Diamonds or Bust

Now...I had a great castle and an even bigger underground complex. I had an elaborate underground society, and was approximately 13 generations into my game. But I wanted diamonds. In the construction of my underground masterpiece, I had found five or six...but I wanted MORE.

I learned that diamonds are more common on levels 10-14 up from the bedrock. So I made a 20x20x4 room and began on hallways to mine diamonds. 1 block wide and 2 blocks tall, I ventured far, far away from my complex. I went far enough to extend beyond my map and into the unknown. Given, this was before maps were much smaller areas and weren't automatically completed when you used them.

The yield of precious materials was bountiful. I found cocoa beans in dungeons, endless coal, iron, redstone, gold, and lapiz lazul. And most important of all...I had diamonds. At any given time, I had 30-45 unused diamonds + LOTS of diamond tools, armor, and weapons. My vault was filled with rare materials.

I used countless iron and gold to built incredibly long tracks through my diamond runs. It would take 4-5 minutes on the rail to get to the end of the tracks (4 diamond runs in total).

And then a friend of mine asked me, "What have you done in the nether?"
"What's the nether," I asked. Then he showed me...if my mind was already blown by minecraft, this is certainly what did it.