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16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

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Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#31

Post by elisee »

cookiecaper wrote: post #8
bryanh wrote: post #4

Could Minecraft be that little thing that teaches kids about logic? Maybe Jeb and co. should consider adding even simpler logic based building blocks, more akin to Lego's Mindstorm as an alternative to relays and switches. I find it fascinating to think in 10-20 years many will be looking back fondly on how they learned to hack with an unassuming little game: Minecraft.

There is an unbelievable amount of potential in Minecraft that is completely untapped. It's really an amazing environment and I'm surprised it hasn't spawned "sandbox games" as a completely separate and significant genre, especially since a big reason Minecraft remains "untapped" is Notch's reticence to open the platform up and push the game forward.

Just thought I'd mention CraftStudio (http://craftstud.io/), the multiplayer game-making platform I'm working on. You could say it's a Minecraft-style engine but you get to make your own models, paint your own map blocks and (soon) write your own game rules (so you'll be able to make any kind of games, not just first person stuff).

Video of CraftStudio in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1QbJO3y_O0

Hacker News thread from yesterday: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3751455

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#32

Post by HardyLeung »

richardlblair wrote: post #30
tibbon wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is today's version of building your own computer on wire wrap in your garage. I don't think you'd go back in time and tell Woz/Jobs that the Home Computing Club or the Apple 1 weren't useful. If a 16 year old understands in detail how a graphing calculator works from a raw bit-logic level, then I think it speaks that they'll have a much more interesting career in store for them than 99.99% of 16 year olds.

+1 I don't think HardyLeung understand that this kid had to handle every bit. Had to build his own integrated memory. This young man obviously has an incredible understanding of binary math. Beyond all this He had to deal with the weird physics, and rules of circuits in Minecraft. If I was this kids parents, I would let him play Minecraft all he wants. In fact, don't stop playing Minecraft.

Since you call me out, I need to point out that you are wrong. I do understand what it takes to do that, and that he needs to handle every bit and memory and all. You're passing a judgment based on a shallow interpretation of what others wrote.

And I said I am very very (doubly) impressed. When it comes to the freaking next project, branch off, do something else, don't constrain yourself in the Minecraft world. Instead, this kid should use his immense talent/patience/creativity that he/she has and applies to something more substantial. That's what I said. I don't understand why I got downvoted for saying that. You see it as a criticism; But what I gave was a constructive criticism. If you don't see it, pay more attention to the words "very very impressed" and especially the word "next".

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#33

Post by angdis »

shantanubala wrote: post #5

I honestly love seeing stuff like this -- it's really cool. But part of me always wonders, "I wonder what this kid could've built if he had a more meaningful project in mind?" I understand that you need to have a certain amount of "fun" before you can do "serious" things, but I can't help but feel a little disappointed that he didn't "dream bigger." It's not really a criticism. This kid is probably really smart, but…

He is sixteen. "Meaningful" has a different definition for someone that age. I am in awe of the achievement not only because of the stupendous scope and complexity, but the sheer willpower and colossal amount of time it must have taken.

I hope the kid gets a lot of mileage out of it and goes onto great things. At the very least, he has earned his geek union card for life.

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#34

Post by lisper »

pixelcort wrote: post #24
PhrosTT wrote: post #21

Can a 'minecrafter' explain a little more please? I know you get 1x1 blocks of wood/stone/etc. How do the pieces move? Are there simple on/off switches? Gunpowder + fire for wires?

In the game there is a resource known as redstone. It can be acquired underground when mining in the game or made available in the game's creative mode. With it you can build various kinds of circuits. The game also includes various input and output blocks, such as buttons, switches, lights, and pistons. Put together, the player can do anything from as simple as a button opening a door to as complex as the article de…

So... did this kid assemble the whole thing manually brick-by-brick, or did he use some kind of compiler? Does minecraft have macros? Stored procedures? Hard to believe every individual brick was placed by hand.

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#35

Post by yew »

lisper wrote: post #34
pixelcort wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the game there is a resource known as redstone. It can be acquired underground when mining in the game or made available in the game's creative mode. With it you can build various kinds of circuits. The game also includes various input and output blocks, such as buttons, switches, lights, and pistons. Put together, the player can do anything from as simple as a button opening a door to as complex as the article de…

So... did this kid assemble the whole thing manually brick-by-brick, or did he use some kind of compiler? Does minecraft have macros? Stored procedures? Hard to believe every individual brick was placed by hand.

