Mingus

Mingus
Owner
eeriebass
General information
Established: 3 February 2024
Status: Active

Mingus is a mid-sized farming and fishing village on RetroMC. Though its primary focus is commerce, manufacturing and exports, there is an ever expanding representation of arts and entertainment. The StarGate to Mingus is accessible from spawn, tucked away in a cave at 87, 62, 49, but the village is primarily accessed through the command /warp wool.

Mingus is part of the NorthernEmpires nation.

History

Mingus was official founded by  eeriebass on the 3rd of February, 2024, but the groundwork was laid the month before. It all started with a diamond mining expedition in the mountain that now hosts the Lava Lamp attraction. Strip mining grew tedious, the diamond yield was less than impressive. An expedition from that small camp lead to the discover of a seemingly unending cave, dense with minerals.

Deeper into the cave, a more important discovery was made: A Zombie Spawner! This meant a steady source of income and feathers (useless). From the spawner, a pathway to the surface was made. Climbing out of dark, dingy cave reeking of the undead the humble explorer was met with the most awe inspiring landscape. Beautiful, sprawling, hilly fields in front that were dense with lumber and behind, massive cliffs that extend beyond the clouds.

The surreal, beautiful untamed land and the spawner ready to be converted into a farm,  eeriebass built his first structure which has remained largely unchanged and has served as the Mingus base of operations for the entirety of the village's construction and operation.

First build of Mingus. Main base of operations

Members

The sole member of Mingus is it's founder  eeriebass who had envisioned a solo project in the foundation of the village. There have two past members, a now unknown wanderer who one day vanished so they were removed from the village's member list and their name is now lost to history. The other villager [NAME REDACTED] was found guilty of witchcraft, somehow they were able to see through solid stone and detect diamonds, mining straight to them. Not only was [NAME REDACTED] a witch, but above all else they had committed the unforgivable sin of stealing diamonds from the Mingus mine. For these crimes [NAME REDACTED] was catapulted into the sun, the court deemed these proceedings “tough but fair.”

Namesake

Mingus is named after American jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus; when it came time to pick a name for the village, his music was playing (a diamond from the cave expedition was used to craft a jukebox) so a name was chosen: “Mingus Springs”. The space and everything after it were ignored when registering the village name and the name locked in as Mingus, which in the end was preferred.

Beyond name, tributes include an upright bass statue with Charles Mingus quote displayed. A large black and white photo of the artist as a young man. And upon entering the village through the Stargate, you step on stone pressure plates that play the first 4 bars of “Goodbye Porkpie Hat,” his most popular composition.

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  “My music is evidence of my soul's will to live.” - Charles Mingus
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  Michael Ochs 1946 portrait of Charles Mingus, now in Minecraft (finally)
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  Redstone Activated Jazz at the Stargate Entrance

Farms

1. Wool - The star attraction of the town, farm wool to use or sell. A public sheep spawner and dye shop. Accessible via /warp wool
2. Flower - In front of the wool farm, turn bonemeal into free red/yellow dye.
3. Squid Farm - Squid spawner. Let gravity turn squids into black dye.
4. Creeper - A gunpowder delivery system surrounded by a small tree farm, cobblestone farm and fishing hole that give you plenty to do while you wait for gunpowder. The farm is also has shops to buy/sell gunpowder and TNT.
5. Zombie/Slime - The zombie spawner that turned wilderness into a home. After 3 redesigns the farm is now attached to a slime farm that will delivery baby slimes to a chamber next to the zombie farm. Slime activity seems random, certainly not guaranteed.
6. Skeleton - Skeletons meet lava and turn to bones/arrows/double slabs. A better example accessible via the town's Stargate via the 2XSkelly location. As the name implies it's two skeleton spawners. Also available /warp boneyard which puts skeletons one punch from death and you profit from killing the mob.
7. String - Largely unused, was the source of wool previous to the wool farm. Mostly a historical artifact at this point. The first rail system was installed in town just to travel to this farm.
8. Snow - A big slab of stone in a snow field on public land, makes harvesting snow so much easier. Shops on the side sell shovels and also allow stacking snowballs into stacks of 64 making transport/crafting easier. *Bonus Zombie Farm on location so you can earn money while waiting for more snow.

