By Seth G. Macy A rating for Minecraft Wii U has appeared on the Pan European Game Information page. The listing shows the game has been deemed suitable for ages 7 and up, but perhaps even more surprising than the game’s existence is the release date listed at November 12.
November 12 is also the day Nintendo will broadcast its first Nintendo Direct since the passing of former CEO Satoru Iwata. The company has been mum on details, which is par for the course for Nintendo. However, we’ve got 11 predictions about tomorrow’s Direct.
Way back in 2013, Minecraft-creator Notch said there were no Minecraft plans for Wii U, but Notch has since sold the company and the game now belongs to Microsoft. Minecraft routinely shows on the list of top selling games in the NPD Group reports of software and hardware sales in the US, so complete platform saturation is in the best interest of monetizing the Minecraft brand.
Fans of Minecraft and the Wii U have long wanted a marriage of the two, as the Wii U gamepad seems like it would make a perfect Minecraft companion. If Minecraft really is coming to Wii U, does this mean we can look forward to Minecraft amiibo? Let’s hope so, because a Creeper amiibo would be pretty awesome.
A team of undergraduates at the University of Hull have created a Minecraft world full of structures of proteins, chemicals and chemical history to help introduce complex scientific concepts to children.
Using models of proteins and chemicals from an online database, the team imported the structures into Minecraft, where they created replicas of those shapes. Each atom is represented by a different coloured block, and each ribbon in the model represents a chain, with individual atoms not shown unless they are particularly important.
University of Hull/MolCraft
The world also contains treasure chests filled with puzzles and quizzes intended to encourage children to learn about biochemistry.
“Anyone can explore the building blocks of these incredible natural nano-machines,” explained researchers Mark Lorch and Joel Mills on The Conversation. “You can discover how just 20 chemical building blocks can result in the astonishing diversity of structures and functions that are required to hold living things together.”
“Imagine a science lesson where the class is let lose in Minecraft with instructions to find a set of objects hidden on key parts of molecules,” they said. “Upon retrieving them the teacher will know which molecules each student has explored and what questions they may have answered to find the objects. All this time, the children think they have just been playing a game.”
“The only limits are the imagination of teachers and students”.
Minecraft has conquered almost every gaming platform known to man. The only significant hold-out of the current generation? Nintendo’s Wii U — but that’s changing.
According to a listing on the website for games rating body PEGI, Minecraft: Wii U Edition has been certified for release.
The game has been awarded a “7” rating, like all other console versions of Mojang’s endlessly popular sandbox game. PEGI warns that “it contains non-realistic looking violence towards fantasy characters. Pictures or sounds likely to be scary to young children. Non-realistic looking violence towards characters which although human are not very detailed.”
Although the game has previously released on portable formats, including PlayStation Vita and Minecraft: Pocket Edition for smartphones, there doesn’t appear to be any sign of a 3DS release for Minecraft to complement the Wii U version.
While there’s no information on any version differences, the Wii U’s gamepad and stylus could offer builders some interesting options in creating their worlds. The same tools prove hugely useful in Super Mario Maker, arguably Nintendo’s own approach to Minecraft’s user-generated content appeal.
WIRED contacted Nintendo UK regarding the Wii U release of Minecraft but a spokesperson was unable to comment.
However, the platform holder is hosting its first Nintendo Direct broadcast this evening at 10pm GMT — the first in six months, since president Satoru Iwata passed away.
The broadcast will be hosted by Nintendo of Europe President Satoru Shibata, and is set to provide updates on forthcoming Wii U and 3DS titles — a reasonable place to expect more information on Minecraft to be revealed. The broadcast will be streamed on Twitch and the Nintendo Direct site.
A new Minecraft snapshot is out this week, the second consecutive preview of Minecraft Update 1.9 to go live on a Thursday, and it looks like we really are getting close to the point when Mojang will feel confident releasing Minecraft Update 1.9 to the general public.
If the patch notes for Minecraft snapshot 15w46a are any indication, and we’re not sure how they couldn’t be, the next big update for Minecraft is likely just around the corner. After devoting the bulk of last week’s Minecraft Update 1.9 development to stamping out bugs, discovered during the snapshot process, Mojang have returned with another weekly Minecraft snapshot focused (primarily) on the various bugs still being encountered by the community.
That’s not to say there aren’t any other changes in Minecraft snapshot 15w46a. For starters, the latest Minecraft developmental preview introduces fallen trees. But the reason we’re so honed in on the bug fixes from this week’s Minecraft snapshot is because, typically, when the folks at Mojang puts on their exterminator caps, it signals the final countdown to a major update for the smash-hit sandbox game.
Sadly, we still don’t have a timeline for the debut of Minecraft Update 1.9. But that shouldn’t exactly come as a shock, either. As many Minecraft players have undoubtedly learned, Mojang isn’t a studio that likes to put itself on a deadline. Rather than promising content on a certain date, regardless of its current condition, Mojang seems to prefer waiting until it’s absolutely confident it can deliver new Minecraft builds before making public plans to release them. So we probably won’t get more than a week or two’s notice, as we have with the last several Minecraft updates.
