If you go look at the HUD for even older games like Doom and Quake, you can see where that idea might have come from. Usually those “inventory slots” were for fixed items, namely ammo for the various guns, but having different things on different number keys was definitely in use back then. The new part, of course, was making a game mechanic out of changing the things under the number keys.
Have later games stolen it directly from Minecraft? Sure, but it’s such an obvious concept that someone else would have eventually invented it. In fact I’m not sure if Notch didn’t borrow it from something else that had that extra mechanic first.
And now it’s become a de facto standard like the positions of the clutch, brake and accelerator in a car. (And if you drive an automatic, the brake is still always to the left.)
If you go look at the HUD for even older games like Doom and Quake, you can see where that idea might have come from. Usually those “inventory slots” were for fixed items, namely ammo for the various guns, but having different things on different number keys was definitely in use back then. The new part, of course, was making a game mechanic out of changing the things under the number keys.
Have later games stolen it directly from Minecraft? Sure, but it’s such an obvious concept that someone else would have eventually invented it. In fact I’m not sure if Notch didn’t borrow it from something else that had that extra mechanic first.
And now it’s become a de facto standard like the positions of the clutch, brake and accelerator in a car. (And if you drive an automatic, the brake is still always to the left.)
I think one of The King’s Quest titles did it first maybe Might and Magic did.