Farm Tests

August of 2026, efficiency tests were conducted on the major farms. In each test the farm was used for 15 minutes, these were results.

• Squid farm: 261 ink sacs
• Creeper farm: 124 gunpowder
• Zombie farm: $121.77 and 6 slime balls.
• Sheep farm: 168 wool*
• Spider: 96 string
• Skeleton - 131 arrows, 57 bones, 28 double slabs.
• 2xSkelly Stargate - 220 arrows, 85 bones and 29 double slabs.

(*Using max wool method: The sheep are partially killed by gravity, one tap from death, punch them once with the shears and then shear them as they go down)

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  (1) eeriebass encounters the rare pink sheep at /warp wool
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  (2) Flower farm
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  (3) The squid farm working perfectly
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  (4) Gunpowder delivery system and more
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  (5) A leap of faith into Zombie/Slime farm
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  (5) Enter the Zombie pit, if you dare (actually safe)
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  (5) A bad day to be a slime
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  (6) Could there be a skeleton farm entrance inside? Unrelated, a cake was left out overnight so a sheep started eating it.
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  (6) A skeleton enjoying a nice peaceful ride into lava
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  (7) String does come in handy
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  (8) Not pretty, but very useful

Art

1. The Benny Harvey Memorial Museum - Miss you big man, gone but not forgotten.
2. The Villains of NES - Some of history's greatest monsters.
3. In The Court of the Crimson King - Iconic album art for King Crimson's debut album.
4. Zombie Dance Ritual - The Zombies behind the Museum have committed their afterlife to dance.
5. Music Box - 4 BUD switches that fire randomly playing their short musical phrases when active.
6. Lava Lamp - Lava falling from above creating a beautiful visual effect.
7. Feather Disposal Unit - An extremely overpriced way to get rid of feathers. A dispenser up top, a pressure plate at the bottom, the feather travels nearly 5 minutes to reach the pressure plate releasing the next feather. A gimmick/sculpture, but could potentially be useful as a redstone loop.
8. Punchcard Music in F# Lydian - As the name implies, this redstone punchcard activates notes and short musical phrases in F# Lydian.

• 
  (1) Now featuring iconic pieces by Kristoffer Zetterstrand
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  (2) Mike Tyson (Punch-Out), Bowser (Super Mario Bros), Dog (Duck Hunt)
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  (2) Golem (Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest), Magica De Spell & Flintheart Glomgold (DuckTales)
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  (3) Sceamy man
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  (4) Look at 'em go!
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  (5) Music determined by random chance
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  (6) The beauty of lava
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  (7) Why?
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  (8) Piston-powered music, very industrial

Entertainment

1. The Lucksman Shooting Gallery - Shoot the 6 redstone torches and win a prize! The Lucksman relies on boats so it breaks often. It would be worth checking the maintenance area before using.
2. Ride the Waves - Set your boat on the water, get in and let the waves take control.
3. The Emerald Coaster - A rollercoaster ride through the darkness and flames.
4. Pokey Parkour - A short parkour course, free healing provided as you need to jump on cactus.
5. The Boat Elevator - 2 water streams that will lift your boat into the heavens and then launch you back into the lake below.
6. Clairvoyant Cactus - A cactus that has been blessed or perhaps cursed with visions of things to come.
7. Blighttown Battleground - A mini-mob arena in the middle of Lake Solaire an underground mob farm brings endless waves of opponents. (Works best during the day)

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  (1) Nice shootin' Tex!
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  (2) Bumpy but relaxing rid
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  (3) A fun ride with a great view
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  (4) Ouch
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  (5) Ride to the sky...
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  (5) and then hold on tight!
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  (6) How can a cactus be so wise?
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  (7) Test your might

Shops

1. Magma Mart - Where you'll find most things bought and sold by eeriebass, one of the Stargate locations.
2. Redstone Arena - All things Redstone! The shop is next to a small arena of general Redstone circuitry in attempts to perhaps inspire potential customers.
3. Creeper Farm - As mentioned above, the Creeper farm has shops for gunpowder and TNT.
4. Eggs & Cake - The Stargate location Eggpunk is a chicken spawner above and a shop below.

