puzzle made from randomly found parts and compared its pipe work to Pipe Mania. By 25 May, the guide had documented city-scoped things, global gold, local markets, hidden cities, Meld creation, vehicles, convoy tactics and route combat.
Mines kept working while their owners were away. Land vehicles, ships and aircraft made geography matter; weapons, modifications, piracy, professions, factories, Melds and the Oil Field turned an idle collection game into an intricate social simulation. The preserved PHP, MySQL and Python implementation corroborates those systems in code and data.
Dated surviving community artefacts
–: players kept rebuilding the interface
The MineThings transport extension was published in September 2014. It added sorting, filtering, colour coding, ETA calculations, radar and gadget details, live refresh, journey statistics and event histories. By July 2015, related scripts had reworked chat, messages, findings and wasted screen space. In 2016, the smaller “Machine Owners” tool grouped Oil Field machines by owner.
These were not cosmetic curiosities. They preserve the information and controls players needed badly enough to construct for themselves, just as the Dwarf Fortress community had done around its own difficult interface.
Public failure record; operator-supplied identity
–: Serif's first restoration attempt fails
A contemporary shutdown discussion records that the original owner offered to hand over the keys in November 2019 if somebody assumed the server bill. By 10 February 2020, a server upgrade had left parts of the ageing game broken, and one selected player-programmer had investigated taking over and updating its CakePHP 1.2, PHP, MySQL, Python and CentOS service. The scale of the code, broken systems and resources required defeated that attempt.
The public record confirms the failed attempt and its date range but leaves the successor unnamed. Serif identifies himself as that successor and says the private source and database were transferred to him. Serif's first repair and port stalled under the system's scope, obsolete dependencies and the time available. The identity and private transfer are therefore recorded as first-hand operator testimony, not independently established fact.
Dated public record
: the machinery stops
After the failed handover, support had become exhausting and the monthly infrastructure bill was difficult to justify. MineThings closed in March 2020. Contemporary comments establish the month but not a reliable exact day.
Dated post-closure recollection
: memory outlives the service
In 2021, players still tried to identify or replace MineThings. A 3 February similar-games request remembered automatic randomised loot and crafting; an 8 December identification thread successfully named MineThings from a partial memory of a browser mining game. These recollections show what endured, but they are not treated as authoritative records of the original mechanics.
Dated playable release and community recollection
–: Mini MineThings
Mini MineThings was uploaded to Newgrounds on 4 January 2023 with an offline mining loop built from robots, explosives and multiple mines. A 16 January AndroidGaming reminiscence again grouped the original with scavenging and item-collection games. On 20 February 2024, a Newgrounds commenter explicitly thanked its author for reviving the game.
Dated operator account; outcome corroborated by repository
: months of reconstruction
Serif describes the new revival as months of excavation, comparison and rebuilding before MineThings 2 reopened. The code and database snapshots had survived the failed 2019–2020 attempt. AI-assisted development made a complete migration practical, with the retired application treated as evidence and never executed by the public server.
This was far more than a visual remake. Serif reconstructed account and mining state in Node.js and SQLite, restored the catalogue, markets, factories, Melds, messages, chat, vehicles, combat, Dwarves, weather, roaming threats and the Oil Field, and recast seven former server worlds as connected regions with gateway capitals. Verified accounts, live updates, administration, migration tooling, automated tests and production checks made the recovered world operable again.
Dated repository evidence
–: the restoration enters the surviving record
The current Git record begins on 23 August with one large restoration snapshot rather than a month-by-month development diary. It substantiates the breadth of the result, not every step of the preceding months. Commits from 25 to 27 August record rapid work on connected regional travel, live updates, creatures and route combat, the Oil Field, chat, messages, guilds and new icon families.
Some unsafe or obsolete services were deliberately retired. MineThings 2 became both preservation and continuation: old rules where the archive could support them, and new systems designed to feel native to the same strange world.
Dated first-hand player and operator testimony
: “But it stuck”
MineThings folk were a weird community. It attracted all sorts: griefer kids; whales (in the gaming sense); triers; chatters; people on drugs who would leave long monologues inspired by their mushroom trips; shills; young professionals; rich folks; idealists; habitualists. But it stuck—in people’s heads. It was a true sandbox, and Japhet Stevens put a huge amount of effort and creativity into it, yet received so little in return beyond abuse and suggestions about how to ‘improve his game’.
So many groundbreaking games were emerging at the time. Minecraft, FFS. Sandboxes were appearing everywhere. WoW had started as a sandbox. MineThings had a sense of an accepting community long before LGBTQ inclusion, invisible disabilities, and DEI became common topics of discussion. It connected people while, at the same time, providing a way for them to piss anonymous people off. The game had pariahs and legends.
I really want to bring this legacy forward, and I feel that it is a privilege to be in a position to do so.
Dated repository and working-tree evidence
–: the reopened world keeps growing
On 29 August, the casino became a multi-machine system. On 30 August, Council sentencing and a fuller starter experience gave new miners a proper arrival; maps and city labels were rebuilt; transport and combat continued to be refined; and hundreds of catalogue items gained a coherent SVG icon language while original PNGs remained available for layered avatars and miners.
