By John Walker on November 24th, 2011 at 8:42 am.
We mentioned this on the podcast yesterday, and it’s well worth a look. People’s capability with an on-off switch is utterly terrifying, and this creation from the Redstone Development Foundation (brilliant name) is the most impressive I’ve seen. Before Minecraft, creator Markus ‘Notch’ Perrson made a game for a Ludam Dare competition called Prelude Of The Chambered, a super-simplified Dungeon Master-style first-person game. And the RDF, and one Berick Cook, have recreated a wire-frame version of it in Minecraft. Which is meta, as well as bloody impressive.
The RDF have previously brought us an 8x8x12 3D printer, an ASCII word processor, and a sync 4-bit to 7-seg dec decoder, which is, in fact, a digital number display. But oh my goodness, getting a game running in Minecraft? That’s frightening. You can see it below:
The map can be downloaded from here so you can have a go for yourself, and you can play Notch’s original here.
24/11/2011 at 08:56 Gnoupi says:
I think the only word that comes to my mind really is “frightening”.
24/11/2011 at 08:59 ScarthCaroth says:
Insane creativity is what comes to mind here….also a lot of spare time… :)
24/11/2011 at 08:58 soldant says:
Kind of makes me wish I knew how to do something more than open a door with redstone :(
24/11/2011 at 09:00 ckpk says:
Hate to be the guy, but minecraft came out before Prelude of the Chambered
24/11/2011 at 09:08 Squirrelfanatic says:
Hate to be the guy, but technically speaking, Minecraft came out after Prelude of the Chambered, i.e. only a few days ago.
24/11/2011 at 09:15 Hoaxfish says:
It was releases a few days ago… but was it made then? Is it even finished now?
24/11/2011 at 17:45 Koozer says:
Why do people feel the need to prefix statements with “I hate to be that guy but…”? Is it just to soothe your own frail conscience from the thought that you may slightly ire someone on the internet? It makes you look like an emo hippie apologist.
24/11/2011 at 22:23 Squirrelfanatic says:
@Koozer: Don’t know which one of us you were referring to with your comment, but randomly lashing out at people in a comment thread on a webpage known for its humorous atmosphere makes you look like… oh I don’t know. A silly person.
24/11/2011 at 22:29 fearghaill says:
@Koozer: “Hate to be the guy” roughly translates to “I know I’m being pedantic but am doing so anyways”. It’s just a roundabout way of saying it.
24/11/2011 at 22:30 The Tupper says:
He’s *that* guy!
29/11/2011 at 00:06 vecordae says:
I have never, ever, met anyone who genuinely hated being the guy that gets to correct someone else’s statement. I am certain that this person exists, mind you, but I am pretty sure he or she doesn’t begin their arduous task with the phrase “I hate to be the guy to say this, but…”.
To paraphrase Ranger Brad: “Who knows. I’ve seen crazy things in my time. I’ve seen commenters do things that, well, not even a commenter would do”
24/11/2011 at 09:04 SquareWheel says:
“Before Minecraft, creator Markus ‘Notch’ Perrson made a game for a Ludam Dare competition called Prelude Of The Chambered”
Er, didn’t he only made Prelude a couple months ago?
24/11/2011 at 09:06 SquareWheel says:
“Which is meta”
It’d be meta if it described Minecraft in some way, but it’s only a game that has a loose connection to Minecraft. Unless I don’t know what meta means.
Sorry, feel like a jerkwad for saying anything.
24/11/2011 at 09:14 Gnoupi says:
It is meta because it’s a game running a game.
And technically, the map arranged in such way actually describe the inner game, therefor is meta to it.
24/11/2011 at 17:26 CDTJ says:
Your definition reminds me of being able to play Doom in the Doom 3 game, on a little arcade screen. Same thing, or no?
24/11/2011 at 20:54 maninahat says:
Yes it is the same thing, and yes that is meta. A game within a game, or a game about a game. Or a game that presents another game. All meta.
24/11/2011 at 09:04 Bahoxu says:
Insane.
But i love it :)
24/11/2011 at 09:17 Hoaxfish says:
Yea… if it wasn’t played by turning to the left after every step.
Shouldn’t it be easy just to make it floor-plates so you don’t have to look away from the “game” continuously?
24/11/2011 at 14:30 trigonometryhappy says:
This. Seems so obvious.
28/11/2011 at 23:23 Berickcook says:
I intend to use a pressure pad system for future versions. However, I decided to make this version have buttons so that it easier for the viewer to tell what I am doing, and how my actions are being translated into on-screen movements.
24/11/2011 at 09:39 enobayram says:
In my point of view, every game is a meta game. I like programming so much, it’s basically a game to me anyway :)
24/11/2011 at 10:15 Bhazor says:
Strange video. Don’t they realise how they did it is more interesting than what it does? I’d much prefer a ten minute guided walkthrough or something.