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  (1) Hot deals!
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  (2) Redstone brings your world to life!
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  (3) Shop in front of the creeper farm
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  (4) Wait for eggs or just buy them

General Hospitality

For your health!

Lodging at the Mingus Motel, free healthcare available at the hospital to anyone injured in town. Minecarts at all rail stations for a $25 deposit, you can buy them and then sell them right back at the next stop.

Stargate

Shortcuts and various outposts.

• Mingus - Takes you to the central village spawn location.
• Spawn - The RetroMC Spawn informal stargate location.
• Magmamart - Puts you outside the Mingus general store.
• Doghouse - A home for most of the dogs of Mingus.
• ZombieMusic - A surface level zombie spawner with pressure plates that activate musical phrases.
• Island - A sunny, beach resort.
• Boneyard - Skeleton spawner/shop that sells the drops. Can also be accessed via /warp boneyard
• Wool - Easy access to the stargate for those who enter through /warp wool
• 2XSkelly - A double skeleton spawner, double the loot!
• Eggpunk - A skyland location, a small island hosting a chicken spawner. The chickens play music via pressure plates and drop eggs for harvest.

The Mingus Stargate in a small hidden den at spawn

Redstone Tech/Maintenance

When installing redstone in Mingus, effort is made to make the circuit as unbreakable as possible or at least easy to reset without having to actually break repeaters/blocks/etc. This section goes over how to fix some of those unavoidable issues.

/warp wool

September 2026: The redstone has been altered. The operation is generally the same except for how the water stream that pushes the sheep is released. The original minecart clock/monostable setup is now simplified to pressure plates the player (or sheep) can step on that releases the water stream. It's not as automatic but this design should be unbreakable and is much quieter, the pros outweigh the cons.

Select users have been given access to the maintenance area for /warp wool but any RetroMC staff that can bypass the door would be welcome in for the sake of fixing the farm.

Upstairs is the sheep spawner, the sheep spawn on the grass, pistons release a water stream that pushes the sheep to the drop. The redstone is a minecart acting as the 'clock' riding around inside the sheep and hitting a detector rail. The detector rail hits a monostable circuit that turns the water stream on and off.

Simply put, as long as the minecart is going, the farm should be active. If you don't hear pistons after waiting at the farm for several minutes (it can take a long time for the farm to wake up sometimes) the minecart may have despawned.

The minecart that had powered the redstone ran without issue for over a year but then randomly despawned one day in August of 2026. Thankfully, it was while the water was off so sheep could still spawn, if the water was running it would completely disable the farm. Trusted users are now granted access to this area to potentially replace the cart in case this happens again.

Downstairs is that music that you'll hear on occasion if you farm sheep long enough. The tune that plays is a little bit of the song "And Dream of Sheep" by Kate Bush. The music is activated by a BUD switch that detects a sugar cage that breaks, resetting the clock.

On rare occasion the sugar cane can grow to it's max length and not be broken by the piston, the clock can be reset by breaking the sugar cane down to one.

Oh, I'll wake up to any sound of engines. Every gull a seeking craft

The Lucksman

The clairvoyant cactus has revealed much about the future to the council of Mingus, many of the local structures are inspired by these hazy futuristic visions. One prediction included block that send a redstone signal when you shoot them with an arrow, we can only imagine such a convenience but a substitute does exist.

