How To Play Minecraft Directly?

How do I play downloaded maps on Minecraft (beta v1.3)?

• I downloaded a map called 'mountainy_world' from a site called Minecraft World Share as a zip file. When i extracted and opend it, all it had was documents named with random letters and numbers and a few .txt and blank files that dont do enything. Apparently I need to put somthing in the minecraft 'saves' folder through 'program files' but all the minecraft folder had was: Minecraft Launcher -> - launch_minecraft (.bat) - Minecraft (.exe) and 2 uninstall programs. is it because i dont have the official game or an up-to-date version?

• Answer:

  Go to- start, run, and type %appdata%. There should be a minecraft folder with the saves folder in it. You move the files there and load up minecraft your should be able to load it as a save.