24/11/2011 at 10:18 Twilightx says:
Here you go, ten minutes exactly :))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB9yAX9UegE
25/11/2011 at 19:46 Faxmachinen says:
That video demonstrates perfectly why early computers would fill an entire livingroom. Computers still work this way, but everything is a lot smaller and much more of.
24/11/2011 at 10:32 Bluerps says:
Those guys are insane! This is very impressive!
24/11/2011 at 10:43 JiminyJickers says:
Wow, a bit crazy but definitely wow.
24/11/2011 at 11:45 Cooper says:
Also, amazing choice of music
Trash80:
http://trash80.net/
Of the Darwinia soundtrack (and the Icarus EP this is off of from 8bitpeoples.com is bloody brilliant)
24/11/2011 at 14:14 GrandmaFunk says:
agreed, trash80 has quickly become my fav chiptune artist
24/11/2011 at 14:29 trigonometryhappy says:
Ditto.
24/11/2011 at 11:54 sneetch says:
That’s amazing! Truly amazing!
Really low FPS on that game within a game though, are there new Minecraft redstone or torch drivers coming out? ;)
24/11/2011 at 12:13 adonf says:
Minigames are just what Minecraft needed, right…
24/11/2011 at 12:39 Eukatheude says:
[Obligatory Inception reference]
24/11/2011 at 19:58 jon_hill987 says:
[Obligatory string of letters that could be read like the Inception horn sound]
24/11/2011 at 13:14 Earl-Grey says:
Hold me, Internet, I’m frightened.
The scale of such things makes my existence seem like such a pointless and miniscule thing.
24/11/2011 at 13:49 kimadactyl says:
This is amazing. Some day hopefully we’ll see some Dwarf Fortress level insanity. I kinda hope that DF to Minecraft mod continues too :)
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/User:Jong/Dwarven_Computer
24/11/2011 at 19:45 Boarnoah says:
Do you remember the link to the DF to MC mod? That mod would be amazing
24/11/2011 at 14:58 Hazzard65 says:
Now all that is required is for someone to create minecraft in minecraft.
24/11/2011 at 17:02 Wulf says:
Blargh, sorry. Broken reply.
24/11/2011 at 15:03 KlaxonOverdrive says:
The graphics are kind of crap though. The story is incomprehensible. And no gamepad support?
2/10
24/11/2011 at 15:57 Blob-World-Eye-Weary says:
Yo dawg i herd you like games, so we put a game in your game so you can game while you game.
Sorry had to get that out me haha.
24/11/2011 at 16:22 Dana says:
The only impressive thing about this is the time they have have spend to make it.
24/11/2011 at 17:03 Wulf says:
I’d think the impressiveness is more in the planning of it, and just generally overall.
Now stop being so jelly.
24/11/2011 at 17:48 Dana says:
Generally, its just stupid. Oh yeah you got logic gates and know how to put them together. Whoopdie doo, every computer science student knows how computers and computing works. Like xkcd noticed, you could do all that using only rocks, with only constrains being time and space. In our case, engine performance and its limitations. Which is in itself backward, since it requires infinitely more raw computing power to run this thing in minecraft, then it would as a code.
Its like sending emails inscribed on stone tablets. But its Minecraft, hurp der durp.
And planning ? Basic knowledge of autocad.
24/11/2011 at 19:58 steviesteveo says:
Jelly
25/11/2011 at 19:14 D says:
Agree with OP here. Do the creators realize they can do more things, better and faster if they used real transistors, a control pad and a led display? (Of course they do.) But wait, then it wouldn’t be amazing, in the slightest. So it isn’t, to me anyway. Gotta be consistent about things.
28/11/2011 at 23:33 Berickcook says:
I understand what you mean. However, for me the fun of it was the challenge of creating something like this inside a video game that is not made for this sort of thing. Working within the confines of such intense limitations requires a lot of outside-the-box creativity.
Obviously nothing in Minecraft has any sort of practical use (same as any video-game). To me, that does not make the things that people create inside them any less impressive.
24/11/2011 at 16:31 overflow says:
Holy shiat! they should rename it the getalife foundation…. this is so much work that i cant even graps how people could do such a weird thing. i hope its not handmade.
24/11/2011 at 18:29 El_MUERkO says:
TUNE!
24/11/2011 at 18:41 Danny252 says:
Poorly optimised, terrible screen tearing issues, graphics are lacking in colour and imagination. Devs provided no option for customising keys or settings. Tutorial nonexistent.
25/11/2011 at 19:17 D says:
No QTEs! :D
28/11/2011 at 23:21 Berickcook says:
Thank you for the article guys!