Demo of simple target block setup

This simple configuration creates a target block of sorts, shooting the wool block (in this example) activates the pressure plate. This is repeated 6 times, these connect to a 6-input AND gate, once all 6 targets are hit, the dispenser activates and spits out a random prize. Noteblocks activate and redstone torches turn off to confirm the target is hit.

The problem -- it relies on boats. Boats have a tendency to glitch out or vanish. There is a preferred design that uses fire instead of boats, but it did not work on the server. It's very likely that users will need to replace the boats before use. Signage points users to the maintenance area in the back that includes on site instructions.

There are 6 cobblestone slabs, they all need boats on them, as long as they have boats the shooting gallery will be operational. There is a shop in this area that sells 6 boats for $5, they are stacked making the process much easier.

• 
  The on-site Wiki
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  Floor 1 locked and loaded

Eerie dogs

The following are journal entries from 2026 made by  eeriebass regarding some strange observations of canine companions.

July 22nd Travelling the wilderness of RetroMC I'll see stray dogs from time to time and I feel compelled to help, but these dogs are bound to their owner who is often long gone. Really quite tragic, I love dogs too much to just look the other way but they are beyond my help. Over the past few weeks, two separate strays have shown up in Mingus, this I cannot ignore. Weighing my options, I could build these dogs small/cozy shelters. I could attempt to contact their owners. Nah, I think I'm going to put them in cart rides, I can see it in their eyes these dogs want to move. So that's it, cart rides for strays left on my property.

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  The man loves dogs (Doghouse Stargate location)
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   buttercakeee's dog enjoying the ride
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  Go!  ChrisChan's dog! Go out and zap to the extreme!

August 16th Another stray dog spotted next to the Solaire statue! This one belongs to  Spencer199 and he was around so I hastily threw together a rollercoaster for his dog. It's a fun mini-coaster, I rode it several times for safety checks and making sure there were no turns that were too sharp. If you've got to ride a minecart for all eternity, you hope for a smooth ride. Once it was confirmed safe, the dog was pushed on and up and over the hill the dog went. After a couple trips around, I invited  Spencer199 over to check it out, he thought it was pretty funny. The dog seems happy, I've got to go to bed, I was about to go to bed right before the stray showed up, I'm exhausted.

August 17th It's gone!  Spencer199's dog just vanished in the night, I looked everywhere around the coaster, around the Solaire statue... nothing. Just an empty minecart going around the track. I feel terrible, I can only assume the worst.

August 20th I've been having the strangest dreams, I can't remember all the details but I know I see a dog flying through the nether. It turns to look at me and it's eyes turn red and it barks and launches a fireball at me like a ghast. I wake up when it hits me. I won't be putting any more dogs in minecarts, it's not worth the risk, but I'll leave the other two dogs in their carts. They've been riding safely and  buttercakeee's dog especially loves the trip, I see a look of relaxed peace in this dogs eyes, I couldn't take that away.

August 26th I went to collect some gunpowder which meant paying  buttercakeee's dog a visit when to my horror I see the dog is on fire! I grab a water bucket and rush to the dog, praying it's not too late... the dog just stares at me with that same happy look. The flames aren't harming the dog, but when I threw my water bucket onto the dog it was like dumping a bucket of water in the nether, a hiss and it's gone. Nobody is going to believe me, they'll think I've gone mad, but I've got proof, I've got a photo! I just need to try and better understand what is happening before showing the photographic evidence.

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  Cursed coaster
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  This is fine
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  Don't look into its eyes!

That was the last entry, these pages and these photos were found next to the passed out body of  eeriebass which was found by the town's blacksmith. He appeared to have fallen moments after taking his most recent photo. It appears to be a dog completely levitating out of an inactive minecart, staring directly into the camera.  eeriebass was rushed to the nearby hospital where he's making a speedy recovery. In the meantime these writings and photos are being published for their potentially useful documentation of the supernatural.

As of this publishing, the original two cart dogs are alive and well.  buttercakeee's dog is occasionally on fire and speaks in demonic tongues, but otherwise they're great!