Chapter 19: A Case of Toy Computing Implementing Digital Logics with “Minecraft”
“Minecraft” is a popular construction game for modern computers and gaming consoles. Since 2015 it features the Redstone technology — a signal generation and transportation method that can be used to build in-game virtual machinery. Redstone is mostly used to extend “Minecraft” buildings with automatic, semi-electric features but it can also be utilized to simulate digital circuitry. The chapter discusses this feature against the backdrop of computing toys as machines to learn and teach computer science. The authors show the construction and architecture of standard logic circuitry with Redstone in “Minecraft” which in some ways differs from standard electronic circuitry. In the second part of the chapter they demonstrate implementations that use Redstone logic to craft digital components and games with the “Minecraft” game based on digital logics.
Based on a talk by S. Höltgen at the Center for Unconventional Computing, UWE Bristol (27.02.2019) and the seminar “Toy Computing” at the Department for Media Science at Humboldt University of Berlin (winter term 2019/20).
All Minecraft designs discussed in this chapter can be downloaded at http://toycomputing.de/tc0.zip