Here are the complete patch notes for Minecraft snapshot 15w46a, via Jens Bergensten:
Fallen trees
Changed the redstone dust hitbox
Sprinting no longer stops after a while
Mobs no longer spawn on rails
MCPE rabbits
Loot changes
Fixed some bugs
Fixed 3rd person view reverting to 1st person view when your head goes inside a block
Fixed flying through a portal in Creative turning off “fly mode” on the other side
Fixed breaking doors moving the other part of the door sometimes
Fixed redstone wire using different criteria for connecting visually and logically
Fixed detector rails not powering adjacent powered rails upward on slope
Fixed end portal frames acting like solid blocks
Fixed IPv6 not working
Fixed sprinting stopping after a certain distance/time
Fixed comparator side inputs not recognizing all types of redstone power sources – redstone blocks are now accepted
Fixed clearing the Nausea effect showing the nether portal tint
Fixed the redstone hitbox not allowing blocks below to be hit
Fixed large amounts of experience orbs triggering epilepsy – Video
Fixed the TNT mesh being rotated wrongly regarding placed vs primed TNT
Fixed being unable to see Horse Health in Creative
Fixed glass panes not joining up correctly with ice blocks
Fixed blocks dropping XP with doTileDrops set to false
Fixed boats appearing to be sunken in water
Fixed snowmen leaving snow regardless of mobGriefing
Fixed the default wolf collar color from orange to red
Fixed the wither attacking while still invincible
Fixed endermen losing the ability to dodge melee attacks after being hit
Fixed Untamed horses continue consuming food after reaching 100% tameability (0 temper) :: Tamed horses continue consuming golden food after already in love mode
Fixed an iron bars model issues
Fixed some changes to the mob spawning algorithm
Fixed guardians spawning in random places
Fixed the banner pole texture being mis-aligned
Fixed stopping a server after save-off causing unexpected data loss
Fixed default NBT data for SmallFireballs being incomplete
Fixed uv mapping being upside down on stairs
Fixed a crash: java.lang.ClassCastException: ahw cannot be cast to ahn
Fixed there being a “Realms Notifications” option in options menu
Fixed a typo in a soundevent name: “enttiy.zombie.infect”
Fixed a first-person perspective parallax problem: The first person camera was positioned behind the player’s eyes
Fixed doors having no placement sound
Fixed mobs inside mob spawners stuttering if no player is in spawn range or spawner is outside worldborder
Fixed daylight sensor outputting signal when encased
Fixed the breath icon being moved with the armor bar when under the effect of absorption
Fixed being unable to place banners or signs on snow layer level 1
Fixed the glowing aura not working if team color is set to reset
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for more Minecraft coverage throughout the rest of 2015 and for as long as Mojang supports Minecraft in the years to come.
With the numerous snapshots released for “Minecraft” PC, the developer has now given a new beta for players on the Android version, the “Minecraft Pocket Edition.” This time, it will introduce a new feature that fans have been clamoring for.
Announced over the official Mojang website, the new feature coming to the beta 0.13.0 update for “Minecraft Pocket Edition” are Redstone Circuits.
The features for the latest updates are slated to debut on both the “Minecraft Pocket Edition” and the “Minecraft Windows 10 Edition beta.” Mojang has yet to announce when these features will come to the mentioned platforms.
The beta will feature the first batch of Redstone blocks. For now, it will not include the Pistons, Repeaters and other blocks, though this may come at a later update. The Redstone circuits will include Redstone Wire, Torch, Lamp, Levers, Buttons, Pressure plates, Trapped Chests, Detector Rails and Tripwires. In addition, there are new wooden doors included.
Some tweaks have also been introduced to some commands in the game. The new Redstone can be used to control features like doors, TNT, rails and trapdoors. Boats can now go faster with different handling. Slimes and Ghasts can now spawn, while Skeletons can run away from Wolves.
For “Minecraft” players who are interested on being beta testers of the new update, there are three requirements to be eligible. “Minecraft Pocket Edition” is not a free app, so players will need to purchase the app via the Google Play Store for $6.99. Also, Mojang has an opt-in agreement to which players will need to agree with. Finally, the Android device of the owner should be able to run “Minecraft Pocket Edition” with the right version of the Android software.
PC players are still waiting for the latest update of “Minecraft.” However, that does not mean that there are no progress with the game’s current version. At Hull University in the UK, a new educational variant of “Minecraft” has been created for the study of molecular structures and chemistry.
BBC reported that the program is geared towards an interactive approach of the subject, taking advantage of the game’s simple but effective gameplay mechanics.
“‘Minecraft’ is a fabulous tool for exploring structures of buildings, landscapes and even anatomy,” Dr. Mark Lorch, one of the developers of the program, told BBC. “It is a really novel way of engaging them and delivering information to them.”
Currently, the unique program makes use of the different features of “Minecraft.” These include treasure chests, goodies and puzzles, as well as the main building feature of “Minecraft.”
We know that redstone, the powerful element from the desktop version of Minecraft, is coming to Minecraft: Pocket Edition [$6.99] very soon, as it has arrived in the beta version of 0.13 on Android. But what exactly can you do with the element on the mobile version of the game? Well, let a couple of Mojang developers show you the power of redstone in this video, which is made in the Windows 10 Beta version of Minecraft, but should function the same in the iOS and Android version of the game.
Redstone promises to bring huge changes to Minecraft Pocket Edition, as many of the more complex creations in the desktop Java version of the game are powered by redstone. And players have been able to make things like machines, and even playable guitars:
Now you put that big mobile playerbase to work on making redstone creations on the go, and who knows what they’ll be doing once update 0.13 is out…
