Minecraft users have been recreating Pokémon in the block-building game for years, but the latest attempt doesn’t require you to mod the game at all. All you need is the base, vanilla Minecraft version 1.8.8, and you’re ready to download the map and play it.
Pokémon Cobalt and Amethyst makes use of command blocks, which one of the developers, PureCharlie, says is similar to mods such as Single Player Commands and WorldEdit, but instead, they’re a mapmaker feature that are activated by redstone. You can see in the video above that battles play out similarly to the ones you’d find on Nintendo’s handheld adventures.
The Pokémon-themed Minecraft map has been in development for about a year and a half, and while it claims to recreate the original Pokémon game from 1996, it adds a new region, unique stories, and 136 new Pokémon, mixing creatures like Giratina and Arceus with the originals.
Cobalt and Amethyst is only available in singleplayer, so you won’t be able to travel or battle with any of your friends. Developer Phoenix SC claims the game will take 60 to 80 hours to complete and features “an antagonist threatening to release a legendary darkness that demands tribute.” You won’t be going up against Team Rocket, Magma, or any of the other classic gangs, either; instead, you’ll be working to take down the Suliqu region’s criminal organization called Team Tempest.
It’s great to see fan-made Pokémon content of this scale, but given the DMCA takedowns of projects like Pokémon Uranium, there’s a possibility that Nintendo will try to shut down Cobalt and Amethyst. If you listen to the video at the top of this article, it sounds as if they’ve borrowed some sound effects from Pokémon Red and Blue. PureCharlie says that if a takedown happens, they “can just go back and change the name,” but I’d think that borrowed assets would be the more damning part.
We’ve contacted PureCharlie for an interview and will report back as we receive more information about the map.
If you’re interested in playing Pokémon Cobalt and Amethyst for yourself, the video below from the developer details everything about how to download and play the Minecraft map—you can download the map here. But if you want to check out other Pokémon modifications to popular PC Games, take a look at these Pokémon that replace Ark: Survival Evolved’s dinosaurs.
If you’ve ever played Pokemon and thought, “This would be better if it was the same but blockier and in Minecraft,” then today might be your lucky day. Pokemon Cobalt and Amethyst is a fan-made project which is now playable inside Minecraft on PC/Mac.
The add-on, which has been developed by a group of modders headed up by Phoenix SC, includes a whole new map: the Suliqu region. It includes unofficial Pokemon, a custom soundtrack, and a whole new plot to follow.
Everything is, of course, made within the constraints of Minecraft–so battles, conversations, and more are all a little more blocky than your average Pokemon game.
To have a look for yourself, check it out here, or take a look at the video above.
Cobalt and Amethyst is not the first fan-made Pokemon game. A number of standalone Pokemon titles have been made by community members, though a number of them have shut down.
HAMPTON, Va. (WVEC) — The Hampton History Museum is in need of volunteers, boxes, and other supplies to help build a large-scale model of Downtown Hampton. The project will be a part of a free family event the museum is hosting called “Build the City: Minecraft Madness.”
The event will occur on Saturday, March 11. It will be held from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Carousel Park.
The event is based on the popular videogame Minecraft, in which players build constructions out of cubes. In this event, the children will be able to participate in a construction of Downtown Hampton using boxes, which will resemble the cubes used in Minecraft to build houses and other structures. Other recyclables, construction paper, chalk, and paint will be also be used.
No prior knowledge of the videogame is needed to volunteer, or participate, the museum just asks that people bring a positive attitude and a desire to inspire children’s creativity.
The museum will be taking donations of cardboard boxes and other reusable materials for the event, such as egg cartons and paper towel rolls.
Boxes of all sizes will be accepted, but the museum has a dire need for smaller boxes like the ones used for Girl Scout cookies, tea, toothpaste, and cereal.
If you are interested in donating to the event, please drop off all donations to the museum at 120 Old Hampton Lane between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday.
For more information on the event, how to volunteer, or to recommend a source for more boxes, please call Museum Educator Kris Peters at (757) 727-6838.
Half term is nearly here – looking for something to fill the time up?
Here’s five:
1. Take a trip to the zoo. Ever popular Flamingo Land opens its zoo for half term and from February 11 parts of Dino-Stone Park and the outdoor Pirates of Zanzibar acrobatic show will also be on. There’re more than 140 species of animals at the zoo in Malton, North Yorkshire, just over an hour’s drive from Teesside. www.flamingoland.co.uk for mor information.
2. A pop up farm brings the joys of the countryside to Lightwater Valley near Ripon for half term – and selected rides at the North Yorkshire theme park will also open at the Fab Feb Family Fun event designed to appeal to the eight and unders. Thurs Feb 16 to Tues Feb 21, £6 per person, tickets must be booked in advance.