No macros or compilers per se. There are map editors that allow you to make copies of existing groups of blocks, like replicating seven-segment displays.

There are not really any repositories of existing designs, so the logic was probably all done 'by hand'.

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#36

Post by [deleted] »

lisper wrote: post #34
pixelcort wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the game there is a resource known as redstone. It can be acquired underground when mining in the game or made available in the game's creative mode. With it you can build various kinds of circuits. The game also includes various input and output blocks, such as buttons, switches, lights, and pistons. Put together, the player can do anything from as simple as a button opening a door to as complex as the article de…

So... did this kid assemble the whole thing manually brick-by-brick, or did he use some kind of compiler? Does minecraft have macros? Stored procedures? Hard to believe every individual brick was placed by hand.

[deleted]

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#37

Post by mbell »

cookiecaper wrote: post #8
bryanh wrote: post #4

Could Minecraft be that little thing that teaches kids about logic? Maybe Jeb and co. should consider adding even simpler logic based building blocks, more akin to Lego's Mindstorm as an alternative to relays and switches. I find it fascinating to think in 10-20 years many will be looking back fondly on how they learned to hack with an unassuming little game: Minecraft.

There is an unbelievable amount of potential in Minecraft that is completely untapped. It's really an amazing environment and I'm surprised it hasn't spawned "sandbox games" as a completely separate and significant genre, especially since a big reason Minecraft remains "untapped" is Notch's reticence to open the platform up and push the game forward.

Have a look at Spout[0]. Its an open source server that generalizes the minecraft concept. They are actually supporting 'minecraft' as a plugin called vanilla which communicates with the stock minecraft client. They also have an improved client which is currently a modded minecraft client but I believe the eventual plan it rewrite the client from scratch also.

[0]http://www.spout.org and https://github.com/SpoutDev

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#38

Post by cschneid »

lisper wrote: post #34
pixelcort wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the game there is a resource known as redstone. It can be acquired underground when mining in the game or made available in the game's creative mode. With it you can build various kinds of circuits. The game also includes various input and output blocks, such as buttons, switches, lights, and pistons. Put together, the player can do anything from as simple as a button opening a door to as complex as the article de…

So... did this kid assemble the whole thing manually brick-by-brick, or did he use some kind of compiler? Does minecraft have macros? Stored procedures? Hard to believe every individual brick was placed by hand.

Most likely he used an out-of-minecraft editor to put together logic gates that can be copy/pasted, and then larger structures. The map format for minecraft is pretty easy to edit, and there are CAD like programs that'll build out an environment you want.

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#39

Post by Natsu »

PhrosTT wrote: post #21

Can a 'minecrafter' explain a little more please? I know you get 1x1 blocks of wood/stone/etc. How do the pieces move? Are there simple on/off switches? Gunpowder + fire for wires?

Minecraft has redstone. It might not make much sense if you haven't played the game, but you can at least read about the parts here:

http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Redstone_Circuits

You can build any logic gate you want, with layout being the hard part (just like IRL...). You can build a computer in Minecraft if you want to. I believe that several people have [1].

To be honest, I think it's a great way to learn about electronics. I know what all the gates do from having taken EE classes, but Minecraft has made some of them a bit more intuitive. Maybe it's just because you can see the things being energized/de-energized, but it does help me think about the different gates/latches/etc. and their interactions.

[1] This is but a small sample of things that might be called computers that have been built in Minecraft:

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/30/working-16-bit-computer-bu...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB684ym3QY4

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/02/15/10-incredible-minecraft-cr...

Re: 16-year-old Makes Working Scientific Calculator in Minecraft

#40

Post by Natsu »

lisper wrote: post #34
pixelcort wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the game there is a resource known as redstone. It can be acquired underground when mining in the game or made available in the game's creative mode. With it you can build various kinds of circuits. The game also includes various input and output blocks, such as buttons, switches, lights, and pistons. Put together, the player can do anything from as simple as a button opening a door to as complex as the article de…

So... did this kid assemble the whole thing manually brick-by-brick, or did he use some kind of compiler? Does minecraft have macros? Stored procedures? Hard to believe every individual brick was placed by hand.

He probably either used Creative Mode (unlimited stuff), peaceful difficulty (no enemies) + a superflat world (don't have to mine things out of your way) or mcedit, which lets you edit map files out-of-game and place whole sections of stuff based on schematics.
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