by Stone Marshall | Mar 1, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, parent-news, Stone Marshall Books |
MINECRAFT fans on the Isle of Wight have been invited to take part in a project to build their own virtual version of Newport.
Devised by Chris Gutteridge, computer programmer at the University of Southampton, Project Newport is a full scale reproduction of Newport in the computer game Minecraft — a computer game about designing and building anything from a simple house to a castle in the sky.
The project ties in with Joanna Kori’s Future reCollections exhibition at Quay Arts which looks at the past and present uses of the Quay Arts building.
Chris’ contribution was to expand on that idea with the whole town, and also consider what it’s future might be.
It’s a blank version of the town, fit for adaptation and Chris wants people taking get creative and build their own vision of Newport.
“They might want to rebuild what Carisbrooke Castle was like at a certain time in history, and have to look up how tall the walls were, or where the stables would have been,” said Chris.
“Or maybe fill the town with zombies. I reckon a couple of them will accidentally learn something,” he joked.
For Chris, the aim of the project is to help provide the engineering oriented education that wasn’t afforded to him when he was growing up on the Island.
There are dozens of amazing artists on the Island, he says, but when it comes to engineering and computers, there is very little for children to engage with.
Using open source data from the environment agency and OpenStreetMap, Chris wrote a program to combine the data and generate it in Minecraft.
In all, the project took him around 70 hours, compared to his previous endeavour which involved manually building Ventnor seafront and took around 500 hours.
Chris will be hosting a free drop-in at Quay Arts tomorrow (Saturday) between 1pm and 4pm.
He is also involved in the University of Southampton science and engineering festival which runs from March 11 until 19 and Chris hopes will encourage younger people from the Island to become involved in science and technology.
For more information, and to download Project Newport, visit: users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/cjg/newport/
Chance to make your own Minecraft Newport
by Stone Marshall | Feb 27, 2017 | Awesome Book News, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Books |
Furthering the running gag that Microsoft is slow to the draw and deficient in apps in regards to its smartphone platform, Minecraft: Pocket Edition is just now heading to Windows 10 Mobile.
Though previously available on Windows Phone 8, Minecraft developer Mojang dropped support for Microsoft’s older mobile OS back in October of last year.
Minecraft: Pocket Edition’s arrival on Windows 10 Mobile now means those who’ve upgraded will also finally catch up on major updates that they have missed out on since, including Achievements and support for Realms, add-ons, and texture packs.
A Minecraft in every phone
The ultra-popular brick building game coming to Windows 10 Mobile may as well just be a formality at this point, with the game already selling over 100 million copies and counting, and the handheld Pocket Edition and console ports outselling the PC original almost 2 to 1.
That said, it’s still amusing to think that one of the latest systems to just now get in (or rather, back in) on one of gaming’s biggest, best-selling brands is Microsoft’s own, considering it owns Minecraft after purchasing Mojang for $2.5 billion back in 2014.
Thankfully for owners of the previous version, anyone who purchased the game for Windows Phone 8 will be able to download the Windows 10 Mobile version at no additional charge.
by Stone Marshall | Feb 22, 2017 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Books |
Minecraft servers enable the internet community to play online or within a local area network with other players.
With a selection of different servers distinguished through the different gameplay features, rules and societal structures that they implement, every server has its unique differences.
Some may include features which make it more PVP orientated in aspects of survival, creative and adventure mode, while others contain mini games. CBR gives you the best Minecraft servers to date.
Hypixel Network
This top Minecraft server was created by famous mapmaker Hypixel and was launched in 2013.
The server initially started out as a YouTube channel creating Minecraft Adventure Maps and is now one of the largest and highest quality Minecraft server networks in the world. It currently gets around 10 million unique logins daily.
The network is known mainly for its minigames, a unique selling point for the network. There are over a dozen custom-coded minigames available on its official server.
These include Survival games, Paintball, Quake and TNTRun. Some of its original popular games include The Walls, Mega Walls, Blitz Survival Games and others.
PrimeMC Network
PrimeMC is the community server network that features three game modes to enable 
fun for all players; these game modes include SkyBlock, Prison, OP Factions, Factions, Creative, and KitPVP.
It also provides continuous updates, features and improvements to give players an ongoing enjoyable experience.
With over 700 players online, PrimeMC is a large and popular server that continues to grow. The server also includes proxies for locations in Asia, Australia and USA.
GotPVP Network
GotPVP is a hub server that contains a wide selection of games for all players, including games such as Factions, Survival, Sky Wars, Prison, Sky Block, Creative, Hunger Games, KitPVP and others.
The network uses high end dedicated servers to provide minimal downtime and optimal performance with minimal to no lag.
GotPVP currently runs plugins across MCMMO, Factions, WorldBorder, Votifier, ObbyDestroyer and various others.
Also running on a high end dedicated server with a large amount of dedicated ram along with a high speed quad core processor. This enables players to never have the issue of disruptive lags as server uptime remains at a high scale of 98.8 percent.
CubeCraft Games
CubeCraft Games is known as one of the largest server networks in the world, running 24 hours a day, seven days a week and having the capability to host many thousands of players.
Some of the games available on the server include; EggWars, SkyWars, Team SkyWars, Lucky Islands, BlockWars, Tower Defence and more.
Its games fall under Creative, PVP, Skyblock, Spigot and Survival.
The uptime of the server remains at 99.6 percent, being one of the highest uptime percentages across the top Minecraft servers.
CubeCraft also features a selection of minigames from PVP minigames such as Arena Brawl to co-op minigames like Creeper Survival.
TheArchon
TheArchon is referred to as the most active Factions server in the world, containing 
constant betrayals, wither raids, new defensive tactics deployed each day and a location to battle against YouTubers.
Combined with a wide variety of Factions game modes, such as Ranked and OP Factions, TheArchon is the server suitable for a variety of mini games.
Its features include Custom Enhancements, mcMMO, OP Factions, YouTubers and Intense PVP & Raiding.
The server’s uptime rises up to 97.5 percent, with 400 online players.
Best Minecraft servers to play online
by Stone Marshall | Feb 20, 2017 | Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Books |
A new version of Microsoft’s Minecraft for schools means teachers won’t have to struggle for expertise or inspiration using the game with their students.
The video game, which lets players explore its signature blocky 3D realm and build all kinds of fanciful structures, can be complicated. That’s especially true if you’re building interactive tutorials for students in Minecraft Education Edition.
Hand-picked mentors can now answer teacher questions or offer guidance for particular age groups or subjects, and now there’s a larger 60-person team offering blog posts, live streams and videos, Microsoft said Tuesday as it released the updated software.
Minecraft is immensely popular with kids outside schools. The Education Edition, which costs $5 per student, is designed to capitalize on that popularity to help teachers do their job. Its wide-open customization options means Minecraft can be adapted countless ways to help kids learn, not just veg out.
So far 75,000 students are using it, Microsoft said. Teachers can use pre-packaged Minecraft worlds for tasks like exploring ecology, showing the fictional worlds depicted in books, experimenting with construction and architecture, teaching physics and recreating historical moments.
Other changes in the new version:
- Higher skies — a 128-block height limit now is lifted to 256 blocks.
- A global pause ability so teachers can put an entire classroom’s Minecraft activities on hold.
- The addition of igloos and polar bears in snowy areas.
- An easier process to upload Minecraft worlds for better sharing.
CNET Magazine: Check out a sampling of the stories you’ll find in CNET’s newsstand edition, right here.
Life, disrupted: In Europe, millions of refugees are still searching for a safe place to settle. Tech should be part of the solution. But is it? CNET investigates.
Microsoft: Minecraft mentors help teachers grok the game
