Installing Raspbian on your Raspberry Pi means you’ll find Minecraft Pi in the Games section. Minecraft Pi is a bare-bones version of the popular survival game designed to help teach users various programming languages.
Sure, it’s fun, but it’s not the Minecraft game we’ve come to know and love. As with all things Raspberry Pi, a group of users have figured out how to install the full version of Minecraft on your Raspberry Pi 2 or 3.
As with all things Raspberry Pi, there’s a lot of editing and tinkering with files and Terminal commands. Just be sure to take your time, read through each step and you should be fine.
Keep in mind
Before you dive in, there’s some things you should know:
You will need to know your Mojang account log-in info, along with your Minecraft username.
Naturally, you’ll need a paid license for Minecraft. You can purchase one from Minecraft.net
The guide is specific to Minecraft 1.8.9. However, with a simple tweak you can run the latest version, currently 1.9.4 (more on this below).
Running Minecraft on a $35 computer isn’t going to be the smoothest experience, but it’s definitely playable.
Plan on spending an hour getting everything up and running.
Raspbian Terminal window on the left, Minecraft installation guide on the right.
Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET
I suggest opening this guide in your Raspberry Pi’s browser, with a Terminal window next to it. There are some altered log files stored in Dropbox accounts you’ll need to download, and I’d hate to post the commands here, only to have the links changed at a later day.
The process is simple, mostly requiring you to copy various Terminal commands from the browser, pasting them into the command line. After pasting each command in, press enter on the keyboard and your Pi takes care of the rest.
Tips to make the process as smooth as possible
Here are some tips I came up with to make the process go as smooth as possible:
Step 1 does not apply to Raspberry Pi 3 users. Currently you cannot overclock the Pi 3. Besides, the Pi 3 is actually faster out of the box than the suggested overclock speed of the Pi 2.
After entering Step 4’s command, use the arrow keys on your keyboard to highlight Advanced options and press enter. Next, highlight GL Options, select Enable.
I got a bit confused by Step 7 of the guide where it says to click on “edit profile,” You actually need to click on Profile Editor, then double-click on the first (and only) listing. Under Version Selection click on the drop-down next to Use version and select a build number. Keep in mind, the guide defaults to 1.8.9. For now, use that version and then we can change it after everything is working.
Step 10 tells you to edit the “run.sh” file, without any further instructions. To do this, open the Minecraft folder located in your Pi directory and right-click on the run.sh file, then select Text Editor.
To launch Minecraft, you have a two different options. The guide will tell you to use “./run.sh” in Terminal to launch Minecraft. While that works, before entering the command you’ll need to enter “cd Minecraft” into a Terminal window. The other option is to open the Minecraft folder, double-click on the run.sh file and select “Execute.”
Run the latest version
Alright, so once you get everything up and running, you can start tinkering with the installation. In order to jump to the latest version of Minecraft, you’ll need to relaunch the Minecraft.jar file.
In a Terminal window, enter: cd Minecraft
Next, enter: java -jar Minecraft.jar
Click on Profile Editor then change the version to 1.9.4 (or whatever the latest version is).
Save your change and click on the Play button, forcing Minecraft to download the latest version.
Next, open the Minecraft folder.
In order to eliminate any headaches should you make a mistake, take two-seconds and make a copy of the run.sh file. Rename it to something alone the lines of “runcopy.sh”.
With a copy safely tucked away, open the run.sh file by right-clicking on it and selecting Text Editor.
Press Ctrl-F on your keyboard, and enter 1.8.9 in the text field. There should be two — and only two — instances found. Replace each one with the current version of Minecraft (this should be the same version number you selected in step 3).
Hey, kids! Minecraft is now a big step closer to your classroom.
Mojang
Now for a game that you won’t mind your children spending hours glued to the screen playing.
A beta version of the education edition of hit video game Minecraft went live on Wednesday, tech news site Thurrott reported. The version is designed for schools and offers a few extras like educational skins.
Minecraft has grown into a phenomenon thanks to its ability to allow players to build whatever they imagine using digital resources they accumulate by “mining.” It’s been found to help children tap into their creativity and learn things like computer coding, math and engineering.
