Pi Edition

Pi Edition
Author(s)
Mojang AB
Platform(s)
 (ARM only) - Raspberry Pi
Written in
C++
Latest release
0.1.1
Release date
February 11, 2013
Size
~4 MB
License
Proprietary
Source code
Partial
Website
http://pi.minecraft.net

Minecraft: Pi Edition is a version of Minecraft developed for the Raspberry Pi. It is based on an old version Alpha 0.6.1 of Pocket Edition but is slightly cut down, containing a revised feature set and support for multiple programming languages. The Pi Edition is intended as an educational tool for novice programmers. Although officially discontinued, it is still available to download for free, from the official downloads page, and users are encouraged to interact with the game using an API.

It was developed by Aron Nieminen – one of the developers of the Pocket Edition – as well as Daniel Frisk.

The Pi Edition never received any subsequent updates and is no longer updated.

Development

Release

Minecraft: Pi Edition was originally announced on the Mojang website on November 24, 2012.

There was a compiled build labelled 0.1 on the Mojang repository, albeit encrypted until the game's launch in February 2013, making it inaccessible. When it was first uploaded, however, it was unprotected for a short amount of time, allowing for the download of the game before its true release. On December 20, 2012, Mojang released a post on their official site announcing the release of the Pi Edition. However, it was promptly removed and no game release was made.

Minecraft: Pi Edition was publicly released on February 11, 2013, and the previous release announcement post was restored. However, the Pi Edition website still lists its post date as December 20, 2012..

Addition to Raspbian

On September 15, 2014, the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced that Minecraft: Pi Edition would be installed by default with new versions of the Raspbian operating system. And Minecraft: Pi Edition is now available as a package under the name 'minecraft-pi' and downloaded/installed with the command 'sudo apt-get install minecraft-pi'.

Discontinuation

The Pi Edition never received any subsequent updates, and its developers gave no further insights as to whether they were still developing the version. When brought up to Tommaso Checchi on Reddit on January 25, 2016, he stated the following:

“	The original team has stopped supporting it and starting with 0.9 MCPE became a lot more ambitious technically, which also means that it became a lot harder to strip down to run on a Raspberry Pi. Actually, we finished removing all Pi related code to reduce complexity in 2015. Maybe someday we'll revisit it but I wouldn't hold my breath. On the other hand, Win10 runs on the Pi so you can run the Win10 version there! ... I guess it's something.	„
	— Tommaso Checci on the discontinuation of Pi Edition

Gameplay

Minecraft Pi Edition is very similar to Pocket Edition in many ways. Like Pocket Edition Old Worlds, there are barrier walls, the player skin is always the default skin (but can be changed by replacing the char.png image in the game's files), and the title and the world selection screens were the same until Pocket Edition updated to 0.7.0.

The player has the ability to sneak, but not sprint. Mobs do not spawn, even though the player starts with an iron sword in hand. A bow is also available, but when used, the player will hold the bow back indefinitely until the player selects another item or logs off.

The Pi Edition includes all blocks from Pocket Edition Alpha 0.5.0. Gameplay is creative mode only (no passive or hostile mobs), there is no crafting or smelting.

Blocks

• Cobblestone, stairs, and slab
• Stone bricks
• Moss stone
• Wooden plank, stairs, and slab
• Bricks, stairs, and slab
• Stone and slab
• Dirt
• Grass block
• Clay
• Sandstone
• Sand
• Gravel
• Oak, birch, and spruce wood
• coal, iron, gold, diamond, lapis lazuli, and redstone ores
• Blocks of gold, iron, diamond, and lapis lazuli
• Obsidian
• Snow layers
• Glass
• Glowstone
• Nether reactor core
• All 16 colors of wool
• Ladder
• Torch
• Glass pane
• Wooden door
• Wooden trapdoor
• Fence
• Fence gate
• Bed
• Bookshelf
• Painting
• Crafting table
• Chest
• Furnace
• TNT
• Water
• Lava

Tools

• Iron hoe
• Iron sword
• Bow

Plants

• Dandelion
• Cyan flower
• Brown and red mushrooms
• Cactus
• Melon
• Sugar cane
• Oak, birch, and spruce saplings
• Leaves
• Seeds
• Melon seeds
• Bone meal

Technical blocks

• Invisible bedrock
• Glowing obsidian
• Update game block
• Camera
• info_reserved6

Gallery

• 

  First screenshot of Pi Edition from Mojang's blog.

• 

  An image from the removed blog post, appearing to show a Minecraft version of the game Snake.

Trivia

• Despite being an older version of Pocket Edition, this version added in sneaking two years before it was added in Pocket Edition, in 0.12.1.
• Mobile players who had 0.6.1 could join onto a game on Pi edition.