Can I run Minecraft on this computer that I am building with Arduino?

Projects General Guidance
1

I am going straight to the point: I am building a tiny desktop computer using an Arduino Mega. Quick photo so you get the idea easily:

1600×1200 216 KB

(The display hasn't arrived yet, but it will have a resolution of 128x64 and it will be right on the middle)

Such a project could get very interesting if it were capable of running a game like Minecraft. I just don't know how I should approach this and what tools I need.

I actually opened this thread to have any suggestion you can give me. So, all the feedback is welcome.

2

Hi,
If you look at the machines that run Minecraft and an Arduino, I think you will realize that it does not have;

  • the speed
  • the memory capacity
  • the capability to assemble and process the video
  • the ability to output a video signal that would provide the resolution you need.

Can you tell us your electronics, programming, arduino, hardware experience?

Thanks.. Tom.. :slight_smile:

3

Aorda:
I am going straight to the point: I am building a tiny desktop computer using an Arduino Mega. Quick photo so you get the idea easily:

1600×1200 216 KB

(The display hasn't arrived yet, but it will have a resolution of 128x64 and it will be right on the middle)

Such a project could get very interesting if it were capable of running a game like Minecraft. I just don't know how I should approach this and what tools I need.

I actually opened this thread to have any suggestion you can give me. So, all the feedback is welcome.

You will find it very difficult to pull this one off.

  1. You will need to port Minecraft to the Arduino.
  2. If you did manage to somehow do step one, you are then faced with memory constraints.
  3. If you managed to solve 1 and 2, you will then need to display the graphics.

In short, I do not think this is remotely possible. But heck, give it a go.

4

Now if you replaced the Arduino by a Raspberry Pi (about the same size) you may be getting somewhere.

5

After reading the replies, maybe its best I make a Minecraft replica just for my own device. Thanks, and keep making suggestions, please!

6

You would need orders of magnitude more CPU and RAM. And multi-threading (I expect). And a JVM. It's just not feasible with an Arduino - video games are not its strong point.

Also, your display will be hopelessly inadequate. Grab a Minecraft screenshot; try rendering it on your display - that alone should demonstrate that this won't work.

If further proof were needed, consider that Minecraft and Arduino have been around for a while and if such a thing were possible, some genius would have done it by now. A bit of cursory googling just finds me ways to control an Arduino from Minecraft, nothing like what you're proposing.

7

first you would need to remove half the wires.

Do these games not have a "Minimum Spec" to be considered?

8

Minecraft will run on the Raspberry Pi. There is a special free version of it written for that machine and it is programmable. You can write your own macros. One person I know wrote something to build a house behind you with every step you make.

9

It is possible to run Doom on Arduino's newest board, so maybe we're getting closer to this being a reality:

10

pert:
It is possible to run Doom on Arduino's newest board[/url], so maybe we're getting closer to this being a reality:

Doom is very old and can run bare metal without virtual addressing. The first version of DOOM/DOOM II run on MS-DOS which did not have virtual addressing. I seriously doubt you can do that with Minecraft, which is written in Java and needs a Java virtual machine to run.

For virtual addressing you need a processor with a memory management unit (MMU) like an ARM Cortex-A or Intel/AMD x86.

11

For surprisingly decent arcade-style games on a small Arduino, check out ArduBoy.

12

Just for comparison an Arduino Uno roughly has the same processing power as a 1986 hobby computer. However it is lacking both the memory and display hardware of a machine of that era.

13

Which Arduino? Arduino boards now come in a wide range of capabilities. The days of Arduino == AVR are long over.

14

pert:
Which Arduino? Arduino boards now come in a wide range of capabilities. The days of Arduino == AVR are long over.

In the original post he said:-

I am building a tiny desktop computer using an Arduino Mega.

So that is what I am addressing.
You won't run Minecraft on any Arduino currently available anyway.