Dragon Quest Builders — a game that mashes up the sandbox building elements of Minecraft with the story and world of Dragon Quest — is coming to North America.
Today Square Enix announced that the game, which first launched in Japan in January, will be releasing in the West in October, coming to both the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita (though the handheld version will only be available digitally). The news comes on the same day that the long-running fantasy RPG series marks its 30th anniversary; the original Dragon Quest launched on the Famicom this day in 1986.
Builders is a departure for the series, swapping turn-based combat for world building. Much like in Minecraft, you’ll be using a variety of tools to gather resources and build structures. It even looks like Minecraft, with a similar blocky art style. There’s a story that has you rebuilding a fallen kingdom, and it’s actually an alternate take on the events of the original game. Here’s the set-up:
In this story the realm has been destroyed because the Hero (from DQ1) who was supposed to save the world by defeating the evil Dragonlord, actually got tempted into accepting a sham deal with him. This plunges the land into darkness and despair and the few survivors scattered around the world no longer understand the concept of creativity and live through scavenging what remains among ruins.
While the gameplay will be different, you can expect to see lots of DQ mainstays, from characters to items to monsters. Yes, there will be plenty of cute blue slimes.
Team Minecraft at Mojang, 4J Studios and Microsoft have been working on some cool free content for Minecraft: ConsoleEdition, and we’re really excited to introduce mini games to you today. Of course, coming up with improvised rules and new ways to play with friends is already a popular activity among Minecraft: Console Edition players – and long may it continue! But with our new mini games, we’ll be helping you quickly and easily jump into competitions with tailor-made rulesets, so you can have fun straight away without having to fuss around with manual count-downs, laboriously prep loot chests or keep score. Sound good? Great – you won’t have to wait very long for this to come out, so get your enchanted fishing poles ready. The first mini game we’ll be rolling out, called Battle, will be here in June.
Battle allows you to set up a competitive multiplayer fight for survival, where speed, strategy- and sometimes just pure luck- will make you the winner. Players in Battle matches use randomly generated resources found in chests placed in specially designed PVP maps and combat one another in a free for all death match until the final victor is determined. The fun’s not all over after you are defeated though, as fallen players can spectate the combat among remaining players in the match by freely flying around each arena as a bat. Battle matches can be played with up to four players in split-screen and up to 8 players online via Xbox Live. Or, you can find other community members to join your game via an in-game matchmaking system.
In June, Battle will be rolled out for free to all owners of Minecraft on Xbox 360, Xbox One and other consoles via a game update, and the free update will include three maps for you to try out. If you like Battle and want more, we’ll be supporting it with additional Map Pack add-ons periodically after release for $2.99 USD or local equivalent.
Beta Version of Minecraft: Education Edition Available for Download for Schools and Educators!
The time has come. The beta version of Minecraft’s highly anticipated education edition is available for testing for schools and educators starting today.
Teachers and administrators will be able to test out the beta version for the rest of the summer to provide Microsoft with feedback on how the game would work in classrooms.
As Education World reported last month, Minecraft is available in over 11 languages and its owner Microsoft is hoping to work with educators around the world this summer to perfect the game’s classroom value. For educators looking to keep busy this summer, the partnership could be ideal.
Microsoft has been looking to expand Minecraft’s influence in education since it purchased the game several years ago. In 2011, an educator created an educational version of the game and it took off in schools almost immediately.
In 2011, educator Joel Levin developed MinecraftEdu. Not long after, the potential for Minecraft in the classroom was realized when the program expanded to over 5,500 educators and received support from Minecraft’s former owner, Mojang. Microsoft bought MinecraftEdu earlier this year to supplement the upcoming launch of its own education version.
Microsoft plans to be busy this summer working with educators to use their feedback as it continues e to develop the game.
“During the summer months, we are also going to be focused on working with educators on building out lesson plans, sharing learning activity ideas, and creating re-usable projects,” the Minecraft Education Team said in a blog post last month.