Skyrider ride at Lightwater Valley
3. Got a Minecraft fan in the family? There’s a festival all set to celebrate the video game, returning for a third year to Northumbria University Student’s Union, Newcastle on Saturday and Sunday, February 11 and 12. Nethermined also includes a special Parents Zone offering tips for safe online play. Family tickets are £60, www.nethermined.com/tickets
Nethermined Minecraft festival (Photo: Publicity Pic)
4. Enjoy storytime at Drake Bookshop in Silver Street, Stockton on Monday, February when 13 Lord Lieutenant of Durham, Sue Snowdon joins in a half term storytime special. She’ll be reading Shark in the Park by Nick Sharratt, the fun starts at 10.30am.
5. Treasure is top of the pile for intrepid kids this half term at Preston Park museum and grounds, Eaglescliffe. There’s a packed line up of activities from fossil hunts, the chance to Dig For It and become an archaeologist for the day as well as a screening of big screen blockbuster Jurassic Park. February 11 to February 26, most activities free with museum entrance, £2.50/£1.50, family £5.
Minecraft’s status as a hit game is well-known — but its massive success has made it more than just a game. As the above video shows, it’s also an art and business for creators who’ve embraced Minecraft’s unique, blocky world.
That’s exactly what James Delaney and Blockworks, a design company he co-founded, have done. The group made distinctive maps for Minecraft that have educated players and risen to the level of art — all while occasionally making a nice profit too. Their works are collected in the coffee table book Beautiful Minecraft, which features works ranging from surreal landscapes to surprisingly affecting “human” structures, all crafted using Minecraft’s blocks.
Mountains in Beautiful Minecraft Blockworks/No Starch Press
The artistic opportunities flow from Minecraft’s open structure. Though players can participate in the classically video-game-like “Survival Mode,” they can also do whatever they want in the game’s “Creative Mode,” which removes any threats and turns Minecraft into a blank canvas. For designers like those at Blockworks, Creative Mode gives them an opportunity to collaborate on new worlds, or “maps,” that are incredibly intricate, despite the limited “cubist” nature of their materials.
The creativity “Creative Mode” enables is obvious in the work that talented designers produce. Sometimes Minecraft artists will create interactive worlds that replicate historic events; other times, Minecraft’s many cubes coalesce into a sculptural image, the same way pointillism’s dots disappear to form a picture. These images and worlds can be eerie, magical, and surprisingly beautiful.
But perhaps most surprising of all, Minecraft worlds can also be a business. Companies like Blockworks make maps for private Minecraft servers (computer networks that host Minecraft games), and they also occasionally design maps in collaboration with institutions and companies like Minecraft owner Microsoft. That’s allowed the group to make some cash from its far-flung syndicate of talented designers.
Of course, this is a game, so there are still risks. Even in a seemingly open world like Minecraft, Microsoft can shut down lucrative collaborations between designers and big brands that want to commission in-game advertising. That adds one more complication to the intersection of gaming and art — there are business interests too, and they can’t be moved as easily as a couple of Minecraft blocks.
VILNIUS: Lithuanian entrepreneurs eager to woo Tesla Motors to their shores have built an entire factory to impress the electric carmaker… inside the Minecraft video game.
Responding to a plan announced last year by Tesla CEO Elon Musk to build a second factory in Europe, 40 gamers used the popular online building game to construct a virtual replica — in just 35 hours — of the company’s battery production plant.
But this time, instead of the original site in the US state of Nevada, the plant was located in the Baltic EU state.
The gamers then posted a 2:28-minute video on YouTube, showing off their model, which is complete with solar energy panels and electricity generators.
“Welcome to the dream,” reads a caption seen in the 3D video as the viewer is shown through the virtual plant.
It appears the gamers knew how to appeal to the tech geeks at Tesla, which tweeted on Saturday: “Lithuania knows the way to our heart”.
Lithuanian entrepreneur Vladas Lasas, who was behind the initiative, said his nation of three million faces tough competition from at least 10 European countries.
“We have teams to build a virtual factory in less than a week. And we could have real teams working in real factories within a couple of years,” he told AFP on Saturday.
Lasas said the new “gigafactory” would provide a significant boost to the Lithuanian economy, and could help curb emigration by young people to richer Western EU states. Tesla has another plant in the Netherlands. Lithuanian Economy Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius hailed the initiative and said “it was only the beginning in the effort to have Tesla in Lithuania”. “This non-governmental initiative proves that our IT specialists are not only talented but also inventive enough to surprise the world,” he said.