Dated repository and working-tree evidence; operator account
–: Serif makes the restored world inhabitable
After the previous development update, Serif added explorable city interiors. Every city acquired its own persistent street plan and regional character, with readable lore signs, sparse Ore scraps, temporary Charged Ore power, roaming Dwarves and restless dead, parks, transport terminals and detailed architectural landmarks. A miner can now enter mines, Oil Fields, airfields, harbours and vehicle yards on foot; visit a local bar; and find a home with storage, a display space, messages, a proper bed and drifting Legendary dreams.
Serif expanded transport from single journeys into a working logistics network. Shuttles can repeatedly carry selected categories, including Oil and Ore, under peaceful, patrol or pillage orders. The Oil Tanker carries up to 100 barrels, while the Train Carriage moves up to 200 loaded things between regional capitals. Parked transports repair slowly; closed routes reject new departures and reopen after existing journeys finish; and the administration record separates live traffic from world events.
The routes themselves became more dangerous and more legible. Creature rolls now cover every region, destroyed road vehicles and sunken ships can leave wrecks from which Wraith Riders or Ghost Ships may rise, and living and restless threats have linked records and tier-correct hunt controls. Combat reports gained complete opening and closing statistics, condition labels and cleaner notifications; bounties were tied back to threat rarity; and closures, destruction, sightings and other world events gained varied linked chat announcements without flooding player inboxes.
New-player life also grew beyond a starter mine. Council sentencing now generates thousands of context-safe offences under a permanently unique docket number, explains the dissolved-estate grants, and points the exile toward a starter-miner bot, Aso exploration, Stones and a one-use outpost mine-rental voucher. Starter property now includes an Oil Field kit and five M-80s. More Stones recognise city discovery, entering a home, displaying a Thing and assembling the bot, while contextual navigation counts show what is actually available where the miner stands.
Finally, Serif added a distinct casino cabinet for every region and a durable global spin counter; broadened the SVG artwork across Things, mines, transports, threats and architecture; added private city-bar conversation, unseen chat counts and offline finding summaries; tightened database migrations, image caching and state cleanup; and extended the automated checks around the growing world. This phase changed MineThings 2 from a recovered set of systems into a place miners could travel through, inhabit and leave stories in.
: sources and provenance
- Bay 12's 2006 development log—the 8 August 2006 public Dwarf Fortress release.
- Dwarf Therapist manual—the utility's 2009 release and tabular labour-management purpose.
- BrowserMMORPG listing—the 16 October 2009 listing date, setting and overview.
- Lazy Newb Pack history—the 11 June 2010 bundle of community graphics, utilities and configuration.
- MineThings screen-scraper account—the 7 October 2010 player census code and market-data collection.
- Ars Technica OpenForum discussion—player reception, mechanics, servers, pacing and interface criticism from 20 October 2010 onward.
- Bitcoin Wiki record—optional purchases and the March 2011 Bitcoin announcement.
- AnandTech mention—the 24 May 2011 word-of-mouth recommendation.
- BitcoinTalk starter-pack discussion—the 1 July 2011 promotion, players and apparent operator participation.
- BitcoinTalk “all-in” announcement—the 29 August 2011 PayPal withdrawal and operator claim of roughly 1,500 active players.
- MartialTalk recommendation—the 8 July 2012 friend attribution naming Japhet Stevens and describing once-daily play.
- Independent player review—the 4 January 2013 account of daily rhythm, rare discoveries, Meld progression, prices and travel risk.
- f13 player guide and discussion—the 25 April, 21 May and 25 May 2014 records of the Oil Field, markets, maps, vehicles and piracy.
- OpenUserJS transport extension—its September 2014 publication and detailed transport, radar, gadget and journey tooling.
- OpenUserJS MineThings index—the July 2015 transport, chat, layout and message tools and platform counters.
- OpenUserJS Machine Owners—the 2016 machine-ownership analysis tool.
- Shutdown discussion—the 10 February 2020 technical state, failed succession attempt and impending closure.
- Similar-games request—the 3 February 2021 memory of automatic randomised loot and crafting.
- Identification thread—the 8 December 2021 residual recognition after shutdown.
- Mini MineThings release—the dated 4 January 2023 upload and author's gameplay description.
- AndroidGaming reminiscence—the 16 January 2023 classification as a scavenging and item-collection game.
- Mini MineThings revival comment—the dated 20 February 2024 recognition of the game as a revival.
All public sources and displayed OpenUserJS counters were reviewed on 30 August 2026. At that review, OpenUserJS recorded 17,520 installations for transport, 10,009 for chat, 11,039 for screen-space changes, 8,594 for messages and 170 for Machine Owners. These are platform counters, not verified unique-player totals.
Repository evidence means the archived source, SQL material, commits and current implementation shipped with this restoration. Operator-supplied history is first-hand testimony from Serif and is labelled wherever public records do not corroborate it. The name Japhet Stevens follows both the dated 2012 friend attribution and Serif's correction.