“If you are new to Minecraft, or if you aren’t sure where to start in bringing Minecraft into your classroom and incorporating into your curriculum, the early access program is going to be a great way to familiarize yourself with Minecraft: Education Edition. We also suggest educators check out our many resources on education.minecraft.net, including lesson plans like the Great Pyramids of Giza, or electrical circuits using Redstone. In addition, the Minecraft Mentors program connects you with educators experienced in teaching with Minecraft and demystifies the process,” it said.
It looks like 2016 is set to be the year that movies based on comic books really embrace costume accuracy. The amazingly accurate outfit featured in Deadpool set the standard, and both Black Panther and Spider-Man’s duds in Captain America: Civil War look fantastic. But as excited as these comic-accurate looks have fans feeling, there are lots of page-to-screen adaptations that are just wrong. Sometimes ignoring characters’ original designs is a pretty smart decision, while other times it’s hard not to be bummed about the changes filmmakers make for the sake of “realism.” Watch our video above to see some of the most off-kilter attempts to put super-suits on the big screen from the past, present, and future. And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more sweet, sweet vids. Wolverine
Back when Hugh Jackman first took the role of Wolverine in 2000’s X-Men, it was impressive enough that he managed to accurately capture the essence of everyone’s favorite clawed psychopath. It didn’t much matter that, at 6’2″, Jackman stands a full 11 inches taller than his diminutive comic book counterpart. But despite the fact that fans have loved the movie version of Wolverine for over a decade, he’s still never appeared on-screen in his comic-accurate costume. C’mon, can’t we even get the mask on his face? Just once? Vibe
We can’t really blame the producers of the CW’s The Flash for not going so comic book accurate with this one. For one thing, Cisco Ramon, aka Vibe, is still discovering his powers on the show, and hasn’t gone out to fight crime as a full-on superhero. Moreover, until a recent redesign, Vibe’s comic book suit was pretty embarrassing, with its red handkerchief and V-neck collar that goes all the way down. Still, if the show keeps looking to score points for comic book accuracy, we have to point out that it’s missed this one—even when it makes the smart choice by actually avoiding said accuracy. Hawkeye
This is another instance where the filmmakers behind Hawkeye’s big screen look made the right move—by moving away from the comics. Sure, Hawkeye’s all-purple archery suit looks cool on the page, it’d be hard not to make it look ridiculous at the movie theater. Superman
Lots of Superman haters have pointed to his costume as something in need of “fixing.” With the yellow belt that holds nothing up, the red underpants on the outside, and the simple blue spandex, it’s definitely a simple outfit, and one that hasn’t changed much over the past century. But Christopher Reeve managed to make it look awesome in 1978’s Superman, and all three of the sequels. That was proof enough that Superman’s costume wasn’t actually broken at all. Yet, for some reason, Zack Snyder insisted on making Superman’s belt even weirder—and cover him in fish-scales?—for 2013’s Man of Steel. Bring the underpants back, man. Deadpool
Much ink has been spilled about how badly X-Men Origins: Wolverine’s producers screwed up Deadpool: they take him out of his iconic costume, sew his mouth shut, and give him all the mutant powers they could stuff into one person. The good news, of course, is that it paved the way for 2016’s Deadpool, which has broken new ground for faithful comic book adaptations (and for creative use of a unicorn doll in an R-rated movie). Punisher
While it’s not going to win any awards for being clever, the Punisher’s costume is pretty memorable for exactly one reason: it has a gigantic white skull on it. So when the Dolph Lundgren-starring Punisher movie came out in 1989, what’s the one thing the filmmakers decided to omit from the character’s look? The gigantic white skull. Mystique
As we’ve discussed, the producers of 2000’s X-Men made some important choices to ensure that their team of mutants would look realistic on film. That meant cutting brightly-colored superhero costumes in favor of black leather. Whether or not that was a more believable costume choice is debatable. But there’s no question that director Bryan Singer’s move to change the look of Mystique is one of the more baffling adaptations in superhero movie history. For some reason, Singer insisted that the villain be covered in lizard scales and walk around naked all day long, despite there being no such corresponding look in the comics. Stranger still, the scales have stuck around from movie to movie and actress to actress, even though it looks truly bizarre and has no real reason to still be, like, a thing.
